European Journeys

When I lived in Germany, I got to make several brief trips to other places around Europe. These included:

France (Paris, staying in a quaint old family-run hotel at the foot of Montmartre)
Spain (Guardamar del Segura, Costa Blanca, with friends)
Austria (Salzburg, to see the castle, also once Innsbruck and once not sure of exact location; remote mountain)
Switzerland (Zurich, Geneva, Winterthur and another remote mountain location)
Czech Republic (only just over the border, for work - I think we ate lunch in Rozvadov)
Tunisia (Hammam Sousse, with a friend for a week in February to escape the northern winter)
England (London, visiting dear friends in Wembley and getting to play the tourist)
Scotland (With my mother, Edinburgh, Perth, Glasgow, Isle of Bute, and a glimpse of Strathraer as we left it)
Ireland (Bangor/Belfast, Dublin, Balbriggan, Doolin, Antrim, Downpatrick, Newtownards and Strangford Lough - Ahem. There'll be a whole other post for this lot!)

Here's a couple of my favourite photos from those trips. Bear with me - for much of this time I was using a first-generation cellphone camera!

On the outskirts of Geneva, looking across the border into France - yes, that's a giant cliff. Geneva is on a bit of Switzerland that sticks into France, so it's possible to use city transport to cross from one French border to the other in about an hour. Which we did. Fun! There was a cable car to go up the cliff, but it happened to be closed that day, so instead we found a nice French restaurant out here in the middle of nowhere and had a meal of several courses for a very good price.

The terrace at Hotel El Menchia in Hammam-Sousse, Tunisia. We breakfasted here each day, then set off to explore the local area - markets and bakeries, and nearby towns by bus or open trolley. Sousse itself has a marvellous souk that pours itself, walled, down a hillside above the modern city, and in the other direction we found a yacht marina with everything a tourist might want.

Walking about the Isle of Bute, we got alternately rained on and dried by the sun. Just look at that blue sky and black cloud! This is a view from the Rothesay golf course above the town, looking east at the mainland and the Firth of Clyde.

So many places, so much to see! Perhaps all of these will need their own posts eventually...

Photo Story: Yellow Café, Rouen, France

One fine September morning, I sat on a wall in the town of Rouen with my Mum, noshing on real French bread and cheese. Rouen's claim to fame is that it's where Joan of Arc lived and died. We had just landed in Paris in the early dawn; a chartered bus picked us up from Charles de Gaulle airport and we were whisked straight out of Paris. I've never done an organised tour before or since, it's not my style, but I was allowed to join a school group as an extra chaperone.

So we had wandered through twisted medieval streets with tall half-timbered houses, passed the darkly modern St. Jeanne cathedral, and conquered a local outdoor fruit market all in the space of an hour or so. It wasn't lunchtime, but we were all messed up from a 24-hour flight broken only by a couple of hours in Hong Kong.

We had our bread and cheese and a melon from the market, and sat to eat it on this wall between a grassy park and the scooter-filled street. Across the street was this café all set up for the midday rush - all in yellow and white, every knife and fork and glass in place. I like patterns, so I thought it'd make a nice picture.