Travel Stories

Travelling light: it's in the bag

2 Jan 2023 | 2 min read | 1

As with most people who fancy themselves as a glamorously casual traveller -- able to pick up and run when a flight becomes available -- I would, for many years, pride myself on how economically I could pack a bag. Regular and brief trips to Los Angeles, Sydney or Melbourne made me skilled in the art of leaving things out. A weekend stopover to interview Arnold Schwarzenegger... > Read more

John Mayall: Fly Tomorrow (1968, see Essential Elsewhere)

Rome, Italy: The only sure thing in life

11 Dec 2022 | 1 min read

It's all in the odd juxtaposition really. Just off the Piazza Barberini in Rome with its magnificent Fountain of Triton by Bernini -- and only a short walk from the more famous Trevi Fountain -- is the Autocentri Balduini on Via Vittorio Veneto. In the window glistening Lamborghinis are displayed like shop mannequins in a clothing store. It is as if you could just happen on it when... > Read more

The Isle of Skye, Scotland: She carried the lad born to be king

2 Dec 2022 | 2 min read | 1

Bonnie Prince Charlie may be a romantic figure in Scottish history, but in truth he was a dandy, a fool and an inept military leader who couldn't corral – as if anyone could however – the rival clan leaders he lead down from Scotland to within a spit of London, only to turn back and then suffer an ignominious defeat at Culloden. However the woman who spirited him away on a boat... > Read more

The Skye Boat Song, by Emma

Malmesbury, England: Another idiot who flew

11 Nov 2022 | 3 min read

Because I once wrote an extensive travel-cum-history article about going in search of the 15th century Italian, Saint Joseph of Copertino, who flew, I'm always interested in stories about ancient aerialists. As I mentioned in that article The Idiot Boy Who Flew (he was a simpleton but apparently could take to the air), flying saints aren't that uncommon: medieval towns on the... > Read more

Eyemouth, Scotland: The cruel and indifferent sea

4 Nov 2022 | 2 min read | 1

When we arrived in coastal Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders, halfway between Lindisfarne/Holy Island in England and North Berwick, it was bitterly cold despite the clear sky and the waves being whipped up of the North Sea were crashing over the high seawall. We were taking a break before going north and stretched our legs along the salt-sprayed front where most of the places were closed on... > Read more

Montrose, Scotland: Golf, military secrets and kangaroos, mate

31 Oct 2022 | 2 min read

Roo's Leap was just a few minutes walk from our small hotel and seemed to be the only place open for dinner and so . . . So why not a place with a kangaroo on the logo, Aboriginal dot paintings on the walls, Australian flags, Outback photos and pavlova on the dessert menu? After all, this is surely what we were expecting at coastal Scotland just out from the interesting town of... > Read more

Lewes, England: History at hand

25 Oct 2022 | 3 min read

The medieval walled town of Lewes -- pronounced “Lewis” -- on England’s south east coast, has a fascinating history: battles were fought in and around the crumbling Norman castle which looks across rooftops and a broad landscape to chalk hills in the east, and over the narrow streets below which are crowded with traffic these days. Lewes Castle and Barbican House Museum... > Read more

Hong Kong: When the rain comes they run and hide their heads

15 Oct 2022 | 4 min read

When the serious rains come, that end-of-days Flood you may have heard about, the question won’t be, “Would I get on Noah’s Ark?”. It will be, “Quick, where is it?” In this, I can help. Noah’s Ark -- and you won’t believe this -- is in Hong Kong and if you’ve ever been to that exciting city you probably drove right over the top of it... > Read more

London, England: Pub preconceptions

9 Oct 2022 | 2 min read

The Moon and the Sixpence in Wardour St is much like many pubs in London these days. Whatever genuine historical features it might have had have been air-brushed in a sanitising make-over. The artists, poets and musicians whose portraits are framed on the walls may, or may not, have some connection with the area, and the pub menu is almost identical to that of most others. You have to look... > Read more

Kuching, Sarawak: A clowder of cats, and then some

3 Oct 2022 | 4 min read

I'd just stepped outside into the 36 degree heat and humidity when my phone rang. It was my wife back in New Zealand where the weather was wet and cold. We had a quick chat about various things and then she told me our new cat Otis, described by the SPCA as “a handsome gentleman with a sense of adventure” seemed to be missing me. And had taken to tearing up the furniture.... > Read more

