Which countries are on your bucket list?

Well Alex, living in Norwich, we have so much on our doorstep in terms of coastal and inland scenery, history, art, culture, and nature in many different forms, that going away is not really necessary. What we lack in brickworks, chemical factories, s**g heaps, motorways and mountains we make up for with some of the most diverse and richest wildlife habitats in Europe. From The Brecks to the Broads, and with the finest climate in the UK, it’s hard to beat. The natives are friendly too. Friends who like to get out a lot and explore the villages say it can take all day just to drive round the coast from sunrise in the east at Gorleston to sunset at Hunstanton in the west and I can believe them – we had a car like that once.

I can recommend Croatia and Montenegro for scenery.

It’s not your browser Sophie. Avatars are misbehaving. They appear when you post a comment and they appear in the Latest Comments list but they have been turned into ghosts when you want to look at a comment.

It seems to me that every time one thing gets fixed something else goes wrong.

I am curious to know why you consider it would be a great experience. Crossing the steppes and the vast expanses of Russia must be almost devoid of any excitement. Various celebrities have done it for TV but I can’t remember any highlights.

If you want a nice train trip, take the Venice-Simplon Orient Express [or first class on the 10:30 from London Liverpool Street comes close – except it misses the stretch through the Dolomites].

I might have misled you, Alex. The 10:30 from Liverpool Street only goes to Norwich and as well as dodging the Dolomites it does not call at Paris, skirt Lake Lucerne, or traverse an alpine pass. But like the Venetian destination, it is only a short walk from the terminus to the waterfront and your boat for the onward journey.

Alex Whittle says Today 15:59

I’ve always wanted to travel on a sleeper train (I’m not a first-class kind of travelling) and I think it would be great to watch the changing scenery.

Couple of points, Alex: as it’s a sleeper train, there’s not a lot of changing scenery to watch. It’s dark outside. Second, the only half-decent sleeper compartments are first class and most of those are pretty dire. Ideally, you need two: one for your and the bedclothes, the other for the suitcases. Thirdly, sleeper trains are slow trains and do a lot of stopping – at stations, so you- always have to keep the blinds down. On the plus side, the rhythm of the train’s movements is extremely relaxing.

We tried what we thought would be a romantic sleeper-train trip a couple of years ago, through Germany and on to Switzerland. The compartments make sardine cans look positively roomy, so best to do it with someone you really like. The ‘shower’ is pitiful and they don’t provide towels or soaps. There is a decent sleeper train that does South Africa, I believe, but having done it in Europe in future we’ll lug the luggage to a hotel.

I was always advised to take care, ‘cos trains run over sleepers… 😉

That said, I did once take the sleeper from Newcastle upon Tyne to Kings Cross. I guess, as a rising young executive, I’d have been first class too, but even so it was definitely work not pleasure.

Must dig out the ‘groan’ smiley…

I looked but didn’t find one here:

wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

Perhaps alfa can advise us on the correct one to use…. 😉

🤗 🚊 😴 🛌 😱 💥 💫 🤯

I use emojione that was an add-on with Opera internet browser. Some of the newer ones don’t display here properly.

You miss a lot if you sleep while travelling, or going by air. Years ago I drove to a conference in Barcelona instead of flying; 3 days of pleasure there and 3 days back seeing the real country, food and people. Daylight rail travel is interesting, in the UK as well as elsewhere. I’d stick with a proper bed at night.

Thanks alfa 👍🙌

I’ve recently discovered that Chrome on a Chromebook gives access to a suite of emoji keyboards, with just a right click to bring up the editing options.

I wonder if they post properly here…❓❓❓❓

Do we need emojis? The only place they might be useful is possibly Hansard.

Alex – just guessing, but your bucket moment must be so far off in the distance that all your plans [and the world itself] could change dramatically in the mean time, and emojis could be as obsolete as yo-yo’s, spud guns and scooby-do now are to my generation.

🐦 🐦 🐦 These are blue birds, not sure why Which? makes them red 😲

Well done to keep on travelling. Uruguay is indeed an interesting country and politically a very good example of referendum being used to make important decisions such as not selling-off the water supply.

Out of curiosity do you research heavily ahead of booking, before going, or hardly at all? And do you have favourite tour companies?

