The Content Reader Goes Outdoors

To celebrate my birthday in mid-February, I visited Florence, Italy for three days. We were lucky to get out of there just before the coronavirus started to spread. It is one of my favourite cities to visit. Apart from visiting the wonderful museums, houses, and art, it is a pleasure just to walk the streets. It takes you back to the Italian renaissance and the glory of this city. We stayed at a small B&B just neighbouring Il Duomo. What a view to wake up to in the morning! There were many tourists and the line to get into the dom was too long for us to try. I have seen it during an earlier visit. It is a beauty just to walk around from the outside. The building started in 1296 in the Gothic style, and with a design by Arnolfo di Cambio. It was not completed until 140 years later in 1436 when the dom was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Il Duomo as seen from our B&B Il Duomo from street level We had three visits on our itinerary;  Palazzo Vecchio and the Piaz...

From Dominica, we returned to Guadeloupe. During our last, short stay there upon arrival, we managed to drive around the two parts of the island. It almost looks like a butterfly. The main island consists of two parts; Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre. The territory also hosts three islands; Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the Îles des Saintes. This time we checked in to a French tourist hotel. We had a small flat with an outside kitchen and a terrace, a beautiful tropical garden, and access to two pools and two beaches. During our first stay, we drove around the most beautiful area of the island, the Basse-Terre. Tropical forests, magical beaches, and the blue sea. West Coast of Basse-Terre The first beach we visited And the first swim! We just visited part of Grande-Terre, since we intended to come back and stay here. After all the traveling around, we enjoyed days in the hotel, going for walks, swimming, reading and relaxing. However, we made a couple of nice excu...

From Martinique we continued to Dominica. This is the most genuin of the islands we visited. A beautiful island with lush greeneries. Scenes from the various films of Pirates in the Caribbean were filmed here in this tropical paradise. We stayed in the village of Portsmouth, on the northwestern part of the island. We had a wonderful hut at the beach. Just to walk out of your hut and into the water. The beaches are black due to the volcanic minerals and rocks.  Just what you imagine paradise to be. We had a kitchen so did a little bit of cooking ourselves. We stayed for ten days, so had the pleasure or going on excursions as well as resting on the terrace. One day we went whale hunting for sperm whales. A catamaran took us on a tour for a couple of hours. Apart from whales we saw dolphins. They are just such lovely creatures. The whales för big, and they told us, very friendly. At the time I was reading Moby Dick where they hunt the whales. It felt very bad reading about the ...

We took a boat between St. Lucia and Martinique. It is only around 1,5 hours and quite convenient. However, although loving water, it does not always agree with me on a boat. It was a little bit windy, and I had to stay outside, fixing my stare at the horizon. We had only booked a five day stay in Martinique, over Christmas. We stayed in a French tourist hotel with all the usual facilities. It was very convenient, and we had walking distance to restaurants. After ten days of extensive travelling in St. Lucia we were suffering from a little bit of fatigue. Meaning, that we, at least me and our son, stayed mostly in the hotel relaxing, swimming and reading. Martin did a few excursions on his own. Martinique and Les Trois-Ilets, is the birth place of Empress Joséphine of France. She was born on 23 June 1763 as Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie. The plantation where she grew up is now a museum. There is not so much left of the houses, but some have been rebuilt. It is quite ...

Seeking the sun we decided to go away for Christmas and New Year. It turned out to be a very exciting trip to the Caribbean, where we visited Guadeloupe, St Lucia, Martinique and Dominica. Let's start with St Lucia. We flew from Paris to Guadeloupe and started our adventure from there. After two days to adjust to time difference, we took a flight to St Lucia. A wonderful, tropical island, especially the southern parts of the island. We were staying in a beautiful B&B in the outskirts of Castries. Sérénitý Vigie. At the end of a small peninsula we had nothing but the sea in front of us. From there we did excursions and drove more or less over the whole island. The most touristic area is Rodney Bay, on the north western part of the island. Here we enjoyed the beaches and also a visit to Pidgeon island and its old British fort. Yes, it started to rain not long after...! The most beautiful part of the island is in the south. We went there a couple of times. We p...