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In all the times I’ve been to Paris (and there are many) I’ve never actually been in the spring - arguably the classic time to visit. So, it was a bit of a first for both of us.
It […]

The bonus of backdating blog posts is that you can write up your notes when you get back from travelling and post them on the appropriate day.
The downside is that anyone using a browser rather than a feed reader will probably miss them by not scrolling down past postings that then appear above them.
So as […]

We are woken up by the musicians. They come stamping around the camp shortly after seven, standing by the flap of each tent and banging their drums. It certainly beats the hey-hey-hey Mickey Mouse message they played down the phones on a press trip to Disneyland Paris a couple of years back.
Today we were leaving. […]

Today we left Marrakech, but not to go home. Instead, we assembled after our meeting for a briefing by Azim’s team. They gave us maps, emergency mobiles and the keys to a fleet of twenty-odd 4×4, and sent us off into the mountains.
The idea was that we would all make our way out of the […]

Marrakech is famed for its Souq. At home we have markets, but they don’t compare to this knotted tangle of streets, lined by tiny businesses that will have been trading in its shady corners since the Normans invaded Britain. It’s many travellers’ sole reason for coming to Marrakech.
After an early briefing we split into groups […]

Uma Thurman was on our plane. I had never imagined she would fly budget. Anyhow, there she was occupying the front two rows, with the aircrew fawning over her all the way from London to Marrakech, and taking photos with their mobile phones, which clearly weren’t turned off.
The first we saw of Morocco was the […]

So it looks like I may have been right about Network Rail’s dodgy maths. Or perhaps not. It depends who you listen to. All I know is that, as suspected, I didn’t get to work the day after a bank holiday weekend of engineering works. Neither did a lot of other people
Again.
It was almost inevitable.
Initial […]

Ever wondered why rail improvements never seem to run to time? Perhaps it’s Network Rail’s maths, or the lengths to which it expects its workers to go.
Network Rail oversees the UK’s network and stations, and its latest press release, published today, outlines the work it plan to complete over the four day Easter break.
It’s a […]

I cycle to the station and back each day. It’s one of the best parts of the day, and it’s certainly faster than either walking or driving. It’s not a long journey, but until now I’ve never really known how far it is. I was guessing a mile or so, and I wasn’t far out.
The […]

Well there’s a surprise. The meticulously-planned works that have kept Liverpool Street station closed since 23rd December have over-run. The bridge they were removing has gone, and the scheduled upgrades to a handful of stations have been completed, but now they have problems with the overhead lines, and the station is stranded, cut off from […]