A love letter to culture and slow travel
I don’t know about you, but for me, travelling is a lot more than simply seeing the sights. Of course I want to visit the Louvre on a trip to Paris and yes, I’ve been to Lady Liberty in New York, but what really makes a trip is to meet people Continue Reading
Saint Patrick: associated with Ireland and shamrocks, and responsible for green coloured rivers, buildings and pints every year on the 17th of March. But what do we really know about the world’s most celebrated Saint and what’s left of his legacy in Ireland? Making a selection on which locations to visit on Continue Reading
I am standing on the walls of the Guzmán El Bueno Castle. Below me are the blue waters of the Mediterranean and in the distance I can spot the lights of Tangier, Morocco. I have arrived in Tarifa, Spain, at the southernmost point of the European continent, the place where Continue Reading
On a sunny Sunday morning, I leave the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv behind and head for the north of Israel, to a place that is home to a huge number of Bible Stories, to the homeland of Jesus Christ himself: Galilee. I was raised a Catholic and although I’m no longer religious, Continue Reading
It’s exactly two o’clock, when the floating bridge opens and lets the yachts pass from mainland Greece into the Ionian Sea. Every hour on the dot, a floating procession sails into the canal, on its way to Lefkas, the first island on the west coast of Greece. The island is Continue Reading
Who hasn’t heard of Odysseus? Or Ulysses, as he is also known by his Roman name. He’s the hero of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey”. According to that poem, Odysseus was the king of the island of Ithaca, a small Greek island in the Ionian Sea. After fighting in the Continue Reading
We arrive at the Hackerbruecke hostel at 11am. The reception is full of people and empty beer cans, a forerunner of what awaits us a few miles further on the Theresienwiese. Two days of Oktoberfest in Munich, that is the plan. Hopefully. We didn’t make any reservations for the beer tents Continue Reading
Never heard of Meganisi? Don’t worry; before I set off on a sailing trip around the Ionian islands, neither had I! Its name means “big island”, although it only has 3 villages, is about 20km² and has no more than 1000 inhabitants! Up to the 20th century the island was Continue Reading
The sound of the rattling metal balls and chains is disturbingly lugubrious as the penitents walk barefoot on the cobbled streets of Ronda. I am on a trip to southern Spain, attending one of its most vivid traditions and most popular celebrations: the Semana Santa in Andalucia. Tonight is the Continue Reading
I was in my second year of Spanish when I proudly declared: “Mi ciudad es muy famoso para su sopa de polla”. The face of my teacher went bright red as she, a little embarrassed, explained me that the Spanish word for chicken is “pollo”, “polla” apparently means “penis”…I spent Continue Reading