We do research quite a lot before planning our trips. I favour Lonely Planet guidebooks and use TripAdvisor with care for selecting accommodation. We choose accommodation mainly on the basis of position, value for money and traditional buildings.
Mostly we book flights, hotels and internal transport ourselves such as our Uraguay trip. In this way for example, we took a small but modern ferry from Carmelo to Tigre, which was a great way to cross to Argentina rather than the alternative offered by travel companies.
In Buenos Aries we then joined our Hurtigruten Antartica trip. We have really enjoyed Hurtigruten explorer voyages to both the Antarctic and Arctic. They have great itineries, very informative lectures and comfortable small ships.

Thanks for the reply.

Another resource is Wikitravel. It exists but is patchy; here is a sample on the accessible, nice, but little visited Azores.
wikitravel.org/en/Azores

I do believe that independent travelling is a good thing though I have to admit we have done little of that in the last decade or so. Retirment does provide the time and flexibility normally only open to gap-year students.

Do either of you speak Spanish or is it easy to get by in most areas? I think of driving from BA to Valparaiso one of our all-time favourite towns. However there is so much of the world left to see : (. I do fancy Iran and around the Black Sea for both geography and culture.

An Arte programme on tourism in Laos has reminded me of the destruction/change of culture with Western tourism. I understand some Laotians are concerned with mass Chinese tourism on completion of the railway,
atimes.com/article/china-train-project-runs-roughshod-over-laos/

I haven’t looked up where the UK features in the land mass league tables but in terms of geographical diversity, history, and civilisation it must rank very highly per square kilometre. It is a compact microcosm that ought to attract more visitors bringing in foreign currency. Lack of deserts, of course, probably marks it down.

The usual definition of a country is a sovereign state that is recognised by the majority of the world’s sovereign states as being a sovereign state. So all Europe’s recognised microstates are countries, i.e. Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. The size of a country is irrelevant to whether or not it is a country.

England, Scotland and Wales are not countries based on this most common definition of a country. They are not sovereign states but component parts of the United Kingdom, which is a sovereign state. Unfortunately, many British people’s definition of a country is based on representation in international sport, particularly football, which conflicts with the usual meaning used in the rest of the world.

A useful list of sovereign states is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states which also lists unrecognised and minority-recognised states such as Northern Cyprus and Abkhazia.

Thank you NFH.

It seems that I have been to three more countries than I had realised.

Useful link. I think Wikipedia has rather fallen over on this list as the Wikipedia definition of sovereignty would actually exclude several.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_state

To whit: It is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state.[2]

Andorra, ruled by a Spanish Bishopric and the head of the French government, would hardly qualify.

Interesting point about Andorra. Although the two heads of state that you correctly quote do not in practice govern Andorra. I believe that France and Spain have no control over the government of Andorra.

As co-princes of Andorra, the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell maintain supreme authority in approval of all international treaties with France and Spain, as well as all those that deal with internal security, defense, Andorran territory, diplomatic representation, and judicial or penal cooperation. Although the institution of the co-princes is viewed by some as an anachronism, the majority sees them as both a link with Andorra’s traditions and a way to balance the power of Andorra’s two much larger neighbors.

Andorra
83,677
‌Liechtenstein
35,589
San Marino
31,359

“The Mouse that Roared” seems entirely likely now!

And not yet a UN member ….
Meaning ‘beyond the river’ in Lithuanian, Užupis is separated from the rest of the city by the Vilnele River. The republic celebrates its independence annually on 1 April, known locally as Užupis Day. On this day, travellers can get their passports stamped as they cross the bridge into the republic (every other day, the border is not guarded), use the local (unofficial) currency and treat themselves to the beer that flows from the water spout in the main square (yes, really).
bbc.com/travel/story/20181014-uupis-a-tiny-republic-of-free-spirits

Indeed; everyone else has gone, AFAICS. This is the first post since we returned from a few days active debauchery and slovenliness and nothing seems to have changed. Except Alex is still in situ – face-wise, at any rate.

Brexit has been like voting to jump out of a high window without first looking to see what’s on the other side.

If we leave the EU without a deal I think that roaming charges for mobile phones will be the least of our worries. It could be cheaper to use the hotel landline than a mobile phone if a call is absolutely necessary. I cannot remember the last time I had to make a phone call when I was on holiday – it’s become a convenience to make frequent phone calls but hardly essential nine days out of ten. I think the mobile telecom operators will offer something acceptable to avoid losing a lot of traffic. The tourist industries in southern Europe might have something to say about anything that deters the Brits from going abroad.

I’m rather concerned that Europe is reverting to an earlier stage in its development – the latest example of this being the Italy – France row taking place.

The dangerous vote to leave the EU in this country could become the spark that ignites the flames of Europe-wide discontent. Based on previous years it won’t take a lot to fan the flames.