My heart bleeds once more for the innocent people facing such terror. Here’s the account of my visit to the truly wonderful country in May 2000. Whilst growing up, Lebanon was synonymous with the civil war which divided Beirut into East & West sections, Druze militia, Hezbollah and kidnappings. The Human League famously sang, “who […]
I am just back from 17-days in the east of Africa. It was a wonderful trip in very hospitable lands. It started with a flight change from Heathrow (ended up flying Rwandair to Lusaka via Kigali instead of via Nairobi with Kenya Airways), involved an aborted train journey (Lusaka to Livingstone 11-hours late, awful compartment/rabbit […]
During our 2018 visit to Argentina’s iconic capital we took the train to Tigre, a town situated on the River Plate delta. The journey from Retiro Station took around an hour each way. The best activity in Tigre is to take a boat the zips along the delta. Great for seeing the town and all […]
In 2001 I took the train from the shores of Lake Titicaca to the Andes Mountains. It is one of my most memorable journeys as we traversed wonderful landscapes.
Having just watched the brilliant Paris 2024 Olympic Games on TV, my mind wandered back to attending my first ever Games in the flesh. I had always wanted to go to the Olympic Games, so when my wife’s home city was awarded the 2004 Games, plans were hatched. Athens went into a building frenzy to […]
As we drove towards the Uzbekistan border from Mary in 2018 we spotted this train heading in the same direction. We could even have been in it but our guide had told us it may not run as trains are often subject to cancellation at short notice. As we were on a tight schedule we […]
Mention Japanese trains and most people will immediately think of high speed Shinkansen/bullet trains. However there is also a vast network of suburban trains, slower inter-city versions & street cars throughout the nation. We stayed at Narita Town before our flight home and I captured the airport train below framed by vivid cherry blossom this […]
Chocolate Production in Cuba “It takes ten large cocoa pods to make a lump of chocolate the size of a cannonball,” so said the nice lady with her English speaking interpreter, demonstrating the art of chocolate making at Arquimides Borges in the countryside just outside Baracoa in Eastern Cuba. This wasn’t Hollywood ‘Chocolat’ style sickly-sweet chocolate […]
Trinidad de Cuba There is another Trinidad in the Caribbean – the subject of my post is the Cuban city situated on the South East coast. Trinidad de Cuba is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a more colourful place is hard to find. Its cobbled streets are awash with bright American classic cars, its […]
Once more we attended the jazz, soul & blues festival at Glynde Place in Sussex, as usual held across the first weekend in July. It was good but lacked the wow moments of previous years provided by the likes of Chick Corea, Snarky Puppy or Mica Millar. The Music The organisers have followed a formula […]
