Update: The cruise was cancelled! About 36 hours before we were scheduled to depart I received an email saying the ship had hit an iceberg and the cruise had to be cancelled. My hurried Plan B was a trip to Patagonia with the help of the wonderful people at Swoop Patagonia. I have my reasons - more than 6 of them, actually This is Blonde giving you the scoop in this post. I … [Read more...]
How aging, reckless blondes learn to scuba dive
The thought process behind learning to scuba dive When Blonde and Brunette excitedly planned our visit to the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort in Fiji it was not because we were planning to learn to scuba dive. Although Jacques Cousteau was (more or less) the inventor of scuba we were going there to snorkel. We had 30+ years of wonderful snorkeling experiences and this would be a … [Read more...]
The odd beauty (and odd guide) of Khor Al-Adaid
When Qatar Airways graciously gave us two business class tickets to the Maldives we chose to spend a few days in Doha to break up our trip and experience somewhere new. But as Brunette, the trusted researcher, began to look for activities in Doha she found little that sounded intriguing beyond the Museum of Islamic Art. Our attention span for museums is similar to a 6 year old … [Read more...]
Why we want to go on an eight-day Emerald Waterways river cruise through Europe
Our girlish hearts yearn to go on Emerald Waterways’ Classic Prague and Danube Delights cruise. Why this yearning, this passion, this desire? Well, why not? Have you heard about Emerald Waterways? Have you dreamt of being on a “starship?” Well they have some! Emerald Waterways is a daring new entrant in the river cruise market and they are here to provide, as their Managing … [Read more...]
How to prioritize and accomplish your bucket list
The American movie The Bucklet List came out in 2007 and featured Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two terminally ill men (who seemed to be in shockingly good health) doing all the things they wanted to do before they died, or "kicked the bucket." The term was around long before then but it really took off in popularity after the movie's release. We don't actually use … [Read more...]
OMG GoWithOh 2 PRG!
We don't want to alarm our readers but we have come to the considered (over some wine) opinion that people, places and things change over time. When we started our blog, BlondeBrunetteTravel, a year and a half ago we were young and wide-eyed with enthusiasm! Regrettably it does not appear that we benefitted from professional haircuts but the enthusiasm is palpable! We wanted … [Read more...]
Whiskey, a hooker then a gun – 18 hours in the west of Ireland!
There's an old Irish proverb that God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world. We don't have any data to back up this statement but after an evening at Zetland Country House Hotel spent sampling (with enthusiasm) their whiskey, sushi and chocolates we can't imagine that ruling the world would be more enjoyable. We were on a trip in the Wild Atlantic West … [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...]
Our hot quickie in Cordoba, Spain!
One positive thing came out of the nearly 7 hours we spent in the Renfe train station in Barcelona trying to get someone, anyone, to know what to do with the discounted train passes we had purchased online before our trip. That one positive thing was that once we finally reached a manager, and rudely interrupted him planning a vacation for himself in Malta, he became very … [Read more...]