Read this blog: The one where we walk in the footsteps of Duran Duran Saturday 7th March 2026 Our chauffeur/guide, Dilanka, had recommended that we get to the fortified citadel at Sigiriya for sunrise as this would allow us to climb the rock in the comparative cool of the early morning and avoid the crowds. We dutifully set an alarm for 04:45 so that we could leave the hotel at 05:30 and set off in darkness. The day gradually dawned and by the time we reached this historic site the sun was rising. We had not realised that the fortifications would include a moat. Once past the moat, the citadel is approached through the Royal Gardens which comprise a water, boulder and terrace gardens. Perhaps to lull visitors into a false sense of ease, the rock formations over the first steps conceal the extent of the challenge awaiting. The rock is 1,144 feet [349 metres] above sea level and about 600 feet [180 metres] above the surrounding plain. King Kashyapa [CE 477–495], though not the legitimate heir, seized the throne from his father and chose this for the site of his new capital. Many sources state there are 1,200 steps to the […]
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Read this blog: The one where we sort out Hong Kong travel cards Monday 24th February 2025 After a lie-in and with no breakfast provided at the hotel we went out planning to have a coffee and some sustenance first. A building on Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục Square rises like the stern of a ship with balcony seating on several levels for cafés and restaurants. We went to Highland Coffee overlooking the Trúc Bạch Lake to sit outside and enjoy the view, even if it was a damp, grey morning. We had not visited any markets in Hanoi this trip and decided to rectify this. Originally built by the French in 1889, Đồng Xuân Market has been renovated several times since, most recently in 1994 after a fire almost destroyed the building. Đồng Xuân Market is now the largest covered market in Hanoi selling everything from clothes and household goods to food. As it is wholesale, not retail, we were not really the target audience. Robert wanted to return to the Pasteur Street Craft Beer bar [see Selfie of the day] before we left Hanoi and had planned a craft beer walking tour for himself. The tour also took us […]
Read this blog: The one where we get more than we bargained for Tuesday 19th March 2024 At the start of the day we paid 120,000 dong [VND] each and bought two tickets to Hội An old city with tear off strips which would allow us entry to five sites of our choice from about twenty listed on the leaflet we were given. This included museums, communal houses, assembly halls and old houses. We prioritised three places to visit, leaving two to be confirmed/chosen later. The closest site to us was the Quan Âm Pagoda [Chùa Quan Âm] which is known for its large columns and is perhaps the oldest Buddhist temple in Hội An having been built in 1653 by residents of the Minh Huong villages. Although the ticket had perforations, a woman sat at the entrance armed with scissors to cut off one of the five entry slips. The central courtyard was an oasis of peace and quiet. From here we walked to our second site: the Phúc Kiến Assembly Hall, [Hội quán Phước Kiến] also referred to as the Fujian Assembly Hall and the Fukian Assembly Hall. Again, the attendant took a pair of scissors to our ticket. It […]
![RWC #10: The end of the Pool stage [in more ways than one]](https://i0.wp.com/iciel.uk/imagesTH/23-07-RWC/Post10/23-07-10-feature.jpeg?resize=570%2C350&ssl=1)
Read this blog: The one where we really wanted to take a dip Friday 6th to Sunday 8th October 2023 The following day we drove to Reims, parked up in the aire by the football pitch and strolled into the city where we found Pub L’escale which would be showing the France vs Italy game. Locals were keen to befriend us as we had taken poll position at a table with a good view of the TV. Rugby fans are [almost] always good-natured but Matilda was unimpressed when a Frenchman challenged her for applauding some good play by the Italians. Where was his sense of fair play? It was clear quite early on in the match that France would win, and one try would not have had much of an impact. We had originally planned to leave earlier in the evening but after a certain amount of beer the munchies kicked in and Robert ordered a little something extra at the bar. Matilda suggested we create a “Snack of the day” category in which case this would be the first entry. It may not become a regular feature. The following day we drove to Roubaix, near Lille, and sought advice […]
Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th May 2022 A friend has recently visited her daughter who relocated to Seattle before Christmas so we were able to ask for their recommendations of places to go. Ruth Jewell suggested that the Space Needle was a good place to start as it would help us to orientate ourselves. We were pleased to be able to see the Space Needle from our hotel room and set off through the streets of Seattle towards this iconic building. Seattle Tower, formerly Northern Life Tower, was completed in 1928 and was the first Art Deco skyscraper to be built in the city. At 27 storeys, it is now dwarfed by many of its neighbours, but it is nevertheless a striking building with a distinctive ziggurat design, based on the stepped rectangular towers of ancient Mesopotamia. Seattle Art Museum, commonly known as SAM, is spread over three sites including the one downtown which has a sculpture outside called the Hammering Man. He hammers silently four times a minute between the hours of 07:00 and 22:00 but rests his arm overnight. From here we walked down the Harbor Steps and realised that Seattle is has far more hills than the other […]
Tuesday 15th to Thursday 17th March 2022 The Jack of the Locks sculpture [see feature image] in Sowerby Bridge depicts Richard Tiffany, the town’s lock keeper in the canal’s final days of carrying commercial goods. A sign by the wharf says that Richard Tiffany was a well-known local character and his great grandson modelled for the figure of the boy beside him. The stove has been playing up again and proving very difficult to relight after it goes out. We have not been able to pinpoint exactly what causes this but it fails with unpredictable regularity. Attempts at relighting it invariably result in the cabin filling with diesel fumes and sometimes also smoke so that windows and doors have to be left open to clear the air and the atmosphere becomes even fresher. Henry has heroically been doing overnight duty, trying to keep it alight through the small hours with varying degrees of success. The Wainhouse Tower in Halifax is visible from various points in Sowerby Bridge. It was originally built by John Edward Wainhouse as a chimney for his dye works. The 275ft tower was to be connected to the factory 350 metres downhill by an underground tunnel in […]
