Brussels Tours

William Kitto was not traveling for his first time in Mexico when he got into an accident near San Vincente, Mexico while driving his friend’s pick-up.The conditions were terrible due to heavy thunder showers, which rapidly left him at the mercy of his friend’s Mexican insurance policy.

Bill and his friend were traveling at 30 MPH hour when they rounded a corner to find a Mexican military truck hurtling towards them partly on their side of the road. Unable to avoid the crash, the two vehicles impacted head-on left, sending personnel scattered down an embankment and Bill and his friend into the cliff wall on the opposite side.

In minutes, the Mexican police show up and one officer speeds an injured Bill away to a secure location unknown to him or his friend who is left dazed sitting by the road. There is no ‘innocent till proven guilty’-it’s really the opposite.

There’s a good reason why savvy travelers buy Mexico Insurance before leaving home.

Bill finds himself in a Mexican detention cell without any contact and without any knowledge of his fate, mostly because at this point he has no way of knowing whether his friend even carried Mexican Insurance. A long time later, guards return to bring him back to the accident scene where he is at least able to reunite with his friend and his friend’s Mexican automobile insurance policy. But there is much more to go through.

Bill passes a week exclusively in a Mexican hospital trying his hardest to be injured enough to stave off the inside of a Mexican jailhouse; he’s at the mercy of the local municipality, and befuddled technology that creates what adds up to paying off his way out of a Mexico jail almost impossible. There were many times when Bill was doubtful if he would get out of the hole he was in.

In the end, Bill does gain his tenuous freedom, but only after spending more than $28,000 of his own money, even though his friend’s bare bones insurance policy partially covered the damages.

Make sure you carry quality car Insurance for Mexico in your vehicle, make sure you have enough coverage limit, and put your insurance ID cards inside your WALLET.

It can save you hours, weeks, or even months of potential difficulty!

There are wealth of Harrogate attractions that one is able to enjoy whilst visiting this very beautiful city. If you’re lucky enough to be able to visit in the summer, you’ll find lots to do outdoors. Along with the many parks and gardens dotted around the town there is also “The Stray” a 200 acre are of grassland located in the heart of it.

You can admire the city’s architecture whilst you are shopping in Harrogate and then maybe rest your feet and enjoy Betty’s tearooms. From this building, you can have some great food and also take in the sight of the nearby Montpelier Gardens.

Harrogate is also home to the world famous Royal Baths, which attract many of the town’s locals and tourists alike. Although these are open every day of the week, the baths are no longer in use. However if you would like to sample some of the spa water from the Old Sulphur Well then you should also stop in at the Royal Pump Room.

As well as allowing you to taste the local spa water this building is also home to a museum. Here you can view displays of what life was like for people living in the town during the 19th Century and also shows the multitude of different treatments that were used in this spa town.

For those who would like to venture further away from the town then a visit to Plumpton Rocks should be high on their agendas. These are 30 acres of parkland, found between Harrogate and Wetherby. You can enjoy the various lake side walks or explore the wildlife in the local woods.

However, in order for the beauty of this place to be retained especially as it is not a Grade II Listed English Heritage site to gain entry one will need to pay a small fee. You also need to check that the park is open during your intended visit as the opening hours vary by season.

Children visiting Harrogate often enjoy a trip to Brimham Rocks. This can be found in Summerbridge, just a short drive from Harrogate. The rocks show the dramatic effect that the ice age and other periods have made on the rocks themselves. As you wander round you can view the weirdly shaped boulders, come with names like Dancing Bear or Turtle and Druids Desk.

Check out this list of Harrogate hotels for your next visit.

One of the great secrets of travel is to ‘do what the locals do’. Local people will almost always know the best things to do and the cheapest way to do them.

Take the case of the ‘tourist bus’. It can be very convenient to get to know a foreign city quickly, using the local open-top bus. It can make an excellent introduction to a city and allow you to narrow down the list of places that you want to explore in more detail. However, you don’t see many Londoners on the open-top buses in London, do you? Even if they are showing visitors around their beloved city. Why? Because there are much cheaper and more effective ways of getting around the city. A day pass on the London buses is cheap and you will see at least as much, if you plan it carefully. And you won’t have that annoying, patronizing commentary.

