What was originally planned to be a four day break in Bratislava, Slovakia turned into a week long holiday due to the Volcanic eruption in Iceland. The ash cloud created by the volcano meant the majority of European airspace was closed and it wasn’t until we landed in Slovakia on the day of the eruption that we learnt our flight home was cancelled and we were stranded!

Needless to say this didn’t stop us making the most of our trip so I thought I would share some of my favourite photos here. On the first day we toured Bratislava in the pouring rain, an excellent excuse to dive into every open bar, sit back and order an ice cold Slovakian brew.

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Last month I travelled up to Manchester with a few friends to take a tour of Old Trafford, Manchester United’s home ground. As usual I was the photographer for the day and took loads of pictures. I have hand picked a few of my favourites to share with you here.

The tour lasted about an hour and included access to the Manchester United museum that is also on site. The museum hosts a huge array of Manchester United memorabilia from the clubs 132 years of football.

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I booked a trip away with Gemma to Birmingham last week. She is a huge chocoholic so I decided to plan a surprise visit to Cadbury World. We stayed at the Eaton Hotel which has recently been refurbished to a very high standard and was excellent. The room was clean, quiet and in a great location to stop off, recharge our batteries and get ready for the next day. I would definitely recommend it.

To break up the journey north we drove through Warick to do some sight seeing. Originally we had planned to visit Warick Castle but in the end decided it was getting too late in the day so found a quaint, old fashioned tea room instead and had a late lunch that included homemade sandwiches, traditional lemonade and a huge slice of cake. Delicious!

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After what seemed like months of research to find a good place to go on holiday this year, Gemma and I settled on a self catering apartment on the outskirts of Albufeira in Portugal. I’ve been to Portugal many times in the past and it really is a beautiful country. Despite my reservations about using a cheap flight operator, EasyJet were an absolute pleasure to fly with, we even arrived earlier than expected so don’t be swayed by all of the negative comments you read on the Internet these days. On our arrival to Faro airport in the early afternoon it was above thirty degrees centigrade, ‘muito quente’!

On our first outing we were a little disappointed at the lack of ‘local’ restaurants, that was until we walked to the ‘old town’ which turned out to be the crown jewel of the area. Although heavily focused on tourism, Albufeira old town was teeming with life during the day and a hot spot of activity, street performers and a real feel good feeling at night.

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The day after my driving experience, Gemma and I decided to break up the journey home from Stafford with a visit to Whipsnade Zoo. The astute among you will realise that this post comes far later than it should, but, I took some excellent photos of the animals and wanted to share them with you!

The weather on the day couldn’t have been better, it was hot and sunny yet the zoo was relatively quiet which meant we could take our time to watch the fantastic array of different animals. It didn’t feel like a traditional zoo, the animals had acres of space and if zoos and conservation parks are a necessity then Whipsande should set the standard.

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