Tag archives for travel
Chasing Lines by James McLaren [Guest Post]
This week's post is a from James McLaren, who wrote Chasing Lines about his epic 4,000 mile cycle ride across Europe. You can see some of his pictures on Instagram and read the book to find out more. Chasing Lines Cover of Chasing Lines by James Mclaren, the story of an epic 4,000 mile cycle ride across Europe (image: James McLaren) The alarm goes off in my hotel room in Ufa. Better get used to that. I’ve had my day of getting ready so here we go, all the planning and training is done, it’s real, it’s right here in front of me. Clothes on, eat snacks and get breakfast. Bike and kit all ready, it’s time to wheel it out into the elevator of my nice hotel room. I come out the elevator into the reception, head to toe…
Bergen without my Bergen
This week I have travelled to Bergen, albeit without my Bergen. That probably won't make much sense unless you've been around the British Army, which calls rucksacks Bergens. Beautiful Bergen Bergen really is a beautiful place. The city nestles on the hillsides of seven mountains, with fjords in its midst. It's an ancient port, and still serves cruise ships and north sea oil tenders. Most of the photos are still on my camera rather than my phone. But I'll post some later on when I've had a chance to hook the camera up to the laptop. Trolls We went troll hunting up on top of Mount Fløyen, one of the seven mountains. Not the nasty internet sort, or even the ones that live under bridges. In the woods the locals have carved dozens of trolls and left them there for…
Visiting Berlin – first impressions from a family holiday
I've had a fascination with visiting Berlin since my early teens, if not earlier. I did German at secondary school, and the class had a map of Berlin with the wall in 3d. The exchange student, Frauche, was a west Berliner. The city was firmly divided back then, I was at uni when the wall finally came down. Somehow it took me about thirty years to get round to visiting Berlin for the first time. Visiting Berlin Visiting Berlin was a family holiday, so I had both children and my wife with me. The kids are 4 and 10. Berlin isn't that child friendly, it was hard to find things for the little one. My elder was OK most of the time. I think we broke them both with walking about, even though we made an effort to use the…
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Book Review – The Middle Kingdom Ride by Ryan Pyle & Chris Pyle
The Middle Kingdom Ride: Two Brothers, Two Motorcycles, One Epic Journey Around China by Ryan Pyle My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed the book, and am looking forward to watching the accompanying DVD as well. It is an interesting book, both because of the travelogue and the epic nature of the journey and because it has two authors. Both brothers have written their own point of view, based on their contemporary video diaries recorded at the end of each of the 60 days that they spent on the road (and in some cases off it) on the way round China. The book is very much a narrative of the journey and the effect it has on the brothers. There are lots of unusual aspects pointed out, like the fact that no-one seems to have a proper motorbike in…