We woke up in our Madrid apartment ready to explore (sorry that we neglected to say where our plane actually flew us too).

Teresa had done some research and saw that Guernica, a famous painting by Picasso, was only a short walk away from our accommodation. The Museo Reina Sofia had artworks by Picasso and Salvador Dali, which were humbling to see in real life.

The weather was overcast with a light drizzle as we decided to go to the main train station, Atocha, to purchase train tickets for our trip to Barcelona the following day. The Spanish attendant at the Renfe ticket desk was very easy on the eye! Teresa asked if we could buy tickets on a ‘nice’ train. The man looked puzzled and asked what is ‘noice’? We didn’t realise that our Aussie accent rounded our vowels such that it didn’t sound like English to them. Once he realised we were Australian we enjoyed some banter, and he shared that a friend of his is visiting the Gold Coast, but that he would not go because he is scared of sharks.

Once we had tomorrow sorted, we set out to explore the beautiful town of Madrid. Michele researched somewhere to eat and found a place not far from our accommodation called Restaurante las 5 letras, which had raving reviews. Michele ordered the oxtail, which was slow cooked, caramelised and served with potatoes….the best meal so far. Teresa also had a stand out dish, small prawns cooked in oil with large slices of garlic and small red chilies. We left this place with bellies full and big smiles!

The architecture in this town is so stunning and imposing, many buildings have amazing statues and ornate carvings.

We had planned to do as we do, walk around and discover the town. But alas the rain had began to fall and we found ourselves having to take shelter in a very well patronised bar/restaurant. We tried to wait out the weather, but after two wines and a chat with a nice local man who we suspected possibly owned the place, we realised that we probably needed to give up. The roads aren’t really made for sightseeing in the rain, very little shelter.

For dinner we found a restaurant next to our accommodation and asked for recommendations. Michele had pork with potatoes and Teresa had a paella. These were tasty but not our favourite. We ended the meal with a Disaronno each and then headed into our warm and dry apartment. Tomorrow we catch the train to Barcelona. Boa noite!

The train system is very easy to navigate here in Porto. Once we had purchased the tickets we just had to remember to validate at each part of the journey. Săo Bento was our station on the yellow line. We had to change after two stops at Trindade for the purple line to the airport. It was also a nice way to relax and enjoy the sights.

For this part of the journey we are flying Iberian Airlines which Teresa booked about a week ago. She first uses Skyscanner to find flights and then she books directly through the airline. We flew here on Portugal Airlines which are very efficient but Iberian proved to be time consuming due to not having auto bag drops and staff were often delayed with some customers. The airport itself is clean and there was live music playing for entertainment.

When it was time to board, Michele and Teresa joined the queue at gate 32, the one on the boarding pass they printed for us, only to find ourselves in the queue to Zurich. Michele spotted this and we frantically tried to find the new gate. Here we had to queue again in the air bridge… there is a lot of queueing with this airline. It was also a very full flight so no luxurious middle seat as we have been accustomed to.

The taxi cost €45 to our accommodation at Suites Prado. It is in the centre of town down a small laneway. We settled in and researched somewhere to catch a feed. The location is excellent and Viva Madrid Tapas bar was just down the road. It was a busy place, warm and inviting. There was the chatter of many languages and the atmosphere was lovely. We an ordered tapas, battered hake (fish) skewers that were served on a mini smoker-like apparatus, patatas bravas- potatoes cooked in olive oil and served with two delicious dipping sauces, and bao buns with Madrid meat stew. Washed down with spicy cocktails.

We wandered down to discover a lively square near where we were staying, Santa Ana Plaza, where we ordered a wine and enjoyed the atmosphere. The complimentary olives were smokey and amazing.

After all of the travelling and queuing we had done today, we were ready to just rest up for the evening. A quick stop to the mini-mart and we settled in for the night. Tomorrow we will experience a bit of culture at the art museum. ¡Buenas noches!

Even though we are staying in the heart of Porto, with a massive amount of construction around us, the night was actually very quiet. Waking up, we planned to walk down to the Douro River.

There are six bridges to the other side, but we chose the nearest to us which is the Ponte Louis I. This is a metal bridge that you can either take by foot or by train. It was constructed in 1881 and is about 385 metres above the river itself. Safe to say that Teresa took a bit of convincing to walk across!

The views walking its 172 metre length are very breathtaking, but only Michele was able to look and take photos, as Teresa was just focused on making it to other side alive (she peeked now and again), it is pretty bloody high and even Michele had trouble looking over the very edge.

There seems to be a large amount of abandoned old resident buildings wherever we walked. Reading up, it appears that one in five buildings in the main Porto city is abandoned and derelict, and it seems to be that they blame the growing centralised business in Lisbon.

Once we were (safely) on the other side we took in the view and quickly realised that there was not much else to do, so we made our way back across (again without incident).

