Dakar, Senegal is a most curious place Travelling in West Africa is complex because West Africa is complex. The last leg of my journey was a short hop from Guinea to Dakar. This 450-mile leg is as Dallas to Kansas or San Francisco to San Diego, yet we flew over four international boundaries. Had we been on the ground our language would have passed from French to Portuguese to French to English and finally back to French. It is a mosaic of Victorian Europeans’ ideals overlaying centuries of cultural evolution. So Dakar really came as no surprise. It is not […]

The  Shosholoza Meyl train is a gentle introduction to private trains! Private Railways Private railway travel evokes some rather splendid images; The Orient Express and The Golden Eagle are but two of the companies offering the most luxurious of travel on board their private railway carriages. And wonderful they are too, to which I can attest. However, the Premier Classe product, on their Shosholoza Meyl train, offered by South African Railways is in a different league altogether, and it is welcome and a most interesting experience. The operator is Shosholoza Meyl, a division of the Passenger Rail Agency of South […]

Tunis and Western Sahara lie at the opposite ends of the massive Sahara Desert, and visiting them both in one journey was a treat North Africa, it is safe to say, is not the tourist industry’s flavour of the month. It is a region whose visitor numbers have dropped dramatically in the past couple of years, in Tunisia and Egypt in reaction to a few dreadful incidents and in Morocco in the fear that terrorists will strike there as well. Tunis The fear is real. Although we all try to say that “They won’t make us change our lives”, the […]

I checked into The Hotel Madrid with a little apprehension, although curious as to exactly what €38 per night could possibly buy in Las Palmas, one of the great tourist destinations of Europe, I had booked this property based primarily on reviews and not parsimony. But nevertheless, $45 is not a lot of money to spend on a hotel room. Well, the answer was actually quite a lot. I was met by an apologetic ex-owner at the door, which also double as the entrance to a fine, period restaurant/bar. He advised that new owners had taken over twelve days before; […]

The Grimaldi Line: A wonderful  European Ferry Ferries or Cruises? “I love ships”, I have told myself, “but I don’t like cruises.” It is a subtle difference, and one that I have a hard time explaining. What I really mean, I suspect, is that I can’t stand the idea of spending a week or more on a floating version of Las Vegas being urged to have more and more “fun” and trying hard to avoid “locals”. This is a more upmarket version of a Butlin’s holiday camp, and the idea of enforced fun has never sat well with me. But […]

Bologna’s Trattoria di Via Serra is more than just a restaurant; it is an incredible experience! I qualify the statement simply because there are a couple of other extraordinary restaurants that I know and love, and would not want to make a definitive statement like “The Best” without causing opprobrium. Among them are Pheasant’s Tears in Sighnaghi, Georgia, and The Creel in St. Margret’s Hope, Orkney (now sadly closed) and the Roca Sao Joao dos Angolares in São Tomé. There are others, wonderful restaurants all of them, but few make it to my top table, and let me tell you […]

Visiting Bologna is a very special experience, and one that all travellers to Italy should consider. Touring Italy is a wonderful experience, but where to start? How do you separate the wheat from the chaff, the brands from the local and get to experience some part of the country that is not highlighted too boldly in the guidebooks. It is complicated, and here’s the thing. Italy is an almost brand-new country; it was unified only in 1861 from a motley collection of Dukedoms controlled by Hapsburgs, the French and other foreign powers, and as such only just beat Canada into […]

TransDniestria and Moldova: two unknown countries The Journey I have been most remiss; I have, as you will know, not written a piece for some time, and have been rightly chided by some regular readers for this absence. I have, however, been busy; my last piece was of two very fine restaurants in Bologna and Tbilisi, and there it all ended. But my wanderings have not. I spent time travelling through Moldova, the northeast corner of Romania and the southwest tip of Ukraine on a magnificent voyage of discovery, and leaving with a burning desire to return and explore in […]

The Trattoria di Via Serra in Bologna and Barbarestan in Tbilisi are two very fine restaurants indeed   I do realise that I have a very fortunate life, and my ability to wander and experience the world is one that I don’t take for granted. Bologna There is, for those who wonder, a downside. My friend Cameron once said that I was “hyper-stimulated”, and thus unable to settle to routines any more, and constantly craving excitement. New colours, unseen mountains, interesting people and simply the need to see what is around the next corner. This is, of course, true, and […]