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. […]
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. […]