MaxGlobetrotter - Page 18 of 21 - Unusual places, curious people and travel itself.

Qobustan. Fantastic Rock Painting in Azerbaijan

Qobustan, Azerbaijan and the ancient rock paintings. I could, of course, ask the same question as yesterday, but I won’t. It was a distinctly odd day. Waking up in Quba in the north of the country, I was still full of the peculiarities and wonders of Xinaliq; the hotel I was in could not have been more of a contrast, however. It was an “Olympic Complex”, incorporating a massive sports training centre as well as a hotel; I idly wondered if it was a remnant of the 1908 games in Moscow when Azerbaijan was still a part of the Soviet […]

Xinaliq; A jewel in northern Azerbaijan

What do you immediately think of when I say Xinaliq? Or Azerbaijan? Qinaliq, Azerbaijan Not much, probably, but that is a shame. Xinaliq is actually a most remarkable town in a most remarkable country. I am back in Azerbaijan, having been here in November at the end of a bit of an ordeal on the Black Sea; the sailing from the Ukraine actually took four days longer than planned, and as a result, my planned stay in Baku was significantly curtailed. So taken was I on that first whirl-wind tour that I determined to come back this summer; with the […]

Andorra a wonderfully strange country high in the Pyrenees

Andorra is truly a really rather silly place. It lies perched high in the Pyrenees, accessible from either France or Spain by a single road that runs through the country, and for much of the year, one needs snow chains to do so. I know of no other sovereign state (although Bhutan perhaps qualifies) that is so remote from its neighbours. It is not a member of the European Union, although it is a full member of the United Nations; it has 60,000 inhabitants of whom roughly 10,000 are “Andorrans”, the others being guest workers and rich ex-patriate hide-aways. […]

The Fantastic Pyrenees and Andorra

High in the Pyrenees lies the Principality of Andorra. Today we visit. The Languedoc and the fabulous Pyrenees have a vast and exciting water system. I am not, I hasten to add, talking about domestic plumbing here, although that does have its eccentricities here in rural France, but the system of rivers and lakes that carry away the vast quantities of water generated by both normal rain and the annual run-off from the mountains. Not thirty kilometres from here is a pass that represents the east/west divide; rivers and tributaries from one side eventually find their way to the Atlantic, […]

Resorts in the Rain

There is something a bit odd about rain and the beach. Not that there is any sand at Collioure, a gorgeous little town on the Mediterranean coast just to the south of Perpignan, like most of France’s coastline, the water laps up on to stones. Lovely stones, but stones, nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong, this is no complaint; it is a gorgeous town, replete with all of the accoutrements of beach resorts that combine to give one a warm sense of well-being; among other more guttural feelings that is. It is a charming place, other than the parking, which I […]

Toques et Clochers

Well, it is pretty well impossible to describe the local wine festival, but I shall give it a try. Firstly, some history. The Sieur d’Arques winery in Limoux has been making a lot of wine for a very, very long time; sparkling wine has been around the region since 1531. Much of it wonderful, some exceptional; they also make a rather palatable blend sold by Gallo in the US and Canada called Red Bicyclette, although this has been subject to a recent scandal regarding a Grape Deception. Enough of the sour grapes, though, the winery is a superb corporate citizen, […]

The Languedoc: Of Cathars and Wine Festivals

For reasons that I am still unable to quite explain, I bought an old butcher’s shop in Esperaza, a small market-town in the upper Aude Valley a couple of years ago, and try to get back here as often as possible; it is not exactly simple, living as I do in Winnipeg, but I do manage to spend a few weeks each year here. It is a fascinating place; stunningly beautiful, earthy, accommodating and generally absorbing. I am not quite sure why, and to be honest, I had never heard of the place until my father suggested that I seek […]

Cod and Chowder

It is nigh on impossible to have a boring time in St. John’s. There is every type of entertainment that one could envision or need, and plenty of folks to meet. Except on the night that Canada won gold. The streets of the city were bare; pubs populated only by diehards; restaurants lay without custom. Creepy, almost science fiction; the day after Armageddon. In the interests of comparison and entertainment, however, I was out wandering these bare streets; to tell the truth, I am not terribly interested in hockey, and only the last ten minutes or so of a game […]

A Weekend in Newfoundland: A New Found Land

This really is a brilliant place. A rock, stuck out in the inclement North Atlantic is hardly a perfect canvas upon which to create a society, but in the traditions of the region, Canada’s most easterly province is a winner. The North Atlantic is home to Celts and Vikings, lost fisherfolk and shipwrecked flotsam from around the world, and they all add up to make the North Atlantic absolutely fascinating. They are lands that defy development, but they exist and certainly in terms of their societies, they thrive. It is not a mystery either why they have become such attractive […]

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