Glorious Ghent
Erin and I decided that it was time for a girls day out, so we left the kids with the boys in Brussels and drove up to Ghent. It took less than an hour, and again, because Belgium is so organised, it was pretty straight forward. We did accidentally park in a hotel when we first arrived, but thankfully worked it out pretty quickly and managed to move our car just in time. This was handy as they charged 30€ per half an hour for people who weren’t staying the hotel! The weather was perfect and we spent most...
Read MoreSurviving Tirana, Albania
We had hired a car in Croatia but weren’t allowed to take it into Albania (all rental car providers outside Albania forbid taking rental cars into Albania, for a good reason!) so we arranged a private car to drive us from Kotor to Tirana. It was a bit confusing as it was organised through a youth hostel, however it was the only way we could work out how to do it. The cost was around 99€, and just after 8am a large white van turned up and off we went to Albania. Where is Albania? Albania is a small country on...
Read MoreStari Most and the City of Mostar, Bosnia
If you are anything like me, Bosnia and Herzegovina never really ranked in your top 100 countries to visit. Before I went I didn’t really know where it was and certainly had no plans to visit. As it turns out, along with Albania, it is one of Europe’s little unknown gems. I honestly can’t express in words how much I loved it! We had come from the ridiculously touristy Dubrovnik in Croatia, and reaching Bosnia was like visiting your long lost country cousin who had grown up while you weren’t looking and turned into something really lovely. Driving from...
Read MoreSomewhere Over the Rainbow in Budva, Montenegró
One particularly cloudy day we headed out to Budva which is a beachside town about 30 minutes away from Kotor in Montenegro. We left the rain and gloomy weather and meandered through the winding roads until we went through a long tunnel (about 1.6km) and when we came out the other side we had landed in lovely sunshine. It was a little bit odd and a kind of like a scene in the Wizard of Oz! As you can imagine we were all very happy if not quite perplexed! 10 minutes later we hit the ocean and confronted with Montenegro’s...
Read MoreTake your kids to Meteora, Greece!
We left the blue hole in Albania and crossed the boarder into Greece. The boarder crossing was a breeze and we soon found ourselves on nice big, flat and wide highways! Much to our delight and horror we came across a big sign warning us to look out for Bears as we drove. This is the first time we have come across them in their native habitat in Europe and only the second time in all of our travels. The first was in Yosemite in the USA and that is a story for another time. The beautiful green forests were...
Read More