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Europe 2023
  • Gary Thomas
  • Gary Thomas

Europe 2023

60 days backpacking around Europe Baca lagi
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  • Permulaan perjalanan
    5 April 2023
    Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    2

    All set to go! Jane looks keen!

    5 April 2023, Wales ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    The time has finally arrived. The journey begins.

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1

    First leg.

    5 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Long, and almost problem free day. Everything was tickety boo until we reached our final destination..... Versailles Chantiers train station. From there it should have been, according to Google Maps, a 13 minute walk. This turned into a 35 minute yomp, complete with heavy backpacks, thanks to Google maps showing us a completely spurious route. Needless to say we were bathed in sweat, so the first pint went down well.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Nice pad.

    6 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    A bit like the UK in 2023, there was obviously a housing crisis in 17th century Paris. So Louis XIV decided to build his own pad. Didn't make a bad job of it, did he? And........ It's huge.
    Of course, we only got to see a tiny bit of it, but that was enough to get the general idea.
    I have to be honest, as beautiful as the exterior and gardens are, inside is just too over the top, and it's no wonder that the ordinary Frenchman decided that enough was enough in 1789. Off with their heads!
    Definitely worth seeing, though.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1111

    Chez Lazare - Rue de Satory, Versailles

    6 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Fabulous little French restaurant in Versailles. Place was buzzing and they cooked the meats on the grill inside the restaurant and in front of you. I had duck skewers in a pepper sauce whilst Jane went for the beef skewers. Superb.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Beautiful Bordeaux - Day 1

    7 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Great couple of days just strolling around this beautiful, old city. England and France fought over the right to control Bordeaux for centuries; and it's easy to see why..... It's stunning.
    Also, it's the law to try their cake speciality....... The cannelė. Soft cake on the inside with a crusty outer edge, and laced with rum. Delicious.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    21111

    Bordeaux 2 - Saint-Emilion

    8 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Simply wonderful afternoon spent visiting two wine making Chateaux, and the BEAUTIFUL village of Saint-Emilion. Oh, and we were forced to sample a few glasses of Grand Cru Saint-Emilion wine as well. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    2

    Spanish tapas - Can't help ourselves!

    8 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    After our exertions trying to get through all the Saint-Emilion samples on offer this afternoon, we decided to venture back into Bordeaux for some food. We came across this Tapas bar (El Pata Negra), which was completely empty at the time. By the end of our meal, as you can see, the place was bouncing.
    I know we are in France, but we just love our Spanish tapas.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    11

    Carcassonne

    9 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Over night stop over as we make our way through France and towards Italy. Weather still being kind to us, although there are whispers of storm Noa approaching France and the UK shortly.
    We have found possibly the best value apartment on Booking.com here in Carcassonne. Catherine, our host, was delightful and her apartment, complete with Sun terrace, is fantastic. All for £53 a night.
    As for the old medieval, fortified city itself, well the pictures speak for themselves.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    2

    Nice Nice

    10 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Ok, so I realise it's an obvious choice of headline for this post. But it sort of sums up our first impression of Nice. It's just..... nice, that's all. But the architecture is interesting.
    But our second day changes our view!Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Takes me back to my student days.

    11 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Ok....... so......we are students again!
    Takes me back to Crwys Road, Cardiff way back when (1978-82 to be precise).
    I was planning on doing research for a book to write after this holiday....... Great launderettes of Europe. But we've worked out that we will be better off by finding apartments with a washing machine! Duh.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    211

    The real Nice

    11 April 2023, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    After being slightly underwhelmed by our first evening in Nice, our second day was wonderful. Found the 'Old Nice' in the morning and wandered around the market and coffee bars; in the afternoon we took a trip up to the picturesque mountain village of Ėze; and then in the evening we stumbled across our first ever Armenian restaurant. Very tasty.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Sestri - Weston-super-mare on steroids

    12 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Have to hold my hands up here and admit to a mistake in dates. Plan was to go straight to La Spezia from Nice but I got my dates mixed up. Booked our place in La Specia for the following day so we needed a stop gap. Possibly chose the wrong place.
    Still, we made up for it by finding a bar serving Brewdog Punk IPA and Corona.
    Helped ourselves to a few and then had a lovely meal, ready for our trip to the Cinque Terre the next day.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Train strikes force change of plans

    13 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    As I have always said to Lissy and Emily, try to make the best out of every situation in which you find yourself.
    So we arrived in La Spezia on the 13th for two nights, with a plan to spend the 14th touring the famous Cinque Terre (5 cliff top villages close together). However, we arrived to the news that there was going to be a National rail strike on the 14th.
    So rather than killing time on 13th, we shot straight off to the Cinque Terre and visited two of the towns by walking the cliff top trail between them. We were probably deceived by the sign in Manarola which said Riomaggiore was only 1 kilometre away. Little did we know that it involves a 500 metre, near vertical climb up rocky steps, followed by a similar descent the other side! But those views!!
    Finished off with a beer and sandwich in a bar overlooking the sea.
    Fabulous afternoon.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    La Spezia Port

