Non-cruising holidays
As usual, we got up at 7.30am and got ready to go down for breakfast. The weather forecast had told us that Storm Barra was on the way and to expect very strong winds and torrential rain later on, around one o'clock. Today we planned to visit the Sea Life centre, which Google maps told …
After a decent night's sleep in our draughty room, we got up around 7.30am, as breakfast was served in The Mariners' House between 8.00 - 9.00. As we walked into the dining room and were shown to a seat by the window, we were delighed by the amazing sea-front view, over several eclectic rooftops. A …
Scarborough? Yes! Not Scarborough, Tobago, in the sunny Caribbean, oh no. Nothing that exotic. I'm talking about Scarborough, North Yorkshire. 🙂 Not that there's anything wrong with this quintessential English seaside town on the North Sea - it's a very popular place in the summer months and we have visited often. But it's not the …
RMS Olympic is probably most famous for being one of the sisters of the Titanic. She was built in 1910 and scrapped on the Tyne in 1937. Before she was dismantled completely, many of the fittings and artworks were auctioned. The then-owner of The White Swan bought the Olympic’s first-class dining room and transported it to the hotel, reconstructing it in all its splendour.
The Wieliczka salt mine, excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. Today, it serves as a tourist attraction and is utterly astonishing.
Although we had never been to Auschwitz before, it all looked horribly familiar due to TV and media exposure, particularly when we came to the camp gates with the infamous ARBEIT MACHT FREI sign above them. This translates as "work sets you free" as the prisoners arriving at the camp believed they were being sent there to do hard labour.
Our first visit was to the park at Wawel (pronounced Vavel) Hill to see the legendary Wawel Dragon statue. The statue was designed by Polish sculptor Bronisław Chromy and completed in 1969; it was installed in its present location in 1972. It contains a natural gas supply and is set to ignite roughly every five minutes, leading to its fiery breath! We had noticed, in souvenir shops, there were lots of dragon ornaments and plush dragon soft toys, and now we knew why.
Life on the Ocean Waves... and on land 