One of my most magical musical moments was at, of all places, Dalaman Airport in Turkey at around 11 pm on the night of Friday, 27 July 2012 – (clue – 2100 BST, UK). Our flight was about to be called, but we were suddenly aware of the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in an… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel
Post lockdown travel has to be built around the train
June, 2020. The Department for Transport (DfT) released its plan to “decarbonize” UK transport on March 26 this year. Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said that “public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities” and that “we will use our cars less.” Three days earlier, on… Continue reading →
How to walk the stripling Thames – using only public transport to get there
Extinction Rebellion launched its Hourglass newspaper in September 2019. The newspaper has just folded, a victim of the current pandemic. It published its last edition in May (2020). I contributed a series of simple travel articles, under the heading Whistle Stop Walks. I would take a train to a random station, and walk for anything… Continue reading →
France opens up the Causses and Cévennes – the land the sheep made
We watch Country File and Springwatch and many an informative documentary on landscape and rural life. So it shouldn’t be hard for us to open up to, and understand, a not so well-known area of France. One that is green and pure and wide and spacious, where the mood music is the ancient sound of… Continue reading →
Post lockdown cycling in New Forest medieval mosaic landscape
New Forest ponies – right to roam The bold vision of many of us who write on the subject is that travel will have to be greener after lockdown. But that is becoming more cloudy. It’s now clear it may be some time, possibly many months, before leisure passengers feel comfortable travelling by train… Continue reading →
The Singular Case of the Portsmouth Doctor – or Sherlock takes the train
May 1, 2020. 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 without leaving London. If you want to make one trip out of the capital, it has to be to… Continue reading →