travels 2003

uk
Kate and I travelled from Leicester to Oxfordshire, to the village where her mother grew up. In Oxford, we strolled through college grounds and city streets, admiring the peace and beauty.

"The free-thinking of one age is the common sense of the next"
Matthew Arnold from God and the Bible, 1875

belgium
We stopped off in the medieval town of Bruges, exploring its laneways and canals, and admiring its vibrant market square; and then briefly travelled through Brussels - centre of the European Union.


Bruges

netherlands

Amsterdam is a calming, colourful city, and here I discovered many endearing nooks which made me vow to return. We smoked a joint at Bulldogs and explored the canals by boat. I loved the historical museum - which tells the story of the uniquely-constructed city in a particularly engaging way. But if you have to choose one museum in Amsterdam, let it be the Anne Frank House, which is a museological masterpiece. Here you see Anne Frank's actual bedroom and the pictures of Hollywood pin-ups she pasted on the wall. There is an interactive room which asks you to challenge your own prejudices. Finally (and for me most powerfully) there is a room which is filled with hundreds of different publications of her diary - in a hundred or more different languages, whilst a documentary film of her father plays in the background, with him speaking of how proud she would have been to have known of her impact upon the world. My favourite calming nook in Amsterdam was the Begijnhof - an enclosed courtyard dating from the 14th century. It was built as a sanctuary for the Begijntjes - a Catholic sisterhood - and its quietness in the midst of a thriving city seemed other-worldly.

Some public art in the chilled-out city

switzerland
Travelling through Switzerland, we stayed in Lauterbrunnen with the mountains looming over us. We saw the bear pits at Bern which, as a fan of Gwynnedd Rae's children's books about Mary Plain [a bear from these pits and a pre-cursor to Paddington] was a place I had always wanted to go because I had spent a good deal of time imagining what it was like. However the reality of it disturbed me, it being sad to see these great animals caged. Lake Lucerne was like glass - crisp and Swiss and perfect.

The claustrophic landscape of Lauterbrunnen

italy

Venice, Florence and Rome


A market stall near St. Mark's Square


Or else I'll go to the Ponte Vecchio and throw myself in the Arno


Agrippa would have been pleased that we are still admiring the Forum

vatican city
The Sistine Chapel, the pigeons and the postbox


Swiss Guard a'guarding

france

Nice - Salade Nicoise, pebbles and shopping

For me the palm tree is an icon of the South of France
spain

Barcelona, Madrid & San Sebastian, tortillas, olives and the Mexican


The welcome weirdness of Gaudi's Casa Batllo


Madrid, alive with sights and sounds

Beach, church and creative industry harmonise in San Sebastian

travels 2002

spain & portugal
Having found myself with a week off work in the spring of 2002, I bought a ticket to Madrid and travelled from there to Salamanca and Lisbon. Salamanca had always been a must-see spot for me, being as it was where Miguel de Cervantes had studied, and where Miguel de Unamuno, the great Basque philosopher rose up against the fascists in 1936, saying "You will succeed, but not convince". Lisbon was warm and lush. I met some girls from Sydney whose parents were East Timorese, and a girl from Brazil. They all spoke Portuguese. I went with them to Sintra - A UNESCO world heritage site. Both countryside and architecture in Andalucia felt more exotic than anything I had experienced, yet the arid land and the gum trees near Porto almost made me believe I was in country New South Wales. Madrid, with its vibrant cultural beat, its vast open squares and lazy cafe culture, captured my heart.


Salamanca, 2002
"To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be."
[Miguel de Unamuno from The Tragic Sense of Life]


Lisbon, 2002
I thought I could smell Africa across the sea


Sintra, 2002
The long picturesque walk to the Sintra National Palace [more]

france
I was lucky enough to be reunited with Angela, my friend from choir days, in the summer of 2002. We drove to Paris for a long weekend with her friends Kevin and Michel, keeping ourselves amused with much debate and laughter. We stayed near the Rue d'Auteuil, and dined on petits pains au chocolat, moules frites, creme brulee and coffee. But then it wasn't all about food. We climbed the Eiffel Tower, read De Gaulle's speech [more] at the foot of the Champs Elysees, ambled through Montmartre, marvelled at Sacre Coeur and ingested the emotion at the Musee d'Orsay. We drove to the Palace of Versailles, and spent a misty day in its gardens and mazes. At Calais, on our return, we left our car in the queue to board the ferry and wandered down to the beach. We were gazing out to sea when someone noticed the front of the queue was moving. If you had been watching you wouldn't have been able to see us for sand.


Pondering Paris, Notre Dame


Montmartre is like a room full of mirrors


The gardens of the Palace of Versailles

travels 2001

sweden
In May 2001 I travelled to Sweden for my first European adventure. My good friends and flatmates Emily and Stephan had returned home to Stockholm and invited me to stay with them. The design and architecture, and the friendly rationality of the Swedish people, came as a breath of fresh air. We wandered the streets of the old town [Gamla Stan], saw the National Palace and the Vasa museum, ate ice cream cones at the Skansen open air museum, and discussed the horrific story of the Estonia ferry at the monument to its dead. Gothenburg, with its trams, parks and thriving port represented a yin-yang balance between relaxation and the Swedish commitment to hard work. On Marstrand, island of pleasure, I stayed in a hostel on the water that had all the qualities of a five-star hotel. Venturing north almost to the border of Norway, I trekked to Tanum, UNESCO world heritage site for its Bronze Age rock carvings and Vitlycke Museum.


We went to a wild graduation party in Stockholm's Gamla Stan


Disembarking from the ferry on Marstrand, I was met by a local playing a didgeridoo


The rock carvings at Tanum offer us a window onto Bronze Age life and beliefs

uk & ireland
In October 2001 I travelled through the UK and Ireland. I saw Stonehenge, Tintern Abbey, and ventured down a coal mine in South Wales. I journeyed through Wales to Caernarvon, and then across the Irish sea to explore Dublin, Killarney National Park, Blarney Castle, Galway, Connemara and Belfast. I returned to Anglesey before travelling through Liverpool and Chester to Edinburgh, Inverness, Loch Ness and Fort William. Ceilidh dancing in Inverness and swimming in Loch Ness were highlights of my Scottish foray. I returned to London via the Cheviot Hills and York. Travelling on a bus down the M1 I noticed a sign to Sadberge, the village where my great-grandmother lived. To this day, I have not been there.


Liverpool, 2001
Liverpool, dominated by the Mersey River, has an ambience that I love


The Highlands of Scotland, 2001
Somewhere near here is a fairy glen, where my imagination ran free


Culloden, 2001
The scene of horrific killing on 16 April 1746 [more]

denmark
My dear friend Rikke, with whom I shared a cosy flat in Orsett Terrace, Paddington, invited me and our friend Emma to spend New Year's Eve 2001 at her home near Århus, Denmark. What a party we had on 31 December: a three-course meal with oysters to start, vodka, cowboy hats, Danish flags, the Queen's speech and fireworks in the snow. Rikke and her father drove me around the beautiful countryside near their home, showing me Kalø castle, where Gustav Vasa [later king of Sweden] was kept prisoner in 1518, and Ebeltoft, a beautifully preserved old village of cottages and cobbled streets. I then travelled to Copenhagen where I saw the statue of the little mermaid, the Round Tower and the hippy commune Kristiana.


Århus, December 2001
Only my second sighting of snow, the first being at Mount Donna Buang as a child


Ebeltoft, December 2001
The Olde Worlde charm of Ebeltoft warmed the chilly stillness