Robert Dee

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Robert Dee

Interviews with key figures in the travel industry, and stories about interesting and unusual places

14/02/2024

Much has been made amongst fellow Balkanophiles this week about this being the 40th anniversary of the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Today is especially significant for us Brits as it’s the anniversary of winning gold in the Ice Dance competition. I remember watching it on telly along with the whole nation pretty much. One year later I was in Sarajevo as a vodič (or tour guide) for Cosmos Tourama, my first job in tourism. On the coach journey from Mostar to Sarajevo I’d play ‘Bolero’ to the punters as we’d drive down the Neretva Gorge, and try to time it so that the dramatic ending where Torvill & Dean ‘throw themselves into the volcano’ coincided with the coach emerging from a tunnel into the most dramatic bit of the gorge. I managed it only twice in 2 years of trying. Anyway here’s some pre digital pics which I took of Sarajevo in 1985. The first is me with local guide Sanja, and 2 lovely customers from Anglesey on Mount Trebević, where the bobsleigh track is, although it’s abandoned today. The second is of the Olympic stadium and cauldron - note the 1980’s architecture and the Yugoslav cars, and the third is Baščaršija marketplace in the city centre, where I first got addicted to burek and ćevapčići. Think I’m overdue a return visit…
#1985

24/12/2023

Merry Christmas to all you beautiful followers.

This year’s Christmas pic comes from City of Culture 2023: Leeds, and shows the iconic lit up as a gingerbread house for Christmas thanks to support from .

Sadly Leeds was not a European Cultural Capital, thanks to the political and economic suicidal wishes of the majority of Brits in 2016, but nevertheless the city went ahead with their plans anyway in true Leeds style. 👊🏻

22/11/2023

Today is the 60th anniversary of Dr Who, so here’s a picture of me as my favourite Doctor, Patrick Troughton, the man who saved Dr Who from oblivion, and also a picture of a TARDIS seen landing in Scarborough on Sunday.

24/08/2023

According to
the Lake District is the Adventure
Capital of the UK. After a 1,000
feet climb in 25 degree heat, a
spot of lake swimming and a few
nights in the tent (note no caravan for us camping pros) I'd say I fit right in.

06/05/2023

Lèse-majesté today. Solidarity with the protesters in London.

19/04/2023

Springtime in Dublin, and the picnics are out, even on a school day.

06/02/2023

Some places don’t need filters.
The awesome Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland as the sun sets on a cold January day.

24/01/2023

Pigeon Island National Park, St Lucia viewed from a recumbent position on Reduit Beach. This strategic island was originally a stronghold of pirates and over the years became fortified by the Brits to safeguard St Lucia. The whole history of St Lucia is tied up in this small place.

22/01/2023

🪣📝✅
The Pitons are 2 volcanic plugs looming out of the Caribbean Sea in St Lucia. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the symbol of St Lucia and even appear on their national flag. I first became aware of the 38 years ago and have been dying to see them ever since. They delivered in spades.
🇱🇨

10/01/2023

So Leeds should have been European Capital of Culture this year, but Brexit put paid to yet another ambition. Leeds may get knocked down, but it gets up again. You’re never gonna keep it down. In that spirit, enjoy the scenes as we pi**ed the night away at ’The Awakening’ the opening ceremony of Year of Culture. Please come and visit Leeds and support the Year of Culture, especially if you voted for Brexit and denied it all the funding, investment and international marketing support it should have had. It’s the least you can do.

24/12/2022

Merry Christmas to all you beautiful Dee_tours followers.
This year’s Christmas pic comes from Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC. I chose it because for me it symbolises this year’s vibe - getting back out there, travelling and meeting people post-Covid. Long May it continue.🎅🏼🥳🎄

16/12/2022

Very sad to see the news from Berlin today about the explosion of the giant fish tank in the Radisson Hotel. I have stayed, worked and partied in that hotel many times both during and after my career at Radisson Hotels, and was selling it long before it opened in 2003. The fish tank was the greatest statement about the designer nature of the Radisson Blu properties in Europe and it really is shocking to see it on TV today in ruins. I hope they can rebuild it and make it structurally sound. To mark today’s events here is a pic from my last visit to the hotel in July 2018.

06/12/2022

US Road Trip 2022

photography

07/10/2022

Congratulations Liverpool - the official 2023 Eurovision venue. See you back here on 13th May.

19/08/2022

Journey to the centre of the Earth.
It’s true. The world really does revolve around Cleethorpes….. and for half a minute I got to live my dream, when I could truly say that the world revolves around me, and no one could argue with me about that.

