Monday 24 October – The Hidden Mt Fuji I took the 9.40am bullet train south to Odawara. My speed app topped us out at 280kmph, a bit slower than the European trains. I was surprised by the normality of houses in outer Tokyo.  With 13 million people in the city and 37 million in the Tokyo-Yokohama urban […]

Sylvia: Saturday 22 October We had a leisurely start to the day with breakfast in the hotel then headed down the road to the nearest subway station to start our exploration of Tokyo. I had studied a number of guides and come up with the most recommended route for our weekend here. The subways here […]

Wednesday 19 October A 50 minute train ride places me in Antwerp, about 45kms north of Brussels. My mother was stationed here in the latter part of WWII on an anti aircraft battery. She had always spoken highly of the place. At her seventieth birthday she told us a story of being strafed with machine gun fire […]

Tuesday 18 October  Having arrived in Brussels by train last night, I headed to the Midi station and caught the train to Waterloo, while Sylvia headed off to work. A short stroll and I arrived at the information centre. Nineteen euros got me a ticket to all the sites of the famous battle. Apparently I had an ancestor […]

Sunday 16 October 2016 This is a tribute to my brother Gareth James “the barefoot blacksmith” who passed away in April this year. http://youtu.be/ZnO_4KbGbu8 We took a stroll from our hotel on Charlotte Street down to the banks of the Thames, passing the Royal Opera House, Covent Gardens and Somerset House.  Crossing the Waterloo bridge, […]

Saturday 17 September After a well-deserved sleep in (well-deserved really for Sylvia as she has been in meetings and on calls from early to late all week) we headed downtown on the subway. Emerging at the World Trade Centre I was stunned by the changes here. The last time I was here in early 2002 the rubble had just […]

Monday 12 September Arriving in Tucson last night my long-time good friend Murray picked me up and drove us the 150k (just down the road here) back to Hereford in Southern Arizona where he and wife Row live. We are up early and out to the local air force base where Murray is supervising some construction […]

Monday 27 June 2016 The trip to the airport for the 0650 flight to Brussels was a lot slower and more scenic than the one into Prague. The taxi trip into town from the Brussels airport was a slow one. Once we got off the motorway the traffic was often stationary. We checked into the Sofitel […]

Saturday 25 June 2016 Hotel Alchymist has etched into the door step 1517. With arched ceilings and gilded furniture it’s pretty nice. It has chandeliers in every room and in the basement is a bubbling pool and massage rooms. After a hearty breakfast we strolled around the corner and up the steps to the Prague Castle. The […]