Category Archives: Travel

The old nursery rhyme tells of the fair lady on the white horse, with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes making music wherever she goes. A bronze sculpture of her stands at the centre of Banbury village, near the new version of the famous Banbury Cross which the Puritans pulled down inContinue reading “She Will Have Music Wherever She Goes: Autumn in Europe Days 7 and 8”

The weather in Groningen being slightly better on my second full day there, we take the opportunity to climb the tower of the Martinikerk, a tower which was first built in the 1200s but has been rebuilt a number of times since then. Nevertheless, it is a formidable structure, notwithstanding the mechanised revolving door thatContinue reading “Belfries, Palaces and a Hiding Place: Autumn in Europe Days 5 and 6”

I first began to consider coming across to Europe late last year when good friends of mine moved to Holland. “Of course I’ll come and visit you over there,” I said, and made noises about September 2012 being the time to do it. It quickly began to seem to me a ridiculous thing to doContinue reading “Canals in the Rain: Autumn in Europe Days 3 and 4”

If, like me, you grew up with British culture from afar, through English novels, TV shows, films and a famous London-themed real estate board game, then coming to London for the first time will be full of odd little moments of recognition. You will find yourself walking down Oxford Street, only to notice Regent StreetContinue reading “Communion at Westminster: Autumn in Europe Day 2”

I have always wanted to come to England. When I was a child, for reasons that have escaped me in the years since, I was quite an Anglophile and dearly wished that I had been born in England or, if possible, Scotland. It wasn’t possible; neither option was. I had been born in Australia, andContinue reading “From Kensington to Kensington: Autumn in Europe Day 1”

Here is another excerpt from my Tasmanian travelogue. This chapter tells the story of my journey to the southern-most tip of road in Australia: Cockle Creek in the far south of the Huon Region. The modern world does not hold many more physical frontiers. Star Trek once famously decreed that space was the “final frontier”,Continue reading “South for the Winter Part Four: South”

Here is another excerpt from my Tasmanian travelogue, this one recounting my trip down to the infamous Port Arthur convict prison. There is light drizzle as I approach the Port Arthur Historical Site and, in the dimmer light in the forest which I am driving through, I turn on my headlights. When I arrive, however,Continue reading “South for the Winter Part 3: Port Arthur”

The following is an excerpt from the second chapter in my Tasmanian travelogue. I hope you enjoy it. The morning begins in fits and starts, much like the way the traffic exits the boats: sudden chugs of motion with elongated periods of stasis. Sleep, for one thing, is fitful at best. The beds are comfortableContinue reading “South for the Winter Part 2”

The following is the beginnings of a new project I am working on – a kind of travel journal I am keeping during my winter holiday in Tasmania, which I will write as I go then edit and collate when I am finished. Here is a preview of the first entry: 2nd July: The VoyageContinue reading “South for the Winter Part 1: The Voyage”