“What does it mean to be British now?” An unexpected question, put to me by one of my Airbnb hosts a few days ago, which has been rolling around in my head ever since. Five weeks of roaming around Europe by train, moving from one country and culture to another, visiting places freighted with history …
Kraków
When I first thought about going on the European Train Odyssey©, all sorts of potential itineraries started floating around in my head. Adding the Greta Thunberg element of trying to do the whole travel thing in a slightly more sustainable way soon put paid to a Scandinavian leg, as there apparently wasn't a way to …
Warsaw
"One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things." That insight, from the American writer Henry Miller, is of course just another way of saying the usual thing that people say about travel - that it broadens the mind. Over the last few years, I've sat down in bars …
London to Warsaw
The first stage of the European Train Odyssey is nearly complete, as I trundle through bucolic Polish countryside at a decent click on Deutsche Bahn's Eurocity EC43 service from Berlin towards Warsaw. Don't worry - that will probably be the last time I make a note of the actual train numbers... By the time I …
Riding The Rails
About 18 months ago, I started this blog by quoting the opening paragraphs of one of my favourite books, John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley”, as a perfect evocation of my desire to be elsewhere. It went like this: “When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was …
To Santiago
The morning after the night before and there was a decidedly odd atmosphere at La Calabaza del Peregrino as people began to stir around 6am. Albergue life requires a certain degree of tolerance, but it was becoming apparent that one or two dormitory denizens might have reached the end of their tether. One of these …
This Woman’s Work
Many years ago, I found myself weekly wallowing in the wonderful words expressed by the venerable Australian writer Clive James in a series of podcasts for the BBC, which covered a multiplicity of subjects, but which largely sought to focus on the overarching benefits of liberal democracy for those of us lucky enough to actually …
A Pilgrim Dinner…or two
After the odd start to the day before with a temporary incarceration in Arcade, my desayuno at Hotel Rúas in Pontevedra was similarly unusual in that it included a drunken floorshow provided by a local couple who had clearly been drinking all night on a Sunday evening and a Monday morning. They were now attempting, …
To Pontevedra
The seventh day of the Portugués started off in unusual circumstances as I found myself actually locked inside my hotel, somewhat stymied in my attempt to make an early Sunday morning start on the road to Pontevedra. This sort of thing just doesn't happen in albergues. I might have understood the detention policy if it …
Porriño to Arcade
In an attempt to reduce distractions and reminders of the Outside World whilst on the Portugués, I had removed all the social media apps from my phone as soon as I landed in Porto. A digital detox would be attempted, perhaps leading to a more interior experience, with fewer unwanted invasions from external influences. This …
