leics' VirtualTourist Home Page

You'll find a bit more about me in the personal albums: this page focuses on the travelling/archeological aspects.

Now my children are adults I am doing the travelling I could never afford before. I'm getting braver and braver about travelling alone (I didn't go anywhere abroad until about 7 years ago). I loved my first solo 'abroad' to Rome , especially OstiaAntica but have really enjoyed everywhere I've been since. I do like travelling with friends but circumstances usually dictate that if I want to go anywhere at all it's got to be on my own. So that's what I do, and it's been fine.

I'm not rolling in money, so it's largely a case of budget flights and cheapish hotels (though I've been on a couple of package holidays, for convenience more than anything else). I like to spend my time wandering around, seeing how people live and (especially) seeing what once was. 'Modern' things hold no real interest for me, though I sometimes enjoy pootling round shops to see what's on offer and at what price.

No holiday over Christmas 2008 , simply because I was expecting to become a grandmother for the first time. And I did, which is excellent. :-)

My first 2009 excursion was a return to Sorrento in February, with the friend I introduced to Italy last year. She's not much into history/archaeology, so we make a good balance: I show her the old bits and she opens my eyes to the newer bits. It was extremely chilly (and very wet one day), but we still managed to do a fair amount of wandering around......

Over the Easter school holidays I went to Athens (a long-wanted-to-see place), with a brilliant side-visit to Sounio (thanks to VT-er Janetanne). Then to lovely Slovenia again, to spend time with friends ......and to make flying visits to Austria (Bad Radkersberg), Hungary (Lenti) and Croatia (Cakovec) !

I had a brilliant time at the Euromeet in Cascais, meeting real and virtual friends, making new ones, soaking up the lovely sunshine. And there was time for me to wander the streets of Lisbon by myself too, and explore just a little bit of Portugal.....a country to which I will definitely return.

If you are wary of attending a VT meet (large or smaller), please don't be. Just bite the bullet and sign up! They are huge fun, and everyone is incredibly friendly. You need have no fear of being left-out, and no fear of being hassled if you want some time and space alone.

In mid-July I made a small exploration of northern Bavaria (Wurzburg, Nurnburg, Bamberg, Regensburg and, yes, Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber), with a superb two days at the start exploring places near to Darmstadt (many, many thanks to Trekki). We managed to visit: Hering, Hummeltroth, Lorsch, lovely Freinsheim, Ibersheim, Rheindurkheim and Worms.....pretty good going for a day and a half! :-)

I've just re-visited Budapest to see what I missed last time. A most enjoyable visit, with temperatures in the high 30s....too hot to do as full an exploration as i normally do, but my English soul sooooooo much appreciated the sunshine and the heat!

Soon I'll be off to Malta again for a proper lolling-about-in-the-sunshine-and-eating-too-much holiday.

And for the rest of 2009.......well, we shall see what transpires. :-)

2008:

In October I went on a Pisa based holiday (visiting Lucca, La Spezia and some of the Cinque Terre....Riomaggiore, Corniglia and Vernazza ) .

I finally visited one of my must-see places....Pompeii....in February 2008. Out-of-season (still sunny, though chilly at night) so there were few people about; it was wonderful to have Pompeii more-or-less to myself for a couple of hours. I stayed in Sorrento, and also managed to visit Herculaneum, Oplontis, Capri and Amalfi whilst I was there (the bus ride along the coast road was superb). I shall go back there again: there is more of Pompeii to explore, more ancient sites, the museums in Naples.......and Vesuvius, which was 'shut' when I visited!

I took a friend to Rome and Tivoli just after Easter 2008; her first visit. It was great fun, though the weather wasn't very good. Then I took myself to Venice the week after.

I had an entirely brilliant time in Karlsruhe, at the VT Euromeet. It's the first one I've been able to get to: it fell in the UK school holidays. And I'm so glad I made it! A good time was had by all, with side trips to Heidelberg and Speyer for me .....not to mention the excitement of the Karlsruhe firemen!!

