Top Stories
Tallinn – Pt 2 Toompea
Those of you who saw my previous post (Tallinn – First Impressions), may recall that the tour ended at the area around St Nicholas Church, and it’s from there that I’m now going to continue the tour by taking you onwards and upwards to the city’s birthplace – Toompea. Toompea is a plateau around 150 […]
The Road to Skye
There are two main roads that lead to Skye – the A830 to Mallaig (which involves catching the ferry to Armadale), and the A87 to the Skye Bridge, which is the route I’ll be covering here. The A87 begins at Invergarry near to Loch Oich in the Great Glen and continues for another 99 miles […]
The Fabulous Farnes
I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I absolutely adore islands. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they don’t necessarily have to include coconut palms swaying in a warm tropical breeze over a white sandy beach – which is probably just as well really because the Farne Islands are nothing like that. […]
Slapton Sands and Exercise Tiger
The sweeping arc of coastline between the mouth of the River Dart and Start Point is known as Start Bay, and includes a two-mile-long beach that extends from Blackpool Sands to Hallsands. The most easily accessible part of the beach is between Strete Gate and Torcross, where a road just manages to separate the freshwater […]
Featured posts
Stockholm’s Gamla Stan
I like Stockholm, I like it a lot: Maybe it’s the fresh northern air that does it, or maybe it’s because the Stockholm Archipelago brings the great outdoors right into the city centre. I don’t know who counted them, but there are supposed to be 24,000 islands within the archipelago, 14 of which are part […]
The Ninth Fort
Today was my last day in Lithuania, and thanks to a late flight home I was able to fulfil one last wish before leaving. The Ninth Fort might not be on everyone’s list of places to see, but one of my passions, if that’s the right word, is to try and understand what caused the […]
The Magical Sunsets of Zadar
There are any number of reasons to recommend Zadar for a holiday, but to sit and watch the sun go down has to be one of the best reasons of all. Alfred Hitchcock once described the sunsets here as “the most beautiful in the world”. That’s quite a statement to make, especially as there must […]
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – Berlin’s Memorial to Peace
In its attempt to atone for the horrors inflicted on the world by the Nazis, Berlin has gone out of its way to confront its past with monuments of what it sees as reconciliation. For example, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe covers an area in the centre of the city which was […]
Glen Etive
People who visit Glen Coe for the first time will invariably miss a small turning opposite the Kingshouse Hotel, and even if they knew it was there would probably give it a miss anyway, because this narrow single track road comes to a dead end after 14 miles, which means that you have to turn […]
Chepstow Castle – Is it Welsh or English?
I used to work with someone who came from Newport, and like most people from Wales, he was fervently patriotic. It was easier to have a bit of banter about somebody’s background in those days, and I often used to wind him up by saying that he was English, not Welsh. He could be fiery […]
Following in The Beatles Early Footsteps – Pt 1 Getting to Know their Roots
The Beatles have sold more records than anyone else, a staggering 600 million copies. Just think about it – that’s 600,000,000 records, and presumably they’ve included the ones I’ve bought in that figure as well. I was a huge fan of the Fab Four and still am, and when the opportunity arose, I didn’t hesitate […]
Lincoln Cathedral
At the time of William the Conqueror’s arrival in England, Lincoln was one of the largest towns in the country, and so it was understandable why he would want to subjugate it as quickly as possible. Within two years, Lincoln Castle was built on the same site as the old Roman fortress, but the success […]
Torre Abbey
Torre Abbey is without doubt the most important historical building in Torbay, and although its appearance has changed from what it was originally designed for, it should be on everyone’s list of places to see. Not only does a visit offer an insight into how Torquay developed from the time Torre Abbey was founded in […]