The restaurant that our reception had recommended was called Tapabento, and didn’t open until midday (along with quite a few other places in Europe as we have noticed) so we had about half an hour to kill. We walked up and down the main street and then stopped for a coffee and port at one of the patisseries.

Tapabento is attached to the main regional & international train station, Sao Bento, which is right next to our accommodation and is a sight to behold in itself. Very ornate with artwork and tiles that tell the history of the area.

We worried that the proximity of the restaurant to the train station may take away from its ambience, but we were not disappointed. The food was delicious and the wait staff were so friendly. This place had a bit of an Asian twist, Teresa had the creamy vegetable soup and some oxtail dumplings. Michele had wild tuna tataki. This was accompanied with some green wine. Michele had read a few reviews on this place already, so when they recommended the peanut ice cream foam dessert she did not hesitate to indulge. It was a flavour and texture sensation! Of course washed down with some tawny port.

We walked around a little more and tried to explore some more of the city. There are cranes, scaffolding and construction literally everywhere, even to the point that there is a street that is being staffed consistently by policemen to control traffic. Walking down the main street again we stumbled across a lovely little cafe that did port and chocolate pairing and realised that we had wanted to do a port tasting in Porto, so why not pair it with chocolate?

The flavours complemented each other very well and we enjoyed our little tasting.

We stopped by the supermarket on the way back to our apartment and then settled in for the afternoon. Tomorrow we fly to Spain. Boa noite!

Setting out today we realised how good the weather had been yesterday. Once we reached the end of the main street it was too foggy to even see the Tagus river. We decided today to explore the old town, which meant walking up a series of streets.

We expected it to be steep, but really it is just a slow incline, with beautiful surprises around every corner of old buildings, ornate tiles, parts of cathedrals, or just suburbia.

We paused for a wee dram about halfway up to gather our bearings and chatted with a couple of lovely ladies from Nepal who are studying and working in Portugal. We then kept walking up until we were met with the most stunning view of all of Lisbon. Once again such a juxtaposition of old and new in one frame. This place has us in awe of its beauty.

The restaurant we found for lunch was so eclectic. It had a “grandma” feel while being very modern. The music playing was Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and the menu was handwritten in old books.

We ordered the soup of the day (cauliflower), chicken and apple croquettes, and sardines. All to share (Michele hates sardines but did have a tiny taste).

We trekked back as the fog was lifting and suddenly 2 enormous ships had appeared at the docks where they were not visible before. We could see the river again and the sunshine made for a nice afternoon. This city was such a surprise and one of our favourites so far!

After about 4 hours of wandering (which is so easy to do in this city), we made our way back to our apartment to freshen up and head out for an early dinner.

We went back to the little restaurant across the way and had a soup each, finished off with a port. The owner took a shine to us and poured us another shot. The people here are so friendly, we can’t recommend Lisbon enough.

Tomorrow we fly to Porto. Boa noite!

All 3 of us prefer to be at the airport earlier rather than later, so even though our flights weren’t until after midday, we set out at about 9am. We dropped our hire car at the correct place and then had a short walk to departures. The weather today was cold and drizzly, we remarked how lucky we have been with it all. Just before we came to Scotland, the UK experienced some very wild storms and lots of roads were closed. We managed to miss all of that, and were also fortunate that we didn’t encounter any black ice.

After dropping our bags we made our way through security and then found a place to order some food and drinks and wait for our respective flights. Scott’s plane boarded first so we said our goodbyes, thanking him for an awesome holiday together.

Teresa and Michele boarded the flight to Lisbon at 12:45 for a 1:15 take off. Once on the plane, after sitting for about a half hour, we were informed that there was an urgent repair required on the runway, which was holding all planes up. We did not take off until a quarter to 3. It was a hold up for whole airport and there was a long line of aeroplanes queued to take off, with many landing at the same time. It would have been quite the challenge to organise the backlog!

We landed into a very drizzly Lisbon just before 6pm. Despite a long bus ride from our disembark to the airport terminal, our experience from landing, collecting our bags and then locating our transfer was pretty quick and fuss free. The apartments we were staying at had been in touch with Teresa via WhatsApp and had organised our transfer with our driver Fernando, who also communicated through WhatsApp.

The drive from the airport to our apartment was about 30mins, and Fernando was very friendly and informative, recommending places to see and eat. Arriving at our very centralised accommodation, Rossio Apartments, we were amused to see that the entrance is right next door to a peep show!

