HERE AND THERE

It's not the first time we've been to Bangkok.* Still, how much could have changed in 30 years? We're staying in a hotel on the Chao Praya River. It's 33 °C and humid, which makes a welcome change from Melbourne's chilly winter. (Although we have all come down with congestion, runny noses and coughs in response to our endless battle between humidity and air-conditioners.) About 6 million people live in the city of Bangkok, the largest city by far in Thailand (population 71 mi

It's not the first time we've visited Byron Bay (in fact it's the third), but I've got such good material from this trip that I've decided to put it all together. Timing? A special birthday to celebrate and special visitors to meet for the first time. And of course an opportunity to visit our older son. But first a bit about location. Byron Bay is in New South Wales, just south of the Queensland border. From Melbourne it's a two hour flight to the Gold Coast Airport and a 45

A hop across the Gulf from Koper and we're in Venice. Cruise ships no longer dock in Venice itself, so our cruise ends and we disembark the ship in Fusina, an industrial port. We're staying for a few days in Venice. Our hotel has sent a driver to fetch us, and he deposits us at the single parking area on the island. We wheel and heave our suitcases from the parking area to our hotel, across what felt like 25 bridges, but what turned out later to be four.* This was our immedia

Heading north in the Adriatic Sea, along the Croatian coastline, and our next stop is Koper, Slovenia. Slovenia is tucked in between Croatia and Italy, with a tiny 45 km coastline of its own. Koper's old name was Capodistria, or Capo d'Istria, in its Italian past. That's more familiar! It's history is closely tied to Italy, and Trieste is only a half-hour's drive away from Koper. Koper is on the Istrian pensinula (hence Capo d'Istria), the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Se