The (not so) Empty World

I second taking kids with you abroad as early as possible. Our son has had his passport since he was 3 years old. He has been to Greece, Croatia, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, England, Ireland... I'm sure I'm missing some others.

One of the greatest gifts we've given him is his love of travel. That worldliness has served him well in every aspect of his life... from comfort in (literal and figurative) foreign situations at a young age to college application topics, and on and on.

Growing up I had traveled all over the eastern U.S., but never outside the country until I turned 30.

As far as plans for our quasi-empty nest situation... We had planned to go to Australia this past January, but the wildfires nixed that. (Remember when that was going to be the defining story of 2020?! How quaint.) No overseas plans at this point. We've been dreaming of travel, but haven't set out to make definitive plans yet at this point. Seems like we'd be setting ourselves up for disappointment.

My wife and I were supposed to go to NYC in September for the New Order/Pet Shop Boys concert and some Broadway shows, and my wife + both our boys were supposed to go to California in October for my 50th. All of those plans have been scrapped. We kept our NO/PSB tickets for their rescheduled September 2021 show. That's really all we have at this point, and I'm just super focused on that rescheduled trip. I miss that city so much.

Oh, and yes... I LOVE Santorini. Would go back in a heartbeat!

I keep wanting to post something but not having the time to find old photos, argh!

I spent a month in China back in 2001 which was a massive culture shock but incredible. Shanghai - Suzhou - Wuhan - Chongquin (by boat, along the Yangtse) - Hong Kong and then back to Shanghai.

Sometime after that, I went to Malaysia - different parts of Borneo. That was mainly snakes/spiders (boo!) and Orang Utans (yay!). Spectacular seafood

More recently, we did a partial lap of Sri Lanka by car - mainly for the National Parks and wildlife but there are some very cool places to be discovered there

Not my picture, but how Indiana Jones is this?

The 2 trolls have stopped us travelling much further than the Med for the last few years. But, cabin fever has led to us planning to nip across to Paris for a few days as soon as feasible.

We were staying on a ship, en route from Madeira to the Canaries. Agadir is pretty under-developed as a destination - it's basically a deep water freight port that is moving into tourism.
Beach is stunning but that's about it. There's very little to see or do if you're not a sun-seeker (I'm not - I'm a city nightbird!).

My other half lived in Canada for a year - massive Toronto fan. I had to bring a box of Tim Hortons's back from the Cure Glasgow gig last year..

Easiest is Amsterdam, great everything - gig venues, pancake houses and museums. If we get the 7am flight then we're in Jordaan by 10am

Barca is our go-to escape destination, skip the Rambla and stay in the gothic quarter. Never run out of things to do or cool places to chill.

Marseille is way more fun than snooty old Paris.

Copenhagen is the winner for winter stuff, forking cold but the kids are old enough to go to Tivoli now which will blow their minds
Winter train trips in Germany are always cool, especially heading down south through the snowy woods.

Further North, Bergen gets the thumbs up - tiny but v pretty in Summer.

I once spent the night sleeping on the floor of the train station in Zurich. My partner and I took shifts “guarding” while the other one slept. 🙃