Transport
The mode of transport you use on long distance travelling can really enhance your experience. Train travel in particular has its own excitement – pulling out of a city feels so auspicious, as does arrival by train in a new place. Locally, using the services of local buses, trams and metros will help you get the feel of a place. And so you learn to live like a local, and if you’re lucky, you get to meet people too. Systems can be difficult but people are so often helpful – if it’s confusing, someone will help you out. On longer journeys, the use of public transport gives you the opportunity to study the terrain at leisure, you can watch the world pass by as you move through the different areas. Busy towns give way to open fields; mountains and lakes. Stations too are stimulating places. The manic activity of bus and rail stations is great to be part of. What at first seems chaos soon becomes clear. Just sit back and enjoy.
-
February Days In England
The stillness of a windless February day in England is a stillness unlike any other. Even the most stirring of places becomes a sensory underload, sound deadened by the absence of birdsong, colours diluted like too-thin water paints, no breeze to carry scents, no leaves to decorate the woodland. Gorse splashes its yellow blotches on to the clifftops but carries no fragrance, its delectable musk scent absent yet for another month or two. Gulls’ cries sound forlorn and lonely, the occasional rasp of a jackdaw only serves to accentuate the stillness. If a skylark takes flight, its song is truncated, a burst of panic more than a trill of joy.…
-
It Dropped Into My Inbox And….
Our 2017 trip to India incorporated an overnight sleeper train journey from Agra to Varanasi, and for reasons we can’t quite explain we have never unsubscribed from emails from the India railway company. Recently, one of their emails landed and I did one of those double takes. “Michaela, listen to this……” Now, anyone who knows us, knows that we don’t like to be organised by others, we like to travel completely independently and sort things for ourselves. It gives us freedom, and of course it’s hugely cheaper. It’s also true to say that neither of us are what you would call spiritual, and we’re certainly not religious. So why would…
- Europe, Independent travel, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Switzerland, Transport, Travel Blog, Walking
From St Moritz To Zermatt On The Glacier Express
The White Turf course and its attendant marquees stand silent now, dormant until the next race meeting in a week’s time, while the rest of the town blinks its eyes as the morning sun bounces off the white snow and dazzles those emerging from their slumbers. It’s sunglasses at dawn here. It’s not just the brightness which makes the eyes water in St Moritz, it’s the prices too – make no mistake, this is one seriously expensive town. A couple of nights here would buy a three-week trip to some parts of the world. It feels considerably colder this morning as we stride along the platform towards the waiting Glacier…
- Europe, History, Independent travel, Italy, Outdoor Activities, Photography, Switzerland, Transport, Travel Blog
From Style On The Streets To Horses On Ice: Milan, St Moritz & The Bernina Express
Elegant, stylish, classy: words we would all associate with Milan and accolades which this city effortlessly lives up to, with its lofty majestic buildings and wide open piazzas. By day these imposing, ornate structures tower over the streets in proud glory; at night, tastefully illuminated by well placed floodlighting, the grand buildings assume another yet more alluring pose in what is effectively an architectural catwalk. Emerging from the metro and out into the square at Duomo station is to soak in one of THE great cathedral views as the shaped facade of this magnificent building soars above the piazza like some giant ice sculpture. The famed Duomo is in good…
-
A Short One This Time….To The Snow
Yes, yes. We know we’ve only been back from Panama for a week but it’s time to be hitting the travel trail again, though only for a short one week break this time. What’s more, just to cap the fact that we’re really feeling the cold English weather after the heat and humidity of Jamaica and Panama, we’re heading off somewhere much colder, up into the Alps where there is plenty of snow. Anyone who is kind or mad enough to read and remember stuff we write in these posts might know that I absolutely love train travel. I was born and bred in a railway town (it’s a city…
- Central America, Independent travel, Outdoor Activities, Panama, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog
San Blas And The Guna Yala
Surely Daniel Defoe must have seen the San Blas islands before creating Robinson Crusoe. Surely every cartoonist who ever drew a joke picture of a man stranded on a desert island saw some of these places before putting pencil to paper. These islands of various sizes are almost amusing, so like the stereotypical image of a desert island that they are virtually a self parody. The San Blas islands and the neighbouring mainland territory is the preserve and the home of the Guna Yala, indigenous peoples of Central America with very distinctive looks and, for the women, equally distinctive clothing. After decades of poor treatment, modern times have seen the…
-
Borderline Ridiculous
I think it’s fair to say that my relationship with technology is an unsteady one. Machines and gadgets which work perfectly well in the hands of others quickly malfunction once I get involved. It’s not just technology either: for instance, hand driers in public toilets often don’t respond to my presence and I’ve sometimes had to ask some mystified stranger to put his hands under the sensor in order to get the damn thing to work. Touch screens, even at cashpoints, are unpredictable, iphones and ipads pass into mysterious phases which only Michaela can dispel, and when I was working, my ability to bring any machine or IT gadget to…
- Africa, Asia, Central America, England, Greece, Independent travel, India, Mexico, North America, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog, Turkey, World food
Questions About Travel
Travelling the way we do, in regular lengthy stretches, is not something everyone is fortunate enough, well enough or even inclined to do. Whatever your chosen style of travel, there are some questions which all of us who do so are asked on a regular basis. Like… What do you miss about home? Answer: very little. My stock answer is “proper English ale” which is true, I do find myself craving a good pint sometimes. Michaela meanwhile goes straight for the roast lamb and mint sauce. With both of our families being scattered around the country, we always make a round of visits on our return and probably don’t see…
- Belize, Central America, History, Independent travel, Mexico, Music, North America, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog, Wildlife
Nearing The End & Back Into Mexico – Or Are We?
Only on our last night on the island do we discover Caye Caulker’s best bar, where the superb soul/blues band named, perhaps predictably, Andrew & The Go Slows, are playing live. These guys are so good – Andrew, if that’s really his name – has a voice so soulful that he gives us goosebumps. Anything and everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama) to Tom Petty (Mary Jane’s Last Dance) to Bill Withers, Otis Redding and Kings Of Leon, given THE most soulful, bluesy treatment. This guy is GOOD. Time to go. As we pack up our backpacks once again and prepare to walk the short distance to the “water…
- Belize, Central America, Independent travel, Photography, Transport, Travel Blog, Wildlife, World food
Out Of Mexico And In To Belize
A dreadlocked guy lazes in a hammock and raises his hand as we alight from the ferry. “Welcome to paradise” he beams. The delicious smell of barbecued seafood drifts across the sandy track, a smiling girl clocks our backpacks and suggests we taste the local rum before we walk any further. We turn right, heading to where our next bed is. The breeze is deliciously warm, the sun incredibly hot. And everything is different, just a short journey has brought us to a different culture which feels so different that we could call it a different world, let alone a different culture. No longer is there any significant Spanish influence,…
