VirtualTourist Member nickandchris
| Page Views: 15,462 | WARNING......VIRTUAL TOURIST IS ADDICTIVE! by nickandchris - last update: Aug 11, 2008 |
Home From The Northern Highlands
Just returned from the most fantastic fortnight motorhoming in the far north of Scotland. The weather was unbelievable, 28c on some days. This photo was one of our favourite camping views...... Tips will follow as soon as poss.
Sneaked a weekend away in the van to the Arnside/Silverdale area, beginning of July 2008. Pages to come......
May 2008's Greek holiday was to Koroni in the Peloponnese, Greece. Finally finished updating this page so have a look if you feel inclined.
Easter, we only managed a couple of night's away in the motorhome, owing to Nick's long illness. It was the start of his road to recovery and we could begin to put those long, bleak weeks behind us and start looking forward. Such a relief to know that life could return to normal, finally.
January visit to one of our favourite Lake District valleys, Eskdale. page updated, under Ravenglass.October Half Term 2007 and we managed to sneak a few days away in the motorhome. Destination: Skipton and Malham area in Wharfedale in North Yorkshire. Applecross and Glenelg pages finished, our summer Scottish holiday in the motorhome. As far north as Loch Torridon and then back down to the Sound of Sleat, at Glenelg, opposite Skye.This holiday included traversing the highest pass in Great Britain, the Bealach na Baa and also the RataganPass.The scenery was breathtaking, the rain relentless and the midges plentiful but a brilliant holiday was still had. Spotting dolphins in the wild, catching and smoking our own fish, touring on the motorbike and meeting like-minded people was what this holiday was all about. Our Greek holiday 2007 was to the small village of Gialova in the western Peloponnese, Greece. Take a look if you are interested. Easter 2007 we re-visited Northumberland Every day we visited places we'd not already "done"; Cragside, Alnwick Gardens and Estate and Bamburgh Castle. And we still haven't seen half of what this fantastic county has to offer.... 2006 travels.In late October (2006) we enjoyed an extremely wet weekend near Penrith and Ullswater, taking the opportunity of viewing Aira Force at it's best. Updates on my Lake District National Park page. We also had a great short weekend away in the motorhome in October, to the Lythe Valley, which I have recorded under Bowland Bridge. August (2006) we finally decided to make it to Mull. in our newer motorhome. What a great decision this was!!! What can I say?? Mull is just so beautiful, the camera never stopped clicking, the weather was decent and the midges weren't even a bother. Yes,I really am talking about Scotland!!! A holiday never to be forgotten. Our Greek holiday in 2006 was to the eastern Peloponnese town of Paralio Astros in May. Easter 2006 we spent 5 days in the Shropshire/Powys area, basing ourselves near Chirk, suprisingly spending most of our time walking!!!!We immediately noticed spring was much more in evidence down here, trees bursting into leaf and flowers well in advance of ours at home.%s*%c* |
| Stormy beach on Walney, December 2007 |
|  | Continuing Addiction.... My addiction to VT continues, even now in 2008, four years after joining!!! Was there really life before VT? October 2004 I didn't even know how to use a computer but learnt how to send e-mails to Michael when he started Oxford University. From there I dabbled with the internet and began to look for information on Pilion in Greece. That was my introduction to VT and now there is no going back.
I had always wanted to keep an account of our holidays, having already written diaries every time we were away and this seemed the ideal way to elaborate and include photos.
If no-one else benefits from my pages, I am at least enjoying the writing. It is amazing how nostalgic you can become , pining for the good old days when you were younger and fitter, stepping back in time and recording an old holiday. Probably of no interest to anybody whatsoever but there you go, you win some, you lose some!!! Certainly it is worth it for me, to relive these halcyon days!!!
By the way, I am still only able to use two fingers for typing!!!!! One day.............
Most of my pages are written from a personal view and when I first started writing I wasn't sure if people would find them interesting or useful. I have since helped a number of people asking advice on places I've visited, so I do now feel the effort is worthwhile.
Whilst flicking through various members pages it never ceases to amaze me that you can all speak such good English. So many of you from so many different countries. It puts us Brits to shame;- what do the majority of us speak? English and not much else. |
Early Days I suppose my first travelling experiences were as a child on holiday jaunts to Cornwall,Devon, Dorset and South Wales.We always went on coastal holidays which mum organised and we always went swimming in the sea whatever the weather.
Now, married for 25years, I still feel holidays should be by the sea but the swimming isn't quite so important, particularly in England and Scotland!
