Category April A-Z Challenge
A-Z April Challenge 2021
I will be taking up the challenge once more next month. 26 posts during April, one every day except Sundays, starting at A on 1st April and ending on Z on the 30th. This year’s theme will be places that I have been to or landmarks that I have seen on my travels. It will […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – Z is for Zurich
Well, the April marathon is drawing to a close and before I write about Switzerland’s largest city, let’s have a little recap of A-Y. Aleppo – Syria’s most historic city and an absolute jewel before the conflict Bilbao – Spain’s Basque capital and home to the Guggenheim Museum Cape Town – The beautiful South African […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – Y for Yerevan
I visited the delightful capital of Armenia in 2014. Armenia is not easy to get to from the UK. There are no direct flights and three of the four land borders are not accessible, a consequence of Armenia’s long running disputes with Azerbaijan & Turkey and our own less than cordial relationship with Iran. There […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – X for Aix en Provence
OK, I have cheated again. I have still never visited a city beginning with the letter X. Two years ago my cheat was EXeter and now I am going for the delightful French city. In fact Exeter and Aix could easily be twinned. Both historic Roman cities, both surrounded by beautiful countryside and both with […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – W for Warsaw
I have visited the Polish capital maybe half a dozen times. The first time was in 1992 when I arrived by overnight train from Leipzig and stayed in an extremely spartan youth hostel, the second in 2008 with three buddies for a weekend and latterly a few work related trips. The reconstructed Old Town, […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – V for Vientiane
I travelled to the capital of Laos with Hamish by overnight train from Bangkok in February 2010. As we crossed the border we traversed the First Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River. The train actually terminated at Thanaleng, whose station had only opened eleven months prior to our visit. After getting the entry visa […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – U for Urganch (I really mean Khiva), Uzbekistan
I went to Urganch in 2018 – well to Urganch train station anyway. At the time Urganch was the nearest train station to the wonderful Silk Road city of Khiva and it was there that we travelled on an overnight train from Samarkand, as well as leaving from there a few days later for another […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – T for Tbilisi
Tbilisi, Georgia I adore the Georgian capital having visited twice – arriving by train from Yerevan in 2015 and departing by train for Baku in 2019. How apt that I am writing about the wonderful city on St George’s Day. Here is an account of my 2019 visit. The very comfortable Art Rooms Hotel where […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – S for Samarkand
Samarkand, Uzbekistan There are certain names that conjure images of exotic travel to far flung magical destinations. Timbuktu, Port Said, Tangiers, Damascus, Jaipur, The Caspian Sea, Lake Titicaca, Saigon. Samarkand is one of those places and is a location that very much lives up to expectations. It is undoubtedly the Crown Jewels of Islamic architecture […]
A-Z April Challenge (Cities Visited) – R for Rio de Janeiro
I visited with Mrs Wilbur in November 2018 at the end of a trip taking in Buenos Aires, Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay and Iguazu Falls in addition. Here are a few pictorial highlights. Copacabana & Ipanema Beaches Are there any more famous beaches in the world? Bondai perhaps. They really are social focal points […]
