On our return from Český Krumlov we made a short side trip to small town Rožmberk to visit its castle.
There is not much to say about that apart from mentioning very good local food in restaurant and to show a few photos.
Another post that should have happened last year. During long weekend in the begining of May 2015 we went for short trip to Czech Republic, to city Český Krumlov. Its old town is UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Beauty of Liptov
Added: August 06, 2016
It is long time since I blogged last. I have plenty of photos, but somehow I did not get to writing about them here.
These photos are from company event I have attended 2 years ago. We went to north of Slovakia, to Liptov. I know it well there, because I spent every summer there when I was kid. Still, we visited a few places I have never been before.
"Sintra is beautiful. But you should not go there when it is raining." We were told this by several people, including taxi driver in Lisbon. We were lucky that is was not raining, but not very much, because it was quite cloudy. It might not be visible from displayed photos, but there was much less blue sky than I would like. So our experience was somewhere in the middle of two extremes. But I don't want to call it 'average'.
Portugal - historical part Lisbon
Added: October 06, 2014
Our flight from Funchal to Lisbon was boring compared to flight to Madeira :-) But we prefer it this way. We had hard time to find taxi driver waiting for us, because we misunderstood directions what to look for. Eventually he found us and we could go to our accommodation. It took longer than it should, because main street was closed due to preparation for some "fiesta".
At least our driver acted as tour guide and talked about many topics we could be interested in Lisbon. He even answered the most important series of questions - how long does it takes to get to airport by metro, whether it is full early in the morning and where is the closest metro station to our accommodation (well, he got the last one wrong).
We have made day trip to Λίνδος while staying at Faliraki. Our plan was to visit acropolis, look around the town and spend some time on beach, or even better on two of them. We ended up at single beach and it took us whole day, we returned at night.
Lindos is definitely must for all people visiting Rhodes. It has everything - history, nice and busy town and last but not the least 2 wonderful beaches. This post will be about "human achievements", then following one will be about beaches.Medieval city of Rhodes at night
Added: March 29, 2014
One of the reasons I wanted to be accommodated close to the medieval city was to allow me convenient way to take night photos of it. I have seen some during our preparation and wanted to get them too. That was also a reason why I packed tripod for this trip.
We had made 2nd trip to Greece in 2013. This time we picked just single island - Ρόδος. Another difference was the approach we took. We waited till the last moment, hoping for better prices on last minute holidays, because my in-laws were there in summer 2012 and they got really good price. But it seems it does not work like that in September. 5 days ahead we bought last 2 flight tickets and they were not cheaper than 2 weeks earlier.
But we did something as we usually do. We did not stay at single place, but split our stay to 2 places. One was in city Rhodes, to allow us explore west part of island and the city. And then we moved south to Faliraki to explore east and south. And such a kind of freedom is not offered by any travel agency...
Our friends Mirka and Petr invited us to their wedding in Loket, Czech Republic. Don't worry, I did not turned to wedding photographer, in fact I did not take my camera to ceremony at all.
I will continue with my tradition to show only nature, castles, towns and how well I can avoid people :-)
Well it is here, time to go back home. But before we can go, we need to visit the last waterfall in Zuzka's list - Pistyll Rhaeadr. She talked about it since I came here, but we'd never managed to get there. Until now. Peter came to visit us, so this was good way to spend our weekend.
We've been there 6 weeks ago, but I had other things to handle like organizing moving, finding stuff we want to buy before we leave (just to have more to move). Plus it seems to be good farewell post, so I was not in hurry with posting it.
Our short 3 day trip to Spain ended in Alicante. It was more convenient and cheaper to flight back from there. Also beach was more conveniently located (regarding train station and bus to airport) than in Valencia.
That suggests we did not see much - after ariving to Alicante we headed directly to beach and stayed there until it was time for return. But looking back, I could take more photos of beach. I just did not want to attract any attention. That means I don't have many photos to show this time.
We looked forward to explore Lhasa for nearly a year since we decided to go and paid deposit. It finally happened on Friday 10th of July.
I could not sleep whole night, but not because of excitement. It was due to headache caused by time shift (I had some problems since Monday) mixed with problems with high altitude. And to make it worse I forgot to buy enough bottles of water in the evening and I was really thirsty. Drinking tap water is not the best idea as we were told and I eventually tried it myself (it was bitter). So shortly after midnight I set out for a quest. To find the bottle of water somewhere in the hotel. I have tried to ask some people in courtyard, I am not sure they were employees or they just lived there. Then I tried reception. It was deserted, but after short time dark figures got out of the sofas in the lobby. Receptionist and some more staff members were sleeping there (sorry guys). No water as well (or just too annoyed staff?). So the first thing after "waking up" in the morning was that I went out to city to buy water. Most of shops we have seen yesterday were still closed. Only a few of them were preparing for next working day. But all of them located around hotel sold clothes, shoes and souvenirs so I had to wander further away. It is pity I was primed to my task so much I could not concentrate and enjoy morning life around Jokhang Temple. It is very nice experience, Tibetan pilgrims going around it on the sacred path of worship named kora. They are nicely dressed, with prayer wheels in the hand. Some of them are doing prostrations.
