Stories behind the stories. By Travel Writer, Amy McPherson
There’s much to celebrate about English history this year, one of which is the 500 years of Hampton Court , built by Henry VIII (the one who keep killing his wives for not bearing him sons) which is a leisurely boat ride (or 10 mins by train) up the Thames from where we currently live. …
We’ve had a couple of visitors in London since moving here and many of them have displayed a desire to see musicals in London as one of their must dos. I love a good musical production, with its colourful costumes, fantastic music, and spectacular stage sets. Moving to London had been fantastic for the theatre loving …
Hello. Yep, that’s me. They put me in a cage, and I was not happy. So I wanted to write to tell you about the time I took the 24 hours flight. Mid last year mum suddenly disappeared on us for a few months. Angel and I were placed in the care of aunt Krista …
It’s one of those stories that begins with “In a land far far away….” Last month I shared my thoughts on what had surprised me about the UK. Most of these surprises don’t bother me all that much but while life has been more than wonderful (yes, you heard me, I am thoroughly enjoying myself!) there are times …
Hello. Yes, it’s the cat writing. I’ve been quiet for too long about this and it’s time to break my silence. Seeing that you have all been following what my mother gets up to trotting around the globe, I figured that you already know the pain and sufferance she has endowed upon me (not us, …
It’s approaching my 6 months anniversary of being a resident here in the UK. Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun? Remember how I was both excited about and dreading the move to London? A couple of months ago, a friend asked me how I was and what I liked and disliked about the UK, …
That’s right. It’s about food again. I can’t help it. As you know food always play a large part of my travels! One of the best things about business travel, is that I get to eat in good cafes and restaurants where my backpacking budget would never have allowed me to. Kiev surprised me with …
Kiev made me fall in love with fat. Yes, that’s right, fat. We are talking lard, we are talking slices of pig fat rolled in spices, we are talking pan fried dumplings with its thin coating of oil. It’s very much country food in this region, and for both Russia and Ukraine, I have been …
We stayed in a castle the other day. And it was like a fairy tale. Checked in: 28 February 2015 Checked out: 1 March 2015 Room: Bodium – Superior Double Price paid: £620 A Taste of Amberley Package The last time I paid this much for a night’s accommodation was for our wedding in Vanuatu. It was …
It’s first of March! It’s first day of Spring! Well, for the northern hemisphere anyway, and it has been warmly welcomed. Not that winter had been all that bad. Apparently it was the sunniest winter in England for 90 years. Sunniest! Can you believe it? And they say winter in England is horrible. I had …
As I am about to head over to Kiev for the second time, I thought I’d share 5 interesting facts I learned about Kiev that you probably didn’t know! 1. Kiev, or Kyiv, is one of the largest and oldest cities in Eastern Europe. The city was founded in the year of 482BC. That’s pretty old. Ok, …
(First published on Huffington Post Blogs: 10 Reasons Why Travellers Make Terrible Friends) Yep. You know us. We are the ones who post photos and updates from exotic places on Facebook. We are the ones whose fashion collection make up of cultural rags from all the countries we have been. We are your friends. Your …
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. I visited more than ten years ago, in 2003, to this place that brought me to tears just standing on the empty rail line, where a small bouquet of flower was laid by a visitor reflected the grievous mood felt by all those …
One of the best things about living in a ‘global’ city is that you get to experience film and tv sets everyday. How many times have you seen the Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and those iconic red Double Decker buses on screen? From James Bond to Harry Potter to Doctor Who to Thor. London …
I have been to Moscow a couple of times and will be heading off again in a few days. One of the things I have enjoyed in Moscow (as usual) is the food. You can find any sort of cuisine in Moscow, even an American Diner just a block away from the Red Square (notice …
Edinburgh is beautiful, as I have been told many a times. “Edinburgh is beautiful. You should go.” Go we did, but before we could savour the beauty we needed to understand her first. Wha’ yer din her? I am sorry? Wear yer flom? Nothing made sense, I was starting to wonder if we had perhaps …
It was as if I was asking my husband to jump in a freezing lake for a swim, or dance naked on the streets. How about Moscow in winter? “I am not going with you to Moscow in December. That’s that!” He had said with such ferocity when I asked him if he would like …
Don’t be surprised that most of our activities at the Christmas Markets had something to do with food. Well, after all, I do love some market street food! In my opinion, Germans have got the best ‘street food’ culture in Europe, mostly because Europe as a continent just doesn’t really associate itself with street food …
I have been waiting for this moment for ten years, when I am able to finally spend Christmas in Europe and have easy access to the Christmas markets that I loved in Germany. It took an easy hour’s hop from London to Cologne, and we were among Cologne’s four Christmas markets. Markt am Dom The …
I’ve just spent a week in Moscow. Average temperature throughout hovered around -6, the air was super crisp and every breath I took was a steam of confirmation that this was indeed winter. And I loved it. “It’s not the coldest yet!” Said a writer friend in an email to me, when I described how …
I’ve been bear hunting on the weekend, apparently Paddington has hit London town, and it’s become an obsession to track him down! He is everywhere, all 50 of his ‘incarnations’, but my priority was to find the Dr Who Paddington, and whichever one I see on my way are just bonuses. My hunt took me to …
It’s been a running joke at work, because no one so far has done it this way round, that I had moved to the UK because I preferred the weather. I have (officially) been here for a couple of weeks now and have seen the weather turn from beautiful to horrid, most times within a …
I have a thing for sunsets, as you probably have gathered from my post about Chasing Sunsets. This particular sunset was captured on Baracay Island in the Philippines, taken by Peter Navea. It has been almost a year since our trip to the Philippines. We never made it to Baracay but it is certainly on …
I was driving home last night from the east side of Sydney back to the west. I haven’t driven this way for a while and at one stage took the wrong turn and instead of heading toward the main road that would have taken me directly west, I was heading east again. Then, like the …
