20th Century
American Journey 1952, New York
Of course, it’s impossible to do justice to New York in a few hundred words. Its like saying the Pacific is deep or that Everest is high or that Helen of Troy was a pretty [more…]
Travel
Arts
To Wawa and Beyond
The rooster started crowing at 3 am, which then set the dogs off. The barking went on for a while then a motorbike without a silencer went roaring past. It must have been 3-45am when [more…]
Arts
The Lighthouse of The Pacific
Leaving the Pan-American highway and heading west beyond the urban sprawl of second city Santa Ana, we follow the route of the El Salvador Railway Company’s Ahuachapan branch line which we discovered last time. Nothing [more…]
19th Century
A Gem From The Golden Age of Coffee
Despite finding San Salvador to be a much more pleasant place than expected, we shall strike into the provinces and catch our breath in a guest room in the sticks. En route, we shall allow [more…]
Authoritarianism
The World’s Coolest Dictator
Puffins arriving at San Salvador’s Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport crouching down to avoid the gunfire and running through the terminal building with their case over their head to deflect shattering glass may be [more…]
Eating
Caribbean Christmas 2023/24, Part Four
Day 10 – 31st December – New Year’s Eve and it’s still Antigua I didn’t expect to be in beautiful Antigua again today, but I can think of worse places to be. It’s another lovely [more…]
14th Century
Postcard from Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle is located in the town of Berkeley in Gloucestershire and just a few miles from Reggie Towers. It’s a place I’ve visited a number of times and most recently when my brother stayed [more…]
Travel
Postcard From Keflavik
Art and the terminal Puffins who can see an enviably empty airport car park in the middle of nowhere with the skeleton of a nosedived B-52 embedded in the tarmac embarrassingly far from any runway, [more…]
Eating
Caribbean Christmas 2023/24, Part Three
26th December – Boxing Day, La Romana, Dominican Republic I have only visited the Dominican Republic once before, when I stayed in an all-inclusive hotel in Puerto Plata many years ago and enjoyed it. Puerto [more…]