My family and I had decided to spend Christmas 2015 in Germany. My brother had spent some time on a family road trip there during the summer and had fallen in love with it. On their previous visit they had taken their car on the overnight ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, then driven down, covering a total…
Category Archives Travel
As my friends and family will happily confirm, I love my coffee. Some would even call me a coffee snob. I don't do instant, regardless of how many adverts of 'just like the real thing' I see or how many gold stripes are contained upon the jar design. So I've been on the search for the best coffee maker, but…
Monterey is a picturesque seaside town in mid-California. The peninsula juts out into the Pacific ocean just north of the infamous Big Sur, a dramatic stretch of wild, ragged coastline that runs around 80 miles from San Simeon in the south to Carmel in the South. In a recent 2015 BBC documentary, marine biologists stood in awe as blue whales…
Having spent the last two weeks leading a group cycling from San Francisco to Santa Monica, I’d had a couple of days of the bike and was ready for the next challenge. The route had been plotted to go north from Santa Monica Pier along the coast for nine miles then turn right and up into the mountains. Looking at…
I awoke to overcast skies over San Bruno. We had arranged taxis to take the group from San Bruno to Golden Gate Bridge but for some unknown reason the two cabs were only capable of taking thirteen passengers, not the required fourteen passengers. I quickly made the decision to go into town on the train, leaving the group with Danny…
I was on a round-the-world trip, my second long-haul trip since leaving university. My trip so far had taken me through Northern India and Nepal. I had seen the most incredible sights, eaten the most fantastic food and met the most amazing people. Flying into Perth from Chennai, I was alarmed at how different Australia was from India. It was so…
I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world for both work and pleasure. The majority of my travelling has been to developing nations where there is often a stark contrast from the level of infrastructure and development we are used to back home. This is part of the reason I have chosen these countries, I have wanted…
We had a fantastic time living and climbing in Rjukan in January/February 2013. Rjukan has become one of the most popular ice climbing destinations in Europe and for good reason. There are reliable, high-quality ice falls all within a few miles of the town centre and the temperature during January, February and into March rarely rises above freezing. There is…
An extract from my diary on our first London to Paris recce in May 2012: Our London to Paris Bike Ride had begun well and we’d made it to the ferry on time. As we arrived at Dover we decided to get some groceries from the supermarket with a view of avoiding the overpriced food on the ferry. We bought…