    14 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    This was due to be our day to visit the Cinque Terre, but it was scuppered by the rail strike. So, what to do on a beautiful sunny day? We planned to take a boat trip to Portovenere, which we were told was lovely, but we missed the boat! 😂. You can see a picture of the boat leaving just as we arrived at the quay.
    But once we were at the port it struck us how vast it is. Apparently there are 5.1 kilometres of quay, and thousands of boats. There is a naval base; super yacht marina (full to the brim); working fishing boats; cruise boats; ship building facilities; and vast numbers of private boats. We spent a couple of hours walking around the port, and still didn't see it all. And for some reason, even though it is a working fishing harbour, it didn't smell like a typical British fishing harbour. Why is that?
    Thoroughly enjoyable morning, finished off with a lovely fish meal at a local Osteria.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1

    There is no world without Verona walls..

    16 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Or so says Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. It is still debated as to whether they actually existed in real life. And if they were based on real people then they almost certainly didn't live in Verona. But that doesn't stop Verona from exploiting an opportunity. Even in April it was heaving with tourists, most of whom were trying to get a look at the fake balcony on which Juliet was supposed to stand.
    But, the old part of the city is beautiful, not least the stunning amphitheatre.
    And the views of the city from the castle (more steps!) were stunning.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1

    Side street restaurant

    16 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    As is our wont, we sought out a "local" restaurant, rather than stick to the formulaic tourist places (all laid up, complete with slick salesman type of waiter to greet you.......you know the sort). And we found a gem. Old rustic tables with benches to sit on; God knows how old the place actually is.
    As we arrived, there was a birthday party going on with all the locals and plenty of singing. They moved off into the bar shortly after we sat down to continue their celebrations, and a measure of how good a time they had was shown by the fact that they had drunk the place dry of house wine.
    Fabulous meal.........fingers crossed we can find more like this.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    112

    Lake Garda

    17 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    You can't come to Italy and not spend a day on one of the lakes. We chose Garda as it is only a 20 minute train journey from Verona.
    With snow capped mountains in the distance it was no wonder that people were staring at me in my shorts! But a quick "it's ok, I'm from the UK" usually brought a knowing nod.
    Took the boat bus over to Sirmione, which is reminiscent of a nature sanctuary......very picturesque. I know what you're thinking........ What does Thomas know about nature sanctuaries? Fair point, it was Jane's description.
    Finished the day off with an ice cream from (we were reliably informed) the best Gelateria in Verona. If the queues outside it each day are anything to go by, it could be true.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    21

    Trieste - Vienna by the sea

    18 April 2023, Itali ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Today's picture collection of old buildings and selfies comes courtesy of Trieste.
    A completely different feel to other Italian towns, it has a Central European feel, deriving from it's history as part of the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg empire. Indeed, our apartment host admitted that the people in the city feel more Austrian than Italian.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara

    Pivka

    19 April 2023, Slovenia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Some things on this trip are a given.......the grandeur of Versailles, the serenity of Lake Garda, or the bliss of drinking St Emilion Grand Cru. But every now and then a surprise comes along.
    On our way from Trieste to Rijeka, we had a connection to make in a small Slovenian village called Pivka. And we had a two and a half stop over. A lady on the train had spoken to the train conductor and he told her about a lovely little restaurant 80 yards up the road from the train station. So we spent a lovely couple of hours eating traditional Slovenian food. Spicy beans served with sausage and mustard. Gorgeous.Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1

    A glitch in the matrix?

    20 April 2023, Croatia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    The most interesting thing about Rijeka was this building under refurb, with a drape over it to make it look like it is still there, as it was. I know it's not much, but that's it. Nothing else.
    BUT, we do have a new contender for best value accommodation on Booking.com.
    Huge, stunning apartment, complete with sauna, for only £64 per night.    Baca lagi

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  • Gary ThomasEurope 2023Pengembara
    1

    I ❤️ Ljubliana

    21 April 2023, Slovenia ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    OMG. We've only been here a few hours, but already we are in love. This place is unbelievable.
    The people are lovely (and speak fluent English), the countryside is beautiful, the city centre is like something out of a fairytale, and it is absolutely buzzing.
    If anyone is reading this and is thinking of where to go for a Euro city break then you would be mad not to consider coming here.
    We wandered out of our apartment into the centre (only a minute or so as it is not a big city), and fell into the biggest street food festival I've ever seen. By the look of it, it's a regular affair. Great fun.
    I will post more pics tomorrow, but just look at these for starters.    Baca lagi

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