FIRST JOURNEYS - EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 40 OF 40
HOME AGAIN - UK
A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY
A little introduction for anyone discovering this journey after the event…
This virtual gin tour was born during a time when travel was off the cards and many of us were exploring the world from home.
Rather than let my passport gather dust, I decided to take my gin collection on a virtual adventure — creating a route across Europe, discovering the stories behind the brands, the places they came from, the botanicals they use and the legends, folklore and history woven into each bottle.
What started as a way to keep travelling in spirit (no pun intended) quickly became a much bigger project than I ever imagined!
I’ve left Belgium behind, taken my little red car through the tunnel and I’m finally back in Blighty, enjoying a simple gin and tonic — no brands mentioned, no fancy garnish, just me and a big fat glass of whatever I felt like!
This has been an epic project and virtual tour! Thank you to everyone who followed along, showed some love and took the time to comment on my posts.
I hope you enjoyed the stories as much as I loved researching and writing them, creating cocktails to match, and trying to piece together a logical route around my gin collection!
And let’s not forget the snacks that had everyone drooling — me included! The only advantage of being the one behind the camera was that I got to eat them all!
So here are the stats from my original posts……
A little disclaimer before we get to the numbers — since moving this project onto my website, I’ve updated, fact-checked and polished some of the original posts (and removed one where time had changed the context around the story). So the word count and mileage may no longer be 100% accurate, but this was the original adventure, and history is history!
11,551 Virtual Miles
18,108 Actual Words
45 Much Loved Brands
13 European Countries, Principalities or Duchies
Eleventy billion hours of research, writing, creating, photographing, editing and posting!
47 Posts filled with stories, reviews, legends, myths and fables — did you have a favourite?
I clearly don’t like an easy life, but I’ve absolutely loved combining my passion for travel and gin to create something a little different. Especially during a year when so many of us didn’t get the chance to travel because of the pandemic, I hope you enjoyed exploring Europe with me from the comfort of home and discovered something new or interesting along the way.
“THE END OF AN EPIC JOURNEY”
PS… And because clearly 47 posts, 18,108 words and eleventy billion hours of research weren’t enough, I then went on to create my 80 Gins Around the World for World Gin Day 2021. It was bigger, longer and probably twice the work — proof that I clearly have no idea when to stop!
"Show me a bottle and I’ll tell you a story."
