Ambleside: A beautiful setting

We used Ambleside as a base for touring the Lake District and testing our legs against the many fell walks available locally. We found some good shopping opportunities, including some excellent art galleries and spent a good deal of time pottering around Windermere.

Alesund: A picture postcard town

Alesund is a pretty port, largely destroyed by a fire in 1904 and rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style. Our call here was a brief one but gave us time to explore the architecture and the setting. The viewpoint over the town takes 418 steps but gives a great view. We could contrast our great ship with its giant relative, one of the Costas.

Albert: A monument above all others

We went to Albert to see the Thiepval memorial. This was prompted by the description in the book Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks of a character approaching the memorial; we wanted to replicate the drive. This is a building of scale, dominating the countryside for miles. It contains the names of over 72000 British fatalities whose bodies were never found, most of whom died in 5 months in 1916.

There are war graves all over Picardie and we visited quite a few, many of which were small but still beautifully maintained. There are numerous museums but the one that stood out for us was in Peronne; I think it was the longest we have ever spent in one museum, fascinated by its story of the battle of the Somme/

Alberobello

 

 

We strongly recommend staying in a trullo in Alberobello, though you might want to avoid the one we had next to the beautiful church (hourly chimes all through the night). Individual dwellings can be booked like hotel rooms. The trees in the town square made us think of a shtreimal, the distinctive hats worn by Ashkenazi Jews. 

An attraction in itself as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it also made a great base for touring Puglia where a cave visit was a particular favourite.

Agra: A delight

Well, we did it. But we resisted the urge to sit on the Lady Di seat and have our photos taken. We had arrived by train from New Delhi and joined the queues late in the morning. The first view of the Taj Mahal as you enter is the jaw-dropping delight we were promised; it carries an enormous emotional charge. So we wandered the site as moony-eyed romantics, taking a long time to examine the detail of the inlaid finish. Afterwards, we visited the craftsman who work through the monsoon season on the site, repairing stones inlaid into the marble.

Our second visit was to the Red Fort from which Shah Jahan was forced to view his monument from the rooms where he was imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb. This too is stunning in so many respects again through its use of marble finishes.

We had a real surprise with the Itmad-ud-Daula - the "baby Taj" - which is suggested to be the model for the Taj Mahal. It's a stretch, we thought, but reacted better to its other nickname - the jewel box. The mausoleum itself is perfection, another thing of real beauty, and the site gives a real opportunity to explore and discover the design of an Islamic garden.

We ended the day on the banks of the Yamuna river to watch the sun set over the Taj.

Africat Foundation: A walk on the wild side

On our second trip to Namibia, we spent three days at Africat Foundation in Okonjima which rescues wild cats that are likely to be killed by villagers or those that have been orphaned and reintroduces them into the wild where they can. The beauty of the visit is the fact that you are travelling with staff who are monitoring and working with the animals. 

The first visit is to the compound where they keep cheetahs who have become habituated and cannot be returned to the wild. Driving with lumps of flesh on the bonnet of our open Land Rover was a first and it was unnerving to be surrounded at very close quarters by half a dozen wild cats - but exhilarating.

The next day we tracked a cheetah across its enclosure - well over 50 sq km. Starting before dawn on a freezing morning, it took three hours to find the cheetah and then we were invited to walk to where it was resting. We were advised it was safe to go on foot with cheetahs as they do not attack from the front, unlike leopards. Our reward was finding a two together - this pairing was news to the staff - and watching them relax in the sun 20 metres away. We clocked our first close encounter with wild cats.

On the third day another cold, early start where we tracked a leopard in a second large enclosure, this time being counselled to stay firmly in the jeep. We found her drinking after eating some of her fresh kill.

The other significant sights we saw here were the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. Our elevated position and frosty clear nights gave a magnificent view of the night sky.

Aberdeen

My brother's first retirement home and the University where his wife had her first chair. We visited a few times, mostly spending our time touring distilleries and following the rivers in to the Highlands or walking along the coast. The city itself is forbidding; it was later the starting point for a cruise to Norway via Orkney and Shetland.

Abel Tasman: A breathtakingly beautiful park on the South Island

This location being first on the list is very appropriate. It qualifies for one of the most beautiful settings we have visited anywhere. New Zealand is home to overly-gorgeous landscapes - like Wales or Scotland on steroids; Abel Tasman was our favourite.

We were visiting our son and his partner who were in Hamilton on a two-year secondment. they travelled with us some of our journey. Here, they went into the park for two days on a sea-kayaking expedition. We took a boat in and walked back (approx 5-6 hrs) along the coast. We were rewarded with clearings, streams, caves and always a pretty view of the sea.

The following day we learned of the Christchurch earthquake which was to drastically change our experience of the rest of our holiday.