World Peace is obviously important (beauty pageant contestants say so all the time). Ending hunger (vital). Doing something with N. Korea (no one knows what). Exceedingly important. The lot of them. But after a passage like we had last night... effective sea sickness medication has more value than all the above - a price above rubies. So whilst not sick we were definitely a bit tired by the time we trundled off the ship in the Emerald Isle - we think it's our f...

We have been blessed in many, many ways over our years of travelling. Rescheduled flights, technical issues, late departures and overnight delays - could be counted on the fingers of one hand (ferries... that's a different matter entirely). But when it comes to French trains, we are often cursed. In fact if we have a booking... it almost certainly predicts a train strike that day. But today everything went 100% smoothly. Left Gare St Lazare in Paris on the butt...

Paris - Yay! Our fifth visit to this fine city and we really did think we'd be scrabbling for things to do. Hah! Never! The train from Brussels was a breeze and we were reminded of the ever present security threat as soon as we jumped off the train in the Gare du Nord and a young male of middle Eastern appearance with a small suitcase was immediately pulled aside for a 'random' check. We considered treating ourselves to a taxi to the hotel, only 1.5 km (thankfull...

A mere 3 years or so ago I visited Belgium for the first time - now it's James's turn and we are most definitely 'sprout to be in Brussels (get it? Proud to be in Brussels? - What can I say - we saw it and thought it was cute). Even in the pointy end of the plane it was still a 36 odd hour journey in total. First part we both slept relatively well and it was a pleasure to have a shower, freshen up and roam about the lounge in Dubai - 2 hours just wasn't enough ...

Truly, the (blogging) force has been weak of late... Being in Queensland may have had something to do with it. That and, to be honest, we've simply not been doing anything frightfully exciting - no waterfalls, no hot air balloons, no castles, operas, galleries or symphonies. It's not that the Gold Coast is the land that culture forgot... not entirely anyway - they're performing Aida on Main Beach next week which will doubtlessly be stunning. What we've really bee...