Hamburg port is very important, if it does say so itself. There are 1700 transport companies with offices here. It is second in Europe when it comes to container handling and third at sea cargo handling. They are very proud…
Why so many international agencies are in the Swiss city of Geneva
Geneva is international – so international that it 184 different nationalities live there and make up 45% of the population. It feels international and not particularly Swiss. It’s almost like a very upmarket holiday resort made up of highbrow intellectuals….
Munich: The Third Reich and Dachau concentration camp tour
Despite my worries about being in Munich on my own, I really liked the city and I also made friends so my fears were unfounded. I stayed in the only hostel I could find that had any beds which was…
Why Ghent is my favourite place in Belgium
Ghent was my favourite place in Belgium, even though I only visited on a day trip. Many websites extol its virtues nowadays and I agree. In fact, reading about it now I’d like to return and appreciate it properly. It’s…
Admiring artwork in Amsterdam
Amsterdam was the very last place I went to on this solo trip around Western Europe so it felt good to be there. I was there for the better part of a week and I stayed in a YHA hostel…
What’s so good about seeing Girl with the Pearl Earring in Den Haag?
I got the train from Amsterdam to Den Haag or The Hague but to be honest you could quite easy cycle there. I was just too worried about ending up in the canal. The obvious tourist draw is, of course,…
The misery of the wildlife trade in Iquitos
Daniel and I got a room in a hostel together and then looked around to book ourselves onto a jungle trip. We wanted to go on a really cheap trip so we went rogue and just hired a guide to…
Wandering the battlefields of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was on the 18th June 1815 and it was the fight that ended French Emperor Napoleon’s European Empire through military dictatorship. There were 250,000 soldiers from seven nations involved in the horrendous battle, one of the…
Fooling around during flooding in Florianopolis
We got stamped into Brazil at the border office and then we walked in the dark to find a bus stop. Steph was not very subtly shitting herself at this point and hiding her valuables in different crevices of her…
Kitschy fun on Salzburg’s ‘The Sound of Music’ tour
Salzburg was definitely the highlight of Austria for me, and that is because the hills were alive with the Sound of Music. We visited Mozart’s birthplace (gerburtshaus) which is in the historical centre. He was born in the house in…
What is it like to come home after a long trip?
I spent 2008-9 travelling from South to Central America. In my last week, I got on a train from San Jose to Denver and changed to a flight to San Francisco. I was exhausted by this point but ultimately satisfied, at…
Why ‘contraception clinics’ don’t work
I had a week off work, so I did what many women do when they have time off – important admin. On the Monday at midday I went to my local hospital to their contraception clinic, I had rung up…