The holiday express: through trains run from Paddington to Tenby and West Wales on summer Saturdays, maintaining a link which began in the days of Queen Victoria. “If there be any one train more than another, the sight of which stirs the patriotic pride of an enthusiastic Great Westernite, it is the Tenby express leaving Paddington at… Continue reading
Green stay – the hotel that will produce more energy than it uses
As the world seeks ways to reduce its carbon footprint over the next crucial decades, travel will have to do its bit too. There are many areas where action is required, such as reducing the impact of flying, increasing recycling in hotels and making food and drink more sustainable. But as the tourism industry primes… Continue reading
Syria – when it was last at peace
Ten years ago, in March 2011, peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad’s government began in Syria. Before long a popular uprising turned into full-blown civil war, and unspeakable violence against civilians. In 2021 Syria is economically devastated and divided, its populations dispersed and desperate, but Assad remains firmly in control. I visited Syria in its last… Continue reading
Can rewilding call back the cuckoo?
The rewilding movement is burgeoning. But how much can be restored? Could species threatened by climate change soon be gone for good? Walk around my village in Southern England, and it’s a rare day when I don’t see the red kite gliding nonchalantly overhead on wide wings. I even see this familiar scavenger… Continue reading
City of the high thrills – take the train to Lincoln
Lincoln is one of England’s finest old cities, dominated by its glorious cathedral, sitting high on a hill. But it has many smaller-scale marvels too, as I discovered. My don’t-miss list includes one very steep street, an original tank, an all-cheese restaurant, and the room where Tom Hanks stayed when he starred in the Da Vinci code.
Continue readingThe bicentenary of John Keats death in Rome, 23rd February 2021
One of the most poignant places in Rome has nothing to do with imperial grandeur, or centuries of accumulated art and architecture. It’s where a doomed 25 year old lived his last six months. Standing in the room where John Keats died of TB in 1821 was intensely moving, while everyday life continued just outside… Continue reading
The Singular Case of the Portsmouth Doctor – or Sherlock takes the train
Feb 23rd, 2021. Another in my series of easy, post-lockdown trips to take in the UK. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set his Sherlock Holmes stories all over England, but you can follow the trail of both Doyle and Holmes, without leaving London. If you want to make one trip out of the capital, it has… Continue reading