Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Who would have thought that anyone would be interested in my diaries?
October 25th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I started keeping a diary when I was 13 and, since then, I haven’t missed a single day . This means that I’ve kept a diary for almost 58 years or 21,114 days to be precise. It is a personal diary written only for me – but this week I was visited by an historian […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
Holiday in the Balkans (8): Stari Bar and Lake Skadar
October 12th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Our last day (Saturday) in Montenegro was another long excursion, starting at 9 am and concluding at 7.15 pm. Our first visit was to a local family operation for producing olive oil from their olive trees. Our guide described the “smashing” of the olives to create the oil. Then we made a longer visit to […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (7): Kotor
October 11th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Yesterday we viewed the Bay of Kotor from high up in the surrounding mountains, but today (Friday) we took a boat ride on the Bay and spent some time in Kotor itself. The whole bay area including the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it really is a magnificent location. The coach ride […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (6): Cetinje & Njegusi
October 10th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Another day (Thursday), another excursion – but shorter this time (9 am – 3.15 pm). We started with our first experience of rain but the weather soon brightened up and then became warm (22C). Our first destination was the charming town of Cetinje. This was founded in the 1480s and it was Montenegro’s capital for […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (5): Albania
October 9th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
It was another long but interesting day (Wednesday) with collection from the hotel in Petrovac at 8 am and return towards 6 pm. It was a day of two halves: one in southern Montenegro and one in northern Albania. So the morning involved time in the nearby town of Ulcinj. This is the southern-most town […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (4): forest and monastery
October 8th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Tuesday in Montenegro started in Kolasin in the mountains in early morning when it was just 4C and ended in Petrovac on the coast where it was a balmy 22C. First we visited the National Park of Biogradska Gora which is one of only three primeval forests in Europe. The trees here are around four […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (3): Serbia to Montenegro
October 7th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Day three (Monday) of our Balkans trip was totally a travelling day – a train journey of almost nine hours (9 am till 5.40 pm) from Belgrade in Serbia to Kolasin in Montenegro with a short passage through a bit of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was not that the distance travelled was so great, but that the […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (2): Belgrade
October 6th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
On the first full day of our Balkans holiday (Sunday), the Voyages Jules Verne group – 18 of us in all – were taken on a four-hour (9 am – 1 pm) tour of a few major Belgrade sights by local guide Dana. First stop was the ruins of the Belgrade or Kalemegdan Fortress overlooking […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Holiday in the Balkans (1): arrival
October 5th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
What we knew as Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1992 broke up into what are now seven separate nations. I have previously visited two of them – Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia – and on this holiday I will be visiting two more – Serbia and Montenegro – with a quick look inside next-door Albania. This will bring […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Visit to Iceland (4): South Coast Adventure
September 27th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
On our third and final full day in Iceland, Silvia and I left our hotel at 8.30 am and only returned at 7 pm as we went on an organised tour called the South Shore Adventure, a round trip of some 400 km involving five stops. The weather was so unseasonably pleasant that our female […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)