Liverpool, England: Echoes of things passed

3 Sep 2022 | 2 min read

If you want a photo of just them, or just you with them, then get there early. Because by mid-morning there will be dozens of people with their phones out around the bronze statues of the Beatles at Pier Head in Liverpool. These impressive, larger-than-life and realistic figures of the Beatles in their early years – suits, boots, narrow ties and that hair – appear to be ambling... > Read more

Brighton, England: 10 top tips

3 Sep 2022 | 1 min read

The city of Brighton on England's south-east coast is less than an hour by train from central London. Which means on Fridays the station – just a few minutes walk from the centre's narrow streets and the even narrower Lanes – delivers sightseers, hen parties, stag-do guys, shoppers looking for bargains or eccentric goods in the numerous markets . . . The small town centre... > Read more

Mt Shasta, California: Feeling the space

23 Jul 2022 | 2 min read | 2

Just a guess, but the hygienically pretty town of Mount Shasta on the side of the snow-capped peak of the same name in northern California has more post-hippie residue -- herbal healers, clairvoyants and metaphysical mentors -- than anywhere else on the planet. And they are the normal ones. In Mount Shasta, population around 4000, there are those who believe a mysterious race called... > Read more

Visby, Gotland: And the wind begins to howl . . .

11 Jul 2022 | 3 min read

The street named Fish Entrails in Visby, the largest town on the island of Gotland in the Baltic, wasn't that hard to find. That's because inside its medieval walls the World Heritage town of Visby isn't that big. You could walk wall-to-wall across it in about 20 minutes, but that would be unwise because Visby is a fascinating place to poke around in with its narrow lanes, cobbled... > Read more

Northumbria, England: Lindisfarne and Holy Island

4 Jul 2022 | 4 min read | 2

The writer and co-founder of the Bloomsbury Group, Giles Lytton Strachey was undoubtedly a clever fellow but also an ungracious house guest. He didn't hold back his opinion of the imposing Lindisfarne Castle atop a rock in coastal Northumbria. Lindisfarne Castle was the retreat of Edward Hudson – who founded Country Life magazine – and after one look at the old ruined fort... > Read more

Shrewsbury, England: Charles Darwin and the evolution of an industry

27 Jun 2022 | 4 min read | 1

The birthplace of Charles Darwin was the large family home above the important and historic market town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire on the River Severn. And for strange personal reasons I always wanted to see it. When I went to university I had a very clear career in mind. I would be a marine biologist. Inspired by Jacques Cousteau's television series where he sailed around under... > Read more

Stockholm, Sweden: The silence the goddess craved

12 Jun 2022 | 3 min read

The famously reclusive goddess of the silver screen Greta Garbo finally got what she wanted. She is, as she wished, alone. But the melancholic Swedish solitary is surrounded by more than 100,000 others in eternal death at the vast, exceptionally beautiful and restful Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery) in suburban Stockholm. The cemetery – where Garbo's gravestone stands... > Read more

Falkirk, Scotland: The wheels of science and art

5 Jun 2022 | 3 min read | 1

It's not true that central Falkirk in Scotland is the deadest town I've ever seen. I've been to Pompeii. And for sure there was a CCC (close Covid contact) crowd laughing and drinking in the Wheatsheaf Inn up an alley off the main street. But step outside that joyful old pub, which was opened at the end of the 1790s, and there was nothing happening on the main street on a Saturday... > Read more

Callander, Scotland: The empty hotel

28 May 2022 | 4 min read

The Dreadnought Hotel in the town of Callander, halfway between Loch Lomond and Edinburgh, is very hard to miss. As you come in from the west it announces itself on the left as a massive baronial block, like some moored battleship dominating the street and the town beyond. As with most travellers who use Callander as little more than a start and end point for hikes in the Trossachs or to... > Read more

Colonia, Uruguay: So pretty, so mundane

23 May 2022 | 3 min read | 1

Excluding the journey by boat from Buenos Aires (an hour each way), the time difference with Argentina (another hour) and queuing for tickets then Custom’s clearance (yet another hour), our “day” in Uruguay came down to little more than six hours, some of which involved embarking and disembarking at both ends. However, I feel confident enough to offer an in-depth... > Read more