Category: City Breaks
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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
September 2025 It feels slightly anachronistic to be showing my passport at a land border in Europe. With most countries now in the free travel Schengen Area, border formalities on the continent are largely a thing of the past. Still, here I am at the Croatian checkpoint standing in the hot mid-morning sun and…
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CROATIA’S DALMATIAN COAST
September 2025 It would be a massive understatement to say a lot has happened here since my previous visit. I’m in Croatia, and last time I was here it was 1990 and it was still part of Yugoslavia. As young, carefree backpackers, we were mostly ignorant of Yugoslavian politics and had no idea that…
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TAIWAN DIARY 2024 – TAIPEI
DAY ONE – 18th APRIL 2024 Taiwan is often in the news these days. Usually because of the ongoing friction with China, but recently also due to the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that hit the city of Hualien on 3rd April 2024. This was Taiwan’s strongest earthquake for twenty-five years and, when I first heard…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 112
Friday 8th March 2024 WARSASH TO HARDLEY After camping for five nights it felt luxurious to sleep in an actual bed and not have to walk across a field to have a shower. The guesthouse is lovely – nice and quiet, very clean, and not far from the trains, buses and city centre. …
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 109
Tuesday 5th March 2024 HAYLING FERRY TO PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR Today my luck runs out with the weather and I wake up to a showery morning. I wait for a break in the rain before walking back to the ferry and crossing back over to Portsmouth, arriving on the coast again at a bleak-looking Eastney…
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A SHORT TRIP TO KUWAIT
NOVEMBER 2023 Visiting Kuwait was mostly about ticking a new country off the list. I had a few days of annual leave to use before the end of the year and an air miles account that they were threatening to close due to lack of activity. Kuwait was the nearest destination outside of Europe…
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BRITISH COAST WALK – DAY 104
Wednesday 6th September 2023 CHICHESTER Today is something of a rest day while I do a bit of sight-seeing around Chichester. What I am most keen to see are the remains of Fishbourne Roman Palace. Chichester was known as Noviomagus Reginorum to the Romans and was an important staging post immediately following the invasion…
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WALKING TO SLOVAKIA
VIENNA AND BRATISLAVA – part 2 of 2 Day Four – 20th May 2023 This morning it is hot and sunny as I catch a train to Marchegg, a small Austrian town near the Slovakian border. The journey takes less than an hour across flat arable land and from the window I see a…
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HAMSTER HUNTING IN VIENNA
VIENNA AND BRATISLAVA – part 1 of 2 The wild hamsters of Vienna have become tiny wildlife celebrities in recent years, especially since featuring in David Attenborough’s Seven Worlds, One Planet series in 2019. The European Hamster (or Black-bellied Hamster) is a different species from the domestic hamsters kept as pets – these are…
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ARCTIC ENCOUNTERS – part 3 of 3
ARCTIC OCEAN 9th – 12th March 2023 I have to catch the boat early this morning, so I miss out on the buffet breakfast. It’s a shame as this hotel, as well as the usual buffet items, serves a selection of fish, and I’m enjoying the novelty of having toast with salmon, herring and…
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LOUD-QUIET-LOUD: TREASURE HUNTING IN BRIGHTON
I couldn’t be bothered to write this post. I’ve recently written about Brighton on my UK coast walk, and about treasure hunting (in Liverpool) even more recently. However, those posts have yielded a whopping total of ELEVEN(!) views between them, and you just can’t argue with that kind of box office. The people have…
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TREASURE HUNTING IN LIVERPOOL
The week between Christmas and New Year is a strange time. With a bit of forethought it can be a fun and productive period of eclectic activities, or it can be wasted in front of the TV eating festive junk food and drinking weird drinks that you wouldn’t allow into your house at any…
Vole Explosion 