Romantic honeymoon destinations in the Greek Islands

This is a guest post by freelance travel writer Matthew Hawking. In the hit movie Mamma Mia!, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan lit up the screen but the real star was the stunning land and seascape of the Greek Islands. The Abba-themed romp was filmed on Skopelos and Skiathos, but Greece has nearly 1400 islands [...]

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Steven at the Latin American travel blog Travelojos has nominated me to share three travel secrets in the Trip Base blog tag. I like the idea of highlighting obscure places. 1. Dougga, Tunisia Dougga in Tunisia gives Ephesus in Turkey a run for its money when it comes to impressive Roman ruins. It is not [...]

Photo Friday: The British Museum with children and the Parthenon Marbles debate

London, UK; July 2007 This is my sister Emma riding on my shoulders at the British Museum in summer 2007. She was five at the time and is now a big girl of seven and a half. We are standing in front of the Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles) and our dad [...]

Photo Friday: East meets West – Tai Chi at Urquhart Castle

Scottish Highlands, UK; June 2009 The setting: One of the farthest turrets of Urquhart Castle, a ruined medieval castle on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. The players: Two middle-aged Japanese tourists practise their Tai Chi in the summer sunshine, overlooking the sparkling blue waters of the loch. Nessie stayed at home. It’s unlikely [...]

Stone-age Orkney: Hobbit homes in the village of Skara Brae

See where the real-life Flintstones lived at the 5,000-year-old village of Skara Brae in the third and final post on stone-age Orkney. Plus, I am giving away two copies of the DVD Standing with Stones – for details on how to enter, please see the end of the post. When the village of Skara Brae [...]

Photo Friday: Giant water lily pads at Kew Gardens

Kew, London; May 2008 When I was seven my third-grade teacher gave us our very first assignment. We could do a project on any topic we wanted. I chose flowers. I liked flowers and still do but the deciding factor was my aunt Frances who promised she would help me do one on flowers. She [...]

Stone-age Orkney: Fairy Mounds and Maeshowe

Part two in my series on stone-age Orkney is on the neolithic burial chamber of Maeshowe. Fairy Mounds feature heavily in the folk lore of Britain and Ireland. The mounds are believed to be the dwelling place of fairies (or faeries), elves or the sidhe. Fairy favour could bring prosperity and happiness but woe betide [...]

Photo Friday: Standing Pebbles in Orkney

Orkney; June 2009 My friend and I were sightseeing around mainland Orkney when we stumbled across this circle of Standing Stones – or rather, Standing Pebbles! I don’t know who did this but it tickled my fancy as a joyful and creative response to the environment. I could imagine doing this with a child – [...]

Stone-age Orkney: Standing Stones and the Ring of Brodgar

Thousands of years ago in Britain people liked to erect giant stones in circles. Theories abound about how and why but no one is exactly sure. Was it religion? Was it science? Clearly it was a matter of some importance given that it would have taken considerable effort to achieve. Whatever the reason, the engineering [...]

Photo Friday: Hill walking in Scotland

Inveraray, Scotland; June 2009 The population density of the United Kingdom is one of the highest in the world – there are 61 million people packed into a rather small island. You wouldn’t know it in the hills of Scotland. About five out of six people in Britain live in England and within England, the [...]

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