Koufonisi is made up of two island gems, Pano (upper) and Kato (lower), both part of the Lesser Cyclades that include Irakleia, Schoinoussa, Donousa and Keros with Pano Koufonisi the most populated with some 400 or so souls – more in summer when tourists arrive to stay, no day trippers though, as these islands are…
Tag: travel
Lyme Regis and The Jurassic Coast
Another bucket list location ticked off, Lyme Regis on the stunning Jurassic Coast. It’s where the rugged cliff tops and coastlines of West Dorset and East Devon meet. Bucolic Thomas Hardy countryside with ancient castles, medieval churches, impossibly cute villages and gorgeous seaside towns. Perhaps none more beautiful than Lyme Regis, the so called ‘Pearl…
Deiá and the Serra de Tramuntana
After a couple of days in sunny Palma we headed out of town, having been picked up by good friends to drive across the island and over the mountains to the magical hilltop village of Deiá where they’ve been living on and off for some 10 years. We’ve been looking forward to coming to Deiá…
Ciutat de Mallorca
I can’t believe we haven’t been to Mallorca before. After all the years of travelling, arriving in beautiful ancient Palma de Mallorca (Ciutat de Mallorca) is somewhat of a revelation. Capital of the Balearic Islands, Palma was first founded by the Romans in 123 B.C., but of course given its strategic position in the Mediterranean,…
Charleston and the Churches
It would be hard to pick a more bucolic English setting than Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex. Once the home of Vanessa Bell, her lover Duncan Grant and, as was their modernist way, his lover David Garnett. This was a very unconventional household for 1916. Part of the Bloomsbury Group, they were some of the…
The Battle For Hastings
The gorgeous Old Town of Hastings in Sussex is set between two imposing chalk cliffs and serviced by a couple of creaky old funicular railways. They link the old-school seaside town with the imposing Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian villas up on the grassy hill tops looking out across the hazy English Channel towards France. There’s…
Gion and Miyagawacho – On The Temple Trail
We’ve had a wonderful week in gorgeous Kyoto. It’s been cold, especially coming from FNQ, but we’ve thoroughly enjoyed rugging up with long-forgotten winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats – all required in these chilly sub-zero mornings! Sadly, we missed the heavy snow which Tokyo copped this week but perhaps that’s a godsend as getting…
Temples, Shrines and Pagodas – The Ultimate Torii Gate Experience!
It’s an easy ten or so minute local train ride out of Kyoto station to Inari and a gentle walk up to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, ‘the ultimate Torii gate experience’, famous for its 10,000 vermilion Torii gates that snake up Mount Inari some 233 metres. Ok, so the train out of Kyoto station was…
Osaka – The Manchester Of The East
We’ve escaped the summer heat and humidity of FNQ for the colder winter climes of Japan, Osaka for three days and then, via the Shinkansen, Kyoto for a week. It’s a relatively short haul (7 hours is short from Australia ), a direct flight out of Cairns to Osaka with just one hour time change, so it’s…
Travels With My Ant 