August in Amman is damned hot, so where do we go on holiday? To Aqaba where it’s even hotter! Aqaba has one big advantage though. It’s by the sea – the Red Sea which is fantastic for diving and that’s why we went. We stayed three nights in Aqaba at the Al Cazar Hotel and then another night camping in the amazingly beautiful Wadi Rum before heading back up north. There are plenty of dive sites all along the coast…
Wadi Mujib is one of the undiscovered gems of Jordan. If you are travelling along the King’s Highway you will need to cross this huge canyon. There are some pictures on the king’s highway page, but for this trip we went to where the wadi reaches the Dead Sea. Here the canyon is sheer and narrow and there are some convenient cabins nearby, right on the Dead Sea, in which to spend the night. These photos are from a trip…
Food is a major highlight of any trip to Spain and here is a collection of delicacies we enjoyed in Andalucia
Another day, another train trip. This time east to Granada, which in many ways was the highlight of the whole holiday. Granada is very attractively situated at the base of the Sierra Nevada and as we pulled into the station we could see the snow capped mountains in the background. Our Pension - Pension Landazuri was very handily situated in the centre of town and on the road to the Alhambra, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world…
Another train trip. The first hour was a blur of golden sunflowers as we passed the southern plains of Andalucia. For the second hour the scenery changed as we passed along the coast over marshland and towards the spit of land at the end of which is the ancient port of Cadiz, more like an island bastion than part of the mainland. The train station is near the entrance to the old city which is still encircled by huge thick…
We had to get up early, ready for the train trip to Seville. Unlike the UK, the train station and train were spotless and all in all a very pleasant experience. Leaving in rain, we arrived in Seville a few hours later basked in sunshine. The station is in the new town but it was only a 15 minutes walk to the heart of the old town and our hostel – El Buen Dormir. Although the title is hostel, like…
Not an auspicious arrival into Spain – torrential rain. We were, however, met by our friend Ben at the airport to take us to his apartment in central Madrid and by the time we ventured out for the evening in search of sustenance the rain had turned to drizzle. The was my first experience of Spain and my first impression was that everything was…small! Inner city apartments in a European capital city are necessarily small for anyone but multimillionaires these…
I spent just over a week in Morocco. As time was of the essence I had to choose my destinations carefully. One was chosen for me – Rabat, as it was the reason for coming – a business trip. Having said that it’s a nice enough place and built in a similar fashion to most of the cities of French North Africa having a modern French town (la nouvelle ville) and an old Arab town (the medina). The French town…
I went on a business trip to Athens for a week in May 2008. Overall I was quite impressed by the place. The main tourist area in central Athens is La Plaka. It’s a very old area of Athens and the narrow streets and lanes have been extensively pedestrianised. The old houses have been on the whole tastefully renovated and many have been converted into tourist shops and pavement cafes. The old squares are now almost completely filled with restaurants…
I first visited Petra when I was living in Cairo in 2000 and so some of the photos are from that trip. Pre-digital camera days for me meant that the scanned photos lack the sharpness of the other photos taken on a more recent trip in April 2008. Petra. But what an amazing place. Emerging from the canyon almost too narrow for a horse and cart and then to be confronted by the ancient treasury chiselled out of the sandstone…