Bologna, the capital of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, is home to the oldest university in the Western world, incredible food and a wonderful cityscape of terracotta-roofed buildings. But there are other features of the city that don’t feature so prominently in the guidebooks, not least the amount of graffiti. Perhaps it’s something to do with Bologna’s history…
Category: Europe
Norway: Downhill in Geilo
On our last day in Geilo it was time for me to do some alpine skiing. And I couldn’t have chosen a better day. After the snow of the previous day, the skies were a deep blue and the valley looked gorgeous in its new clothes, sparkling in the sunshine. I hired my gear, jumped…
Fat biking around Geilo
A hangover brought on by mixing vodka, red wine and lager was no way to start a day of cycling. I could barely eat breakfast let alone think about exercise, but we’d already hired the bikes and there wasn’t much else to do in Geilo. We trudged out to the main ski area on the…
Norway: Cross-country skiing in Geilo
We’d been in Norway for several days so it was about time we had a go at their favourite winter sport. Geilo is criss-crossed with cross-country skiing tracks and it’s the only form of skiing that Graham will entertain. With the weather forecast looking up, even promising sunshine, we hired our gear and went out…
A walk around Geilo
If nothing else, I slept well. But as we filled up on an ample breakfast in the Dr Holms Hotel, including some of the best meatballs anywhere in the world, I was still thinking that I’d made a big mistake booking Geilo as a winter destination. At the time the village looked as if it…
From Bergen to Geilo on Norway’s most famous train
The railway that links Bergen with the Norwegian capital Oslo is said to be one of the most spectacular in the world, offering incredible views as it carves through the mountainous landscape in the heart of the country. But with rain falling heavily in Bergen and the clouds low over the city, we weren’t going…
A walk on Bergen’s mountains
Bergen’s unpredictable weather delivered snow on our second day in town. Admittedly there was just a dusting around our hotel, but we could see that the mountains that encircle the harbour were covered with the stuff. So we decided to visit them after a hearty breakfast. Graham was suffering from a heavy cold while I…
Norway: A weekend in Bergen
Our first visit to Norway ended up being part city break in Bergen, part winter sports holiday in the mountain resort of Geilo. Bergen lies on the west coast, little more than an hour away from London. We’d climbed out of Heathrow on a clear February evening, the sun setting in the west, but landed…
Athens: Plaka and the hills
After the arid months of summer, Athens becomes a city of green hills in autumn. And we spent our second full day in the city exploring one of them – Filopappos Hill. Not that I had much energy in the morning thanks to a grotty night of sleep. Our hotel, the Herodion, was proving to…
A day touring Athens’ historic sites
I’m not the type who returns time and again to the same holiday destination. But I have been back to Athens. Admittedly, my last visit was 34 years ago and was nothing more than a hurried day trip during a week spent by the sea on the Greek mainland with my best friend Chris. My companion…
Athens: The Greek capital in 1980
I first went to Athens aged just 16, in the days when flares and dodgy haircuts ruled. It was 1980 and I was on a day trip with my mate Chris during the height of the August holiday season. Together we were spending a week in a very down-at-heel ‘resort’ on the Greek mainland called…
The Cairngorms: A visit to Craigievar Castle
If nothing else, my first visit to Scotland in years confirmed that the weather can never be relied upon. One day we were hot and bothered in the sun on top of a mountain, the next waking to drenching rain. At least we had Craigievar to visit during the couple of days we were spending…
Scotland in the spring: To Cawdor Castle
It’s surprising what gets classified as a tourist attraction in some parts of the world. How about a shop? That’s where we found ourselves on a wet morning on our last full day in the Scottish Cairngorms, guided by the local tourist board’s ever-optimistic marketing blurb. It was billed as the Scottish Heather Centre but…
Scotland in the spring: To the top of Cairn Gorm
We’d exhausted ourselves on our Rothiemurchus walk but we didn’t sleep well afterwards. Perhaps it was the light, for the sun sets late and rises early during summer in the Cairngorms. So neither of us had the energy for anything too exhausting, despite a much better weather forecast. After another ample breakfast and a gossip with…
Scotland in the spring: A walk around the Rothiemurchus estate
Aviemore proved a disappointment but a walk around the Rothiemurchus estate restored us on a grey day in the Cairngorms. Fortified by a delicious breakfast of porridge and a fry-up, we left the four West Midlanders talking politics in the hotel restaurant to plan our itinerary on a day that threatened both rain and shine….