"There must be some kind of way outta hereSaid the joker to the thiefThere's too much confusionI can't get no relief"(All Along the Watchtower - Bob Dylan) In my blog post at the start of this year I tried to look ahead to the prospect of travel in Europe in 2021. Despite much media optimism …
Chess Train 2019
"The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender, and socio-economic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chessboard." (Simon Williams) In June 2020 I should have travelled on the special 10th running of …
City Visit – Edinburgh
"Auld Reekie" (Edinburgh's nickname) After my visit to Glasgow in September 2017, I followed up a couple of months later with a visit to Edinburgh. In the absence of any immediate prospect of European travel at the moment, my post this month recalls my visit there. I again apologise for the lack of photographs to …
City Visit – Glasgow
"Second city of the Empire" (Nineteenth century description of Glasgow.) In the continuing absence of any opportunity to undertake European travel at the moment, I continue my occasional series reporting on two-day visits I have made to explore particular cities. I've previously reported on seven such trips I made to non-UK cities in 2018 and …
1985 Communist Adventures – Part Two – Czechoslovakia
“We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.” (Milan Kundera - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting) This month's blog post continues the story of my 1985 holiday, from the point when I and my travelling companion were about to leave East Germany. Once again my memory is being aided …
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1985 Communist Adventures – Part One – East Germany
"Je stärker der Sozialismus, desto sicherer der Frieden." ("The stronger the socialism the more secure the peace" - East German propaganda slogan of the 1980s.) Shortly after I started this blog a year ago, I wrote a series of five posts describing the Interrail trip I made in 1983. As part of that trip, I …
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Planning for the future
"A bad plan is better than no plan at all" (attributed to many authors) Being the start of a new year, I originally thought that my January blog post would be a good opportunity to look forward at what plans I have for exploring Europe. However, when I sit down to write this, I am …
Europe unExplored – another update
"When the facts change, I change my mind." (Attributed, possibly incorrectly, to John Maynard Keynes.) When I started this blog in January of this year I had high hopes of having by now completed a number of trips to provide plenty of material for regular blog posts. When it became clear in March 2020 that …
City Visit – Leuven (and Brussels)
"Reassuringly expensive" (Advertising slogan used in the UK, 1982 - 2007, by Stella Artois (brewed in Leuven).) [This months post looks back on another city visit made last year. Little did I know that this trip would be the last foreign excursion that I would be able to make for over a year.] I had …
Chess Train 2018
"And a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook. “I declare it’s marked out just like a large chess-board!” …
Europe Explored 