I wrote most of this after the 2025 Europe trip (England, France, Spain) but never completed it. Friends are currently travelling to some of the same places (yes, I’m jealous) which has reminded me to finish it: basically this is some notes for my own reference for a future trip. Luggage For three weeks in ... [More]
If you’re boarding the Sydney Metro (I’ll mostly use the line number M1 for short) for the first time from a CBD station, the first thing you see is the grand architecture. Itâs impressive, but you also get a sense that they have designed it for scale to carry large numbers of people through the ... [More]
Lazy Sunday morning, but we had to be out of the hotel by 10 am. The flight wasnât until 2pm. We decided to take it easy and explore our section of the Sydney CBD. We walked up to the QVB building and wandered around. Then to a nearby bookshop and from there up and around ... [More]
Saturday in Sydney. We headed out early towards Pyrmont. My partner-in-crime wanted to do the local Park Run, 5km starting at 8am. It was a decent walk – the L1 tram would have been an alternative but it was out for works all weekend, and thanks to bad experiences in Melbourne, I avoid replacement buses ... [More]
Sydney day two: I was keen to try the L2 or L3 light rail; these lines opened in 2018 and 2019 but were under construction during my previous visit in early 2018. The trams have certainly transformed George Street, which used to be a traffic sewer awash with buses, and is now a CBD pedestrian ... [More]
Long time readers would know that I like to blog my holidays. If you’re here for the transport content, there’ll be some, but that’s not necessarily the focus. It was time for a break from Melbourne’s winter. In 2024 it was the Far North Queensland and Thursday Island, in 2025 it was Brisbane. This year: ... [More]
Hello from an aeroplane somewhere between Milan and Singapore – I’m posting this from the air, lucky enough to be returning from a European holiday, my first time overseas since 2017. This time we stayed in three countries, five cities, visited three other cities, saw incredible architecture, famous landmarks, amazing old town streets, stunning scenery, ... [More]
Alas it was time to head home from Europe. Why? Because we’d booked tickets for the Oasis concert on Melbourne Cup night! So we’d booked our flights to arrive home about 24 hours earlier. I’d pondered taxi vs train to Barcelona airport. Two of our party leaving the following day were going via taxi, in ... [More]
(These travel blogs have a lot of pictures. If you’re reading via email and they don’t appear, click through to see them.) One of the cool things about our accommodation in Barcelona was it was close to everything… including Passeig De GrĂ cia, a Metro station with a connected railway station for suburban and regional trains. ... [More]
Exploring Barcelona – more Gaudi, and the Gothic Quarter
For today we planned to visit Montserrat (“serrated mountain”), a mountain and historic town about 90 minutes outside Barcelona. Organising this was a bit confusing. The visitor info says to get there you catch an R5 train to Monistrol de Montserrat station (Carrer del Pont), then use the rack railway to reach the town. (Another ... [More]
Good morning Barcelona! After breakfast we headed to the Picasso museum, which included a walk through an extraordinarily long tunnel in Passeig de GrĂ cia station. The Picasso museum is undergoing renovation, but most of it was open, and we wandered around looking at some amazing pieces, then had a beverage in the cafe. After that ... [More]
It was our first full day in Barcelona, and there was heaps to explore. First we walked to a nearby market to find some fresh fruit, bread and cheese. These had been plentiful everywhere we went in France, especially the bread and cheese. The market was good, had plenty of stalls and a wide range. ... [More]
A morning of train delays, but we got there in the end
A visit to the historic city, the Palace of the Popes, the bridge, and a murmuration of starlings!
Another day exploring Arles in Provence, France