Lately we have seen a spate of articles online repeating old stereotypes about American tourists. To our glee most of these articles have had long strings of comments telling the writers that they are wrong. Blonde may have left one or two responses calling the writers lazy and unoriginal but we neither confirm or deny that. But more surprisingly, Brunette is mad as hell and … [Read more...]
Must Have Travel Apps! (Too bad they don’t exist)
Every travel website, blogger and magazine is constantly telling you what "must have" travel apps you should be using. Some of them have value but a lot are very limited, such as ones to help you find a taxi in Tierra del Fuego. Driven by market need we are developing our own "must have" travel apps that we are confident will be useful for the majority of discerning … [Read more...]
Unhelpful travel advice we think you should ignore
Eat where the locals/ cab drivers eat We think this is some of the most unhelpful travel advice ever despite it's ubiquity. We mean, seriously? Do you eat where cab drivers and these mysterious "locals" eat in the city where you live? Well, probably yes and no. No, in terms of cab drivers. If you can afford to take cabs and not have to drive one and you can afford to … [Read more...]
The confusion and surprises of eating around the world
When we decide on a trip we generally have food and wine expectations and those expectations have even been the reason we've selected one country over another. Hence we may now never see the pyramids in Egypt. We were trying to decide between Egypt and South Africa. We chose South Africa because they produce wonderful wines. We know that, as a rule, primarily Muslim countries … [Read more...]
Day trip from Dublin
Blonde and Brunette were in Dublin to attend a two day travel bloggers' conference. After Day One our extraordinary intellect had already absorbed the critical information from the conference for both days (remarkable) so we played hooky and went on a day trip out of the city. Our first day in Dublin we'd met with with Simon O'Connor who is the co-director of the City of a … [Read more...]
Valencia: Slightly quirky, very hot and with much to offer (like us)
When Blonde and Brunette began to plan our home exchange trip to Spain we wanted to throw in a few extra destinations. Much consternation ensued as to how to get from place to place with one firm decision being that we would drive from Calella to Valencia. At least until we found out that sounded tedious. Then we switched to taking a high speed train - which we missed by two … [Read more...]
A home exchange and a flatulent turtle in Madrid
After 5 weeks in Spain Blonde and Brunette were fairly bedraggled. We'd had a wonderful time but had also had many frustrations, not every single one of which was our fault. Maybe. We had arranged to exchange Blonde's condo in Boston for both a condo in Spain on the lovely Costa Brava and a home, from the same family, in Madrid. We knew the home in Madrid was in the suburbs … [Read more...]
Was government surveillance focused on Blonde and Brunette in Seville?
After two days of intensive sightseeing in Seville in withering heat we decided that we had seen the major sights and that was enough of that. It was time to find somewhere to swim! This was the first town in nearly 5 weeks of being in Spain where the swimming sisters did not have access to a pool or a beach. Brunette determined that the best course of action for our final day … [Read more...]
Conjuring in Calella
Last year Blonde and Brunette were in the Costa Brava region of Spain and kept intending to go to the Cap Roig Botanic Gardens but somehow never quite made it there. When we began to plan a return trip to the region this year the person with whom we were arranging a home exchange mentioned the annual music festival held at the gardens. Brunette began feverishly plotting an … [Read more...]
Places we’ve loved: Kangaroo Island, Australia
When we began to plan our trip to Australia, Brunette - who has a ready mental to-do list in her head for at least 123 countries - announced that we had to go to Kangaroo Island. Blonde had never heard of it but she's generally pro kangaroos and islands so agreed. Kangaroo Island is Australia's third largest island after Tasmania and Melville and it has less than 5,000 human … [Read more...]