The Grand Old Duke of York Tour
Walking in the Elbe Valley, Saxony, Germany - May 2012
Corso Reisen, Travel, Maps, Hotels Corso Reisen Clive had booked the holiday with Corso Reisen, a German outdoor holiday company he had used before. They provided maps of the route but no written instructions, arranged our hotel accommodation and organised … Continue reading →
Dresden – Radebeul – Meissen Dresden to Radebeul, 27 May We’d walked into Dresden alongside the Elbe. The route out headed north away from the river and through Dresden’s urban sprawl. It was the Sunday of the May holiday weekend … Continue reading →
Pirna to Dresden 25 May This third day was the least enjoyable of the holiday, for me at least. It was rather warm and we spent virtually the whole day walking through suburbs on tarmac roads, first through the outskirts … Continue reading →
Although hardly Famous we were definitely Five: Clive, John, Stuart, Tom and me.* A 4.00am start, a bus, a plane, a taxi, a train and another taxi had taken me to the village of Krippen with the other four. Krippen … Continue reading →
As my recent experience of prize-winning books has been a bit mixed I’m glad to say that I enjoyed this 2011 Costa Book of the Year. Set in late 18th century Paris it tells the story of a young engineer … Continue reading →
Quite a few people rate this book highly but I am not one of them. It’s tedious, dull, unconvincing and verging on pretentious. Trying to understand the enthusiasm, I even tried to see it as allegory but failed there too. … Continue reading →
The assistant in the charity shop recommended this collection of Oxford-based short stories by Oxford-based writers (collectively Oxpens – geddit?). It was a good suggestion. It reminded me why the short story, done well, is a very pleasing genre. Inevitably … Continue reading →
In the introduction to this book the authors, themselves American, explain that most Americans don’t understand the significance and depth of feeling the European cycling Grand Tours generate in their fans. They set out to explain through the history of … Continue reading →
This isn’t really a review of “Cycles of Time”: I’m not going to discuss the structure of the book or the quality of the writing. Instead I’ve tried for my own benefit to summarise what I learned from reading it. … Continue reading →
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