Travelling on coach holidays and exploring new places, this fits in with my photography hobby.
At one time I was terrified to travel on these type of trips. I didn't know how to behave in hotels or how to cope with travelling with complete strangers or how I would cope with my lack of foreign languages
Then I did thirteen trips in one year. And I realised that this could be considered obsessive behaviour.
My trips in 2015 were.
Scotland. 4 days
South Devon 5 days
Ireland 4 days
North Devon. 4 days
Cornwall. 5 days
Midlands. 4 days
Kent. 5 days
Belgium 5. days
Belgium again 7 days
Germany 5 days
Italy 7 days
Holland 5 days
Scotland again 5 days.
I got to see a lot of countryside, different cities, met many interesting people. Enough hotel experience for a lifetime. Went by Eurostar twice. Ferries 12 times.
If you say Kent, I'll be surprised. It's a very strange place. People are generally quite insular and not very friendly. Maybe that's why it kind of suits me - not that I'm insular in other ways. Judging by some of the attitudes I've heard on the streets and read in the local papers over the years, people are pretty reactionary.
Where did you visit in South Devon? I used to live near Totnes.
I miss the Devon I knew then, in the early '70s. Then, Totnes was still a traditional Devon market town, full of native Devonians and native character. Now, it's like a cross between Richmond-upon-Thames and Glastonbury - full of rich hippies. The village we lived in was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and had families living in it who went back many generations - including to the middle ages. Now, virtually all of them have gone - displaced largely by Londoners. It's an enclave of the ultra-wealthy. It's very sad, but it happens everywhere, I'm afraid.
I miss the Devon I knew then, in the early '70s. Then, Totnes was still a traditional Devon market town, full of native Devonians and native character. Now, it's like a cross between Richmond-upon-Thames and Glastonbury - full of rich hippies. The village we lived in was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and had families living in it who went back many generations - including to the middle ages. Now, virtually all of them have gone - displaced largely by Londoners. It's an enclave of the ultra-wealthy. It's very sad, but it happens everywhere, I'm afraid.
