Trips and Travelogues

27/05/2024

If you want to read some new travelogues on my website tripsandtravelogues.com, you'll have to write them yourselves, for I've finally completed all mine! So, it's over to you, folks! Among others who have written travelogues for me are the novelist Anne McLoughlin, the oboist Lindsay Armstrong, the musician Andrew Robinson, and my former work colleague Margaret Martin.

20/05/2024

The final chapter (13) of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' is now on my website tripsandtravelogues.com. During our final full day in Leningrad (St Petersburg) we visit Saint Isaac's Cathedral, and I take a look inside the elegant Smolny Cathedral. In the evening, we all go to a Caucasian restaurant in the city centre to have a farewell dinner.

20/05/2024

The final chapter (13) of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' is now on my website tripsandtravelogues.com. During our final full day in Leningrad (St Petersburg) we visit Saint Isaac's Cathedral, and I take a look inside the elegant Smolny Cathedral. In the evening, we all go to a Caucasian restaurant in the city centre to have a farewell dinner.

18/05/2024

How's this for an amazing landscape? This is a photo of Mount Kailash in Tibet. My thanks to Urai Róbert.

13/05/2024

I've just added two more chapters of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' on my website tripsandtravelogues.com. In Chapter 11 you can read about our visit to Petrodvorets, a spectacular palace adorned with many fine statues and fountains, then experiencing a 'White Night' on the banks of the River Neva. Chapter 12 deals with a visit to the Russian Museum, with its large collection of paintings, and a performance of Ukrainian dancing in the evening.

06/05/2024

More wonderful things to see in Leningrad (St Petersburg): in Chapters 9 and 10 of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' we visit the outstanding Hermitage museum and art gallery, then attend a performance of Tchaikovsky's opera 'The Queen of Spades' ('Три Kарты') in the Kirov Theatre. On the following day we visit the Pavlovsk Great Palace in Pushkin. These latest two chapters can now be found on my website tripsandtravelogues.com.

29/04/2024

The latest two chapters (7 and 8) of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' are now available on tripsandtravelogues.com. This time we're in the elegant city of Leningrad (St Petersburg), where we're brought to see some of the wonderful architecture, such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and the carefully reconstructed Catherine Palace and Cameron Gallery in nearby Pushkin. Absolutely stunning!

22/04/2024

The journey continues: we visit the Novodevichy convent in Moscow, I go to the wonderful Tretyakov Gallery on my own, and then we fly to the beautiful city of Leningrad (St Petersburg), where we will spend the following eight days. You'll find all this – and more – in 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' on my website tripsandtravelogues.com.

17/04/2024

Our journey in the USSR continues: we see more of Moscow and drive out to the old-world village of Kolomenskoye (where Peter the Great once lived), then visit the stunning monastic citadel of Zagorsk. Read Chapters 3 and 4 of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' on my website tripsandtravelogues!

08/04/2024

Travel back in time with me to 1979, when a friend and I travelled to the USSR for a twelve-day tour of the capital Moscow and the beautiful city of Leningrad (St Petersburg). At that time Leonid Brezhnev was holding SALT 2 talks with Jimmy Carter, and the country was busy preparing for the Olympic Games in 1980. It proved to be a fascinating tour and we had the freedom of finding our own way around the two wonderful cities. The first two chapters of 'Moscow and Leningrad 1979' are now on tripsandtravelogues.com.

11/03/2024

Now on tripsandtravelogues.com: the second and last chapter of 'A Week in Greece (2019)'. In this chapter you can read about our trips to the ancient monastic settlement of Mystras, the island of Spetses, the wonderful Greek theatre at Epidaurus, the famous ruins of Mycenae, and the beautiful town of Nafplio.

26/02/2024

Now on tripsandtravelogues.com: the second chapter of 'A Week in Andalucía (2017)'. In this final chapter we visit Granada, with its magnificent Alhambra palace, Seville, where there is another wonderful palace built in the Moorish style, and Ronda, with its famous bridge and fine surrounding scenery.

19/02/2024

Now on tripsandtravelogues.com, 'A Week in Andalucía' is an account of an organized tour around the south of Spain in March, 2017. Andalucía is a fascinating part of Spain because of its mixture of cultures: Neolithic, Roman, Moorish, Roma, Jewish and Christian. Our group was based in the small town of Antequera, just north of Málaga. The first chapter is about Antequera, Córdoba, El Chorro, and Málaga. Enjoy!

12/02/2024

The journey around the island of Sicily continues on tripsandtravelogues.com: in the second and final chapter of 'A Week in Sicily (2016)' I visit Mount Etna, Taormina, Syracuse and Noto. I found Sicily a fascinating island!

