Allan and Debbie's Travels

SCILLIES OR HEBRIDES? A SHORT PHOTO-QUIZ

After recently visiting both the Outer Hebrides and the Isles of Scilly, upon looking back at my photos I was struck by the many similarities between these two groups of British islands (despite their being almost 600 miles apart) Just for fun I have put together a short photo-quiz, with 7 pairs of photos for you to guess which island they represent. I hope you enjoy it!

THE DEEP SOUTH OF THE USA

We travelled by coach and train from Atlanta to Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans and Houston. Our fortnight was packed with activities, sights, sounds, and tastes of the Deep South including visits to Graceland and the Houston Space Control Centre as well as an air-boat trip into the bayou swamps.

Amtrak train 'City of New Orleans'	Chattanooga Incline Railway	Elvis recordings at RCA Studios	Graceland	Isn't that an alligator?

SOUTH-EAST ASIA - VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, AND THAILAND

A very different part of the world this time. During almost 3 weeks including a 5-day cruise down the River Mekong, we saw small villages working as co-operatives, we saw busy cities full of motor-bikes, we saw fabulous Cambodian temples, and we saw sobering mementoes of the 1960s/70s conflicts. It was a wonderful, albeit mind-blowing holiday!

Our ship, the Viking Saigon	Into the jungle	A Buddhist shrine	A Royal Palace	Would you drink this?

TWO ISLANDS, SIX LEGS (MANN AND SICILY)

You will have to visit the page itself for the full explanation of this title. We had a fascinating visit to the Isle of Man, travelling by horse-tram, electric tram/railway, steam train, and mountain railway. We followed this with a multi-location tour of Sicily where we sampled its delicious local wines and seafood, visiting baroque hilltop cities with beautiful cathedrals as well as ancient Greek and Roman architecture.

Isle of Man horse-tram	The Laxey Wheel on the Isle of Man	The Palatine Chapel in Palermo	The Valley of the Temples in Sicily	Mount Etna

ACROSS FRANCE ON THE RIVERS RHONE AND SEINE

Two very similar weeks, yet with different flavours. Starting from the South of France at Avignon, we travelled north to Lyons by ship and then took the TGV to Paris, from where we travelled to  Monet's gardens at Giverney and then to the Normandy beaches. On the way we visited Roman amphitheatres and medieval towns, saw Van Gogh's paintings of his town of Arles, tasted wine of Chateauneuf du Pape and Beaujolais, explored Paris by day and by night, and admired the Bayeux tapestry.

Sur le pont d'Avignon	Wine tasting at Chateuneuf du Pape	Paris in the Springtime	Normandy beaches	Monet's water-lilies

FROM CHICAGO TO TORONTO VIA ALL 5 GREAT LAKES

We had previously travelled from America to Canada by river and canal from New York to Montreal, briefly visiting Lake Superior; this time we decided to visit all 5 of the Great Lakes on our journey from Chicago to Toronto

Sunset over Lake Huron	Model-T Fords in Detroit	First Nation Ojibwe dancer	Chicago	Niagara Falls

CHASING THE MIDNIGHT SUN ALONG THE NORWEGIAN COAST

We had seen Norway in the perpetual daylight of the summertime; now we decided to see it in the darkness of winter, experiencing such snowy delights as hiking and dog-sledding. Venturing past the Arctic Circle to the North Cape, it also gave us the chance of seeing the spectacular Northern Lights in all their winter glory.

Unusual patterns from the Northern Lights	Dog-sledding near Tromsø	Beautiful ice sculptures at Svolvær	Bergen, as seen from the cable car	The blue-light period before dawn

ACROSS THE BALTIC TO ST. PETERSBURG

Having cruising from the Baltic to the Black Sea through Russia, and from the North Sea to the Baltic across Europe, in 2019 we decided to complete this "Eastern European Ring" by cruising from the North Sea to the Baltic, revisiting St Petersburg and visiting the 2 new (to us) countries Latvia and Estonia.

