Travel In Home: hotel

Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts

NW Highlands, Skye, and Oban

The last couple days have been more relaxed, in that we haven't had extensive photo must-lists, but they've been very full and busy nevertheless. Our eyes are worn out from all the gorgeousness of the landscapes. Not much time tonight either, so just a quick summary and some photo highlights. Sunday we took the ferry back to the mainland from Orkney, which was another remarkably smooth crossing,

by Jour ~ Tuesday, October 5, 2010 0 comments

Good Times in Delft

Well, Amiens (France) and Tournai (Belgium) were mostly disappointing aside from their excellent cathedrals, but we are now very happy in Delft, a beautiful town near The Hague in South Holland. We're having such a fantastic time here and I don't think we could have chosen a better place to wind up our European tour. We are here for a full week (Sunday to Sunday) and then we'll spend our last

by Jour ~ Wednesday, July 30, 2008 0 comments

Chartres

Greetings from Chartres, home of a Gothic cathedral considered to be one of the best in the world. We are staying here for four nights (leaving tomorrow) in a nice central hotel with a cathedral view! And yesterday we took the train into Paris, where we had a very long but very fun day among crowds of fellow Americans. That deserves its own post, which will hopefully happen tomorrow or the next

by Jour ~ Tuesday, July 22, 2008 0 comments

Good Times in a French Chateau

The last few days we have been staying in a chateau hotel just outside Poitiers. It's not quite as fancy-pants as it sounds - it's a small chateau and not super expensive - but it still is a nice little treat before leaving France. It's called Le Clos de la Reibaudiere and dates from the late 1700s. The chateau itself isn't as pretty as others we've seen, but the grounds are gorgeous and the

by Jour ~ Tuesday, July 15, 2008 0 comments

Assorted Fun in Western France

Thursday 7/10: MoissacOn Thursday we made a short day trip from Toulouse to Moissac, home of a Romanesque abbey church known for its excellent carvings. An exceptionally long-legged and graceful Prophet Jeremiah on the south portal. This guy shows up in every one of my books on Romanesque architecture.Funny little character elsewhere on the portalSome of the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse above the

by Jour ~ Saturday, July 12, 2008 0 comments

A Week in Provence

This not-terribly-clever title is a reference to Peter Mayle's book A Year in Provence, a funny narrative of an Englishman's adventures buying a house and living in Provence. I recommend it as good light summer reading if you haven't read it already.This post comes to you from behind the window at top right, in the city of Aix-en-Provence.Happy Summer Solstice! I hope everyone enjoys the longest

by Jour ~ Sunday, June 22, 2008 0 comments

Hotels, Cars & Food in Mâcon and Clermont

MâconWe were based in Mâcon for 10 nights, but we moved hotels halfway through (for availability reasons), so it didn't seem that long. The first five nights were in the Novotel Mâcon Nord, which, despite an uninspiring location near a truck stop just off the freeway, was a nice place. The air conditioning worked great and we were able to make some good homemade breakfasts and lunches thanks to

by Jour ~ Wednesday, June 11, 2008 0 comments

Finally, France!

After a few brief stays in France in the last couple weeks, interspersed with visits to Switzerland and Germany, our big tour of France has finally begun. We are settled in a rental cottage in northern Burgundy, France, and are so happy here. We've been looking forward to the France leg of our journey for a long time - dreaming of a more relaxed pace, peaceful countryside and beautiful old

by Jour ~ Sunday, May 25, 2008 0 comments

Colmar, France

Eventually we got back on a main highway and headed northwest into France. Our destination was Colmar, which is only about 20 minutes from the German border in the region of Alsace. We had originally planned to spend a few nights in Strasbourg, but nearly all the hotels seemed to be booked up for some reason, so I picked Colmar as our base for a day trip to Strasbourg. (Then we ended up ditching

by Jour ~ Wednesday, May 21, 2008 0 comments

Back in Bern

The drive from Chamonix to Bern was mostly through the Alps and quite spectacular. We spent just two nights in Bern and it was too short for both of us, but our hotel is only affordable on weekends, so we had little choice but to leave on Monday morning. It rained most of the time we were there but we still really enjoyed it. The hotel (Hotel Allegro Kursaal) was as fantastic as we remembered

