
For most, travel in 2020 has been, at best, haphazard – or non existent. The global Coronavirus pandemic has hit everyone in different days. But at the risk of making a massive statement of a first world problem, trying to get away anywhere has been an exhausting process. In March I was due to return…
Up until a couple of weeks before my planned departure, my trip to the US had still definitely been on. I knew it would probably look and feel different from my previous visits, and this was confirmed by Cassie, who I met in Memphis during my first stateside trip in 2011 I would warn you…
Atlanta knows its place when it comes to reporting the latest news about Covid-19, because it’s the global headquarters for CNN, the Cable News Network established back in 1980, long before anyone realised the potential power of a single broadcaster covering the entire planet. Its main building is on Ted Turner Drive – named after…
Twenty four years ago, Atlanta was at the centre of the world’s attention – but partly for all the wrong reasons. The city hosted the Olympic Games, but on 27th July Eric Rudolph detonated a pipe bomb in Centennial Park, killing one person and injuring nearly two hundred others. Today Centennial Park is still a…
At around about this time of year I’d be beginning a new travel blog, usually involving the USA and invariably including a trip to my favourite city on the planet. But not now, and probably not for the rest of this year. It’s March 2020 (if you’re reading this in the future) and much of…
By the time we escape from the rehearsals of Eesti Laul, it’s been snowing, which gives Tallinn a pretty feel about it. Unlike the UK, several millimetres of snow doesn’t bring the whole city to a halt. That’s before we see the probable winners of this year’s contest, Traffic. Among the selection of power ballads…
It’s some years since I first did this, and it’s always been something I thought I’d return to one day. Except the last time was in Malta, where the sun shines in February and all is well with the world. It’s just as well that much of the next three days will be spent indoors,…

Despite being just 70 miles apart, a rail journey from Belfast to Derry (Londonderry, but more of that later) takes around two hours. Having frequently experienced similar journey times between Nottingham and Birmingham, it’s clear that the term “expresss train” is at least debatable. However, the link between Northern Ireland’s largest cities is frequent and…

It isn’t possible to fit in sixty million years of history into a single day, but you can have a pretty good shot at it on the North Antrim coast. Several locations in this area are now enjoying renewed interest from visitors, having been used as the setting for Game of Thrones. Hire cars and…