I can’t believe that it is now one year since I retired. I am truly grateful and appreciative of how privileged I am to have done what I have done in the last twelve months. Most of the joy of the last year has not been recorded on here – the time spent with family and friends, the ability to be spontaneous to go or do what we want whenever. The freedom to take off at short notice is particularly liberating. We’ve had quite a few last minute trips in the summer around England chasing the sun!
We decided that we would try and do one thing each month that we have never or would never have considered doing. So we started the year well with axe throwing, pottery and indoor climbing walls, all done before the summer. As we both survived, we can really recommend the indoor climbing wall and axe throwing – no gory photos I’m afraid. The pottery was a bit tame by comparison. However as you can see it’s not a very long list – three items in ten months. I suspect that is because these are indoor activities and we’ve been fortunate to have had more holidays and trips than we would normally have had. Still there is always next year and I quite fancy playing at William Tell . . . . . .
But before we get to 2024 we have managed to squeeze another fabulous holiday in. I’ve always wanted to go to India, Steven less so. Imagine how surprised I was when he suggested India for our November trip. The surprise didn’t stop me grasping the opportunity with both hands and getting it sorted really swiftly – big shout out of thanks to our good friends Allan and Eleanor who did all the hard work putting the itinerary together, finding the travel agent and then “trialling the holiday” earlier this year. Basically I just rang up their travel agent and said on repeat please 🤣
it is true to say that we are looking forward to going to India and we are sure it will be an unbelievable trip. However recent events have cast their shadow over the excitement and joy that would normally fill us and to some extent there is a feeling of guilt and some anxiety at what we are doing. We never discussed cancelling the trip as life must go on, we can’t let evil triumph. I’m sure that we will return safely having had the most incredible time.
You can follow us by the map below as there will be a new marker for each new post. You can zoom in and move around to see more details on the map. The round markers are where we stay and the flags (⚑) are day trips. Any marker that is red has a post associated with it, so click on it. Details of day trips may be in the post associated with the place we stay.
These are the individual blog posts if you want to read them from here. They are dated and appear in reverse order i.e the newest first so if you come to this page when there is more than one post, scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning.
Every day brought a new favourite curry
We are really at the end as I sit here at 01:00 Indian time at Delhi airport waiting for our flight to Heathrow. The three…
Breathe in, breathe out . . . and relax
After a leisurely breakfast we were picked up and driven a couple of hours to Pallathuruthy for our trip on a houseboat. Whilst we drove…
It’s a small world . . .
Thankfully after our 03:00 alarm we had a wonderful flight arriving at the first completely solar powered airport in the world. We travelled through palm…
Bombay Mix
There were two things we noticed when landing in Mumbai – the first was the heat and the second was the relative silence on the…
Town and Country
What a breath of fresh air Jodhpur is, literally. We are in the countryside on the edge of the city, and it is wonderful. Our…
“It’s like Milton Keynes” said our guide proudly
Jaipur is known as the Pink City as much of it is created out of pink sandstone, although it looks vaguely orange to me. The…
Not all wonders are created equal . . .
After Varanasi we travelled to Agra with a short but delayed flight to Delhi and then a 4 hour drive, with it taking us one…
The city of spiritual light . . . and yes you can have our autograph
It was the right time to leave Delhi early on Monday morning. The pollution was high as post Diwali firework smog settled over the city…
The eight cities of Delhi
After a great journey where not a single person was interested in my hand luggage (you may need to see my first post on Italy…








Have a fabulous time and look forwards to the updates-safe travels
That was quick! Thank you and I’m sure we will
Looking forward to reading your blog and living vicariously through you! Have fun
Thank you, we will. No need to live it vicariously- you can copy us!
Have a fabulous time! Looking forward to hearing all about it! xx
Thank you
Sarah, very excited to hear about your Incredible India experience. You will love it!
I know we’ll love it. Somehow it doesn’t feel real that we’re going
Sounds great have a super time hope will manage to follow you with this new technology lots of love ❤️
I have every confidence in the technological skills of the over 75s!🤣
Have a wonderful holiday all looks amazing. Looking forward to seeing on your return.
Thank you. You get up far too early🤣
Happy hols! Have a great time.
Thank you. The camera bag is now packed!