The first 30 years of Turkey’s tourism story has been utterly dominated by air travel, and more recently cruise ships. It’s the rare intrepid visitor who drives all the way. But now the train is becoming a realistic travel option within Turkey, and even an alternative way to get there. While we continue to fret over… Continue reading
The Good News from Ghent
By Eurostar to Brussels, then onwards to Ghent. The city, emerging from the dazzle of near neighbour Bruges, was recently named one of the world’s top destinations. I found five more good reasons to visit this marvellous mediaeval gem. (Some details and prices are out of date in this piece I originally wrote for the… Continue reading →
Under Milk Wood – 70 years on
The BBC first broadcast Under Milk Wood, “‘A Play for Voices”, on the Third Programme on 25 January 1954 (two months after Thomas’s death). The play featured a distinguished, all-Welsh cast including Richard Burton. Dylan Thomas knew Under Milk Wood was good, even in its hurried, jumbled, unfinished form in which he gave several performances in 1953, with a cast,… Continue reading →
Four reasons not to tunnel under the Stonehenge world heritage site
I’ve followed the campaign to overturn the decision to drive a tunnel and dual carriageway through the World Heritage Site at Stonehenge for the past few years. This year and last I’ve taken a more active role, handing out leaflets outside the British Museum, and helping with Stonehenge Alliance’s online media campaign. Unlike more direct… Continue reading →
December 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor sets off on his great walk to Constantinople
Irongate Wharf, the exact spot where Patrick Leigh Fermor left England in the Stadthouder Willem, as he recounted in A Time of Gifts 91 years ago, on the ebbing afternoon of Friday, December 8th, 1933, a young man of 19, shrugging off a hangover, with a backpack borrowed from a friend, walked under the arch… Continue reading →
The Mastersingers’ Market – Nuremburg distils the Christmas spirit
The Nuremberg Christmas Market opened on December 1st 2023 and runs until 2pm on Christmas Eve. **** On a late afternoon of nipping chill, in a city square in the heart of Europe, I found the antidote to brash, glitzy, overblown, commercial Christmas. As the daylight ebbed, a cheerful glow pulsed up from the… Continue reading →