It was hot - well over 30c - when the Arta Line catamaran from Split docked at Hvar (the trip takes exactly an hour). The Pjaca, or Trg, one of the largest squares in Croatia, is surrounded by fine Venetian buildings and the Cathedral of Saint Stephen. There were plenty of souvenir shops and restaurants but…
Unlike Hungary, Croatia is a country we had already visited: in 2013 to the Istrian peninsula (Pula, Rovinj, Montovun, Beram, Poreč etc.), and in 1989, before the start of the Yugoslav Wars, to Dalmatia (Dubrovnik, Korčula and Split). Of course a sizeable chunk of Croatia's population has no memory of life in "Yugoslavia". Another thing…
We awoke to a dry and cool morning in Vienna following a very wet evening. Lingering over breakfast at a nearby Herr Mann bakery, we nearly missed our train (the wonderful Railjet). Two and a half quiet and comfortable hours later we pulled into Budapest Keleti. Tuesday 4 June Arriving at Budapest Keleti Our first…
We marched to Zürich Hbf, in comparatively balmy weather, to catch the 08:57 to Sargans, from where we would pick up the Railjet to Vienna. Saturday 1 June Neither of us had ever been to Vienna, although it had been on our minds for at least 10 years. My knowledge of Germanic culture is patchy…
It is a while since I last blogged. It's not that I've nothing to write about, but that I've been too busy actually doing things. Anne and I have just returned from four weeks travelling through central Europe: eight countries and more than 5,000 km (mostly by train, with a few Flixbuses when necessary). I…
It may have passed you by that last week was the 50th Anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution. On 25 April 1974, suddenly and almost bloodlessly, the Estado Novo, a fascist dictatorship that had endured for 48 years, came to an end. I was a first-year student at The Queen's College Oxford at that time: the…
I refer to the so-called Festive Season. Myself, I quite enjoyed it - although it wasn't so good for Anne and her father, who both caught Norovirus. Somehow I avoided it. We went up to Wirral to see Mum before Christmas, then endured a long and complicated train journey home (storm damage to the overhead…
You may already have seen jaw-dropping pictures of medieval buildings perched on towering rocks. This is Meteora, in Northern Greece. Convent of Roussanou There are six surviving monasteries (and several ruined ones), four of which we visited over two days: namely, the Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Roussanou and Ayios Nikolaos Anapafsa. They appear to be impregnable…
I have been on holiday to Greece about a dozen times, beginning in 1971 when I was 16. I have enjoyed every single day. This one (June 2023) was no exception; in fact it may have been the best trip yet. Anne is a genius at arranging holidays She can sniff out great accommodation at…
My wife plays a Brahms intermezzo on the piano while I read the Times Literary Supplement. This sickening scene takes place at our holiday home in Charente. But there are worse things to be accused of than being middle-class. We returned from France on 27 February - and here we are again. They are forecasting…
The Wight Stuff 