Prague is one of Europe’s elite cities, renowned for its picture postcard views, fine old buildings, a magnificent medieval clock, abundant beer and tasty dumplings. This is a list of my favourite things. 1 Grand design Prague is listed as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities by UNESCO, the UN’s cultural agency. Emperor Charles… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel
Tolkien’s forgotten years in Leeds
Tolkien, the feature film, follows the author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, two of the greatest fantasy stories in the English language, from his schooldays in Birmingham, through his days as a student at Exeter College, Oxford, to the First World War, when he served as a soldier. The film was directed… Continue reading →
King Arthur? His last battle was probably quite near you
Ah, King Arthur. I’m sure he was here. Somewhere. I’m standing high above Southern England on the west end of the Marlborough Downs at dusk searching for a Dark Ages super hero. Everyday life continues far below me, in the evening deluge of traffic up and down the M4. In the distance a late… Continue reading →
Early risers walk easy on Turkey’s newest long distance path
Long-distance paths. Now aren’t they a particularly British thing? Not really. France has a most intricate spiders web of ways, the Chemins de Grandes Randonnées, threading throughout the countryside, marked with regular flashes of colour painted onto rocks, on buildings, posts, or anything that stays still. Spain draws the various converging arms of the St… Continue reading →
Shrewsbury, birthplace of Charles Darwin – handsome border outpost
February 2019. This is an update of a piece I wrote in 2010. Charles Darwin, Shrewsbury’s most famous son, was born in 1809 in this handsome border outpost within an almost circular loop of the River Severn. I took the train to one “England’s finest Tudor towns” and one of England’s most appealing day trip and… Continue reading →
In the house where Dylan Thomas set “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”
Dickens started our passion for Christmas books, but who has time for the whole of Pickwick Papers, unless you just read the snowy, seasonal scenes? A Christmas Carol is a possibility, but, weighed down with Victorian sentimentality, it lends itself to cinematic or theatrical adaptation rather then a comfy read in an armchair. I turn to the accessible… Continue reading →