05/02/2024

Having taken a break over Christmas, the New Year, and dark, dreary January, it's time to think about travelling once again! On my tripsandtravelogues.com website you'll now find the first chapter of 'A Week in Sicily': an organized trip that I joined back in 2016. I was very interested to visit Sicily as it is such a fascinating island with an extraordinary mixture of different cultures. This first chapter describes our stay in Palermo and the drive down to Giardini Naxos, stopping en route to see the remains of a large Roman dwelling, the Villa Romana del Casale. It was the start of a really wonderful trip!

06/11/2023

The final chapter of 'A Week in Romania (2017)' is now available to read on my website tripsandtravelogues.com. In this final section of the tour, we made our way southwards from Brașov to a great mansion and monastery in Sinaia. From here we were driven to the capital, Bucharest, which turned out to be a fascinating city. Romania is probably one of the most interesting places that I have ever visited!

30/10/2023

Chapter 2 of 'A Week in Romania' is now available on tripsandtravelogues.com! Read about the beautiful old Saxon town of Brașov that we stayed in, and a trip to see Bran Castle nearby, in which we managed to avoid all mention of Dracula and concentrate on the fact that Queen Marie of Romania liked to use this castle as her country home.

23/10/2023

My latest travelogue is about a fascinating one-week tour around Romania, organized by The Travel Department (Ireland), which I went on back in October, 2017. We were brought to the wonderful old Saxon towns of Sighișoara, Sibiu, Brașov, and then to the capital, Bucharest. As I had long wanted to visit Romania, I was delighted by almost everything that I saw. You can read the first chapter of this travelogue now on tripsandtravelogues.com!

16/10/2023

The final two chapters of my 'America 2006' travelogue can now be found on tripsandtravelogues.com. In them we continue to drive along the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, travel through a little of West Virginia, then head to Pennsylvania, where we stay in a guest house owned by a Pennsylvanian Dutch couple. From here we journey through Maryland, stopping in a couple of elegant towns, then finally return to Virginia for the journey home.

09/10/2023

I’ve added two more chapters to my travelogue 'America 2006'! In Chapter 3 we continue our journey through Virginia, visit historic Williamsburg, and make our way to the Peaks of Otter Lodge near Roanoke. In Chapter 4, we explore the area around Roanoke and drive down to North Carolina, tackling some of the Appalachian Trail and enjoying the fine scenery from the Blue Ridge Mountains. See tripsandtravelogues.com.

09/10/2023

You'll now find the first two chapters of a new travelogue on my website, tripsandtravelogues.com: 'America 2006'. This one is about a trip that a friend and I made in the USA, visiting Washington D.C., then driving through Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. All in all, a fascinating trip!

10/01/2022

Cipanas, Java Let's start the new year with a new travelogue: 'Three Indonesian Islands: Java, Bali and Lombok'! As I had always been fascinated by this part of the world, I decided to take a five weeks' holiday travelling through three of Indonesia's best-known islands in June and July of 1990. Fasten your seat belts and join me for an exciting adventure and some interesting experiences in these exotic islands!

http://tripsandtravelogues.com/2022/01/10/three-indonesian-islands/

Cipanas, Java Let’s start the new year with a new travelogue: ‘Three Indonesian Islands: Java, Bali and Lombok’! As I had always been fascinated by this part of the world, I decid…

12/10/2021

Part 3 of 'The Middle Kingdom' is about my 1989 trip to China, when I travelled along the Silk Road into Xinjiang Province and mingled with the Uighur people. I then joined some students whom I had befriended in Chengdu. However, trouble was brewing...

http://tripsandtravelogues.com/2021/10/12/part-3-of-the-middle-kingdom/

Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China This latest and final section of ‘The Middle Kingdom’ deals with my 1989 trip through China, travelling along the Silk Road into Xinjiang Province, wher…

11/09/2021

The first two chapters in Part 2 of 'The Middle Kingdom', about my 1987 journey to Lhasa and a short stay in Chengdu have now been added to the Travelogues section of the website.

http://tripsandtravelogues.com/2021/09/11/part-2-of-the-middle-kingdom/

The first two chapters in Part 2 of ‘The Middle Kingdom’ – my trip through China in 1987 – have now been added to the website. You’ll find these two chapters, about my journey to …

25/07/2021

The oboist and cor anglais player Lindsay Armstrong has written a lively account of a tour around the islands of Scotland, entitled 'Diary of a visit to Scotland, May 2015.'

http://tripsandtravelogues.com/2021/07/25/the-islands-of-scotland/

View of Rum from the island of Muck I am delighted to welcome Lindsay Armstrong to our list of writers. Lindsay’s various jobs have included being an oboist and cor anglais player in the RTÉ …