Western Europe

The South Bank is one of my favourite areas in London. It’s slightly more laid back than the centre of the city across the river, and is a really nice area to spend the day, so if you’re visiting England’s capital it’s really worth spending some time in. It’s particularly lovely in the summer as […]

The first weekend in January, my husband and I embarked on our annual tradition of spending a weekend in London. Each year we choose a neighbourhood and explore it in depth, slowly trying to get through the mega city that is England’s capital. In 2024, our choice was Shoreditch. This post is actually going to […]

Back in January, I headed for my annual tradition of a weekend in London. For this trip we chose to spend our time exploring Shoreditch, East London, in depth. During the trip, we stayed at Nobu, part of the famous restaurant/hotel chain. Now, I am going to preface this review with moan. We stayed in […]

As part of Mum and Dad’s winter visit to Tromsø, they also took an overnight trip to the little island of Sommarøy, around a 1 hour ride out from Tromsø. Sommarøy in winter is truly magical, and with the sun up for only a few short hours each day, it casts a beautiful pink, gold and […]

It’s time for another familial guest appearance on the blog, and this time it’s from Travelling Mum. Travelling Mum (and Dad) were dreaming of some winter sun, and planning a break for January to escape the cold in England. They couldn’t find anything they liked, so whilst I’m not quite sure what logic was applied […]

During my recent stay at Airelles, Le Grand Contrôle, another out of hours tour I had the privilege of enjoying was of Le Petit Trianon (literally ‘the small villa’). In 1758, Louis XV decided to build a new palace in the middle of his gardens for his long term mistress Madame de Pompadour, and Le Petit […]

During my stay at Airelles, Le Grand Contr?le, a hotel within the grounds of The Palace of Versailles, I was so privileged to be able to go on an after hours tour of The King’s Apartments within the Palace. The Palace’s history is inextricably linked with Louis XIV. Although the location existed for centuries before […]

It’s nearly Christmas again and I’m not quite sure how another year has gone by. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, and as always my last post before the main event is a little bit of festive, little bit of reflection. I’d planned a couple of Christmassy trips prior to the big […]

Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country in the world, and is the second least visited country in Europe (behind only Moldova). Most people seem to just look over it or don’t even know it exists which is a shame because Liechtenstein is actually a very beautiful country with a lot of greenery, forests and castles. […]

Today’s post is another destination which I forgot to write up at the time -beautiful Knaresborough, which I visited during my 2022 trip to Yorkshire. The town lies around 30 minutes outside the centre of York and close to towns such as Harrogate and Ripon. It’s the perfect day trip option when in Yorkshire with […]