We were up early. The vineyards on the slopes across the road were bathed in sunlight. We had breakfast, said goodbye to Laurence and Charles, and drove south along the tollroad towards Dijon, stopping at a Total for a tank-full of E98 and at an Aire for a picnic lunch. We arrived in Clairvaux-les-lacs in…
The overnight P&O ferry from Hull docked in Rotterdam just after 7 in the morning and we disembarked thirty minutes later. Formalities were minimal. The Dutch immigration officer smiled, said ‘good morning,’ stamped our passports and said “Bring some champagne.“ The drive to Ludes in Champagne was made long and arduous because I forgot to…
After two years of stagnation due to the Pandemic, we are on our first family holiday. Clairvaux-le-Lacs is not an easy place to get to by train. Geneva airport is over an hours drive away and flights this summer are a mess. I decided to drive. “You can’t go to France in a 20 year…
My best Christmas present of 2021 was a subscription to Storyworth from my son & daughter. It required me to write a prescribed essay weekly for one year, at the end of which they will be published in book form. This is the second essay. In the 1960s, I spent four years in Kharkov in…
My best Christmas present of 2021 was a subscription to Storyworth from my son & daughter. It required me to write a prescribed essay weekly for one year, at the end of which they will be published in book form. This is the first essay. It was the summer of 1974. I was in my…
It was the second Covid Christmas. Omicron was rampant. A trip to London to spend Christmas with the children was not possible. It was another ‘home alone’ Christmas. Harrogate was dull and miserable but Knaresborough glittered with Christmas lights. From the castle ruins on top of the hill, the Nidd looked pretty. Passers-by said “Merry…
The jaw- dropping Hanging Temple of China is one of the world’s forgotten wonders The Hanging Temple clings to the side of the mountain in apparent defiance of gravity. Its forty odd rooms and a maze of passageways contain seventy eight religious statues and carvings made of copper, iron, terracotta, and stone. The temple…
Buddhism reached China along the Silk Route during the Han Dynasty in the first century AD. The establishment of Buddhism in China is evident in the many scripture-filled caves and structures surviving from this period. The Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in Gansu province, the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in Henan and the Yungang Grottoes…
The main reason for going to Datong in northern China is to visit its most famous sight – the Yungang Grottoes. The 53 main caves there contain over 51,000 intricate, ancient Buddhist statues. It takes six and a half hours to get to Datong from Beijing by train. Datong is the former western…
Worshipping Heaven instead of a God may seem strange. But in ancient China, the Zhou Dynasty which reigned between 1050-256 BC, initiated a new social order and religious system, centred around a supreme sky god Tiān (天), a “deity who rules Heaven and Earth.” Under this system, Heaven Worship became a state religion and Tian was considered responsible…
Situated just 15 km from Beijing, the 270 year-old Summer Palace of the Qing emperors is the largest and most well preserved royal garden in China. Its 290 ha contain a lake and a hill incorporating the Fengshui notion of ‘Mountain’ and ‘Water’ and over 3000 pavilions, towers, bridges and corridors When the Palace…
The two nights in Belgrade was at the tail-end of the Balkan summer holiday. Two weeks in Montenegro went quickly, Croatia was only a brief visit and the day on the Bar to Belgrade railway was remarkable. It was my first time in the Bosnian capital. The rented apartment was in a leafy suburb. The…
“Call me Strawberry” the woman in the cafe said. She piled my plate high with sausages and beans and smiled sweetly We were having an early breakfast at the cafe in front of the railway station in Bar before catching the morning train to Belgrade. I took a sip of thick black coffee and asked…
They say the only reason to come to Bar is to use the city as a base for visiting the fascinating ruins of Stari Bar (Old Bar) in the mountains behind. For me, the real reason is the celebrated Bar to Belgrade railway, one of Europe’s most spectacular train rides. Getting There The modern town…
There can’t be many places as beautiful as Kotor Bay. One sunny summer morning we hired a boat for the day and sailed from Krašići to the top of the bay, stopping to swim in the Blue Cave, explore old Yugoslav navy submarine tunnels and eat a slow lunch at a lovely, isolated cafe in…
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