The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen	The Church on the Spilled Blood in St Petersburg	The Freedom Monument in Riga	Boarding a vintage Tram in Rostock	Sand sculptures in Warnemunde, Germany

FROM AMSTERDAM TO THE BLACK SEA

In 2018 we took a 3-week trip across Europe on the rivers Rhine and Danube. Visiting 8 different countries in 3 weeks, this epic cruise took us through spectacular scenery to visit an amazing variety of towns and cities. I took over 1500 photos on the trip, here are just 5 to tempt you

Keukenhof Gardens	Castle on the Rhine	The Iron Gates gorge	Budapest	Hungarian horsemanship

PORTUGAL

Our 10-day holiday in Portugal started with a weekend in Lisbon, then we travelled to Porto to spend a week on a small cruise-ship on the beautiful River Douro (featuring some of the deepest locks in Europe) with excursions to fascinating places including Salamanca in Spain and a great deal of Port Wine

Porto	A lock with a rise of 115ft	Viking Hemming	Treading the grapes	Castelo Rodrigo

ICELAND

For Debbie's birthday in 2015 we took a short break to Iceland, with plans to see the Northern Lights (we didn't, although the camera did) to go whale watching (we didn't see any) and swim in the Blue Lagoon while it was snowing (we did, but it didn't snow). But it was a fantastic trip anyway!

Rather dim Northern Lights	The Strokkur Geyser	Swimming in the Blue Lagoon

AMERICA

We flew to New York to see the amazing autumn colours of the American Northeast, travelling inland on a small ship to Quebec and Montreal via the Hudson River, Erie Canal and St Lawrence Seaway.

Autumn leaves by the St Lawrence	Spectacular sunsets	There was time for some sightseeing	A beautiful river	Autumn over Montreal

SWEDEN

The Göta canal crosses Sweden from Stockholm to Gothenburg. We spent a week in 2013 cruising the length of this beautiful canal on a historic passenger boat. This account of the trip includes more photos than any of our other travel pages; I thoroughly recommend that you have a look at it.

Our ship M/S Diana	A narrow canal cutting	A typically-Swedish church bell-tower	Läcko Castle	In the Ice-Bar

RUSSIA

We've been to Russia twice now. Our first visit in 2007 was a wonderful cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg, and we managed to return in 2011 for a longer cruise from St Petersburg to Astrakhan and Rostov-on-Don. We've written lots about the two visits, the cruises and the places we visited - and there are lots of fabulous pictures for you to enjoy.

Moscow	Palace of Peterhof	Vodka and Caviar	The Hermitage	St Petersburg

EGYPT

At the begining of 2005  we went for a cruise on Lake Nasser and the River Nile. It was fabulous. Please have a good look; there are a lots pictures for you to look at as well as plenty to read.

The Sphinx	Debbie finds a crocodile	Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel	Esna in the early morning	Philae Temple

If these 5 pictures have whetted your appetite, now see the rest of them ...

ANTARCTICA

In 2003 we went on our trip-of-a-lifetime cruise to the last unspoiled place on planet Earth, the great white continent of Antarctica. The wildlife, the scenery, the whole experience: it was absolutely fantastic. I've just finished putting a brief summary of the trip here on the website: have a look, I think you'll find it fascinating. Again, here are just 5 pictures to whet your appetite.

Our ship in icy waters	Adele Penguin	A penguin colony	Colours of sunset	Debbie meets a chick

Do you like these pictures? I took over a thousand pictures in Antarctica - after all, I don't expect I'll get the chance to go back and take any more - and I've collected the 120 best with our log of the trip for you to see.

ALASKA

After Norway we decided that we liked cruising the fjords, so we celebrated our Silver Wedding in 2001 with another fjord cruise, this time off the spectacular coast of Alaska. Yet again here are 5 pictures to tempt you to read the full account of the trip

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Alaskan Fjord	Bison	Humpback Whale	Tlingit Indian dwelling	Dockside at Juneau

NORWAY

The first of our really BIG trips abroad was the fortnight we spent in 1999, cruising the coast of Norway and visiting all the fjords on the Hurtigruten (Norwegian Coastal Express), travelling past North Cape to the Russian border in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Once again here are 5 pictures to tempt you to read the full account of the trip

The Arctic Circle	The Svartisen Glacier	Midnight Sun	At the North Cape	Trollhatten

THE REST OF THE WORLD

There's still a lot to more do on these pages, but I'm working on them now. Please come back soon and have another look.

All pictures on this site are © Allan Jones unless otherwise stated