This is a (hopefully growing!) collection of blogs covering our trips after Ally’s retirement in June 2018.  We enjoyed Transalpino-ing across Europe in 1980, ferry hopping around some Greek islands, and visiting (briefly) Cyprus and Syria, before alighting on Egyptian soil, for a 10 day stay in Cairo.

For our first trip, post my retirement, the train beckoned again, and we started with a 6 week journey through Portugal and Spain, to the Balearic Islands, finishing in Menorca, in September-October 2018.  A list of, and links to, the 11 blogs which resulted from that trip are available on the Trip One Blog Index Page.

Next up, despite ongoing family jokes about our penchant for incidents on the high seas, we decided to travel mostly by a variety of ferries, cruise boats and (yes) small craft. We started by flying to Catania in Sicily, then visited the Aeolian Islands, hydrofoiled back to Sicily, and on to Genoa.  Then we took a 5 day mini-cruise via Malaga and Casablanca to Lisbon.  After a few days in Lisbon, we flew via Barcelona to round off with a couple of weeks at La Gardenia in Menorca.  Links to the 10 blogs from that trip through the Western Mediterranean are available at Trip Two Blog Index Page.

As the Covid-19 pandemic progressed far enough to allow a return to some sort of normality, our third trip post-my retirement took shape, in the form of a journey mainly by sea and rail to Croatia and on through the Eastern Mediterranean.  After visiting Venice and Verona we then spent some time on Sardinia and Corsica, before flying to Menorca for a final week.  Links to the 10 blogs relating to this trip are available at Trip Three Blog Index Page, together with links to all the previous blogs from Trips One and Two, in descending date order.

Back in the swing of things now in early 2023, we began to plan Retirement Trip Number Four – back to our favourite stomping grounds of Spain and Portugal.  We intended to fly first to the Azores, and stay on the island of Sao Miguel, before returning to mainland Portugal for stops in Evora and Elvas.  Sadly, this section of the trip had to be postponed for medical reasons!

So we picked up the trip in Spain, flying from Edinburgh to Madrid, then we took the train from Madrid to Toledo.  After Toledo, it was the high speed AVE train from Madrid down to Granada for a few days.  Then on to Jerez de la Frontera, in Spain’s Sherry Triangle.  As usual, we wound up the trip by flying via Barcelona to Mahon for some more time on our favourite island of Menorca in Spain’s Balearic Island group.

Links to the 5 blogs relating to our 2023 trip are available at Trip Four Blog Index Page, together with links to all the previous blogs from Trips One, Two and Three.

For Retirement Trip Number Five in 2024 we decided to retrace some of our steps way back in 1980, by ferry hopping around a number of carefully chosen Greek Islands.  We’ll fly from Edinburgh to Santorini and stay a few nights on that spectacular Cycladic island.  Then we’ll continue the Cycladic theme by visiting the much less commercialised island of Folegandros, then ferry on to spend some time in a lovely villa on Paros.  We’ll then switch island groups to the Argo-Saronic archipelago, via the port of Piraeus, to spend a few nights on Hydra – the island we so much regretted missing out on 44 years ago!

A change of country after that as we go by plane from Athens, via Barcelona, over to our second home on Menorca in Spain’s Balearics.

Links to the 7 blogs which relate to our latest trip will be available at:  Trip Five Blog Index Page in due course!

The map below charts the countries of the world we have visited, one or two separately but mostly together.  Subject to regular updates – hopefully!