|
European Holidays Travel and Information Guide Links – Helpful links to help you decide on your ideal European HolidaysHaving lived most of my life in North America, I haven’t had much chance for European Holiday , however I have managed to visit…Lindros in Rhodes, Greece, Vilamoura in the Algarve, Portugal, and Sharm El Sheik in Eygpt We spent great European Holidays in these three areas and still hold many happy memories of them.. Rhodes, Greece Many years ago, I was asked by Terry, my brother-in-law to paint a picture of a village in Rhodes, Greece. I told him that I would love to, but I’d have to know what it looked like first. He pulled out a postcard of this lovely village on the hill in Rhodes called Lindros. Well I can tell you … …I have never enjoyed painting something more in my life. The more I painted this picture, the more I drifted away. I actually felt as though I was there, and I didn’t want to stop painting. A few years later, Colin and I were trying to decide where to go on our upcoming holidays. I was doing some browsing on the internet to find somewhere really interesting, when … up popped a picture of Lindros, Rhodes, Greece.
I immediately called my husband and said that that was where I wanted to go. The beauty of this area far exceeded my expectations. We met some really nice people there and our holiday was wonderful. Sharm El Sheik, Egypt Our friend Essam asked us to join him on his holiday to Egypt. He actually went there a week earlier to visit his mother in Cairo before joining us at Sharm el Sheik. This hotel has rooms situated in lovely little bungalows and, I can tell you … the rooms were exquisite and very comfortable. We felt very safe here. This hotel served an all you can eat breakfast, with just about every type of food you could think of. I really enjoyed it because there was plenty of fruit and yoghurts to choose from. Colin loved the omelettes they made. On the night, there was great entertainment too … … from great singers to beautiful Belly Dancers. The singers were class acts and the Belly Dancers; we found out later, were actually Russian Ballerinas. They were very beautiful talented girls. I was so impressed by the Belly Dancing, I actually took lessons when I returned to England. We ventured out with Essam by our side to do a little shopping in Sharm El Sheik. Because we were with Essam, we got many bargains and he … … received a gift wherever we bought something. I was quite amazed by one of the shops. This was a perfume house, where I bought some Jasmine Oil. The man explained to me that the oil that they sell is the oil they make perfume with. When you go into this shop, they make you an Egyptian Coffee and you sit down to sample the aromas of all of the lovely perfume oils. The jewelery shopping is quite amazing in Egypt as well. We managed to get one round of golf at the Movenpick Golf resort just north of Sharm el Sheik. This resort is where many of the peace talks took place between Israel and Palestine. When we finished our game we were escorted by armed guards to the club house. There were visiting diplomats meeting with the Egyptian President and the complex was under high security. We often joked about this afterwards because on our arrival at the course there was a red carpet laid out and our friend Essam told us he had arranged this for us. We took a very interesting bus trip out to St Catherine’s Monastery.
Located at the foot of Mount Moses, St. Catherine's Monastery was constructed by order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 565. It is built around what is thought to be Moses' Burning Bush, which has a chapel built on top of it. It is a spectacular natural setting for priceless works of art, including Arab mosaics, Greek and Russian icons, Western oil paintings, paintings on wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels, chalices, reliquaries, including one donated by Czar Alexander II in the 19th century, and another by Empress Catherine of Russia in the 17th century. But of perhaps even greater significance is that it is one of the largest and most important collections of illuminated manuscripts in the world. … I actually saw a camel cross the highway on this trip.
The Red Sea is ever so warm, and the turquoise waters so clear that you can actually see your feet right through the water. We took a boat trip that takes you to an island where you then get on a submarine. You actually go underwater in this boat where … … you can view all of the very colourful sea life and coral in their natural environment. It was absolutely wonderful. The Algarve, Portugal Blanche and her husband Ralph, two very good friends of ours from England, owned a villa in the Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal. They invited us to take a European Holiday with them to this area. Just down the beach from their villa, about a twenty minute walk …was a small fishing village called Quarteira… had a fish market to die for. I couldn’t believe the variety of the fresh fish you could purchase at this market. The locals swarmed this fish market every morning to buy there fresh fish. I can see why.
Often, we took day trips out to other areas in Portugal. One area that I will never forget is Albufeira, where we sat in a restaurant by the harbour. This restaurant specialized in sardines. As you walked by … … you found yourself getting hungry from the fantastic smell of the sardines on the barbecue. As it were, we decided to eat lunch here. They were absolutely mouth watering.
The beaches in the Algarve are really nice and you can walk for miles on some of them. When we walked on the beaches, Ralph always managed to find a place on the beach to sit next to a beautiful woman whilst he admired the other bathing beauties on the beach. Unfortunately Ralph passed away a few years ago, but we will never forget his quirky sense of humour … So, we would like to dedicate this page to Ralph, our dear friend, who we miss very much. We have added some useful links to help you select your holiday destination. The following links will take you to sites that offer a variety of holiday options. If you have a website that has similar content to our site then we would be interested in a link exchange with you. Please go to our Link Exchange page and complete the contact form. Return to welcome-2-mallorca.com  This work by Colin & Marilyn Maddison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Disclaimer: This site includes links to other sites. The links are only for the convenience of the user. With regard to links to external sites which are no part of welcome-2-mallorca.com: if not otherwise mentioned on this site, there are no legal or commercial relations between welcome-2-mallorca.com and the owners of the third party site and welcome-2-mallorca.com has no control over or rights to the material found on those sites. welcome-2-mallorca.com bears no responsibility for the content of third party sites. There can be no assumption that links to third party sites constitute an authorization, recommendation or preference, by welcome-2-mallorca.com, of the linked sites, including documents or any other material therein, to the operators of the sites or to products presented therein. If you find the site or material linked to unsuitable, or if the link is found to be inoperative, you are asked to notify us. Furthermore, if you believe there is an additional site which is relevant, please contact us.
|
