Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Travel

  • B&B for Bigots

    The highlands of Scotland has glorious scenery – and some Bed & Breakfast establishments that Martin and I clearly won’t be welcome at (scroll down on the link). Well, at least we know which places to avoid (…here be bigots). Good to know that UK dogs are welcome, though. One wonders what the owners have against dogs that don’t hail from Great Britain’s shores. Perhaps they are afraid of the possibility of rabies. I could make a comment about who is rabid here, but it seems too easy, somehow.
     
    (hat tip to Antonia’s blog)

  • Gouda in Lights – Part II

    So, tonight I went down to the market square in Gouda and amused myself by taking lots of photos of the illuminations…
     

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  • Suffer From Vertigo?

    Then I take it that you won’t be queuing up to experience the Skywalk when it opens next January. I don’t suffer from vertigo, but do feel slightly queasy when in high places. I get this odd feeling that I want to jump into the empty space…

  • Going, Going…

    … Almost gone. The Routemaster bus from London, that is. The red double-decker Routemaster bus, with its open platform at the back is an icon, but it is being removed from service in London. Today, it vanishes from route 38, leaving just one route left on which these buses are used. That too will lose its Routemasters by the end of the year.
     
    I’ll admit to a feeling of nostalgia about this, when I was 17, I had a summer job working on the buses as a conductor, and liked the Routemaster buses most of all. Another link with the past vanishes…

  • Your Personal Helicopter

    If you’re tired of life, why not invest in a Gen-H4 Personal Helicopter? I was going to say that I wouldn’t be seen dead in one of these things – but I suspect that would be the inevitable result. I’ll stick to Shank’s pony, thanks very much.

  • Flushed With Success

    A slightly scary story in today’s Guardian about a man in Cannes who got swept into the city’s sewerage system by a downpour of rain. He was flushed through the system for more than a mile before being spat out at the outfall on the beach. I trust that rainwater was the only thing coursing through this particular part of the system…

  • A New Tourist Destination

    Apparently, Saudia Arabia has hit upon a whizzo scheme to boost tourism to the Kingdom. I doubt very much whether I will take them up on their kind offer. The reasons why not are pretty well laid out in this imagined interview with the Minister of Tourism over at the Religious Policeman blog.
     
    (hat tip to Salam Pax for the link)

  • Travel Breaks I Can Do Without

    When I say that I’m retired, people often respond by asking where I’m planning to go on my travels. Frankly, I’m not a great traveller. For the most part, give me the garden, a good book and a glass of wine and I’m in heaven.
     
    Today, Gavan Naden in the Guardian has put together ten further reasons why I have no desire to go dashing off on travel breaks, his list of ten breaks that most people could do without.
     
    I see that one of the breaks is based in the land of my birth: A Two Day Celebration of Animals at the BrightLife Centre in the Isle of Man. Reading the synopsis of this is enough to make me despair for the future of the human race. Yes, I know that there are people doo-lalley enough to believe in this crap, but it really makes me fear for the waste of brains that is going on. The Centre appears to be a hotbed of hocus-pocus and pseudoscience. I see one of the other courses is an "Angel Experience Day" – the synopsis of this makes for depressing reading for anyone with a smattering of rationality as well. At least I suppose I can be thankful that this day, unlike a similar course offered in South Africa does not appear to have a "Fun exercises with the Angels" segment.
     
    Given the choice between a stay at the BrightLife Centre and Bog-snorkelling in Wales, I think I would almost choose the bog-snorkelling. It may be crap I would be swimming in, but at least it’s good honest crap with no pretensions to being other than what it is.

  • The Great Union Camera Obscura

    I mentioned this little wonder last week. If you ever get the chance, do visit it. It’s been fully restored to its former glory – the only thing that’s different is the colour of the paintwork – it’s now a dark greenish-blue, while I always remember it as being bright green.
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  • The Isle of Man

    I arrived back on the Island yesterday evening after a few days in Scotland. Currently enjoying a capuccino in an Internet cafe in the harbour of Douglas. My home town is still recognisably the same, although there have been many changes since I moved away 35 years ago. Looking out into the old harbour – when I was growing up, the harbour would be full of fishing boats; now it is full of pleasure boats and yachts.
     
    I’m spending this morning walking round the town with my camera, recording changes and capturing images of things that will perhaps on my next visit be no more. However, it’s also good to see some things being restored and preserved. For example, on Douglas Head, overlooking the harbour, there is the Great Union Camera Obscura. For years, it was closed and had fallen into disrepair. But now it is restored to its former glory. It may well be unique in Camera Obscuras that are operational today by the virtue of having eleven lens systems displaying an almost circular panorama onto the eleven table screens inside. As a child I often went into it to gaze in wonder at the living scenes glowing on the tables. I’m glad it’s back in operation – even if the fact that now it is only open at weekends means that I won’t be able to visit it this time.

  • La Boqueria

    The La Boqueria market in Barcelona (on the Ramblas) is well worth a visit. Here are a few photos taken last week. The range of foods available is vast. From eggs, nuts, fish, mushrooms, meat through to such interesting delicacies as rabbit tongue, maggots and scorpions covered in chocolate. I have to say that I passed on the last three.

  • Normal Service Has Been Resumed

    To quote Sam Gamgee: "Well, I’m back"…

    Martin and I went to Barcelona for a week. We just love that city. I’ll try and post some impressions from the week once I’ve had a chance to absorb what else has been going on in the world, and had a chance to sort out the hudreds of photos that we took.

  • Normal Service will be resumed…

    …as soon as possible. I’m going to be travelling for a few days, and I doubt that I’ll have time to dive into Internet cafes to keep up the stream of consciousness here. So you’ll just have to bide your time… Tot ziens.