by Jour ~ Monday, May 19, 2008 0 comments

Bergamo and Milan

The beautiful Galleria in MilanYesterday we took the train from Bergamo into Milan. This is the reason we're in Bergamo - hotels here are cheaper and easier to access here than in Milan. But we had a hard time getting ourselves to the train station and we considered skipping it entirely! We're just so tired of big cities and neither of us had any huge interest in Milan other than to get some nice

by Jour ~ Tuesday, May 13, 2008 0 comments

Ravenna

The Byzantine Empress Theodora in the Basilica di San VitaleRavenna is wonderful. We are here for two nights to see its ancient churches and Byzantine mosaics, which are considered the best in the world. I've been pretty excited about this stop, and I'm happy to say it has entirely lived up to my expectations.In the early 5th century AD, Ravenna briefly became the capital of the Roman Empire

by Jour ~ Saturday, May 10, 2008 0 comments

The Cinque Terre

Yesterday we walked the Cinque Terre, which is something we'd been excited about doing since before we left the States, especially David.The Cinque Terre ("five lands") are five villages along a stretch of the northwest coast of Italy that are connected by a scenic hiking path. See pretty map at right (which I didn't make).The Levanto BaseWe are in the area for three nights, based in the town of

by Jour ~ Thursday, May 8, 2008 0 comments

More Assisi and San Gimignano

I'm sorry it has been so long since the last update - the poor internet at our last hotel gave me a nice hiatus from blogging but I sure have a lot to catch up on! Since I last posted, we have seen lots of wonderful sights and taken a gazillion photos, as usual. First, some catch-up pictures and brief notes from Assisi and San Gimignano. In Assisi, I must record that one of the best restaurants

by Jour ~ Saturday, May 3, 2008 0 comments

Assisi and Chianti

Greetings from beautiful Tuscany! We arrived in this famous region yesterday from Assisi and were really bowled over by the beauty of the countryside. Umbria was lovely but Tuscany is even better - rolling green hills covered in trees of all different shades of green, grassy meadows with red poppies, olive groves and vineyards.We're staying in the Villa Ducci outside the hill town of San

by Jour ~ Sunday, April 27, 2008 0 comments

Spoleto

We loved Spoleto, a smallish town in a beautiful location overlooking the Umbrian countryside. It is filled with old and interesting churches, the streets and buildings have an authentic medieval feel, and the shops and restaurants are excellent. But they aren't kidding when they call it a hill town - those streets were some of the steepest we've encountered yet! Unfortunately a lot of the town

by Jour ~ Thursday, April 24, 2008 0 comments

Fossanova

Our stay in Fossanova was short but absolutely fantastic. We were there to see its Cistercian abbey (above), but the little village that surrounds it was an unexpected highlight as well. It was charming, peaceful and beautiful. Amazingly, the Abbey of Fossanova is not nearly as popular with visitors as nearby (45 minutes) Casamari Abbey. Having now visited both, we think Fossanova wins hands

by Jour ~ Monday, April 14, 2008 0 comments

Ruvo di Puglia

Our current base, for four full days, is the town of Ruvo di Puglia. We are quite close to the heel of the boot now and near the Adriatic Sea coast. Ruvo is a nice little town in itself and it makes a great base to explore all the Romanesque cathedrals and interesting seaside towns in the area.Wednesday April 2We arrived on Wednesday around noon after a very smooth checkout and drive from Lucera.

by Jour ~ Friday, April 4, 2008 0 comments

Pesaro

On Saturday (3/29) we drove down the Autostrada (freeway) almost four hours from Como to our stopover in Pesaro. We paid a somewhat hefty toll for the privilege, amounting to almost 20 euros total, but it is always worth it to us to pay tolls for the better roads and less traffic. We went past some interesting cities, including Ravenna, Parma, and Bologna, but we will visit some of those (

by Jour ~ Tuesday, April 1, 2008 0 comments

More Como

Today we have no plans so I finally have some time to get caught up on some blogging! First, some more photos and rambling about Como (3/27-28). We stayed at the Albergo del Duca, which is on the small Piazza Mazzini in the old town. It was an excellent location, only a few minutes from the lake and from the cathedral. The downside is that it was in the pedestrianized district so our sat-nav only

by Jour ~ 0 comments