Ah, the memories

The world is a scary place at the moment and it’s likely to get scarier. So this week I’m going to share some of the happier times, leafing through the photograph albums of our travels. I blog all our trips so I’ll put a link to the relevant page for each entry. Just click on the picture.

In 2015 we went on our first river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam via the Danube, Main, and Rhine rivers. It was late in the season and we expected to be cold and wet – but we enjoyed a wonderful Indian summer, with sunny days and Autumn colour. And we met two other Australian couples who are still friends. We all enjoyed the Austrian town of Durnstein and from there the cruise through the Wachau Valley.

In 2016 we journeyed on the Rhine from Amsterdam, up the Moselle and back, along to Basel, then on a short bus tour in Switzerland. Last year the rivers had been very low, but this year Father Rhine was so high I didn’t get my visit to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). Never mind. Switzerland was fantastic. We rode the funicular railway up to Rochers de Nayes. It’s a regular railway route for commuters in Montreux and the views over Lake Geneva are spectacular. But for us Aussies SNOW!!!

In 2017 we did something completely different – a short trip to Hong Kong and Macao. Pete and I spent four nights in Hong Kong, rather longer than we’d stayed on other occasions on business, or on our way to Europe. Moreover, this was a holiday, not a business trip. From there, we spent a couple of days on Macao amongst the casinos.

In 2018 Pete and I joined our friends Sandy and Col on a river cruise around the Bordeaux region and a small group tour of Tuscany, separated by a week on our own at La Spezia in Italy. We visited the lovely Bordeaux region in France, home of great food and wine, then went down to Italy to see the famous Cinque Terre. Although we preferred Portovenere. From there we went on a little tour to Tuscany, home of yummy food and Florence.

Our last trip in 2019 was a 23 day journey to Vietnam and Cambodia. We’d be seeing the main cities of Saigon, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh as well as cultural significant places like Hue, Hoi An, and Siem Reap. We would spend two nights in Ha Long Bay and a couple of days exploring the temples at Angkor. And then we’d board a riverboat for a week long trip down into the Mekong Delta.

2020 will go down in the history books as a pandemic year. Yet, regardless of that, I would be having my seventieth birthday. We Australians have been fortunate in how the powers-that-be have handled the pandemic (all except Victoria, but that’s another story). By the time November rolled around Queenslanders were out of lock down and allowed to travel freely within our own state. Pete and I decided to take a leisurely drive to Cairns and stay in an upmarket hotel for the Big Seven Oh.

In 2022 we went on a nineteen day journey around both islands of New Zealand in a luxury bus. It was a fabulous trip, including Hobbiton (yay). But you can’t beat the scenery in the Southern Alps.

In 2023 we headed for Europe to enjoy a real Yule, winter solstice celebration. We started off with a visit to England, then went to Amsterdam for a winter river cruise along the Rhine/Main/Danube. Father Rhine was not kind. Because the river was so high we never got further than Frankfurt. BUT when we were in London visiting friends I got to see Harry Potter world. That’s ticked off the bucket list.

By the way, if you’re looking for something to read, take a look at my latest review on substack. Why are the New Orleans mobs interested in an author of kids books? It’s humorous romantic suspense.