Stories behind the stories. By Travel Writer, Amy McPherson
(Feature image credit to Natalia Santolaya) For all that could have been, this year had been a great year. I did spend most of the first months of the year grieving after the loss of my cat, the year has been kind. One of the biggest opportunity came in the form of the world’s biggest …
2020 had been quiet, like everywhere else, travel restrictions meant many of us are limited to moving about in our own areas/regions. During this time, many people took up an outdoor hobby – cycling, running, paddle boarding – to keep active and to keep fit. How suitable it was then, that my first big trip …
It’s one of those things that I used to take for granted – the joy of packing. As a travel writer I was always on the go, and packing became more of an instinct rather than a pleasurable process. Then, came 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic took over our lives, affecting absolutely everyone on this …
Continued from Cycling five countries: Part 1 I left you with a rest day in Dublin, where I spent most of the day walking dazed around town and hanging out with Oscar Wilde while being heavily medicated with cold and flu tablets. In a way, it was a revelation how much our bodies can take …
For me, every cycle tour begins the same way: with a fall. You read a few posts ago that I don’t particularly balance well. So cycling at a fast pace, having to deal with clipping on and off, deal with obstructions like a loose running dog or even just trying to get around curving road …
When do we begin to fear? As a child, I had very little fear. At least that’s what my aunt told me. Now, I am supposed to be older, wiser, and more experienced in life yet, I have more fear than ever before, and not just a general fear of things but fear for the …
Some of you may remember, I first ‘picked up’ a healthy obsession with cycling just under a year ago. Not that I didn’t ride a bicycle when I was younger but to properly cycle for longer distances than just a round trip to the shops was a new thing for me, and it hasn’t been …
The Easter weekend just past was the first weekend I didn’t have a deadline to worry about. I felt free. Too free. I didn’t know what to do with myself. So, went to see The Greatest Showman (now my new favourite musical album), tried to see Winnie the Pooh exhibition at the Victoria & Albert …
I can’t write. Been sitting here for two hours now, watching the blinking cursor steadily warning me that I’ve not written more than 50 words towards my 1200 words story that’s due on Thursday. Wake up! It urged. This is one assignment you cannot fail! The cursor is right, but I am otherwise distracted. I …
All day, I have been feasting my eyes on a pair of very fine wheels. A road bike, so very shiny and pretty and is everything I’ve dreamt of is on sale, and I’ve been obsessively looking at it on my computer screen while daydreaming about owning it. To an outsider, I appeared to be …
You may or may not have noticed that I’ve picked up a new obsession – the bicycle – this year, thanks to a trip made in haste to Sligo in Ireland where the enthusiasm and the camaraderie of the guides and fellow travellers on our cycling tour that got me deeply and madly hooked on …
