So this where the 'Crazy Weekend Down Under' really begins! With a morning flight from Manchester it seemed sensible to stop close to the airport ahead of jetting off 'down under' as I would be heading through to the departure at around 0730. The Hilton at Manchester Airport was just a few steps from both the railway station and airport terminal so fitted the bill perfectly. We also had a voucher at Christmas from my uncle and aunt that paid a good slug of the ho...

Yes, this is the rather crazy plan I have hatched and in just two weeks time I will be boarding Etihad Airways flight EY16 at Manchester to start the journey to Melbourne, Australia travelling via Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The journey there will take a little over twenty three hours leaving Manchester at 0910 on Thursday 30th April arriving into Melbourne at 1720 on the Friday afternoon. Whilst in Melbourne I will have a chance to catch up with a fe...

Having left Nuremberg by aeroplane on an Air France flight directly to Paris we then travelled on a TGV service from Charles de Gaulle through to Rennes. From there it was just a one hour drive to Malestroit in our rented bright red, 'très mignon' Fiat 500. Heather was very pleased that for once we actually got the car specified rather than the 'or similar' that car rental companies normally give you. I will be honest the car was good fun to drive and perfe...

This is our third visit to Nuremburg and it will not be the last. There is something about the place that we like a great deal, whether that is the shopping, the old town area, the great food (the German's, like us, do have a wide range of food options and it is not just pork and sausage) and drink or the fact that there is so much to see and do that a week here could easily be filled if you add a couple of side trips in as well. Arriving at Nuremberg's Hauptbahn...

Bamberg was just a 45 minute journey by train from Nuremberg and a nice place to visit for the day. If you enjoy a beer then the town boasts at least eight breweries that you can visit between doing all of those other touristy things. I guess you could however not bother with the historic buildings and museums and just spend the day going from brewery to brewery - that does sound rather tempting! The town is home to two very large church and palace complexes, the...