Could I ever learn to love Cyprus? I’m not sure.

OK, let’s get this out of the way from the off, I feel there is a need for full disclosure here; in this trip I have not, repeat not, given Cyprus a fair crack of the whip. We have friends of ours that adore the island and I know that there are thousands more who find their time there enormously relaxing and enjoyable. They love the atmosphere, the warm waters, the perfect sand and the consistently good weather all brought together with as many home comforts as you can wish for. In many ways it’s a dream destination and they are not shy in telling me so.

I’m happy for them, I really am. I’m overjoyed that that have found a place that they can go where they feel they can leave the stresses of daily life behind, sit on the beach and roast away to their hearts content. I wanted to experience that joy, I wanted to see what Cyprus has that brings hundreds of thousands of Brits here every single summer. I wanted to understand, but in this trip, at this time I fully admit that I can’t and there are several reasons for that.

Bulgaria – I didn’t want to go but I’m glad I did

We last left our story on the way out of Romania, in a sweaty bus at 1:30am having just lost our passports. It was a tricky situation and one which required every inch of my self control to avoid a melt-down of Kraken-eske proportions. Luckily I am a man with such personal attributes; ‘Umm, excuse me my good man.’ I said slowly and clearly to the bus driver whom I knew spoke no English. ‘Could you please stop driving? There seems to have been an error of some kind, I believe that the Border Guard back there still has our passports.’ That may not be exactly verbatim but it was something along those lines, I can’t quite remember because I was trying to rip the door of the coach open with my bare hands at the time.

Romania – I never knew buses could be so stressful

Travelling through Europe over the past year and a half has given me many things. Croatia and Slovenia showed me sunsets like I had never seen before, Brussels left me with a passion for waffles and Malta? Well, Malta provided me with perspective. So what has Romania got? For a start, Romania has got a bad reputation and I have to say that this part of the trip was not on the top of my ‘looking forward to it’ list. But now I’ve actually visited the place, I’ve got to know the country and people a bit better, I know I was off piste. It’s a country of high emotion and adventure, here are a few stories to share so you know why.

Salzburg and Vienna; the #2MenEUTour goes to Austria

So far on Trip 4 of the #2MenEUTour, it’s been a rampage across central Europe as we’ve taken in Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg and Stuttgart in a non-stop juggernaut of continental culture dunking. But we knew we couldn’t keep that up, we needed somewhere to slow things down for a few days and what better destination to do that than Austria?  Stunning countryside meets fascinating history in this wonderful land of all things Von Trapp.  Home to old skool Music moguls Mozart and Beethoven, the famous Spanish Riding School and of course some of the friendliest locals you could ever hope to meet, all made Austria one of our favourite destinations of the tour so far.

The #TwoMenEUTour reaches Stuttgart, Germany.

UPDATE July 2018:

We encountered Gennaro on a bus travelling from Sofia, Bulgaria to Thessaloniki, Greece. Is he a millionaire? Well, he said he is and quite frankly I have no idea how much bitcoin it takes to be one so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He wanted to tell us all about Brexit and why he thought it was an understandable if regretable reaction to the state of the EU and Europe at the moment. ‘My family are immigrants to Germany’, he told us ‘but I’m German. Germany has some problems but we all do, the UK can’t hide from theirs by running away from theirs. The world is so small that we have to work together, no-one is losing their National Identity by being part of the EU. It’s a shame and I hope the UK makes it work I think my generation will still see the UK as friends either way because there are much bigger problems in the world.’ Thank you for those wise words Gennaro. I hope that Monsieur Barnier is as pragmatic as you…

Now back to the original post…

Luxembourg; a guide to a country that you’ll probably never visit and why you should make the effort before Brexit

‘Guess what kids? We’re going on holiday to Luxembourg!’ Said no-one, ever.

When planning this trip, we had several conversations with people about where we were going and they usually went along the lines of: ‘the architecture in Brussels is beautiful’ or ‘You’ll love Croatia, the sea there is incredible’, perhaps even ‘can you bring me something back for me when you go to Amsterdam?’ But when it came to Luxembourg, most people were saying things like; ‘Where?’ ‘Is that even in the EU?’ or ‘I’ve been there, but only driving through on the way to Germany. I didn’t stop, obviously.’

So what happens if you actually take some time to get to know Luxembourg? Well I’m glad you asked because I'm going to tell you all about the time that the Family P spent some time in perhaps one of the most surprising EU countries of all.

Beer, Waffles and Europe. TwoMenABoutTown goes to Brussels, Belgium #2MenEUTour

Belgium is obviously an important stop on our EU Tour because as we all know there are actually only three things to do there; eat waffles, eat chocolate and drink beer. Well, maybe it’s a bit important for the EU as well. As we got off the train from Amsterdam, Mrs P. let me know in no uncertain terms that she had the first two things on the list covered without my assistance and so that evening I was at liberty to go and explore the third = Best. Wife. Ever.

What to do in Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Two Men About Town’s Big Brexit Tour

“Daddy? Why hasn’t the woman standing in that window got any clothes on?”

In accordance to the universal inevitability of Sods Law, of all the things for which Amsterdam is famous, we hit the one I didn’t want to see within 15 minutes of arrival. The Child is often found ignoring her homework, pouring talcum powder down the sink or banging all the drawers and cupboards at 6am with complete and utter disregard to the rest of the household, so why does she choose now of all times to develop an insatiable appetite for those questions a Dad doesn’t want to answer? I attempted evasive manoeuvres into a nearby cafe but were caught in a cross fire:

“Daddy? This place smells funny and those people all have brownies, can I have one please?”

No. No you can’t and actually I’m not really that thirsty anymore. Who wants to go on a boat trip? It was with these childhood innocence ending verbal grenades that The Child kicked off trip 4 of our Big Brexit Tour.

TwoMenAboutTown Big Brexit Tour – England and Scotland #2MenEUTour

And here we go! We’re kicking off on our two year European adventure with the easiest way Mrs P and I could think of to start this exciting/terrifying two year exploration into the mountainous highs and cavernous lows of Europe. We just jumped into the car and drove North to see what happened.

TwoMenAboutTown Turns One!

Good Lord, what a year it’s been! A year later, a year older and we have learned a huge amount about blogging, eating and having amazing friends. We’ve written about so many different things that looking back on the 90 odd posts we’ve shared with you it’s too hard to mention them all so we thought we would give you another chance to check out a couple of our favourites that you might have missed the first time.