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Touring tales

Exploring the world, one story at a time

Food and wine in Nice, Alba and Modena

It would have been nice, arriving in Nice, if my lease car had been what I’d ordered, but Renault Europe knew better and ‘upgraded’ me to...

The Black Swan & Tommy Banks

It’s an hour’s drive from Everingham to Oldstead in Yorkshire, and Jerry, having spent his whole life in various spots along the way,...

Views from the Vaucluse

I first visited the Vaucluse (department #84) in 1984, when my Parisian friends, Patrick and Edmee, had purchased a former Ashram,...

Painting in Tuscany (September 2019)

An early start out of Lucca saw us in Certaldo by 8:45am at the dealership responsible for delivering Karen’s hire car for use during her...

Syria - the Arab Spring (March 2011)

Now here's a funny thing - Syrians love soap operas! Especially during Ramadan when everyone's in abstinence mode. Sitting around the...

Andalusia aboard Al Andalus

Hopefully, we were saving the best until last - a week-long train trip around Andalusia. So Bill and I headed off to the Alfonso XIII...

Jordan: Amman - Jerash - Madaba - Petra

After settling into my room at the Kempinski Amman, I headed down to breakfast at 6.30 and tucked into a pair of fried cackleberries but...

Persepolis Plus

The drive from Isfahan to Shiraz takes about six hours, across a mostly barren landscape, but it’s full of interest, nonetheless. There...

To Isfahan

Fifty kilometres out of Hamadan is the Iron Age mound of Tepe hush-i-Jan. In the middle of a vast plain, it’s a stiff climb up to the...

Hamadan (ancient Ecbatana)

It’s day four swathed in headscarf and shapeless garb and I’m over it already. But Iranian women have to live with these cleric-imposed...