So how about traveling to places outside London? This can seem more complicated to arrange and many people seek the safety of an organized tour. But think about Oxford, for example. This beautiful historic university city is only an hour or so from London. There is an adequate train service. But what do the locals do? They take the bus. In fact, there are two bus companies operating on the London to Oxford route in competition, which means that the fares are cheap and the service is frequent. For less than twenty pounds, you can get a return ticket on one of these services to Oxford. Go when you want, explore Oxford at your own pace and return to London when you want. This is what a Londoner would do and I’d advise you as an informed visitor to London to do the same.

So where do you find these buses? There is a convenient bus stop situated at Marble Arch, on the Hyde Park side. Look out for a service named the ‘Oxford Tube’ (as you probably know, the ‘tube’ is the popular name for the subway system in London.) Just pay the driver as you get on the bus. Take my advice and go upstairs. You’ll enjoy interesting views of the western London suburbs and see how Londoners really live. And once you cross the outer London ring road, you’ll love the views of the green and rolling Oxfordshire countryside. Remember to bring your camera!

You’ll have a great day out, save money and be more like a real Londoner. What could be better?

You want to move to France. But you need to earn a living. What can you do? If you are happy living in a big city, this is usually not a problem. There are plenty of jobs available translating, teaching English and working for companies that require English speakers. For instance, the British Automobile Association has a large call-centre based in Lyon. Lyon also happens to be the home for English-speaking organisations such as Interpol and Euronews.  You’ll find similar jobs available in the other large cities, especially Paris. So you can almost definitely get a job in big cities, although you would normally expect to have a job of a lower status and salary than in your own country.

However, most of us looking to move to France don’t want to move to big cities. That’s the sort of lifestyle we are trying to escape. We want to live a gentler lifestyle in some secluded rural part of France. What are our job prospects there?

The first thing to say is that the reason that these parts of France are so quiet and rural is that there is very little industry or commerce. Such regions depend mainly on agriculture (and the famous EU subsidies.) The main reason that these areas are so quiet is because young French people don’t want to (or are not able to) live there because of a lack of employment opportunities.

So how can you find a job where the local young French population cannot? The main asset that you have that they don’t have is that you speak good English. As long as you also speak passable French, you may be able to get a job in the tourism industry, perhaps as a guide or as a waiter/waitress. Or you could get a job helping new English people who want to buy property in France. One possibility is to work for an estate agent, though this is a heavily regulated industry where you may be required to obtain qualifications. If you have building skills, many English-speaking people moving into the area (Dutch and German as well as British and Irish) will choose you over French speaking artisan. However the path chosen by many people is to run a gite - a self-catering cottage. This can be a good source of income and we’ll look more at this next time.

. Over the years, it has seen many varied settlers. In the time of the Anglo Saxons The Saxon chief (called Snot) gave the town its name at the time - Snottingham. Then in 867 AD Vikings from Denmark captured the town and they held onto the fortified town along with 4 other similar towns. 

The city is well known for lace production, the town’s fame was for religious scupltures, constructed from alabaster. At the time of the industrial revolution the town was once again a major textile producer. However, during the Second World War this came to an end as no longer were they able to compete with the textiles being produced in South Asia and the Far East. More recently, a lot of the buildings used for producing textiles have been restored and put to other uses. 

So what can you see and do when you stay in Nottingham?

1.     The Tales Of Robin Hood – Go back in time to the medieval forests that were reputedly used by Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The museum offers a range of films and live shows reconstructing the times of this folk hero and there is an adventure ride to take and you may prefer the experience of a medieval banquet.

2.    The Galleries Of Justice – On this historic site you can learn about 300 years of crime and punishment that occurred in the city. It is situated in the heart of Nottingham’s Lace Market which means you can find it in the city centre. The site was used as a prison and court until around 20 years ago. One of the highlights of the museum is a reconstruction of a Victorian courtroom which houses re-enactments of trials and witness the prisoner being sentenced and then taken down to the cells. If you have time, you should take a trip around the medieval caves below the courts.

3.    Wollaton Hall – Also has a natural history museum and is situated 3 miles west of the city of Nottingham. Tracing its roots back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I this was the brainchild of Robert Smythson and was completed back in 1588. You can tour the main house and the museum of Natural History you can gently wander around the surrounding 500 acres of parkland. You can also look around the Tudor kitchens.

Choose your Nottingham accommodation from this list.