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Amsterdam
After having been asked two or three times a day what will I do with myself when I give up work, I was somewhat surprised when I discovered that I had to be up at five o clock in the morning the very...
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When a Man is Tired of London.......
I haven't been to many capital cities - London, Paris and Amsterdam only. They are all pretty exciting; so what is it about London that sets it apart from the other two? Well it seems to me that...
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A Night (Almost) At The Museum
One of the many good things about not going to work is not having to get up in the dark for six months a year. As Christmas approaches this has been particularly pleasant. However there are occasions...
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A Night (Almost) at the Museum 2
For the second part of our visit our host was Jonathan Gregson, the Collections Manager, Flowering plants, Plants Division at the Natural History Museum. He is exactly how I would imagine a collections...
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Memorial to the Missing (1)
It is difficult to find appropriate words to report a trip to the battlefields of the Somme. Words like enjoyable, interesting, educational, are almost irreverent. Seeing the places where one million...
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Memorial to the Missing (2)
Before we set out on our World War One Battlefield tour I had very little idea of what to expect. I had Major and Mrs Holt's Pocket Battlefield guide to the Somme, but I just found it rather confusing....
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Memorial to the Missing (3)
There are some immense monuments to the missing of the Great War - I have already mentioned Thiepval on the Somme, which is extremely imposing. Belgium also has its own wonderful memorial at the Menin...
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Package Delights
I have been on two package holidays in my life. The first was to Calella in Spain just about thirty years ago; if that had been my first visit to Spain I would never have gone again. It was horrendous...
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Through the Round Window
The Lake District is a lovely place to have a holiday. There is a beautiful view round nearly every corner; the walks are clearly marked, and a lot of them are relatively easy to complete. When I saw...
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In the Footsteps of Lucy Honeychurch
After the excitement of visiting Southampton Art Gallery it really is quite difficult to imagine an experience that could put that in the shade. However, our trip to Florence comes close. I do love...
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In the footsteps of Dan Brown
Happy New Year everyone. Before I start on the travels of 2016 I must just finish telling you about Florence. So many authors have set their books in that city, and it is not at all surprising as it...
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A Little Trip to Gibraltar
The British overseas territory of Gibraltar is a place of extremes; it is extremely small, it's got an extremely big rock and it's inhabitants are both extremely pro British and extremely pro EU. The...
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A Guided Walk in New Zealand
I've often heard that the USA and Great Britain are divided by a common language, but I think the same is true for Great Britain and New Zealand. When we were planning our tour down under we really...
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A Tour of New Zealand Beaches
Our trip to New Zealand was a whole string of mini holidays put together - we had city breaks, country retreats, and every few days or so a visit to a stunning beach. So here are the beach...
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A Tourist's Guide to Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, a tiny little country tucked between Austria and Italy. There are lots of reasons to visit this picturesque place - and it starts at passport control at the...
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The Pomegranate City
As long ago as the fourteenth century the poet and statesman Ibn Zamrak said: "Quien no ha visto Granada, no ha visto nada" - He who has not seen Granada has seen nothing; and it is certainly true...
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A Visit to the Fair City of Limoges
It's nice to get away isn't it? Especially if the travel can be easy and convenient. We are lucky that we live on a bus route to Southampton airport, and that means it makes sense to travel somewhere...
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Wine Tasting in Rioja
We have some lovely Spanish friends who live in a village called Gorliz in the Basque country. We haven't visited them for a few years so we were really looking forward to seeing them this summer;...
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Farewell to the Gold Trainers
As Christopher had missed out on our trip to Spain I thought he really deserved a very special treat, so I booked up for us to spend a night in Newport on the Isle of Wight. We travelled into East...
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Culture and Heritage in the Black Country
Some people travel to Asia or Africa to look for inspiration for their ceramic art, but there is a place much closer that holds a magnificent collection of pottery, and that is Stoke on Trent. Now at...
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