Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Where is your Dream Destination?

Stephs Two Girls November 04, 2014 #Britmums, #Flying100, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Britmums, holiday, travel

It turns out that writing a post about my dream destination; where I've been, or want to go, is a lot more difficult than I thought!

I feel extremely privileged to have been able to travel to a lot of different countries in my life - for years as a young child, we flew out to join my Dad for our holidays. He worked as a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy, and was often away for six months at a time, so we went and joined him - and lived on the oil or gas tankers... but that's a post for another time!

On Grand Bahama beach with my siblings. Please excuse the part-nudity ;)

We went up and down the Mediterranean, through the Suez canal, all the way across to Canada and even down to the Bahamas. I returned to the Bahamas for my honeymoon and it would still be right up there as one of my favourite destinations.

We joined ships off the coast of Turkey, Gibraltar, Italy and many other fabulous holiday destinations, but rarely got to experience them as proper holidays. I am definitely not complaining though - wow, what a life experience to have at that age.

The 'quiet place' I picture in my mind when trying to sleep/chill

The Bahamas would have to be joint equal with Barbados, where we went for a 'baby-making' holiday around nine years ago. Sadly I couldn't quite enjoy it to the full, as I discovered shortly before we flew out that I was already 7 weeks pregnant... and yep, the morning sickness kicked in big time on the flight. So I'd love to go back to Barbados and enjoy a different aspect of it.

Mr C doing his James Bond impression - good from a distance, eh?!

Sunset in Barbados

As I got a bit older, I enjoyed living in Germany for a year and I still have an exchange partner there who I would dearly love to go back and visit. I'd do that as the same time as the Christmas markets ideally; the Germans do Gluhwein the best!

I also holidayed in the 'traditional' places as I continued to grow older - Ibiza, Majorca, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Sweden and of course plenty of places around England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

With my job as a buyer, I got to fly Business Class (which is an amazing experience in itself!) to Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong (to visit China). The one place I can think of that I'd love to visit but never have is Japan.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge - we actually walked over the top of this!

My most amazing experience though, and my Dream Destination is... drum-roll please.... Australia. Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, Adelaide, Perth, it's all amazing. We were lucky enough to visit this gorgeous country twice and we linked the trips in with visiting New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore and California - all highly recommended too.

The Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, Australia

We did all that long-haul travel pre-children, so I would dearly love to go back there with my girls.

London Bridge, in Australia

We always had grand plans that we would take them when they were 8 and 6 (I think Mr C had linked that in with cricket somehow....) but having children was obviously nothing like we expected it to be and we didn't exactly draw the easy straw.

Travelling there with Sasha could be tricky for a few years yet so I think we've resigned ourselves to waiting until they are teenagers - but not leaving it too late so they don't want to holiday with us any more. Of course there is the little matter of saving up first too... wish us luck!

Another marvel of nature along the Great Ocean Road

We've had so many memories and travelled on so many aeroplanes over the years, and I really hope our girls manage the same as they grow up.

To find out more about our experiences, please check out our 'About Us' page. If you are looking for more information on Pathological Demand Avoidance, the posts below may help.