We were looking forward to our trip to Carcassonne, France since January or beginning of February when we booked our flight tickets. Our decision to go there was slightly different from our typical process we usually use: "Let's find some place where we can fly for a weekend cheaply".
This time we knew that we need to see Carcassonne. We knew it is beautiful castle and medieval city surrounded by walls. But that would not be enough. Our decision to go there was related to our passion to play board games (of German type). And Carcassonne was the first game I have played (I do not like it as much any more, there are so many better games out there now). Of course it helped that Ryan Air is flying there from London.
Another trip waiting to be published for about 1 month (and there are more waiting). This time we went to the south of England.
Our destination was Isle of Wight as main attraction for Saturday and nearby coast up to Portland for Sunday. The weather was beautiful for whole Saturday.
Day after visiting Windsor Castle we have been to Leeds Castle in Kent. It is rather small castle, but very nice. It has beautiful garden and cages with exotic birds.
I have finally confirmed myself there that shining sun really makes difference in photos. Simply, it started as cloudy day leading to sombre photos. I still liked them (I like melancholic photos :-) ), but we decided to wait till sun comes out. It took us about 2 hours since we noticed patches of blue sky on north east. It was huge difference! Now, my photos started to look more like postcards (see? this is what happens when nobody is complimenting me :-) )
We have been to Windsor 3 weeks ago, but I was not able to publish pictures sooner. We wanted to visit Windsor Castle for long time, but we have always put it aside. Finally we decided to go, seeing nice weather in April.
Sunday 9th November. We slept rather well, it was quiet place again even it looked like we found another place with festival yesterday. We woke up at 6:30 to see sunrise - it would be big mistake to miss sunrise in Jodhpur.
Our plan for that day was to see Mehrangarh Fort and nothing else as our flight to New Delhi was moved 3 hours sooner so we needed to finish at noon. It is pity, Jodhpur has many places to offer to visitors. But what could we expect if we had only one day for every place?
Friday 7th November. We woke up in train, it was uneventful night, it passed very well. We had still 6 hours to go and based on arrival to the last station we are late about 1 hour. Not so bad.
I took Azithromycin, followed by stomach ache (I confirmed it was caused by that pill just recently). We stayed in lying position for a few hours more, because nobody asked us to sit properly. I started to like these trains. They are cheaper than hostel, they just miss hot water :-) As time passes it is getting hot, because air conditioning is not on. We are passing through dessert for last several hours so there is no wonder it is getting hotter. Eventually I got up and sat opposite to my berth as Zuzka was still sleeping and it was not possible to sit when middle berth is deployed in AC/3. After some time a guy came, wanting to sell accommodation, but I got rid of him as soon as I realized that (described in the first part of series thoroughly). To my big surprise we arrived to Jaisalmer on time. I do not get it how they do that :-)
Thursday 6th November. I am tired as we get up. My throat is still sore. OK I am going to start with Azithromycin. Today we plan to visit Jaipur and shortly before midnight we are going to Jaisalmer by train.
We went down, our host was already there, a bit later Canadian couple came. We have been offered possibility to leave our luggage here, return in the evening and to have dinner here. Then all 6 of us would take rickshaw to train station to catch our train. It would be very hard to refuse such an offer! We talked about our plans, Canadians wanted to go to Amber Fort too and we realized that having rickshaw for whole day is unnecessary expensive - it is possible to get to Amber Fort for 100 Rs, back to the city centre for 100 or less and it should cost 40 to return to guest house. Apart from Amber Fort everything else is in walking distance from each other. Our wannabe rickshaw arrived. We went outside and told him we decided to go only to Amber Fort and then City Palace and we were willing to give him only 150 Rs for that. He did not see it coming. He was surprised, but started to explain it is not possible for that price and that his price (whatever it was) is fair. He got angry and even went into guest house to dispute with Manoj! It was not very good feeling for us :-( Manoj asked him to leave his house (clearly the manners of those two men were different even for those who do not speak Hindi). As we went with driver outside Canadian couple came out too, telling him how ridiculous his price was. That did not help him to calm down. He was babbling something about government price list with 385 Rs for similar tour we wanted to make and he wanted us to show it, we just needed to go with him somewhere. No way! Finally he asked for 65 Rs for coming here and I gave him 60 just to get rid of him (even I knew I should not pay him at all). We went about 200m to find the nearest rickshaw and where Canadians shown us how to haggle properly. Since then amounts we paid to drivers went down :-) Thank you for that and sorry for forgetting your names!
