-
Dubious Saints, Mutant Sheep & Castles In The Air: Cyprus Unfolds
The downpour is so intense that we don’t really want to leave the boat, but we have to get back to the apartment somehow so it’s heads down and off into the onslaught. “Goodbye”, shouts Captain Bayram as we head off, adding, “remember, tomorrow there is worse rain, very bad”. He isn’t kidding either. By the time we return next day from a rather fruitless trip on the dolmus out to Lapta village, the streets of Girne are rivers, floodwater several inches deep racing down every slope and finding every shortcut through town. It’s an outrageous deluge which lasts for hours and has locals laughing and scurrying for cover in…
-
Into The Northern Half Of Cyprus
So here we are in the northern half of this partitioned country, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a self-declared independent nation recognised as such only by Turkey itself. The region is accepted by the UN as not being under the control of the Cypriot Government; Cyprus is the only EU country with a section not governed by that organisation’s laws. Despite loosening of controls on the partition line, there are still restrictions in place, which is how we come to be in our current situation. You see, we had the very good idea that it would be interesting to travel through the two separate halves of Cyprus, to…
-
Crowded Beaches And An Antipope: Heading Further South
The morning temperature as we leave Tarragona seems to have ramped up, all is still and the Med is a flat calm mirror of the sky, sunlight sequins glinting across its surface. Tranquility now reigns where yesterday the fiesta brought verve, the only ones buzzing with activity now are the army of street cleaners removing the final evidence of revelry. It’s even hotter as we step off the train further south, and the trudge with backpacks up the steep hills and steps to our next accommodation is a bit of a tester – we are both pouring with sweat by the time we finally open the door to our new…
- Europe, France, History, Independent travel, Photography, Travel Blog, Walking, Wildlife, World food
Carcassonne And On: Wine, Music, Food, Wine…And More Wine
Walt Disney is said to have loved this place so much that he modelled the castle of Sleeping Beauty on it. Up there on on the hill it looks like everyone’s idea of a fairy tale setting, with its perfectly cylindrical turrets pointing upwards so precisely that it’s tempting to look out for Rapunzel letting down her hair or some other damsel in distress calling out for help in the hope that her knight in shining armour appears over the horizon. The damsels, though, are tourists, and so for that matter are those coming over the horizon. Carcassonne is a town of two halves however you look at it. The…
-
Myths And Legends At Tintagel
There is more than just a sense of history as we approach the remains of the castle: Tintagel is the home of legends and mysteries, of royalty, magic and intrigue. Its setting is utterly dramatic on the colossal Atlantic coastline where rocky cliffs tower above the relentless ocean, the ruins split in half where erosion has broken through the rocks to turn a former headland into an island. Consequently half of the ruins of this complicated structure remain on the Cornish mainland, the other half on the island joined to the land by a bridge of recent construction. The voices of history echo in the walls and outcrops, the wind…
You May Also Like
Nostalgia Trip #3: From Warwick To Rhayader
Borderline Ridiculous
Ramsgate Tunnels
-
To A Different World: Kairouan To Monastir
We have barely entered the chaotic louage station before someone spots us – two backpack laden travellers on the move – and points us in the direction of the correct ticket window for Monastir, and as soon as we have our tickets, a second person is there to show us to the right louage. This is just how Tunisia, and Kairouan, is: helpful people everywhere. For those unfamiliar with this kind of transport, the louage and its counterparts in other countries, there is no timetable, the driver simply waits until all seats are taken and, as soon as they are, he hits the road. With a stroke of luck the…
-
Vilnius: Knights, Russians…And Frank Zappa
Tuesday’s snow melts away quickly as a rise in the mercury brings heavy grey skies and occasional drizzle, the ice patches on the uneven pavements are once again just harmless puddles. A 17-mile train ride out of the capital brings us to Trakai, a lakeside town which in summer is a popular destination for city dwellers and tourists alike. Trakai is a town surrounded by water, built on both lakeside flatlands and grassy peninsulas, and is a ramshackle mix of timber clad houses and characterless rectangular apartment blocks, but its popularity is down not just to its watery location but also to its stunning castle structures. One of the castles…
-
Chalki: Less Wind, More Chill
Sophia and her friend, the Greek islands’ answer to Mrs Brown and Winnie McGoogan, are sitting on the steps chatting, as they usually are, as we say our goodbyes and head off to the ferry port. “Always take your key”, she had told us when we arrived, “because I never know what time I sleep”. Such is island life. After the Greece mainland, the large island of Crete, and the pleasant buzz of Karpathos, we are now looking for something more remote, more peaceful, so with our first glimpse of what lays before us as the ferry pulls into the tiny island of Chalki, the smallest inhabited island of the…
-
The Road To Alanya
Our second road trip from Side takes us further along the D400 coast road to what will most likely be our most easterly destination, the large town of Alanya. Alanya is just over 60 kilometres from Side, and like our previous Turquoise Coast drives along the D400, the views of the beautiful blue Mediterranean are fantastic. But the drive is noteworthy for another reason too; most of the second half of the journey takes us through an incredible run of gigantic resort hotels. These places are mind boggling, colossal hulking buildings shoulder to shoulder for mile upon mile; for us, the unacceptable face of mass tourism. Their appearance ranges from mock…
-
Dover Castle – The defender of England
As we wait for our travel date to arrive we continue our exploration of our local area. One major site which has been on our list for some time is Dover Castle, a familiar site majestically standing proud atop the white cliffs of Dover, keeping watch over the English Channel across to mainland Europe, keeping England safe through the ages, a myriad of underground tunnels holding secrets of days gone by. This site has been occupied in some form since Roman times, the Castle in its present form built by King Henry II and has played a key part in England’s defences throughout many wars, not least of course the…
