Skip to content
Retired and Restless.scot

Retired and Restless.scot

Exploring Scotland, Europe and the World

  • Home
  • Big Trips
    • Browse All Big Trip Intros
    • 2020
      • Japan in Winter
    • 2021
      • England Grand Tour
      • California, Here We Come!
    • 2022
      • Thailand Contrasts
  • About This Site
  • 2004-2019 Archive
  • Search Guide

Tag: Market / Shopping

July 2022: Two-Centre Sweden: 2. Stockholm

6 January 2023 RandR.scot Europe, Sweden

Journey and Arrival Our rail transfer between Sweden’s second city and its capital took just over three hours. City Hall – Gamla Stan The following day, having arrived at City

Continue reading

July 2022: Two-Centre Sweden: 1. Gothenburg

28 December 2022 RandR.scot Europe, Sweden

Journey and Arrival Our journey from London to Gothenburg had originally been booked as a short hop in British Airways’ Club Europe cabin. When the airline subsequently cancelled our flight,

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 14: Chang Moi

10 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Introduction Today’s plan, intentionally a little less ambitious than Tuesday’s, concentrated on the district of Chiang Mai in which our hotel stood: Chang Moi. Even so, we weren’t intent on

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 13: Temples of Chiang Mai Old Town

7 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Morning Today’s hefty programme – and indeed the next couple of days as well – got off to a good start with an inclusive breakfast at the hotel. This was

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 12: Onwards to Chiang Mai

2 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

The journey north Today began when Bruce’s phone alarm went off at 0444 and mine followed at 0445. (He has a penchant for using non-standard times!) We both knew that

Continue reading

March 2022: Wonderful Copenhagen (Part 2)

26 September 2022 RandR.scot Denmark, Europe

This is the second of two posts about our March 2022 visit to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen (Danish: København). Royal Palace and Marble Church Amalienborg (1760), home of the

Continue reading

Dec 2021/Jan 2022: New Year in Budapest

8 May 2022 RandR.scot Europe, Hungary

Background Bruce and I had been scheduled to bring in New Year in Germany, but about a week before Christmas the German government announced that it would be joining neighbouring

Continue reading

California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 11: Sausalito, the Castro and North Beach revisited

16 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Trip to Sausalito Today’s breakfast was at a nearby Blue Bottle Café, and this was followed by our usual shower routine before the day got underway in earnest. One notable

Continue reading

California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 9: Arrival in San Francisco

2 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Emeryville – San Francisco Today’s objective was delightfully simple: to relocate across the bay to San Francisco and get settled in for the longest and most luxurious hotel stay of

Continue reading

October 2021: Edinburgh: St James Quarter

12 January 2022 RandR.scot Europe, Scotland, UK

The former St James shopping centre, closed in 2016, was a creation of the 1970s. Although I remember finding it somewhat claustrophobic, the place always seemed busy enough any time

Continue reading

August 2021: Belfast

12 October 2021 RandR.scot Europe, Northern Ireland, UK

Introduction Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, one of two entities created in the 1921 partition of Ireland. Formed from six out of the nine traditional

Continue reading

June 2021: London in Summer (Part 2)

8 August 2021 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Hotel 2: Conrad St James Our base for the second group of two nights was the elegant Conrad London St James, across the street from St James’s Park underground station.

Continue reading

England Grand Tour (2021): Day 11: South Bank to East End

11 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Bank Holiday Monday got underway with another complimentary breakfast, thanks to Bruce’s status with Hilton. This time, we both decided on a lighter, more continental approach to the first meal

Continue reading

England Grand Tour (2021): Day 9: And so to London

8 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

We hit the jackpot with this morning’s breakfast, which was at The Coffee Shop in tiny Sherfield on Loddon. The venue turned out to be a lovely, welcoming place attached

Continue reading

December 2020: Christmas Cheer(s) in London

20 February 2021 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Arrival The last trip of 2020, and for an as yet indeterminate period thereafter, was once again to London. Outbound travel was on Sunday 13 December. The first two nights

Continue reading

October 2020: Northern Portugal (Part 4): Vila Nova de Gaia

9 February 2021 RandR.scot Europe, Portugal

As previously mentioned, the urban area south of the Douro and opposite Porto is officially a separate city: Vila Nova de Gaia (“New Town of Gaia”), or simply Gaia. It’s

Continue reading

September 2020: Berlin (Part 1)

4 November 2020 RandR.scot Europe, Germany

Ku’damm / Zoo area May as well start with where we were based! We were delighted to spend our four-night stay at the brand-new Hampton by Hilton Berlin City West,

Continue reading

March 2020: Three Cities: 3. Norwich

29 August 2020 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Arrival I travelled from London to Norwich on a Greater Anglia express train, using a heavily discounted ‘Advance First’ ticket. It was one of the company’s brand new, Swiss-built Stadler

Continue reading

Posts pagination

1 2 Next Posts»
Text and photos copyright © 2020-23. All rights reserved.