When I arrived at the Hotel Honegg in Switzerland, I was recovering from a sprained ankle, so naturally I decided the first thing I should do is walk up the mountain behind the hotel. On the way back down, I stopped to take this panorama. This is comprised of six pictures so it took me quite a while to take them all. Once I was finished and packed up, I realized that I’d been stood blocking the view of a man sat on a bench behind me… jumped out my skin when he said “hallo!”.
During the UEFA Euros, I was stationed with family and friends just outside Aix-en-Provence. I arrived later than most so when I drove up to the house in my very sharp looking, rented Audi A4, after nervously snaking my way up the steep, tight, windy driveway, I was greeted by people waving from up on the roof. Taking a moment to compose myself and hide the terror I had just gone through, I stepped out of the car and waved back. At this point a couple of friends greeted me from the front door, and immediately began gesturing wildly at the car. I turned back to realize it was rolling backwards down the driveway. As it turned out, the automatic handbrake was not switched on. Luckily I hadn’t closed the door and was able to dive back in and get it under control.
The next day, feeling confident in my ability to drive this car I decided to spend my afternoon in the seaside town of Cassis. With the car full to the brim with people we set off. I successfully made it down the terrifying driveway only to drive straight into a hidden rock at the bottom that I had been warned about but promptly forgot. With the car suffering a significant gouge I pushed on, and it was worth it.
Cassis is a beautiful little town that, at the time, was not as overrun by tourists as we had expected. In the photo below, beyond the traditional fishing boats, you can see the waterfront, loaded with restaurants, across the harbor.
I mentioned yesterday that I finally made it to the Cinque Terre after three attempts. This photo is from another place I once planned to visit but failed. After I finished university, I did a six week European tour from Amsterdam to Athens. The plan was to stop at Delphi and Meteora towards the end of the trip as we made our way from Thessaloniki in Northern Greece to Athens in the South.
Our problem was, we had a really good night out in Thessaloniki and decided we wanted another one. As a result we cancelled our stop in Meteora to stay in Thessaloniki another night. That decision was complicated the next morning when we were summarily kicked out of our hotel, due to some boisterous behaviour, and were left to wander the city in search of accommodation.
We still planned on stopping in Delphi for a night, but following two consecutive big nights out in Thessaloniki we weren’t at our sharpest. As a result, we got off the train at the wrong stop and would have to wait hours for another one to take us back. Instead, we decided to get on the next train to Athens.
So, I failed to make it to both Delphi and Meteora on that trip and have wanted to go back. At the end of March 2016 I had an opportunity to go back to Greece but only had a few days. Still, I managed to visit both Delphi and Meteora in a whirlwind tour.
The following is a photo of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, a monument I saw often in text books. I did my best to take a photo that’s a little more interesting than the standard straight on textbook shot.
I know, it’s been awhile… and no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth. I just ran a bit low on time and as a result, ran a bit low on photos. I’ve kept traveling though and have a lot of photos to share from Vietnam, Spain, France, Morocco, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy and Switzerland.
I’ve got travel plans for 2017 too. I’ll be kicking off the year with a return to Marrakesh and a weekend in Berlin where I hope to add to my collection of pictures. In addition, I’ll be taking a couple of more adventurous trips through the year, though I haven’t thought about where yet. Suggestions in the comments below are welcome. I’m thinking South East Asia, South America or maybe even Egypt. I’ll be doing my best to get back to regular postings.
My most recent trip was to the Cinque Terre in Italy. It was my third time trying to get there. On my first attempt, the towns in the area were beset by landslides so I had to cancel my plans. On the second attempt, I was driving from Piedmont and stopped at a service station where my car was broken into and cameras, laptops and passports were stolen.
My third trip wasn’t without a hiccup either. When I went to check into the airport in Bermuda for my flight to London, I realized that I’d booked the wrong date for my connecting flight and it had actually already departed! I actually got onto the London flight without a connection and had to quickly sort it out the next day.
In celebration of the New Year and of finally making it to Cinque Terre, please enjoy this photo, taken from my hotel balcony in Manarola while sipping from a bottle of Prosecco.
The early morning view from the Villa Honegg looking out over Lake Lucerne.
So it turns out I have got a lot of photos I worked up but never uploaded! This one is of the interior of the Pisa Cathedral, which is right next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. When you see the Leaning Tower it’s hard not to wonder if it was really worth the trip into Pisa. I’ve been a couple of times and the area is always crawling with tourists. The interior of the Cathedral, which seems to draw less of a crowd, is an impressive surprise though.
I went on a really good food tour in Marrakech. We tried all sorts of food from lamb cooked underground for hours to amazing sardine-ball sandwiches. As a bonus we also stopped off at some interesting spots, including the village bakery, where people would bring food in to be baked in the oven to be picked up later in the day.
If you’re ever in Marrakech I would definitely recommend it! You can find their website here:
http://marrakechfoodtours.com/
Our second stop was at an olive stand, we were allowed to just eat all the olives that we wanted off the stall. The seller seemed to have an endless supply of different types of olives.
I spent a few days in Honegg, Switzerland. It’s up a mountain about twenty minutes outside of Lucerne. More pictures to come.
I just booked ticket to Florence, Italy for May. So I felt inspired to post a picture from my last trip there.
It was a cloudy day, but I thought I could still manage an interesting shot of the equestrian statue of Cosimo de Medici. It’s in the Piazza della Signora in Florence, Italy. I liked the idea of making the horse the focus of the image.