In the summer I visited Tallinn, in Estonia, and Bruges (by Eurostar, another first for me). I hadn't realised quite how much my daytrip from Bruges to the Flanders battlefields would impact upon me: a lot of memories of my grandfather resurfaced (he was wounded at Passchaendale in 1917) .

Then I went (briefly) to Nimes for the Roman remains (pulling in a whizz round Avignon too).

Finally, in a very busy summer holiday, I had a lovely visit to Malta, saw much more archaeology and countryside than I saw the last time I visited, ate lots of Maltese food and had a (far too brief, because I was a wimp) swim in a warm sea. This holiday thanks to VT (yet another one!).

Of course, there was also the brilliant Halifax VTmeet, which made my return to school a bit more bearable!

In 2007 I managed to fit in another visit to Florence in late May, to fill in the gaps from my first visit (though the weather was rather horrid), as well as exploring Winchester , Windsor, Silchester and Salisbury. At the end of July I took myself off for a couple of nights to Gwynedd in Wales, where I was at university; it's still a very special place for me.

At Easter, and in August, I went to Slovenia, a place I suspect I never would have visited but for the friendship I've made via VT (Ursa9), who has become a sort of substitute daughter as well as a good mate. It's a really lovely country so I shall return.

I spent a few days in Prague in October. Christmas was a return visit to Cyprus....again, to see the bits I missed last time (especially the archaeology). Whilst there I took a day-trip to Egypt and finally, finally saw the Pyramids and a little bit of Cairo.

In 2006 I visited Ireland , Carcassonne , Narbonne and Florence, with a visit to Krakow in August. October was a ramble round south Devon and part of Dartmoor, and Christmas was spent in Malta.

I've also visited a tiny part of Turkey: Hisaronu, Fethiye and Kayakoy; not much at all really, and it's a country I would like to re-visit.

I really have been to Paris (twice, actually) but far, far too long ago for the photos to be uploadable (or even find-able!). I live in hopes of a romantic trip there one day, but I'll probably end up returning on my own!

I'm a keen archaeologist in my spare time. In the main photo (excavating Medieval dump deposits in York) I'm the one in the hat. I'm the also one in the hat in the Sedgeford photo next to this paragraph (I always wear a hat when digging, for some reason).

I'm fascinated by the past, particularly the past of the ordinary people....... the ones whose lives did not get recorded in written history. Being an archaeologist is rather like being a forensic scientist; you have to find the evidence for your ideas, and that very much appeals to me.

For five summers I dug at Sedgeford in Norfolk; there is dig info on that page, and in the travelogues below. It's excellent fun, and anyone can join (we have people from all over the world, and run an excellent basic training course). So if you fancy exploring a bit of Anglo-Saxon England next year, look at the SHARP website.

I used to do a great deal of 'fieldwalking', although have done far less over the past couple of years. That means I walk across ploughed fields very slowly, picking up evidence from the past. People used to put the contents of their rubbish heaps onto their fields so there's always lots of pottery to find, and this will show when the area was occupied. Many fields will produce not only pottery from Medieval and Roman times but even flint tools from more than 10000 years ago. Fieldwalking is a great stress-buster and really brings the past to life. England is particularly good for this type of archaeology, because there has been such intensive settlement and farming over the centuries.

Sadly, there's much less fieldwalking for me to do nowadays because local farming practices have substantially changed.

I think the best UK prehistory sites are in Orkney. The albums below have some info too: I really will get round to writing 'Roman' and 'Medieval' history pages one day!.

Leicestershire is quite big and I only live in a small part of it ......... but it's ok for now. I'd much rather be living in the middle of nowhere, between the sea and the mountains, or in another country entirely. We'll see what happens. I think I'll probably have to win the Lottery first, which might be difficult as I don't actually do it. Hmmm....flaw in the plan there somewhere.

The UK is a fascinating country (or grouping of countries) from a historical and landscape perspective, so I've been making as many pages as I can about places large and small. They are listed on my England and Wales pages. I've been to Scotland as well, but too long ago to have the photos available for VT; must go back there soon.

So.....onwards and upwards, exploring and finding-out, seeing what there is to see, by myself or not. The world is a huge place, with an infinity of excitements.......how can one not be thrilled by the potentials and possibilities?