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Edinburgh is pretty, and it knows it. Like those infuriating teenagers bestowed with the best looks, Edinburgh preens and lies in the occasional sunshine smiling at everyone who cares to pass. It is truly a wonderful city, and a city for both the jaded traveller and the excited novice. It is a city of spires, crags, castles, museums, pubs and music. It is a city to wander or explore, a city that can be taken passively or aggressively, and a city that will inevitably enchant. Edinburgh, a City of SpiresIt is old. And its spiny monuments a testament to Victorian […]

Cities are curious places, particularly those big and famous enough for us all to believe that we know them, even before we have visited. We know them from photographs of their monuments and streets; from television programs and books, and from years of knowing that London, Paris, New York and Buenos Aires simply exist. We become almost intimate as we imagine being there, and when finally, the opportunity presents itself to visit, like deer in the headlights, we book the first property that lies in a recognisable location. And so, for London, we book near Hyde Park, Kensington or Piccadilly, […]

The Pyrenees and Andorra are curious places; high in the mountains, isolated for centuries, these borderlands are fascinating. Borderlands are edgy, interesting and unique places. They are locations where cultures collide, languages meld, economies spill into each other, and the political life is delicately balanced between Macro International Policy and local sensibilities and the practicalities of day-to-day life. I like borders; even today, in the European Union where most practical border inconveniences have been abolished or suspended, the cultural clash is always evident, and change is always evident. Outside the relatively stable EU, borderlands can be empty, dystopian places, strewn […]

Adak is a most interesting place The Aleutian Islands are distant, remote and fascinating; Adak, being the island farthest west that is actually inhabited, is of particular interest to map-gazers and travellers. Frequent Flyer miles are addictive, and often propel collectors to undergo some most curious journeys. “Aspirational Travel” is the phrase used within the Points Community to describe these behaviours, using points to fly in Business or First Class or journeying to some destinations that would otherwise be out of reach. In this spirit, a few years back, I used some Alaska Airlines miles to travel to Adak, the […]

Covid travel restrictions are difficult to follow. They change, they mutate, they annoy but they are an integral part of contemporary travel. To a great degree, we have become more fearful of bureaucracy than the virus itself. On my way home from France, I was wandering past the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, checking on its progress, when my phone pinged and an email arrived. This email came from the PCR testing laboratory, and would tell me if I was able to return to Canada or not. I opened the email with slightly more trepidation than I had anticipated, and breathed […]

Tourism is a very, very complex industry that has been designed to look simple. Hundreds of interlocking components come together to deliver the illusion of the simple life. The image of azure seas lapping against yellow sands patrolled by Beautiful People carelessly shaking their hair takes a great deal of work.   A simple vacation requires airline seats, transfer vehicles, hotels and restaurants, attractions and a great deal of food and drink. Add the vast army of people needed and a stupendous amount of capital, you have the tip of the iceberg. These Dark Days of Covidry have hit the tourism […]

The Trip to Saskatchewan Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s primary cities, are fun; not, perhaps as scintillating as Paris or Bangkok, but fine places to spend a day or two in search of distraction. The idea of spending a couple of nights in the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina and the Bessborough in Saskatoon, two rather elegant properties of the Old Railway Era, was enticing after so much lock-down. So, following guidelines assiduously, we drove 600 kilometres west (four traffic lights) to get away for a brief escape. I like museums. Probably a later-life compensation for ignoring my teachers at high school, […]

Thirteen kilometres east of Elbow lies a true Saskatchewan surprise: The Smooth 42 Craft Distillery. And it is well worth pulling over to visit. This the third day of the trip, and yes, I know that Day 2 is yet to be published, was a day for small-town-exploration. It was a day to look at some of the province’s more esoteric museums, from which there are many to choose. Sadly, the Covidry nature of the expedition meant that many were closed, some even thought to mention this on their website. One was particularly interesting. Located in a community called Morse, […]

A Prairie Road Trip Saskatchewan offers some terrific opportunities for a Road Trip. The Prairies are not my normal beat, I will admit, but in these Covidry Times, needs must. Canada’s patchwork regulations allow travel to and from a bewildering combination of Provinces without quarantine. At  the moment, Manitobans are only permitted to return from the four Western Provinces without two-weeks of self-isolation. Given the vast distances, and the almost Newtonian Law that every mile driven away from home must be retraced, Vancouver, while tempting, is a long way away. And let’s be honest. The Prairies while dramatic, are best […]

Turkmenistan is fascinating; from the quirky capital of Ashgabat to the ruins at Merv in the Karakum Desert, there is always something of interest to see, do or hear