A selection of my other travels which may not be as interesting as a lot of my others but should go on a personal travels site: Holland, France, Spain, Minorca, Malta, UK
On this page, Holland, France, Spain, Minorca
Holland 1970's
When I was very young my Mother and Father took me to Holland with them to visit our relatives, my uncle and auntie: Con (pic of him on family page) and Elly Tuijl, my Dutch Grandfather Aart Tuijl (pic of him on family page) who lived in the UK also went with us. My uncle, auntie and grandfather have all since passed away. I think the trip must have taken place in the early 1970? but I am not sure how old I was maybe 3 to 5 years old. There is a picture of me outside the back of my uncle? house in Warden, Holland which you can see on the me page of this site.We boarded a Focker Friendship turbo prop aeroplane to fly over to Holland, I am not sure what airport it was, but it could have been Norwich, UK. In Holland my Grandad went to stay on Rotterdam with relatives and we went to stay with Con and Elly. My memories of this holiday are typical childish, I remember lots of windmills (the famous ones by the Rhine (pictures on family page)) feeding ducks, and open-air swimming. We also went to the Madurodam which is a model version of Holland, which was great for a kid. And the Euromast, which started a lifelong obsession with the mast (pic on favorite pics page). Also in Warden there is a bird aviary which I loved as a kid. I also had my first Sherbet fountain in Warden which also started a lifelong obsession!
We came back on a ferry which seemed to take forever, but it was fascinating for me to watch the water from the window, having not seen that sort of thing before.
Madurodam - model Holland
Euromast - a tower in Rotterdam
Minorca by overland Car
Back in the 1970? my Nan and Grandad Gunn hired a villa in Minorca for six months during the UK winter, during which my Grandad nearly went mad with boredom. I think this must have been 1976 or ?7. My Mother and Father decided to drive from the UK to Minorca to go and stay with them. We had a Citroen Diane 6 (like a 2CV only different) so the car looked the part for this journey. My Dad tinted the headlights yellow to conform to European laws, and we were off.We caught the old large hovercraft, since decommissioned, from I think it must have been Dover. Of course this was very exciting for a six (or seven) year old. In France we headed for our first hotel. I remember 2 hotels in France and my Dad trying his limited French out in order to get by, asking directions, getting hotel rooms and buying food. I certainly remember a lot of croissant for breakfast and no coke for meals so I had to have some sort of horrid bottled water all the time.
We wended our way over France towards Spain as the countryside got more arid. Passing though passport control into Spain in a very rocky and mountainous area, surprising the Diane 6 could cope with all those hills. Then we headed on for Barcelona where we caught a ship to Minorca, the poor Diane 6 being hoisted aboard by a crane! We travelled over to Minorca overnight having a nice cabin to sleep in. It was great fun looking out of the porthole at the dark sea and lighthouses in the distance.
In Mahon the capital of Minorca the ship pulled up to the quay right in the centre of the city. We explored a lot of Minorca on that holiday, this was the old Minorca before tourism took hold in a big way. It took half a week to travel across France and Spain, which meant that we had a week in Minorca.
The way back was a repeat of the journey out, only we came back through Paris which was so busy and fog bound that we were glad not to stop. One more trip on the hovercraft and it was all over. This trip started a lifelong obsession with travel for me, although I have not been able to do as much as I would like.
More Minorca Subsequently my Grandparents bought a villa in Calan Porter and my first visit there involved me being put on a plane in Birmingham by myself and joining my Grandparents on the other side. We had quite a few more breaks to Minorca while we witnessed the slow put sure tourist-isation of the place. I think they sold the villa in the early 90?.
France '07 On Aug 11th 07 My wife and kids and I set out for France. 1 week at "Camping les Etangs Fleuris" campsite near Touquin in a static caravan with canvasholidays.co.uk. We drove from Calais tunnel in our Ford Focus to the campsite, about a 3 to 5 hour drive. While in France we went up the Effiel Tower and to Disneyland (well you have to don't you?)
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