We’re Karl and Karen Clare, a couple from Norfolk who discovered some years ago that staying at home is considerably cheaper than travelling — and then promptly decided to ignore that fact.

We’ve been married for more than forty years, having first met while working at Norwich Union. Since then we’ve raised our family, worked rather a lot, and gradually developed an enthusiasm for seeing as much of the world as possible.

Now that work interferes rather less with our plans, we try to make the most of the opportunity.

Why this blog?

This website started simply as a way of recording our travels.

Partly so that friends and family could follow what we were doing, partly so that we could look back and remember it ourselves — and increasingly because I discovered that I rather enjoyed writing about it.

These aren’t really travel guides. There are plenty of excellent websites that will tell you the ten best things to do in a city.

Instead, this is the story of what actually happened when we went there.

Sometimes everything goes beautifully. Sometimes flights are delayed, the weather refuses to cooperate, Google Maps sends us somewhere ridiculous or one of us makes a decision that seemed perfectly sensible at the time.

Those bits tend to make the better stories.

Where have we been?

Quite a few places.

We’ve travelled extensively across the United States, including numerous visits to Florida and some memorable road trips. We’ve explored much of Europe and the UK, and our travels have taken us further afield to places including Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

And there are still plenty of places on the list.

Our trips aren’t about travelling as cheaply as humanly possible, nor are they about five-star luxury. We generally like comfortable hotels, good food, interesting places and an itinerary that allows us to see plenty without needing a holiday to recover from the holiday.

Although, admittedly, I don’t always get that last bit right.

Who writes all this?

That would be Karl.

I spent my working life in IT, which perhaps explains my inexplicable willingness to spend hours tinkering with this website when I could simply leave it alone.

Karen is an essential part of almost every adventure and, whether she realises it or not, provides a considerable amount of the material.

Our sons Barry and Neil, along with the rest of our family and friends, also make regular appearances. Neil in particular has joined us on several trips and has developed the useful habit of devising plans that somehow involve seeing everything before most sensible people have finished breakfast.

More than travel

There is another important story behind this website.

I’ve also been researching and writing about my parents’ experiences during the Second World War, particularly my father Peter’s service with the Royal Norfolks and his experiences as a Far East Prisoner of War.

That project became my book, All Will Be Well.

It’s very different from the travel blog, but ultimately both have the same purpose.

To record the stories while we still can.

Because photographs are wonderful, but years later it’s often the little details — what happened, what somebody said, what went wrong and what made us laugh — that bring a memory back to life.

So that’s what this website is really about.

Our family, our travels, our memories — and whatever happens next.