Beyond the casinos and glitz of the Cotai Strip lies the real Macau, with its colours and sounds, its smells and sights. It was in this real Macau that we discovered the territory’s people, its history and culture. We’d woken on our second day in the city to brilliant sunshine and it was tempting to…
A short break in Macau – exploring on our first full day
The Macau we discovered on our first night in the city is modern, glitzy and built for tourists. Known as the Cotai Strip, it’s a stark contrast to the historic, atmospheric old town. It has elegant and colourful Portugese influences from colonial times, while its streets are crowded with old apartment blocks, temples, shops and…
Macau and Hong Kong – day one of a special birthday trip
How should I celebrate a 50th birthday? Apart from hosting a drunken party for friends and family, I opted for a week-long trip to Macau and Hong Kong. Day one was never going to be one of the highlights of this special holiday. Eleven hours in a British Airways Boeing 777 is a bit of…
Flying a Boeing 737 – the ultimate birthday present
It’s not exactly travel, but I can’t resist writing about my 50th birthday present from the other half – an hour on a Boeing 737-800 simulator. And, in theory, I did travel to Innsbruck in Austria and Hong Kong. Sort of… The flight ‘took off’ from London Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, where iPilot have their…
Christmas in Muscat, the capital of Oman
Where would we spend our first Christmas away from family and piles of roast turkey? A home from home in the UK? The snowy Alps? Or further afield? Our eventual choice was the capital of Oman, Muscat. An odd choice but a very good one as it turned out. Muscat is a city that by all…
A quick break amid the madness of Las Vegas, USA
I went to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas expecting to hate the place but ended up falling for it, despite the tackiness and materialism gone mad. We’d chosen it as the first stop of our American adventure because we love a gamble, but we’d also booked a trip to the Grand Canyon and Vegas is…
An Easter city break in Stockholm, Sweden
Easter isn’t the best time to visit Stockholm. The trees are bare and the weather can be drab and chilly, but the weather couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the capital of Sweden. I actually had very few preconceptions about it. I knew it as a city of water, islands and ludicrously priced alcohol. I knew it as…
Walking in the hills at Braemar, Scotland
With our much-discussed British weather being so hopelessly unreliable, it’s easy to make an excuse and head abroad on holiday. But on our visit to Braemar and Ballater in Scotland we found the sun and fell in love with Royal Deeside. Braemar was stop number two, nestled in a landscape so spectacular I defy anyone…
Milizac, France. In search of Great Uncle Ray, World War Two pilot
Researching my family tree, I was keen to find out more about Great Uncle Raymond Finch. A bomber pilot, he was killed over Brittany in the Second World War and I wanted to pay my respects at his grave in a quiet French village. I’d long known that he’d been killed in the war but…
A few days in Naples, Italy
Naples is the gateway to southern Italy but my first experience of it was overwhelmingly negative, for it had been like stepping into the third world. Years later, with Graham in tow, I still found it challenging but warmed slowly to its charms. That first visit to Naples back in the early noughties was nothing more…
Visiting the Desert Castles of Jordan
On our two-week visit to Jordan, we took a tour of the Desert Castles that lie to the east of the capital, Amman. And poor Graham coped remarkably well bearing in mind he had a stomach bug. The weather was bleak as we hit the highway out of the city, fresh from a night in the…
A trip on the Napa Valley Wine Train in California
We couldn’t go to San Francisco without visiting wine country for a day. But not wanting to drive, and on the recommendation of a friend, we opted for lunch on the Napa Valley Wine Train. Our week in San Francisco coincided with one of the hottest Septembers in years and so it was another magical and…
Istanbul: A long weekend in Sultanahmet
Sultanahmet is the historic heart of Istanbul, the most famous of Turkey’s cities. It may not be the capital but it’s the only city that sits astride Europe and Asia. Just a few months after we visited Istanbul, it was gripped by the worst riots in years. But it seems that historic Sultanahmet escaped the…
Walking in the hills around Morzine
The French Alpine resort of Morzine has grand landscapes and numerous summer walking paths but during our August weekend stay the weather had been mixed. Fortunately our last day delivered sunshine and blue skies so after studying our maps we decided to spend the day walking on Le Pleney – the hill on the other side of…
Morzine, Lake Montriond and the waterfalls
Just a few miles from the French Alpine resort of Morzine lies magical Lake Montriond and some spectacular waterfalls. The area is criss-crossed by walking routes and has magnificent views, making it an ideal spot to shake off a crashing headache brought on by mixing vodka, wine, beer and a mysterious local liquor in the…