"WARNING......VIRTUAL TOURIST IS ADDICTIVE!" nickandchris's Profile

2012, all change for me. My dad died after enduring two and a half years he hated residing in a nursing home. All he wanted to do was die, his memory had failed him and anger and frustration had taken over my lovely, gentle, caring dad.Finally, on 10/01/2012, heaven opened it's gates for him. Look after him up there, please.....

2011 pages.

Helmsdale,Brora,Cromarty,Wick, John o' Groats, Thurso,Melvich, Crete, Caton, Langholm, Bewcastle, Thornton Steward and Barnard Castle (update.)

2010 pages:

Brampton in north Cumbria.

Another trip to Dumfries and Galloway in August. Pages under: Creetown, Isle of Whithorn, Port William and Stranraer.

Before that: Ingleton in North Yorkshire, Dent in Cumbria, Kirkby Stephen and Kirkoswald, in the Eden Valley in Cumbria and Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, where we enjoyed a few days in June,.

Had a fantastic few days over Easter in Nithsdale, Dumfries and Galloway. New pages: Wanlockhead and Moniaive.....

2009 pages:

Mungrisdale in the Lake District in October.
Cockerham in Lancashire (September
Slaidburn in the Trough of Bowland in August.

July,we spent a week in the motorhome in the Ardnamurchan region of the Highlands. New pages are:Ardtoe, Arisaig and Roshven.

Shap. in Cumbria in early July.

May, Greek holiday was to the island of Lesvos.It has so much to offer we still feel we have only scraped the surface of this beautiful island. Lots of new tips......

Some places in the Lake District we hadn't visited for many a year, in particular, Muncaster Castle and Gardens. Breathtakingly beautiful. New tips under my Lake District page and Ravenglass

Threave Gardens

My addiction to VT continues, even now in 2010, six years after joining!!! Was there really life before VT? October 2004 I didn't even know how to use a computer but learnt how to send e-mails to Michael when he started Oxford University. From there I dabbled with the internet and began to look for information on Pilion in Greece. That was my introduction to VT and now there is no going back.
I had always wanted to keep an account of our holidays, having already written diaries every time we were away and this seemed the ideal way to elaborate and include photos.
If no-one else benefits from my pages, I am at least enjoying the writing. It is amazing how nostalgic you can become , pining for the good old days when you were younger and fitter, stepping back in time and recording an old holiday. Probably of no interest to anybody whatsoever but there you go, you win some, you lose some!!! Certainly it is worth it for me, to relive these halcyon days!!!

By the way, I am still only able to use two fingers for typing!!!!! One day.............

Most of my pages are written from a personal view and when I first started writing I wasn't sure if people would find them interesting or useful. I have since helped a number of people asking advice on places I've visited, so I do now feel the effort is worthwhile.

Whilst flicking through various members pages it never ceases to amaze me that you can all speak such good English. So many of you from so many different countries. It puts us Brits to shame;- what do the majority of us speak? English and not much else.

Typically Greek

I suppose my first travelling experiences were as a child on holiday jaunts to Cornwall,Devon, Dorset and South Wales.We always went on coastal holidays which mum organised and we always went swimming in the sea whatever the weather.
Now, married for 29 years, I still feel holidays should be by the sea but the swimming isn't quite so important, particularly in England and Scotland!

My first trip without the family, or school, was to America and Canada for three weeks, as a niave 20yr. old, with a boyfriend. We toured the west coast from San Fransisco to Kittemat in B.C. I remember thinking how modern and new everything looked compared with Olde England!
Next came a two and a half month trip overland to Europe, starting in Spain, travelling to Italy and ending in Greece, which is when my love for Greece began.

We always try to visit Greece once a year, it being the country we know and love best (apart from England) and have done so for 31 years.
We tend to book off the beaten track package holidays with car hire and roam at our free will. We used to travel independantly but have found a cheap package works out cheaper than a flight only to a lesser known airport.
People who live close enough to Luton airport are fortunate to be able to use the Easyjet service to Athens. It would take a day out of our holiday for us to do this, living in the far-off north of the country. Oh the joys of living in the north of England!

Beautiful Arcadia

As well as basing ourselves on the coast we do make the effort to explore inland Greece and fell in love with Arcadia which we have vowed to return to one day. Unfortunately, travelling for miles in a car on Greek roads is not our 15yr. olds idea of a fun holiday so we have to compromise and not travel too long a distance in one day. Very frustrating for Nick and I!!

Most of my Greek pages are recollections from diaries I kept and are therefore more personal than informative. Maybe not to everyone's taste.

The Bedford

As well as our Greek holidays we toured in England quite a bit in our elderly motorhome. We bought this in 1996 with the wild idea of travelling overland to Greece in it, which we actually did the following year. It was an amazing adventure, an experience more than a holiday as the potential for things to go wrong was great!! Obviously the main issue was the age of the van and of course we did have plenty of technical problems but we got there and back and still ran the old Bedford for a good few years more. We finally found a suitable replacement for the Bedford, a 1991 Elddis Autostratus. Hopefully this will last at least as long as the Bedford did.
You will find my story of "The Adventure" spread over my various pages on Greece A lot of it is totally irrelevant and is not so informative as more of a collection of rambling diary entries and memories!! Try it if you want.

Mavro, catching the sun

We live in the small town of Dalton-in-Furness, south west Cumbria. Close to the sea and also to the beautiful lakes and mountains of the Lake District.
We feel we are very fortunate to just be able to take off in the motorhome, even if it's only for one night or a few miles up the road, we know we'll always be in attractive countryside and have peace and tranquility.
Something we really like doing after stormy conditions is to go to the beaches on Walney Island (about 5 miles from Dalton) and collect large amounts of wood that's been washed in on the storm tides. We can collect enough firewood to keep our real fire at home burning for several weeks.
Beach-combing is also an essential past-time. You never know what you might find!!
We belong to two cats, one black, and one black and white!

Things We Like

MARRIED FOR THIRTY YEARS.
TWO SONS, 25 yrs and 16yrs.
TWO CATS
NICK IS A CIVIL ENGINEER.
I AM HAPPILY EMPLOYED AS MUM, HOUSEWIFE AND CHIEF HOLDAY ORGANISER.
LIKES:
CATS
VEGETABLE GARDENING
GREEK HOLIDAYS
MOTORHOME HOLIDAYS
WILD CAMPING ON REMOTE
SCOTTISH LOCHS.
EMPTY SPACES.
THE COAST.
THE MOUNTAINS.
MEETING INTERESTING PEOPLE
V.T.

Michael has now finished Oxford after four very happy years at university and has graduated with a Master's degree in Maths. How proud we are of him. In October, the next stage of his life began, getting up and going out to earn a living. He secured a job in London which he seems to genuinely like and shares a house in Finsbury Park with three other Oxford friends.

Now we are three.........