2nd March 2026 was the 15 anniversary of the terrible morning when we heard Louise had died. Each year we mark the occasion by visiting her bench with family and friends and then go off somewhere to celebrate her memory.
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We are anxious about crowds, so we set off very early to reach Uxmal, arriving at 8.15 am. The last part of the road is very narrow, as it is the route used by the lorries avoiding the toll road to Campeche. Amazingly the only other people there are another English couple who take a fine photograph of us three in front of the Piramide del Adivino, the magnificent structure that greets you on arrival. Atty is excited because, although living in Mexico, she has never visited an archaeological site before.
We arrive in Merida after a pain-free drive on near empty roads thorugh central Yucatan. Finding our home for the next week is not as challenging as it might have been before sat nav: Merida is laid out on a grid system and the streets seem to have alternate one-way systems. We can already see that this low-rise city with its colourful buildings is going to fun!
After a week on the Mayan Riveira we pick up a hire car in Playa del Carmen, which will be ours for the next week. We had been nervous about driving in Mexico but, despite the towns and cities being slightly hairy due to there being no obvious rules of engagement, aside for give way to the left on roundabouts – the main roads are mainly empty due to the tolls, so easily navigable.
A couple of years ago we successfully bid for a week in a house in Merida at a charity auction. For some reason we never got round to using that week but, one summer afternoon, feeling rather gloomy, I rashly booked some flights to Mexico for the first two weeks in November!
Finding my mother’s diaries and travel notebooks of her journeys, now published online as Travels with my Mother, inspired me to re-read my travel diary of my overland trip to India in my gap year, in 1976.
So by clicking on this link you will join the often arduous yet fascinating journey of 18 year-old pursuing her dream trip to the Hindu Kush!
Here are some photos to whet your appetite:
The last stop on our Grand tour is Florence, where our old university friend Debbie has lived since 1983! We only have two nights and one full day, with an afternoon and a morning on either side. Our fast train from Venice to Florence delivers us safely and we find the left luggage lockers before we sprint down to our rendezvous with Debbie, who has volunteered to whizz us round the Uffizi. On the way she poses with Hil outside one of her former employer’s buildings, Ferragamo!
The mini bus ride to Venice is pretty straightforward and only Euros 30 (aside from a terrible accident which slows us up as soon as wee arrived in Italy|) – hop on, hop off! We are deposited in Tronchetto and find a vaporetto that takes us to San Marco, where it is a short walk to the delightful Hotel Flora. Down a side street, it was a former palazzo and is set around a leafy courtyard where we breakfast each morning. Our room is tiny (servants’ quarters we guess) but it is ‘location, location, location’. After a couple of yummy Venetian G & Ts we set off for dinner via La Fenice, where there are elegantly clad ladies and gents enjoying some sort of performance, taking a breath in the interval, to the restaurant Ai Mercanti, which I strongly recommend.
The ‘Boys’ – four men in their late sixties – are off on their travels again. This time they are walking the Juliana Trail in Slovenia. So two of us ‘girls’ decide to come along for part of the ride – to Ljubljana and Bled, before going off on our version of the Grand Tour, to Venice and Florence.
This is our fifth time on this magnificent boat. We are thrilled to be going with co-owners Simon and Eira Day and some friends of theirs, Julian and Leah, making up a good British contingent. In fact we are lucky in that the majority of our fellow passengers are delightful and fun; we are specially thrilled to be with Janusz and Alicja Draminski, renowned underwater photographers, despite being in their 80s!
vickygoestravelling 