-
Continue reading →: Return to the GrandThe Grand House in Vila Real de Santo António is an old school, fantastic, carefully restored belle epoch hotel overlooking the banks of the Guadiana River and across at Spain. Vila Real is in the far southeast corner of Portugal. We came here to begin our cross-Algarve journey four years…
-
Continue reading →: Surf’s up in EriceiraMore than ten years after my first attempt to ride the waves, I returned again last Sunday. Last time, we were at Waikiki Beach and my brother-in-law attempted to teach me to ride a long board. I got up, once, for about three seconds and considered it a successful venture…
-
Continue reading →: Beware the “Contactless” Car Rental (aka caveat emptor)We should have known better. I’ll say it up front. I have rented hundreds of rental cars, mostly in the USA, but also in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Scotland. I remember returning a car in Newark to an off-airport rental car agency (name withheld for fear of possible…
-
Continue reading →: Learning BritishBy Melissa Now that we have been in the UK for a couple of months, we are starting to learn the language and thought it might be helpful to share a few tips with our fellow Americans who may be contemplating a trip across the pond. You may be thinking,…
-
Continue reading →: The Mysteries of Loch NessBy Melissa There is a 50-minute boat tour of Loch Ness out of the cute little town of Fort Augustus. We were already heading there to walk around so decided to take the tour as a kind of “why not, we’re here” thing. It was super good. It was beautiful,…
-
Continue reading →: The Edinburgh Military Tattoo“We’re going to the Military Tattoo”, she said. Like duh. Of course. “What the heck is a military tattoo?”, I either thought or said (or both). Fortunately, we have Google. What did we do before Google? Oh that’s right, we went and got the Encyclopedia Brittanica or got in the…
-
Continue reading →: In Bed in BathWe landed in Bath on a Saturday evening. For once, I had nearly no activities planned. I tried to get tickets to visit the Roman Baths too late and could only land some on Monday, the day of our departure. We had dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant for Saturday…
-
Continue reading →: The Beautiful ShowThis weekend, we wrapped up watching Ted Lasso. If you haven’t watched. Stop what you’re doing right now and watch, all three seasons, as there are spoilers in this post. I’ll admit, we came to the Lasso game late. There was so much to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime…
-
Continue reading →: The Less Travelled RoadI remember, vividly, touching down in Switzerland on our way back from Greece in 2015 and thinking, “ok, yeah I could keep going. I could get out of the plane and check out Switzerland for a while”. This dream of traveling the world was one that Melissa shared more with…
-
Continue reading →: Karma and a Car KeyI’ll be right up front about this; I believe in karma. I believe that bad or mean people eventually (often at a frustratingly slow pace) get their comeuppance and good people, while sometimes following prey to bad people, circumstance or things, on balance, reap the rewards of being kind. Of…
The Traveling Ridleys
Welcome to the Sunday Journal, our sister blog about our experiences along the way.
Follow along
Stay updated with our latest Sunday Journal posts by joining our newsletter.
The Traveling Ridleys: Sunday Journal 