An Introduction

Hello to you. My name is Sean Chester and if you have come to my blog, I assume that you love travelling. I also have a love of travel and like nothing more than planning my next trip away.

As humans there is something about travelling which is bewitching. The promise of a new view, a new taste and a different way of seeing the world is too much for an inquisitive mind to resist.

As a Chester I have a genetic predisposition to travel. Many Chesters in the past have seen the world, quite often on state-sponsored outings with guns and equipment. During this time the Chester DNA has adapted with by imbibing all subsequent Chesters with a sense of curiosity, an ability to travel light and the capability of sleeping anywhere.

I lived in Europe as a child and travelled extensively around Germany, Denmark, Benelux and the Alpine regions as well as Italy. These road trips gave me a lifelong yearning to pack up the car and hit the road - to this day I am not a great flier but will do so if the experience is worth the vertigo. My wife Emma would rather fly, her love of travelling extends to sampling the finer ways of travelling that hark back to a golden age. My children Charlotte and Max will quietly put up with anything that our travels throw in their way, from breakdowns in the alps to cancelled flights. They enjoy weekends away, hot sunshine and water.

Many of our journeys feature a fifth member, a 2002 Skoda Octavia vRS named the Octopus. Although I would like to think of this as a reliable roadrunner, it is not. She cries every fluid I pour into her and whilst stopping short of complete failure, has given me the shakes on nearly every trip. Now on 180,000 miles, it is my intention to get the Octopus to 240,000 miles so I can say I have driven it to the moon.

Well, that's enough for now. I am off to plan my next trip and dig out some ones to write about. maybe I'll bump into you at the Caffe Florian one day.

Sean