Category: Travel

Great Stones, Part Three

Yesterday we walked along the Avon to Old Sarum and then down into Salisbury. The villages are pretty – lots of thatched cottages and spruced up houses with Range Rovers in the drive. A reader in Beverly Hills sent me an extract from Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton. (Yes, I expect you to be impressed that… Continue reading Great Stones, Part Three

Great Stones, Part Two

  This is Silbury Hill, not far from Avebury, that we passed on Monday after lunch.

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Great Stones

After lounging around in France for a few days I’m working off the pastis and wine by walking from Swindon to Salisbury. It’s about thirty-six miles so splits nicely into a three day hike.

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Daydream Believer

Do you look at the Property section and fantasise about buying a second home? Do you want to live the dream: lunch by the pool, sundowners on the terrace, open fires in winter (hellish hangovers in the morning)? Somewhere that has more sunshine than the UK, a beautiful location, an old building with original features.… Continue reading Daydream Believer

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Three in a Canoe

In museums I find that I’m often looking at the exhibits through a prism of my family history. There was no question of this today.

Animal Art

This morning’s entertainment was to go to a complex of limestone caves. There is an electric train which carried us a kilometre into the hillside.

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Un Déjeuner Sérieux

This week I’m a guest in an old farmhouse rented by friends. It’s in the Dordogne, favoured destination for the English since the 14th century when for a time it was under English rule. My first visit to this part of France. The country is more heavily wooded than the Gers and the contours much… Continue reading Un Déjeuner Sérieux

Train Trip

The summer solstice is a day early this Leap Year. In London today (that’s today Me Time, yesterday You Time) dawn broke with leaden skies dumping loads of rain on the city.

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News for Lycra Lovers

If you have not visited London for a while you will notice at least one change next time you come. Dedicated cycle lanes are being constructed to encourage people to cycle and to make them safer. They are painted blue. I wonder why, and if they may be re-painted in red by the new Mayor… Continue reading News for Lycra Lovers

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Travelling Back in Time

  The London tube map no longer has Heathrow Terminal 1. I was surprised as I’d forgotten that it closed last June. From 1968 – 1972 I used it at least six times a year, so remember it pretty well in its early days; it opened in 1968.