As our time in Barcelona draws to a close, it is safe to say we are ready to go. Barcelona was one of our favourite places in Spain when we first visited back in 2012 (yes… our 10 year anniversary of first visiting Spain). We found it flat, easy to get around on foot and chock-full of beautiful buildings and a stunning old town. Given that Barcelona was settled by the Romans 2000 odd years ago, it's safe to say not a great deal has changed in just a decade...

A month in Paris. A month in Paris. A month in Paris… so sayeth the wheels of the train wending its way through verdant (overgrown?) French countryside from Caen to the Gare St Lazare. Finally. On our way. The plan? A month of enjoying Paris, then training to Barcelona for a month before jumping on the cruise to South America on 22 November. The forthcoming period is actually how housesitters spend their holidays - ie, no housesitting in our immediate fu...

We arrived into Caen on a rainy, gray Monday and had a rest, settling into our hotel. The only redeeming features of this hotel are the 2 minute walk across to the train station and the hot water. Beds were hard, breakfast was woeful and the lobby made me feel like I should be surrendering my phone and emptying my pockets. But it was cheap. Ish. After 3 months in Ireland we now think daylight robbery is cheap… we even say - "Well it's cheaper than Ire...

The Plan? Spending a few days with old friends in the Normandy countryside. We heaved our 4 big bags down our single flight of stairs and 'checked out' of our Cherbourg AirBnB - key - meet keybox - AirBnB at its finest. We met up with Lee and Annie on the dot of 10 am and headed off for a drive around the cape. Highlights? The lighthouse in Goury, the smallest harbour in Europe at Port Racine and the rocky clifftop views from the nose of Jobourg (le nez de job...

We had a splendid final night in Dublin, enjoyed our welcome drinks at the bar and had our first (very small) cooked breakfast in months on Monday morning at the Holiday Inn Express, Dublin city centre. And made a couple of bacon and sausage sandwiches to have for lunch. We arranged a 2 pm check out and ended up nattering with the GM for 10 minutes or so… There was an enormous taxi van in the rank just outside the hotel which was handy but the 15 minute ...