Wednesday 5th November. It's not vacation, it's a boot camp! We are getting up at 5:25, because we need to catch train to Gwalior and then another one to Jaipur.
My throat is still sore, so I look into notes with advice from Robo. From list of medications I decided to buy Azithromycin as it matches my symptoms and promises solution in 3 days (with feedback in 2 days - if it does not work Ciprofloxacin will be next :-) ). Now just to find a pharmacy... We ate breakfast our hosts prepared and paid for the stay (+ meals and bottled water). We gave colonel postcard with Cardiff castle as we enjoyed our stay here. Our driver from yesterday was waiting for us (we made arrangement yesterday). I asked him to stop at open pharmacy, but he was not sure as it was about 7:00. Later on he showed us one closed pharmacy, but then he found open one on next street. Normal garage. Since then we knew garages are fully fledged shops :-) 3 pieces of Azithromycin were for 90 Rs. I will take one later if throat does not get better. We arrived to train station early. But that does not surprise me, I just need to be everywhere on time and with some reserve. About 30 minutes later couple from Netherlands staying in our guest house arrived and there was still plenty of time... Our train arrived, we found our coach. It was not very hard because displays at platform show where each coach will stop. We got in, it was AC Chair coach. We even got bottle of water and breakfast! We were bit surprised, but I decided to eat mine even I was not hungry. Zuzka did not touch hers, so I took it for later.
Tuesday 4th November is the most important day in our Indian trip. We came to India, because Zuzka dreamed about visiting Taj Mahal for 10 years - since she built model of it as school project (that helped her to decide she wants to be an architect). So her dream is finally fulfilled. And I have realized there is not better place in the world to propose. So apart of wanting to fulfil Zuzka's dream, it is important place to go for me too. I hope magic of Taj Mahal will work :-)
It does not happen often that we have nice weather here in Wales. So it was a bit suprising when we have found sun is shining yesterday morning. I've checked forecast, it said "not bad" so we started to think what we could do.
From 2 alternatives: Cardiff Castle and Kidwelly Castle we picked later (we can go to Cardiff Castle any time and we have been there before). We found trains, cross checked forecast, prepared something to eat and got off.
We needed to change trains in Llannelli. A slight glitch happened there - train was late. Every five minutes it was announced it is late bit longer. Finally, after 30 minutes they got enough of guts to tell us what I've already knew - service was cancelled (I have not travelled by train for the first time in UK. Last time it took about 2 hours of announcements "Train is approximatelly 10 minutes late" even everybody knew no train is going happen and in the best case bus will come to take us). So we found bus station and we could continue. Bus services cannot be compared with services of railways. Really kind and helpful driver, no little lies, just correct stuff. (OK, I am not really fair now, an attendant in train from Cardiff was really helpful and nice too.)
But overall - whole trip was very good and satisfying. We still had enough time to see what we wanted. And maybe we could be late bit more, because at the beginning heavy clouds were over Kidwelly and blue sky started only later.
We spent whole Saturday 26th and morning 27th of July in Oslo. Weather was unbelievable - clear sky and hot.
We bought 1 day Oslo Pass that allowed us unlimited travel by public transport and free entry to most of attractions in Oslo. Our exploration could begin.
I have a lot of photos from Oslo and I struggled for a while to decide how I am going to split it to pages. Previously used Morning/Afternoon won't work so I decided to make a split on areas of interest regardless time, location and how many times we have been there.
Two fantastic days in Highlands are behind us. The third day of our traveling is starting right now. Weather is still sunny, even forecasts from Friday said it will be raining today.
You can review our complete trip in Scotland here 3 sunny days with Lochs, Glens and Bens. Link to tour is here http://www.timberbush-tours.co.uk/glasgow_tours/one_day/loch_lomond.html.
Early May Bank Holiday
Added: May 17, 2008
Finally I got enough time to process and sort photos from previous trip to London, Brighton, Seven Sisters, Norwich, Ely and Cambridge.
We had wonderful time there, nice weather, a lot of to see and enjoy. Very good way to spend 3 free days (I hope following Bank Holiday will be even better. Location has really potential, so stay tuned for photos from folowing weekend).
We spent 3 of 4 free days provided by Easter in Cornwall and partially also in Devon (but also in Somerset).
All was organized and planned quite fast, so it was not ideal (places to visit vs. places to sleep at). Also weather did not seem promising.
Completely we did about 1080km.
Greetings from wet and windy Cardiff! This is my postcard 1.0 (or better 0.5 :-) ). Finally, I was able to get to some sight-seeing here at March 7th-9th. Pictures follow, some also with explanation. The original idea to keep it like postcard with 3-5 pictures failed due to incorrect scope estimation :-(
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