I love Georgia, and was pleased to get off the train and speed toward Tbilisi, its fascinating capital. We were only stopping there for an hour to meet friends, pick up their daughter and three of her friends and head off to Svaneti, a distant and remote part of the […]
It is now late on Saturday evening, August 28th, and we have just returned after spending three days in Svaneti, a remote and rather interesting region of Georgia. Needless to say, I had no access to an internet connection, and will get to posting the stories of the journey, and […]
Baku to Tbilisi on the overnight train is a great experience! It comprises of good solid East German stock of a mid 1960s vintage; good in its day, no doubt, even attractive in its Prussian way, but today it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. The train is […]
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is really rather strange; a very pleasant place, to be sure, but distinctly odd. It is a city of great contrast. Battered old Ladas jostling in traffic alongside shiny new BMWs; gorgeous, statuesque buildings stand next to blocks of rotting Soviet-era concrete; wide and perfectly […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]