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Blogathon 21/21: Unvisited

Over at Transport of Delight Highwaylass dips her toe into a bit of Scottish history.

I know two things about the country:

  1. Yesterday, 20th February 1472, ownership of Orkney and Shetland passed from Norway to Scotland as part of a dowry payment. That was some kind of dowry, eh?
  2. I have never really *been* to Scotland (you can’t count the two hours I was technically ‘over the border’, visiting a haunted manor house, and you also can’t count the two hours I was in Dunblane to pick up and bring home a horse)

A few years ago we discussed having a proper Scottish holiday, which included motorbikes and the NC500. Then, a little while later and after the arrival of dogs and a caravan, we briefly touched on taking the tribe northwards for a family vacation. Neither of these events happened. In the former we just ran out of time, in the latter Scotland became Cornwall (which did happen).

I do still want to go to Scotland though; there’s a lot of history up there, and a lot of amazing scenes to be seen. But there are also a few other places I want to go:

  • Kaliningrad. What a truly fascinating place. Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave shoehorned between Poland and Lithuania (being quite some distance south of actual Russia). In the 21st Century, Kaliningrad is a living relic of the Cold War, especially that installation at Дунаевка
  • Colombia. I had a Spanish teacher who was from Bogota, she spoke beautifully and had a lovely accent, it was a joy just to listen to her. She taught me a lot about her country and a little about the differences between some of the cities and regions. I’d love to go there and experience it all for myself
  • Vietnam. Yes, I know I’ve been in the last half-dozen years, but I only saw Hanoi, Tràng An, Vân Long and Tam Cốc (in the Ninh Bình Province). It’s a much bigger, more diverse country than just those few places. The little bit of travelling I did was amazing, and showed me so much more of the country and its people
Tràng An, Vietnam
  • China. I’ve only been to Shanghai, but there’s so much more to see than this one, heavily commercialised, provincial city. As with Vietnam, I would love to travel extensively through China, and would want to keep away from the ‘touristy’ places to get close to the real China and the real Chinese people
Nanjing Road, Shanghai

Ah well, maybe one day.

What about you? Where is on your ‘want to go/see’ list?

4 thoughts on “Blogathon 21/21: Unvisited”

  1. Do you think tourists will be allowed to travel independently in China any day soon? It would be such an interesting country to visit.

    In “winning the lottery” world I’d like to travel in Japan, go back to Cuba and travel in Latin America.

    But in general I’m happy touring on the bikes in the UK, we are so lucky here in the diversity of architecture and landscape, language and food, all in a small island. Plague Island though at the moment 😢

    1. I like to think that would be the case. I’d love to travel through China and into Cambodia, then down through Vietnam, across into Laos and then down through Cambodia. Also, I would love to visit Cuba. I’ve done some Latin America but I would love to have a proper swing through there.

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