This clean, green city on Sweden’s western shore (Goteborg in Swedish) is a comfortable introduction to Scandinavia. I took a short break. There are canals not so unlike Amsterdam’s, monster cinnamon buns, another of the world’s most exciting young orchestra conductors (the last was Dudamel), bags of Swedish style, and taxi drivers who… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel Blog
Beating the Transcaucasian Trail, an epic trek through distant lands
Jan, 2020 update. The Transcaucasian Trail project is working towards transforming the ancient connecting routes of traveller and shepherds in Georgia and Armenia into world-class hiking and biking trails. As of January 2020, several hundred kilometres of trail exist. There are spectacular treks through the regions of Svaneti, Racha, Mtianeti, Khevsureti, Tusheti, Lagodekhi National Park,… Continue reading →
Rotterdam’s revival – how direct London trains are boosting Netherlands’ second city
Feb 2020 news… Direct trains from the Netherlands to London will start running from April 30, 2020. Eurostar initiated a service from London to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in 2018. However passengers in the return direction have to change at Brussels and pass through passport control. The UK, French, Belgian and Dutch Governments have now agreed for checks… Continue reading →
Riding the Heart of Wales Line – one of Britain’s most scenic rail journeys
Riding the epic railway from Shrewsbury to Swansea The whole of the Heart of Wales Line should have been consigned to the history books, along with milk churns, Bernard Cribbins look-alike porters from the Railway Children, and racing pigeons in baskets waiting to be released. But it survived, to become one of Britain’s most… Continue reading →
The great (rail) way west – to Pembrokeshire
The holiday express: through trains are running from Paddington to Tenby and West Wales this summer (2019), continuing 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… Continue reading →
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 →