Getaway!

Mrs P and I are trying to make the very most of what time we have left in the UK. On Sunday we are off to Bath to visit what is, I am assured, one of the most beautiful cities on earth. The following week we are off to Bratislava in Slovakia for a three nighter. Seeing as Bratislava and Vienna, in Austria, are apparently the two closest capital cities in the world, we’ll do a day trip there. The train ride between the two is less than an hour.

We have plans for another brief Euroculture getaway in January too, with Krakow in Poland the obvious choice. With a day trip to Auschwitz. Millions of people every year take a day trip to the former concentration camp. Millions of people half a century also went on a day trip. One way. Possibly they were the lucky ones, who didn’t have to linger there too long. It’ll be a better experience for us, I’m sure. An educational, perhaps spiritual experience, rather than a pleasure, though.

But then, once we are unemployed at the end of January, we’ll have a few days spare before we fly to Mexico. What to do? Mrs P and I both have ideas. Very contrasting ideas.  One option is a skiing holiday. Neither of us have ever been skiing, but it’s one of those things that we feel everyone should do just once.  It’s unlikely that we’d do it in Mexico, although I have heard of people skiing down Orizaba and Ixtacihuatl.

I’ve been to the latter, and I’m not convinced it’s worth the effort. There wasn’t much snow to be found on most of the slopes, as the photo above from my last trip shows.  I reckon that if we are to try skiing, we’d be better of hitting the Alps in Europe. We might yet visit Snowtrex and book ourselves that trip. It’s looks fun, and the clean mountain air wouldn’t be a bad thing. But then, if we did book a skiing holiday, let’s hope the Alps have a little more snow than last year. Not that we can afford to stop at Klosters and rub shoulders with Prince Charles and his entourage, more’s the pity!

Option two? Something completely different from option one. A trip to Marrakesh in Morocco. Sun, sand and more sun and sand. Which is no bad thing. Plus the delights of one of the finest cities in North Africa. Plenty of things to see and do, and an awful lot of history and culture to explore. I have been to North Africa before, but the other end of the Sahara. I went to Cairo in 2000 – my first trip outside of Europe. It was a fabulous experience. And if I could afford it, then what we’d actually be doing is going for a cruise down the River Nile. Those cruises aren’t as cheap as they used to be though, which I find a little odd given the situation the country finds itself in today.

So what to do? Snowy slopes of the Alps? Sandy dunes of the Sahara? We can’t decide. Perhaps we should put it to a vote. Care to guess which of the two is my choice and which is the preferred option of Mrs P?