May 2008 was yet another twin adventure and Ross and I travelled together, this time not quite as far afield.
The Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland and one of the islands of the Inner Hebridies, was Ross' idea. I said I wanted to go and see whales and dolphins and this is where he suggested. He was so right!
I had anticipated that the highlight of the trip would be whales and dolphins, but wildlife rarely plays by the rules and we saw no dolphins. We did see porpoises and whales, but they pop up when you are least expecting it and you end up not getting a photo. I do, however, have a great photo of a stretch of water where a porpoise had been half a second earlier!!!
In fact, the undoubted highlight of the trip - and one of my favourite ever wildlife experiences - was the puffins on Lunga Island. We were told on the boat that if we wanted to get close we should crawl on our hands and knees or on our bellies so as to avoid injury in the burrows and avoid damaging their nests. 'I'm not doing that!' I thought, but when I got up there and saw how close they were I was on my stomach in a jiffy, crawling to get close and look at the photos below! Wonderful.
In fact, Mull as a whole is gorgeous. The weather in Scotland can be questionable, but we were treated to sunshine and warm temperatures throughout and saw a wealth of wildlife, including sea otters, golden eagles, sea eagles, osprey, deer and more. I loved Mull so much that I will definitely be returning some day soon.
The best thing about my trip to Athens in November 2007 is that someone else paid for it!!! My employers sent me there to visit an educational recruitment exhibition organised by the British Council. We were thinking of moving into international recruitment at the time. So off I went and I visited the exhibition, but I also had time to see a few sights over the course of the weekend too.
So where did I go? The Acropolis of course! Plus all the other places of historical and cultural interest around the Parthanon. I also visited Lykavittos Hill to get some wonderful views of the city. I went to the Forum, to the beautiful botanical gardens and I did some shopping.
If you like ancient culture then Athens is a must visit city - fascinating.
In October 2007 my twin brother Ross and I took a long weekend in Prague in the Czech Republic. It was crisp and cold and beautifully sunny, with the leaves on the trees turning - in short a great time to go.
We visited all the usual highlights such as the Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and several of the churches and towers to get some great views of the city. We took a boat trip along the river and one evening we visited the fountain and lights show, which depicted the story of "Romeo & Juliet".
It was a great weekend and remains in my memoryu as one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been fortunate enough to visit.
Tobago was another destination on the list of both myself and my twin Ross, so we went there together in May 2007.
What we found on this Caribbean island is what you would expect and also quitea bit you would not expect! Tobago is what many other parts of the Caribbean were like 30 years ago - largely untouched by commercialisation. There are hotels, but nothing is big and brash, it all fits in with the idyllic surroundings.
One of the best things about Tobago is the wildlife. We took numerous tours and enjoyed both the coastline and rain forest environments. Tobago - and neighbouring Trinidad which we visited for a day - is a great place to go for birds and we were dazzled by the birdlife, especially the hummingbirds.
We stayed at a hotel called Turtle Beach and it lives up to its name with huge leahterback turtles (up to six feet in length) haul out on the beaches to lay their eggs. We were lucky enough to see this, although it was a dark night, so it was not easy to see a lot without disturbing the turtle,m which we would never want to do.
We also saw caiman, lizards and fish life on the reefs. All in all it was gorgeous and I would thoroughly recommend the place to anyone thinking of a Caribbean trip.
I took a solo trip to Rome for a long weekend in the Italian capital in April 2007. In a busy three days I walked and walked and walked until I was well and truly foot sore, but I certainly covered a lot of ground and saw much of what this historic city has to offer.
Of course, no trip to Rome would be complete without favourites like the Colliseum, Roman Forum, St Paul's Basilica, the Vatican and the Spanish Steps and I visited them all. I took advantage of the hop-on, hop-off bus service to see the sights but also ended up walking a fair bit too. By the time I got back to my B&B near the Vatican at the end of each day all I was good for was sleeping!!!
A trip to Krakow was undertaken as part of a big group. My friends Katie and Olivia, as well as a host of other people all jetted off to the Polish city for a long weekend.
Being December the weather was bitterly cold, but there was no snow, just bright, cloudless days and nights which kept the temperature below freezing. We did our best to combat the cold with hot mulled wine and nibbles from the Christmas market, not to mention the bars and restaurants in the city.
We took in the sights such as the cathedral and the castle, as well as enjoying the nightlife. We even saw Santa!
The only thing we did not do that we had planned was a day trip to Auschwitz - that one is for another trip then!
My twin brother Ross and I took another trip together in 2006 - this time to the volcanic island of Tenerife.
Ross undertook some scuba diving, but a rather severe bout of sea sickness (we did have some fairly stormy weather that week) put paid to my diving.
Nonetheless, we braved the bad weather and some fairly miserable colds (both Ross and I were suffering) and we enjoyed our trip. Mount Teide (pictured below) was among our stops, although the altitude had a rather dramatic effect on my hearing in as much as I almost completely lost my hearing on the way back down the mountain!
We also took a trip to Loro Park top see the dolphins and killer whales and enjoyed the spectacular coastline, made all the more dramatic by the stormy waves battering the rocks.
