Birthdays and Bucket Lists

Sometimes the events in our lives completely change our perceptions of what’s important. Suddenly, every birthday really becomes another year to celebrate. Every holiday becomes an opportunity to experience and appreciate another travel destination we’ve always dreamed of visiting.

But where would YOU choose to go if your circumstances encouraged it? Let me know what’s on your own bucket list. Where have you already ticked off? What or where do you still want to go and see? Do you agree with any of my own choices below?

Faliraki is Closed (again)

As our world travel plans are still in a precarious state, I’ve been reposting some of the earliest trips from our blog. So with some minor edits, please enjoy…

We stayed at the Hotel Evi Apartments, Faliraki, Rhodes for a week at the end of October 2003. It was the last week of the season, so Faliraki was fairly quiet. All of the late-night clubs on Club Street had closed down, as had most of the drinks-only bars on Bar Street. The tavernas, restaurants and shops were still open though!

Antalya, Southern Turkey (again)

As our world travel plans are still in a precarious state, I’ve started to repost some of the earliest trips from our blog. So with some minor edits, please enjoy…

After a thoroughly enjoyable holiday at the Ephesus Princess a couple of years earlier, we returned to Turkey at the end of October 2002. Another excellent holiday in Turkey, staying at the Hotel Kaya Belek near Antalya for the last week of their summer season.

Aphrodite’s Birthplace – 19 Years Later

To make up for our current lack of world travel, I’ve started to repost some of the earliest trips from our blog. With rescanned photos and minor edits, please enjoy…

Photos of our holiday at the Arsinoe Beach Hotel Limassol, Cyprus in 2001, and our cruise to Egypt to see the Pyramids.

Twenty Years On – A Postcard from Ephesus

With nobody making travel plans for the foreseeable future, I thought it might be entertaining to re-post some of the earliest travels from our blog. By coincidence, it’s exactly twenty years this month since my very first post about a family holiday in Turkey. So, with some minor edits and re-scanned photos, please enjoy this blast from the past…

Spain by Train: Granada to Málaga

Photos from our travels around the Andalucía region of southern Spain, visiting the towns and cities of Córdoba, Sevilla, Ronda, Granada and Málaga. Our fifth and final stop, the City of Málaga on the Costa del Sol.

Hania, Crete

Hania is a coastal town and provincial capital in the North West of Crete, with a picturesque harbour and old town area laden with Venetian and Ottoman influences from its past.

Barbarossa – Pirate or Admiral?

What holiday by the sea would be complete without a voyage on a pirate ship? Having seen the ‘Barbarossa’ in the harbour at Rethymno, we decided to take the three-hour cruise along the coast to the Caves at Skaleta, and back.

Palace of Knossos, Crete

After a lazy day around the resort yesterday, recovering from our full day trip to Santorini, today we headed back to Heraklion to explore the ancient Minoan Palace at Knossos.

Is Santorini the lost Atlantis?

Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, has long been on our list of beautiful places to visit. So when we discovered it was possible to visit as a day trip from Crete on the fast SeaJet catamarans, it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Archaeological Museum of Heraklion

Whenever the guide books mention a significant archaeological find in Crete, they almost always go on to mention that “the original is now in the Archaeological Museum at Heraklion”. So it seemed right for us to make the museum the very first of our sightseeing stops, to gain some sort of understanding of Crete’s history, and in particular the ancient Minoan period represented in the finds at the Palace of Knossos.

Rethymno, Crete

Rethymno has a beautifully picturesque old town, with its Venetian and later Turkish influences, and centred around a pretty inner harbour and the dominating Venetian fortress high above. We were really lucky to discover a boutique hotel right in the heart of the old town centre, the Palazzo Rimondi, set within an old Venetian mansion house.