Sunday 12th January 2020 The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is predominantly an art gallery and includes the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Hermitage itself and the Hermitage Theatre, as well as the General Staff Wing. Something less like a small, remote dwelling for someone living in religious solitude is hard to imagine. Regular readers will know that our guide had advised us to buy tickets for the Hermitage complex from the General Staff Wing to allow us to jump the queue. However, when we tried to do this, we were told that you could not buy tickets for the whole complex from the General Staff Wing at this time of year. We are sure this would be worth it in the busy summer months however. Fortunately there were only a couple of people in front of us in the queue and we were able to go straight in, once we had deposited our coats in the cloakroom. The entrance is magnificent and sets the tone for what follows. The first exhibition rooms we entered contained a temporary display about Prince Grigory Potemkin. There are paintings, books and documents from Potemkin’s collection, but the most […]
Saturday, 23rd November 2019 This morning at breakfast we again fell foul of a miscommunication, which we had also experienced in India, when Robert’s request for two fried eggs was interpreted as two portions of two fried eggs each. So, fortified by a surfeit of eggs, we set off on a walk taking in the major sights which we had identified the evening before. This took us along the beach . . . . . . where an intriguing fishing technique was in progress. A row of fishermen were pulling in a line, which we think was attached to a fishing boat, but it could have been attached to nets. They had a rhythmic action going, almost like a tug of war, which involved stamping one foot in unison as they worked their way up and away from the sea hauling the line up the beach as they went. The one furthest from the water would periodically move back towards the ocean to take up the rope and start pulling again. We had thought to stay long enough to see what they hauled in but it was a more time-consuming process than expected and we walked on. Tanger, also called Tangier and […]
Thursday 11th July 2019 We were misinformed about Olbia as the books and on-line travel guides we consulted all said there was little to see. Consequently we stayed at our hotel and enjoyed the pool and the sunshine in the morning savouring a welcome moment of relaxation. However, when we did head down to the town in preparation for our overnight ferry, we found that it was really a very pleasant city and we could have spent more time there. Despite Matilda’s stern expression, the ferry was very comfortable and. . . . . .the view as we left the harbour around sun set was beautiful. We have enjoyed spotting the Disney characters painted on the ships in various ports during this trip: they are a feature of the Moby Line and we assume that they are also used for Disney cruises. We arrived in Genoa early in the morning and although we were slightly delayed, entering the old port past pleasure cruisers, industrial vessels and the ancient lighthouse – the Lanterna di Genoa – was a treat. We had seen it before but the Batman artwork has been a particular favourite on this trip. And Wonder Woman always deserves […]
Sunday 17th March 2019 With an evening train to catch we planned just a brief trip to Itimad-ud-Daulah’s tomb and Mehta Bagh with time to chill at the hotel before heading to the station. Built ten years before the Taj Mahal, Itimad-ud-Daulah’s tomb was commissioned by his daughter, Nur Jahan, who was also Mumtaz Mahals’s aunt. It is said to have influenced the design of the Taj Mahal and to mark the transition from the traditional red sandstone Mughal architecture (as seen at Agra Fort that we visited yesterday, and the Red Fort in Delhi) to the more refined style eventually epitomised by the Taj itself. Indeed it is also known locally as “the baby Taj”. Itimad-ud-Daulah’s tomb features a symmetrical white mausoleum set in a garden surrounded by red sandstone walls. The interior decoration is possibly better preserved than that in some of the places we have visited and like the building it inspired, it is a place of calm and tranquility compared to the busy city outside its walls. From here we went to Mehta Bagh. This is sometimes referred to as the Black Taj and is said to be the site on which Shan Jahan planned to […]
Saturday, 20th October & Sunday, 21st October 2018 About five minutes away from the campsite, Robert heard a noise and suddenly stopped, saying “Something has happened. I’ve hit something.” Looking back Matilda could see a flat black and white shape on the road and feared we had run over someone’s cat. Robert went back to check, recovered one of our shopping bags and discovered that the passenger side door to the “garage space” at the rear had come open and we had lost three out of four of our pads for the levelling system. These can easily be re-ordered, but a pet is irreplaceable. We then arrived at the campsite at Saverne and were allocated a pitch only to find someone else was already encamped there. Matilda checked with reception and we were told to choose our spot. Having identified one which would catch the evening sun from the right direction Robert reversed and renegotiated the site. We realised we had probably not been offered this pitch in the first place because it was very tight, driving down the path, between hedges and fire hydrants to our chosen pitch. Once encamped, we decided to undertake some domestic chores such as […]
Thursday, 16th August 2018 We planned to visit Bran Castle, but rather than take a guided tour – you should be aware of Robert’s opinion of those by now – we decided to take a local bus from Bus Station 2. Buses leave every hour, on the hour in both directions and we caught one at 10:00. The fare is just 8 lei [£1.60] per person each way. The bus itself was old, the windows were hazy with age and some were damp between the double glazing so the views were very limited. There were also road works on the route which caused some delays in this direction. The journey usually takes 40 mins, but today it was an hour and 10 minutes. We were of course aware that Bran Castle is marketed as being associated with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler although Vlad was only in charge of the castle for two months. We were also aware that we were visiting one of the most popular tourist sites in Romania on a public holiday. We still weren’t quite prepared however for the crowds and the sheer commercialisation of the place. Arriving in Bran you first have to queue to buy […]