Our room is clean & spacious, with two comfortable single beds side by side, and decent shower. Due to it being dark and wet outside we decided to stay close for dinner. We found a restaurant called Nicola and sat down for our first Portuguese meal. Fernando had told us that in Portugal the seafood is very good. Michele chose clams “Bulhão Pato” style, which was a sauce of olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon & onion. Served with crusty bread…delicious! Teresa chose a prawn curry which looked lovely, however the prawns were a bit chewy and she found herself having food envy. We washed down our meals with glasses of green wine (vinho verde), a Portuguese wine from the Minho province and essentially means that the wine is made from young grapes…it was really good.

After dinner we walked just around the corner to the supermarket “Pingo Doce” to buy milk and for Michele to buy some Portuguese red wine and then headed back to our apartment. We had a quick FaceTime with Babcia & Barb and Michele was able to see her baby Basil. It was near 10pm by the time we said goodbye and we were ready for bed. Tomorrow we explore Lisbon. Boa noite!

Waking up in our new apartment in Edinburgh, we noticed that the structures we were looking at out of our windows were actually grave stones in an old cemetery. Once we got dressed and the daylight had arrived, we set out to explore this side of town.

The cemetery had many grave stones dating back to the 1700s. We walked further up the road and found some steps and a path that led to Calton Hill, a spectacular lookout with amazing views all the way to the mountains and over the whole of Edinburgh. Here there was also a structure built to honour those who died in the Napoleonic wars, as well as a mausoleum built for David Hume who proposed this area as the first public space for anyone to exercise and enjoy In Edinburgh.

The weather was cool and crisp, but perfect for walking around and sightseeing.

We chose a quirky little pub called Dirty Dick’s for lunch. Teresa had a tomato and lentil soup, Scott a steak and ale pie, and Michele chose a dish that we kept seeing on all of the menus…macaroni & cheese (with added jalapeños of course). This pub had a cosy atmosphere with many items used S ornaments aromatic the walls.

Teresa had arranged for us to have a drink with a friend from Oz at 4pm, so we did a bit of souvenir shopping and then went back to the hotel to await our appointment. Scott had a wee rest while Teresa & Michele went down to the bar for a wine and to play some cards. Prince Street Suites were an excellent choice for accommodation with location being a major plus.

Meeting up with Narelle and Andreas was lovely. Scott and Teresa had last met with them early last year in Reykjavik Iceland. Such a small world that we happen to be in the same place as them again.

After a couple of drinks we said our goodbyes and Scott, Teresa & Michele stayed on at the Kinelworth Inn for dinner. This one was another meal that wasn’t so memorable.

We finished up and walked back to our apartment. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Scott and fly to Lisbon in Portugal. Good nicht!

Residences by Marriot complimentary breakfast covered all options …. Eggs, bacon, sausages, fruits, yoghurts, cereals, pastries, coffee, etc. On checkout we discovered that they subsidised the parking in the actual parking station that we had found for the car so it cost £10 for our overnight spot.

We decided to take a stroll to the coastline. Teresa’s fever had broken and she was feeling a little better today. The beach here is very different from what we have in Australia. The North Sea sent constant waves crashing to the shore and the beach was covered with black wooden structures for as far as we could see. They are called Groynes and have been installed on Aberdeen Beach since 2006 to manage the shore erosion. It was still very cold, about 2 degrees, but lots of people out and about, including a couple of hundred people participating in Parkrun!

The sun came out and the wet drizzle of the previous days was replaced by the glare of a bright star. The drive to Dundee on the A90 was very scenic, lots of farms, some glimpses of snow capped mountains but no more roundabouts. Whenever we were driving with the sun in front, the glare on the road made it very difficult to see any lane markings, or really much at all. We have been lucky to not encounter any black ice on our car journeys but found some in an outside car park in Dundee and had to walk carefully.

Ready for lunch, we relocated to an undercover car space and walked to a cosy pub called the Trade Bar. Michele and Teresa chose lentil soup, bread and fries whereas Scott enjoyed a serving of fish and chips. All was delicious. Being a Saturday, the pub was already busy with people watching football games on the tvs. It’s not unusual to go into a bar here in Scotland and have a sign on the door that states “no football colours”, which is indicative of the sort of issues that that crowd brings.

Now it was time to explore. We walked down to the RRS Discovery, which is the ship that took Scott and Shackleton to Antarctica in 1901. We also took a short stroll along the river Tay. We went into the Premier Inn on the water to see if they could put us up for the night. It was about 2:30pm and the front desk attendant told us that we could only book online or wait until check in at 3pm for someone else to book. We tried to book online but couldn’t even find the hotel. We walked around and explored some other options and had a wee dram at a bar called Groucho’s. Dundee seems to be a large shopping mall, and a lot of roads. There was no lovely old town like the other places we had stayed in. We realised that Edinburgh was only another hour and a bit away, and we made the decision to just head back there for our last 2 nights.

Driving into Edinburgh we all felt we had made the correct decision. We found a lovely 2 bedroom apartment on Princes Street right near the old town. The front desk attendants were very friendly and informed us that the bar was open 24 hours! Teresa and Michele had a wine while waiting for Scott to park the car.

