Between December 5th and 9th 2013, I spent four days in Tromsø, Norway, with friends Sue and Simon, hoping to see the Northern Lights. This is a photo album of our trip. This is the first 100 photos in the gallery. To see the other 36, go to the Flickr page here. Related articles Everything you need to know about visiting the Arctic
While I was on holiday at Seahouses in Northumberland, I visited the nearby railway station at Chathill, arguably the smallest and least used terminus on the railway network. The station has only two arrivals and departures Monday to Saturday, with no service on Sunday. Although on the East Coast mainline, there are no services from Chathill heading north. Both services leave heading south to Newcastle or Hexham. The photos in this gallery show my visit on July 7th 2016 to see the arrival of the 18:49 from MetroCentre, and its subsequent departure at 19:10 to Hexham. Chathill railway station on [Read more]
In early July 2016, I made two trips to the Farne Islands to see the bird colonies, especially the puffins. As these photos show, I wasn’t disappointed.
Despite having over a dozen overseas places on my ‘must visit’ list, 2015 was a year in which I stayed on these shores, unless you count the Channel Islands as abroad. Although outside of the United Kingdom, I don’t regard our annual holiday in Herm as a trip overseas. Holidays Apart from a day trip to Llandudno in April, my first holiday was a repeat trip to the Outer Hebrides, this time on an organised rail and coach trip. The last time I was in the Hebrides, Sandra and I flew there and drove the length of the Isles from Barra to Stornaway. [Read more]
Following holidays in the Outer Hebrides and Herm, I chose Northumberland in mid-August for my final week away for 2015. This was a county that I had travelled through on the East Coast train line several times, but I had never stopped there. I had been told by many people that the county was a picturesque place, and so it turned out. Lapwing 43, our caravan for the week Sandra and I stayed in a luxury caravan at Seafields Caravan Park on the edge of the village of Seahouses, a pretty coastal village with an attractive harbour with views out to [Read more]
During early May, I went on a touring holiday of the Hebrides organised by Railtrail, who I toured North Wales with a couple of years ago. This is a report of my holiday. Day 1 – West Coast main line Instead of going directly to Glasgow, where the tour was to start, I decided to go to London and travel up to Glasgow on the West Coast main line. I went down to St Pancras on the 07:48 East Midlands train from Alfreton, arriving in London around 10:15. This journey was comfortable and uneventful and the train arrived on time. [Read more]
On Saturday 18th April 2015, I visited Llandudno for the first time for seven years. I had driven eldest son Jamie to Crewe so he could do some work on a Railcam project and I had eight hours or so to spare. What better way to kill time than take a ride along the North Wales coast rail line. The route took me through Chester, passing the famous racecourse, before heading along the North Wales coast. The line runs through the seaside resorts of Rhyl, Abergele and Colwyn Bay, before branching off to Llandudno. The resorts along this coast are no longer [Read more]
They say time flies by as you get older, and for me, this was certainly true in 2014. No sooner had the buds burst out on the trees, than the leaves were falling and Winter was returning to this part of the United Kingdom. I suppose the main reason the year flew by was because I was kept busy most of the time. I don’t seem to get bored, although I do have many moments when I sit around and watch the World drift by. Not having to work does give me the luxury to enjoy these quiet moments, and [Read more]
For the last three years, we have had one of our holidays in Herm during June. It is not very busy then and the weather is usually fine. However, this year, we decided to have an extra break on the island in September so that we can see what the place is like when it really is quiet. Usually, we stay overnight in Guernsey and get the Trident ferry over to Herm the next morning. The flight from East Midlands doesn’t give you any spare time to catch the last ferry at 17:15, and if the flight is delayed, you [Read more]
At the end of July, I wrote about our plans to visit Kilnsea, staying in a caravan for the first time in 25 years (read the article here). As regular visitors to the village, we have stayed in several places in the locality, but we haven’t returned to the Sandy Beaches Holiday Village since the kids were toddlers. We, that’s my wife Sandra and I, decided that we would spend a few days at the caravan park at a time of the year when the tides were high, this happened to be August 11th to 15th. The tides were high [Read more]
Ever since I learned to drive, over 30 years ago, I have visited Kilnsea and Spurn Point at the mouth of the River Humber. This is a wild and windswept part of the North Sea coastline prone to coastal erosion and flooding. Spurn Point and the peninsula is a three-mile spit of sand extending out into the Humber estuary formed by the sea depositing sand eroded from the clay cliffs to the north. The peninsula is constantly moving, but sea defences built around the first World War have prevented the natural movement of sand from taking place. These defences have now [Read more]
Portmeirion is a hotel and village complex two miles south-east of Porthmadog in North Wales. The village is one mile from Minffordd railway station which is served by the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway and Arriva Trains Wales on the Cambrian Line. Portmeirion was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village. It has been used in many films and television shows, most notably the 1960s classic ‘The Prisoner’, starring Patrick McGoohan, a personal favourite of mine. As a family, we have visited Portmeirion for over 30 years, and it was a place that we always [Read more]