Buda and Pest.
Last-minute booking.
Covid was being defeated. I needed live music.
A quick visit to Fingal county, near Dublin.
One short day in Naples wasn't enough. I went back for a week.
Northern Ireland's friendliest music festival.
Bundoran used to be a cheap, scruffy resort. It still is, but you can see gentrification starting to happen. (Incidentally, when you drive from Northern Ireland to Bundoran on the main road, you cross the border 3 times.)
One of the most important regions for history and pre-history. Also beautiful, and the people are friendly.
Beautiful Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. And Capri, Naples and Pompeii.
Glendalough in County Wicklow.
November in Barcelona, and it's warm and sunny. We took an apartment in El Raval, an area that's evolving from immigrant poverty toward hipsterdom.
Another Summer break in Ireland. Westport this time, and a visit to Achill.
Something of a pilgrimage to "Montalbano" country, the bottom right-hand corner of Sicily. The television series is filmed around the area. Montalbano's house is in Punta Secca, and his police station is really Scicli town hall. (The places aren't just photogenic, they're a UNESCO heritage site.)
I hadn't been to Galway for years, so that was the choice for the July break.
Amsterdam in March. The weather wasn't too bad.
Still taking the cheaper mid-week flights, but this time a 4-week booking in one apartment was enough to secure mid-week start times. Visiting Pisa, Volterra, San Gimignano, Lucca and Florence.
A fairly random choice ("Where can we get a cheap hotel deal in Ireland in July?") that turned out to be perfect. The weather helped, but Athlone definitely has its charms.
Christmas in Verona, including day trips to Milan
and Venice.
Umbria via Tuscany.
I try to get to Belfast's Pride parade every year. Of course, it's great fun, but I mainly go to show solidarity, and hope that the more people who attend, the more it convinces the bigots that they're the ones who are out of step.
Apartment rentals usually run from Saturday. Mid-week flights are cheaper. You see how it works? So I combined a short city break in Rome with 3 weeks in Umbria, at Lake Trasimeno. That turned out to be another Umbrian region that I fell in love with.
Ten days in New Orleans. I loved New Orleans. Probably the key observation was in the guidebook, which said that New Orleans isn't so much a Southern USA city, but more of a Northern Carribean one.
The first time I visited Lucca, on a day trip, I didn't much like it. But I must have been grumpy that day, because I liked it on later visits, and so planned a three-week stay in 2010. I also went to Florence, Pisa and Viareggio.
Two friends of mine got hitched by a pagan priestess. Then there was cake.
I got a cheap deal on an apartment high in the Monte Sibillini National Park. I booked it for 7 weeks! I travelled around Umbria, and also took the train for my first ever day in Rome.
A short visit to Venice. It was June, not quite high season, but there were lots of tourists (many of them day-trippers or cruise-ship victims). But you only needed to go a hundred metres from San Marco to find real, peaceful Venice.
A photo tour (no words) of Strangford Lough and vicinity.
Glastonbury is traditionally held on the wettest weekend of the year. 2007 was no exception.
The Zoo on a sunny day.
Another part of Italy, and one which I came to like very much. The whole of Umbria, of course, but especially the part between Spoleto and Perugia, with Bevagna, Montefalco, and Assisi. On later trips, I'd also get to know Trevi and Spello.
Easter in Florence again. I also took the bus to Siena, and the train to Lucca.
I thought I'd better see some other parts of Italy. I didn't get the chance to go until late in the year, but it worked out well. L'Aquila, Sulmona and Ascoli Piceno.
The top right-hand corner of Tuscany. Not so well known to tourists, but every bit as beautiful. day trips to San Gimignano and Florence.
A business trip to Bordeaux, topped and tailed by free time, travelling from Bergerac to Biarritz through Aquitaine, including the Dordogne and Lot rivers.
Siena and Florence, but mainly the medieval festival in San Gimignano, Il Ferie delle Messi.
Easter in Florence to see Lo Scoppio del Carro, "The Explosion of the Cart", an Easter spectacular.
My first Italian holiday in a rented apartment. Ten days in a very hot Florence, with a day trip to Lucca and return via Bologna.
On my own again. A tour of Tuscany, including Montecatini Terme, Lucca, Florence, San Gimignano and Siena.
The Basque Country and Bilbao. A visit to Gehry's Guggenheim.
How I saw the Sun go out.
How I found Italy. (It's one of the protruding bits of the North Mediterranean coast.)