My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

To Greece by train - and other journeys of the mind, body and soul

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The wind is in from Africa

July 28th, 2009 by jane · 6 Comments · Greece

…and last night I could­n’t sleep… Callum and Chris slept on the beach here on Serifos last night cos it was so hot in the tent, even with both doors open, and I slept in the hot tent cos it was so windy down on the beach!!  Callum slept until 8.30 even whilst wild sand­storms raged […]

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Athens to Antiparos

July 24th, 2009 by jane · 2 Comments · Greece

We docked at Patras on time, found the sta­tion and with­in no time were tuck­ing into fresh greek bread, feta, olives and toma­toes from the loc­al shop, and a freddo (iced espresso — this sea­son’s trend­i­est drink!)  A well earned decent feast — food on the ferry was a bit sparce due to the pricey food on board and […]

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Minoan Lines Ferry

July 21st, 2009 by jane · 5 Comments · Greece

19th and 20th July Ancona to Patras So we’re now out in the Adriatic, hav­ing staked out our spot on the deck beside a young Swiss couple trav­el­ling over­land to Istanbul and a French fam­ily with 2 young kids. The Swiss couple are trav­el­ling with a large lily – a birth­day present from him to her! […]

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Venezia to Ancona

July 21st, 2009 by jane · 4 Comments · Greece, trains, travel

Sunday 19th Venazia to Bologna Our first loc­al, sup­ple­­ment-free train! An early rise at 6am and break­fast of corn­flakes, white sliced toast and straw­berry jam at “Sleep Cheap at Francesca’s B&B”, whilst the own­ers slept in the liv­ing room, giv­ing over their two large bed­rooms to pay­ing guests. I slept badly as can­­non-like fire­works boomed […]

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Paris Gare de Bercy to Venezia Santa Lucia

July 21st, 2009 by jane · 2 Comments · Greece, trains, travel

After a 4 hour break­down (we were told 5 minutes 2 hours ago — no-one really knows what the prob­lem is) we’re mov­ing on through the edge of the Alps, past Lake Maggiore, towards Milan. The plus side of the delay is that we travel this sec­tion in day light, eat­ing our break­fast of pain au chocolat.

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very nearly off…

July 15th, 2009 by jane · 3 Comments · Greece, Uncategorized

Tua Mia’s pass­port has arrived, he is get­ting very excited and we’re not sure if he will sleep tonight!

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Getting on board

June 21st, 2009 by jane · 6 Comments · Greece, trains

I’ve just been to see The Age of Stupid, a very hard hit­ting film about cli­mate change.  It’s left me won­der­ing, yet again, how we man­age to change atti­tudes, and fast. I want people to read our blog here and be inspired to not fly and to go for that big train ride adven­ture once […]

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Train tracks calling

June 18th, 2009 by jane · 3 Comments · Greece, trains

We don’t have a car and we haven’t  flown for 8 years (except when I went to Shetland for work in November, and again in May :)) We use trains a lot.  I mean a lot.  But I haven’t done a grand European train voy­age for years. In the sum­mer of 1989, hav­ing spent a week on […]

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