My first trip without the family, or school, was to America and Canada for three weeks, as a niave 20yr. old, with a boyfriend. We toured the west coast from San Fransisco to Kittemat in B.C. I remember thinking how modern and new everything looked compared with Olde England!
Next came a two and a half month trip overland to Europe, starting in Spain, travelling to Italy and ending in Greece, which is when my love for Greece began.
We always try to visit Greece once a year, it being the country we know and love best (apart from England) and have done so for 25 years.
We tend to book off the beaten track package holidays with car hire and roam at our free will We used to travel independantly but have found a cheap package works out cheaper than a flight only to a lesser known airport.
People who live close enough to Luton airport are fortunate to be able to use the Easyjet service to Athens. It would take a day out of our holiday for us to do this, living in the far-off north of the country. Oh the joys of living in the north of England! | | |
| | Exploring As well as basing ourselves on the coast we do make the effort to explore inland Greece and fell in love with Arcadia which we have vowed to return to one day. Unfortunately, travelling for miles in a car on Greek roads is not our 11yr. olds idea of a fun holiday so we have to compromise and not travel too long a distance in one day. Very frustrating for Nick and I!!
Most of my Greek pages are recollections from diaries I kept and are therefore more personal than informative. Maybe not to everyone's taste. |
The Old Motorhome As well as our Greek holidays we toured in England quite a bit in our elderly motorhome. We bought this in 1996 with the wild idea of travelling overland to Greece in it, which we actually did the following year. It was an amazing adventure, an experience more than a holiday as the potential for things to go wrong was great!! Obviously the main issue was the age of the van and of course we did have plenty of technical problems but we got there and back and still ran the old Bedford up until a few months ago. It has now been sold for a song to a local lad who is a mechanic who will be able to put things right and maybe run it for a few more years. We finally found a suitable replacement for the Bedford, a 1991 Elddis Autostratus. Hopefully this will last at least as long as the Bedford did.
You will find my story of "The Adventure" spread over my various pages on Greece A lot of it is totally irrelevant and is not so informative as more of a collection of rambling diary entries and memories!! Try it if you want. | | | The Bedford's replacement... |
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| | Our Patch We live in the small town of Dalton-in-Furness, south west Cumbria. Close to the sea and also to the beautiful lakes and mountains of the Lake District.
We feel we are very fortunate to just be able to take off in the motorhome, even if it's only for one night or a few miles up the road, we know we'll always be in attractive countryside and have peace and tranquility.
Something we really like doing after stormy conditions is to go to the beaches on Walney Island (about 5 miles from Dalton) and collect large amounts of wood that's been washed in on the storm tides. We can collect enough firewood to keep our real fire at home burning for several weeks.
Beach-combing is also an essential past-time. You never know what you might find!!
We belong to three cats, one black, one white and one black and white! |
SOME BORING DETAILS MARRIED FOR TWENTY SEVEN YEARS.
TWO SONS, 22 yrs and 13yrs.
TWO CATS + ONE SELF INSTATED
NICK IS A CIVIL ENGINEER.
I AM HAPPILY EMPLOYED AS MUM, HOUSEWIFE AND CHIEF HOLDAY ORGANISER.
LIKES:
CATS
VEGETABLE GARDENING
GREEK HOLIDAYS
MOTORHOME HOLIDAYS
WILD CAMPING ON REMOTE
SCOTTISH LOCHS.
EMPTY SPACES.
THE COAST.
THE MOUNTAINS.
MEETING INTERESTING PEOPLE
V.T. | | |
Michael has now finished Oxford after four very happy years at university and has graduated with a Master's degree in Maths. How proud we are of him. In October, the next stage of his life begins, when he has to get up and go out to earn a living. He has secured a job in London, so it really will be farewell time then. Sad for us but oh, so exciting for him. |
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 Comments for nickandchris | | | | |
Nemorino Fri Aug 29, 2008 19:24 UTC
Thanks for your ratings and nice comment on my Busseto page. Looking forward to your tips on the far north of Scotland. I've been to Edinburgh and parts of the Highlands, but never very far north. | kerryjayne Fri Aug 29, 2008 16:30 UTC
ah! that'll be the glorious liquid sunshine you're talking about! Yes absolutely marvelous | henry14 Wed Aug 27, 2008 19:58 UTC
I know, to my eternal shame its a resolution thats now seen off quite a few new years!! Love your cat pics. | mindcrime Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:27 UTC
I started to build pages from cities and towns at Epirus region. How come and u didnt visit cities like Ioannina yet? I guess it have to do that there is no sea, right? :) |
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