kd Lang

Her voice is round and mellow, deep and resonant: she is a glass of warm brandy in the palm of your hand.  It shimmies off the walls and reverberates in my bones like a fast-drunk shot of sambuca, warming every cell of me. And now it is crisp and clear, soaring and swelling, lifting us...

If JFK walked amongst us now……

I don’t watch much TV but I do sometimes enjoy it as background when ‘Reeling in the Years’ is airing. This simple, straightforward reflection on aspects of a particular year from the last four decades or so offers clear highlights without judgement; and the visuals remind us how far...

Austrian Ice Caves

I’ve come to the conclusion that people who post reviews on TripAdvisor are either all liars or top athletes. As the latter is very unlikely, I’m going with the former. We are on our last phase of the trip, and take a detour to visit the Ice Caves or Eisreisenwelt, having read that they are well...

Winter is Coming

We ride above Lake Bohinj, heading out of Slovenia and back towards Austria, going through tiny hamlets and villages, all of which have at least one religious statue and place of worship. Catholicism is omnipresent here, statues of Our Lady and Christ on the cross abound.  This has been a real feature...

The Descent

Leaving Slovenia for Austria, we go through an under-mountain tunnel which is 8km in length. That’s a mad long tunnel! I expect it to be freezing, as we dip low beneath the mountain but actually the deeper we go, the more intense the heat. I am reminded of a movie I watched as a child: Journey to the...

The Cow Festival

Four countries in five days!  Sounds hectic, frenetic, full on. But it hasn’t been. Despite the frequent crossing of boundaries, we aren’t doing serious mileage and are stopping frequently to take in the views, sip coffee and of course take photographs.  If we get chatting to some locals along...