13/08/2022

Ever since I went to Wigan Pier in the 70’s I’ve been a sucker for industrial heritage. So imagine my hyperness when I came across the Gayton Engine Pumping Station in the middle of rural Lincolnshire this week. State of the art when it was built in 1850, it was used to pump water from the fens and marshes into the Great Eau river, making the land useable as farmland. The original steam engine is still in place and works on open days which happen once a month - sadly not when I was there though. By the way Eau does not come from the French for water but from the old English Ea meaning a river. As this area was occupied by Danes for many centuries, and many place names reflect this, the origin probably comes from there, as can be seen in the German word Aa

$Another 🪣📝 item ✅Pontefract Liquorice Festival celebrates the town’s 900 year association with liquorice. It’s the home ...$

10/07/2022

Another 🪣📝 item ✅
Pontefract Liquorice Festival celebrates the town’s 900 year association with liquorice. It’s the home of liquorice in the UK and gives its name to the Pontefract Cake - not a cake but a flat round liquorice sweet. (Ask your granny). I’ve wanted to go to this festival for years, and even though Ponty is only 15 miles from me, I’ve never made it…until this year. It didn’t disappoint and the liquorice food and drink delivered. From our liquorice coffee and cupcakes at the to the liquorice gin, rum and liquorice and blueberry stout at Cartners bar, via the liquorice stout and cocktail at the Printers Draft, and the liquorice cheese at Pontefract Market, and much more besides, everything was liquorice heaven. If you haven’t yet been, then don’t wait as long as I did, and get there next year as it is a bonkers weekend packed with events organised by . Roll on the rhubarb festival in 2023.

08/07/2022

Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino, the Italian speaking bit of Switzerland, has been in the news today so I dug out the pics I took when I visited there in 2012. Phone cameras were really poxy then so I had some fun trying to choose a decent shot. Didn’t manage it so you’re going to have to put up with this one of the Market Square! In the corner you can see the main tower of Castelgrande, one of the 3 castles which, with the ramparts and defensive wall, comprise a UNESCO World Heritage Site and are the unique feature of the town. I didn’t have enough time to get to a single castle and this was as near as I got to one but I suppose that gives me a good reason to go back.

06/07/2022

Contemporary. Downing Street 19.45 on 6th July. I’m on a party bus and as we drove past the DJ played ‘Tell Me Lies’ by Fleetwood Mac and we all shouted Resign.

25/06/2022

Today is the 31st anniversary of Slovenia’s independence and to mark the day I shall be drinking Slovenian wine. Here’s where it came from - the magnificent Vipava Valley, one of the great wine regions of this beautiful country.

01/01/2022

Happy New Year! Not got off to a great start for me as I tested positive yesterday for Covid and the symptoms are kicking in big time today. I’m feeling like these lads here in The Toon who I inadvertently captured in this drive by shooting of the Tyne Bridge this week on my last tourist trip pre Covid. Anyway I quite like what accidentally happened here so this is my opener for 2022. Hope the year is filled with great stuff for you all and lots of travel for us .

25/12/2021

Merry Christmas to all my lovely Instagram followers.
This year’s Christmas picture shows Oxford Street, taken earlier this month, pre-Omicron. It is a place synonymous with shopping and retail, and symbolises for me the opening up of the economy and life returning to normal. Hopefully this latest variant proves to be a weak form of Covid and marks the beginning of the end of lockdowns and restrictions and we can all look forward to more travel in the future.

25/12/2021

Merry Christmas to all my Instagram followers.
This year’s Christmas picture shows Oxford Street, taken earlier this month, pre-Omicron. It is a place synonymous with shopping and retail, and symbolises for me the opening up of the economy and life returning to normal. Hopefully this latest variant proves to be a weak form of Covid and marks the beginning of the end of lockdowns and restrictions and we can all look forward to more travel in the future.

16/12/2021

Finally made it from Lands End to John O’Groats in a new record time of 651 days 2 hours and 7 minutes.

16/12/2021

The Italian Chapel on the small Orkney island of Lamb Holm is one of those places which raise the spirits. It was built by Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa in WW2. 550 Italians were brought here to build the Churchill barriers, commissioned by Winston Churchill when he was first Lord of the Admiralty in 1939 to block the entrance to the natural harbour of Scapa Flow, following the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by a German U boat with the loss of 834 lives. You can see the barrier, now a causeway connecting Lamb Holm with Mainland in the last picture. The chapel is made from 2 Nissan huts and was decorated by the prisoners themselves lead by Domenic Chiocchetti, an artist and fellow prisoner. Their desire for spirituality, humanity and art is a memory I’ll take with me from Orkney.

14/12/2021

It’s hard to get your head around the Standing Stones of Stenness. Not only are they thought to be the oldest stone henge in Britain, at 5,400 years old, they also happen to be massive. The tallest stones are around 6 metres high. Most photos, including mine, don’t convey their immense size, so the only way to portray this is to stand next to them to give an idea of scale. 10 seconds on the self timer was not enough though for me to make it, so enjoy my epic fail in photo number 2.

14/12/2021

Every significant birthday is a challenge for me. This year I reached another milestone but the transition into another decade was made easier by spending the day on Orkney, and specifically by visiting Skara Brae. If you want to feel young then visit somewhere which is more than 5,000 years old! Older than Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China, Skara Brae is Europe’s most complete Neolithic settlement and a window on life 5 millennia in the past.

11/12/2021

Couldn’t leave the stunning North Coast of Scotland without posting another beach pic.

08/12/2021

I’ve been South, East and West but this year I finally got to tick off the most Northerly point on the British mainland.

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