Travel – Rethymno, Crete, Greece – 2026

We revisited Rethymno, Crete, at the beginning of the month staying once again in the Aquila Porto Rethymnon Hotel. This was a half board deal, booked through TUI, flying from Bristol UK into Heraklion, Crete. The flight and airport were pretty uneventful although the transfer from the airport to the hotel took 90 minutes in a pretty uncomfortable, packed minibus. Still, we were on holiday and didn’t care.

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Travel – A week in the Peak District, Staffordshire, UK

Mow Cop Castle, Stoke-on-Trent. A folly we visited whilst we waited for our Air BnB to be prepared.

We’re just back from a week in the Peak District. An upland area in the midlands UK, not quite ‘the north’ but very close. We based ourselves near Leek in the south west corner of the district and stayed in an Air BnB property that was a converted dairy in a rural location.

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Travel – Marrakesh 2025

Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm F2.4

We took advantage of some really good, late booking, holiday package prices to take another trip out to Marrakesh last week. For us, November is a great time to visit Morocco. The temperature is a really nice 21C during the day. We needed a jacket in the early morning and evenings but we had clear blue skies most days with a bit of cloud bubbling up in the late afternoon. The cooler weather means less visitors so, although the main tourist attractions could be busy, generally everywhere was a bit quieter than in the warmer months.

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Travel – High Atlas Mountains, Morocco 2025

Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking a picturesque valley. Spookily situated next to a gift and tagine shop! I thought the terrain had a ‘Star Wars look about it. Not surprising really as lots of Stars Wars filming took place not far from here.

We’ve just returned from a weeks break in Marrakesh. We’re regular visitors here and every time we go I wonder where my images might come from. I needn’t have worried, I came back with far too many pics for one post.

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Travel – Rethymno, Crete, Greece

The lighthouse at the entrance to the historic Venetian harbour, Rethymon

This was our first visit to Crete. We chose to stay in Rethymno as we like basing ourselves within walking distance of larger towns that we can explore on foot. We booked a package deal through TUI for a half board stay at the Aquila Porto Rethymnon Hotel and flew into Chania airport from Birmingham, UK.

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Travel – Pontneddfechan, Wales, UK

Enjoying the evening sun outside our Air BnB, former miners cottage. The cottage name, Golwg Y Ddinas, written in Welsh, translates to ‘The view of the city’! We were a long way from any of those.

Two weeks ago, with warm weather forecast across the country, we thought it might be nice to take the opportunity to find a last minute get away somewhere here in the UK. Long story short the former Miners cottage in mid Wales, that we stayed in last year, had a last minute cancellation and was being offered for a weeks rental with a good discount. So, on Sunday evening I booked the cottage and by 2.00pm the next day we were back in it.

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Travel – Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

A camper van driving away from the Papagayo Beaches through Los Ajaches Natural Park. Hacha Grande is in the background, the highest peak in the south of the island. I’ve always wanted to climb it but I don’t think it’s suitable for casuals hikers like us.

We really like Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa. Its a popular destination for Brits and other Europeans as the climate is pretty good all year round. We spent last week there having picked up a last minute, discounted, package deal. One of the benefits of being retired.

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Travel – Richmond Park, London

A view across to central London from Richmond Park

We were invited to visit and stay with my in-laws who live in Bournemouth, Dorset over the Easter weekend so last Thursday we drove down from Bristol to join them on the south coast. We left the planning for the weekend to David and Donna, in fact the only thing we had to do was to provide a suitable dessert for our meal on that first night!

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