It was tricky to find somewhere last minute for dinner due to it being Saturday night and still very busy. We were able to get a table at the Brasserie Prince in the Balmoral Hotel. We received 5 star service and enjoyed ravioli with burnt butter and crispy sage, French onion soup, and hazelnut crusted lamb. Our waiter grew up around Dundee and he confirmed that we had made the right choice to just spend the day there and then drive to Edinburgh.

Walking back to hotel, we settled in to the place that we will spend our last nights together as a family for this trip. Good nicht!

Inverness is a compact city on the River Ness. We had an Airbnb apartment in the heart of the city which was warm and comfortable. It was cold outside but we were determined to find somewhere for Michele and Teresa to have a much needed wash and blow dry. We contacted a lovely salon called Head Gardeners and they were able to get us salon ready from 10am, before we were moving on to the next city of Aberdeen.

The weather was quite wet and miserable so being in the car was a warm refuge (although the many roundabouts interfered with Scott’s cruise control!). However Teresa didn’t feel any warmth as her fever sent chills through her bones.

Aberdeen is much larger than Inverness and has some amazing architecture and sights. There were many road closures in the city centre so it was a challenge to locate some undercover parking but we finally found the BonAccord car park as part of a large shopping complex.

It was time for a very late lunch or early dinner, it was dark and wet and felt more like 7pm than the actual 4pm. Bar Plus One looked inviting and warm meals were ordered and enjoyed by Michele and Scott.

We had not prebooked accommodation so we found a lovely hotel next to our dinner venue called Residences by Marriot. They were so accommodating, Teresa and Michele’s room was an enormous suite with a requested trundle bed and Scott was directly opposite in a very comfortable room. The rooms cost approximately £82 each and also included complimentary breakfast. The beds were like clouds and we could only praise the facilities and services provided.

We bunkered down for the night, Teresa having a much needed lie down. Tomorrow we drive to Dundee. Good nicht!

An early start this morning, we were on the road by about 9:30am. One of the top recommendations when searching things to do in Glasgow is the Necropolis, which is an old Victorian cemetery . It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of the Cathedral. We got there but found all of the street parking around it was paid, and you could not pay the machines with card. None of us had any cash (or had even had the need for cash up until now), and there were no ATMs around. So we admired the view from the street and then got on our way.

Our car has a great navigation system built in, and we typed Fort William in as a first stop. This route took us past Loch Lomond and then through the magnificent highlands. We had to stop quite a few times to get photos, but they really don’t do the actual experience any justice. The enormous rocky mountains were sprinkled with snow, little waterfalls trickling down the side. Standing and looking up at them makes you feel so small. They were breathtaking.

We stopped at a little bistro called The Gathering at Glencoe. It was not our favourite meal of the trip. The waiter reminded us a little of Basil Fawlty and the food was pretty bland. All good, another memory for the trips !

Driving around the winding roads, we marvelled at how large Loch Ness really was. We drove around it for at least an hour on our way to Inverness. We finally made it to our destination. Our apartment is a lovely little 2 bedroom 2 bathroom in the heart of the city. We walked to find a place for dinner and found the Blackfriars Inn. More pies and fish & chips, as seems to be the trip tradition.

After dinner we walked around the dark and damp streets for a while and found the River Ness. It was running very fast. We let Scott take the photos because it was very cold and neither of us wanted to take off our gloves.

We walked back to our apartment via a little supermarket, which turned out to be a Polish shop! We purchased milk and some good vodka before tucking in for the night. Tomorrow we drive to Aberdeen. Good nicht!

The weather in Glasgow was consistently cloudy and wet. We walked into the main part of town, Buchanan Street, which was a bit like Martin Place with the mall going up hill and shops spanning either side of it. We did a little bit of shopping, walked through some dismal looking Christmas markets and then found a little pub called the Piper Whisky Bar to eat lunch at. Teresa had fish & chips, Michele had tomato soup and Scott had a steak & ale pot pie.

Michele had read that a local recommendation was a whisky tasting at a place called the Pot Still, so after we ate we walked a little way and found it on the corner of a laneway. Inside was a bar boasting at least 750 types of whisky! We found out that we should have booked ahead to get the full experience (which would be somebody to sit with you and explain each whisky), but we just chose a flight each, which was six 20ml pours and came with a sheet explaining each type.

We settled in to a table upstairs and began our tasting journey. None of us are really whisky connoisseurs, but it was interesting to taste the different ones from around the country. There was a young couple sitting on the next table who were from NSW and we ended up talking with them for quite a while.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Turtle Bay, where we enjoyed espresso martinis and yummy dishes. Then off to bed ready for our drive to Inverness tomorrow. Good nicht!