TSQL Tuesday #134: Give Me a Break!

It's #TSQL2sday!!

T-SQL Tuesday is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (Blog | Twitter). December 2009 was the first T-SQL Tuesday invitation that went out by Adam. It is a monthly blog party on the second Tuesday of each month. Currently, Steve Jones (Blog | Twitter) organises the event and maintains a website with all previous posts which you can find here. Everyone is welcome to participate in this monthly blog post.

The Ask

This month's T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by James McGillivray (Blog | Twitter). James invites us to talk about your own views on vacations, escapes or other breaks.. Thanks to James for hosting this month's blog party!

Taking a break when you are stuck at home?

Taking a break at home normally involves something with the kids. My eldest is 13 and it’s not very cool to hang out with Dad, but we will sit and watch films together. We also do a bit of cooking from time to time. With my youngest, it will be something geeky. She has got a taste for all things sci-fi and so being able to share a love of Star Wars with her is awesome. She had a raspberry PI for Christmas and a Python for kids book. Learning all about computers really excites her and is fun to be able to be able to teach her stuff that I learnt at her age.

How do you switch off, and get away from being connected 24/7?

I have been learning to become less dependant on my phone. This has been a catalyst for being able to switch off and being far less connected. You can read some of that in this post albeit I have not updated it for a while. I am still keeping tabs on my activity and will be updating it soon.

What is the best vacation you have ever had?

A few years back we wanted to visit Italy and couldn’t decide on which city we wanted to visit. There were several places we wanted to see, so many places steeped in history, so many beautiful places. It’s a beautiful country, we spent our Honeymoon in Sardinia many years ago.

We just couldn’t decide on where we wanted to go, so in the end we went on a road trip and visited a few of them! I bought flights into Naples and out of Venice, hired a car in Naples and over ten days, we drove from Naples to Venice taking in Rome on the way!

Naples

From our base in Naples we visited Pompeii and then relaxed for a few days. We had planned to visit Sorrento, Herculaneum and even climb Mount Vesuvius, but the sun was unforgiving when we were there and our children were perhaps a little young to force multiple days of walking on them.

Rome

We spent a few days in Rome visiting some of the most incredible Roman monuments. The Colosseum was simply astounding.

We visited the Vatican and climbed to the very top. We climbed the Spanish steps at the Piazza di Spagna…

…and drunk from the Fontana della Barcaccia…drinking from a fountain seems a little weird in 2021 but back in 2015, yes we did!

Unfortunately the Fontana di Trevi was being repaired when we visited, we got to throw our coins in but couldn’t observe all it in all its awesomeness.

Venice

Venice was simply beautiful.

We spent a few days in Venice just relaxing, taking time out on the water taxis, eating local foods and just mingling with the locals…there is something magical about travelling a city on water.

My favourite place in Venice is the bridge of sighs. We went back a few years later and walked through it.

What vacation are you dreaming of taking once it is safe to do?

We had a load of fun doing the road trip and we’ll definitely do it again so we can explore countries a bit more. But I have been wanting to do similar a bit closer to home for a while. Wales is a beautiful country and I have not explored enough of it. We live just outside Cardiff, to the very south.

The plan would be to hire a car and travel west from Cardiff, firstly stopping off in Brecon to take a pony trek through the beacons and also finding the Bat Cave (yep, we are home to the Dark Knight himself).

We will then move on to exploring the Gower and the Pembrokshire Coast. From there, we will then travel up the west coast, stopping off at various coastal towns, watching out for Dolphins along the way.

Heading further north, we will stop off at the Snowdonian park to climb Snowdon before going trampolining in a disused slate cavern (I KNOW RIGHT!?!?!?). Last stop would be the island of Anglesey where we can fly back to Cardiff.

Can’t wait!