Freelance Tour Manager for Rail Based vacations around the world
Today we travelled to Barcelona by high-speed rail, a long journey, taking nearly 6 hours, but travelling at speeds of up to 310 km/h. Any word in Spanish that ends in the letters “ito” means little. Our high-speed train today looks a little bit like a duck, a pato in Spanish. That means the locals …
I may be in love with this city. I need to return and spend some time here. We arrived by high speed train (the AVE) from Seville and went straight into a guided tour of the Alhambra palace and the city. After the morning rail we needed lunch and where better than the bullring restaurant? …
Yesterday we were in Seville. I’m lying in bed now falling asleep so I’m not gonna write for too long. I’ll let the pictures do the work. We enjoyed tapas and wine lunch, alfresco on a terrace overlooking the river and the city because that’s just the kind of folks we are here at Vacations …
Continue reading "Blood & Sand (Not really… It just sounded right)"
We move so fast on this Tour that I’m now combining cities! A morning guided Tour of Porto included what I believe is the prettiest rail station in Europe. Okay… maybe the second prettiest. Well, it’s in the top three. Porto’s São Bento Station is a mosaic of tiles inside, a mural of Portuguese history. …
We made an early start this morning. And headed into the mountains of Northern Portugal. From here, the river Douro winds its way through the terraced vineyards that provide some of the very best Portuguese, wine and Port wine. The weather gods were kind and we took a cruise along the river for a few …
We’ve had a busy couple of days, so this is going to be one of those posts that is heavier on photos that on text. That’s because I’m pretty tired and I have an early start tomorrow morning and a complicated day to organise. We started in Madrid, and we enjoyed a guided tour of …
June is the second busiest month of the year for us Tour Manager people (September, since you ask). This year is no exception. I have two tours, back to back, with only 36 hours between them. The good news is that they are both strong Tours and I'm already familiar with them from previous experience. …
What a wonderful city - perfect for a long weekend city break! This morning we enjoyed a guided tour with our local guide Manuel (he was excellent). This extraordinary place is the very heart of Spain and Andalusia, combining Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish architecture with traditional Spain. It is the beating heart of Flamenco, Toros, …
Hearing this, some people think about football, others about the sagrada Familia. For some weird reason I got stuck with Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé. Clearly I am defective. We had a bit of a tough journey to Barcelona yesterday. Things that should’ve turned up didn’t and things that should’ve been on time weren’t. But …
Spain often surprises in extraordinary ways, particularly when it comes to the sheer variety and enthusiasm for displays of local heritage. Provinces throughout the country take fierce pride in their regional traditions as demonstrated here by a Galician band 'A Rondalla Santa Eulalia de Mos' playing (unexpectedly well) a cover of the AC/DC song 'Thunderstruck'. Bagpipes are …
TimOnTheTrain 