Stories behind the stories. By Travel Writer, Amy McPherson
Most people try to escape winter and go on holidays somewhere warm, in the sun and preferably on a beach and in a resort. Us? No. Seeing that we are finally living in a region where there are distinct four seasons and have proper winters, I am going to take the opportunity to actually enjoy …
As a traveller I don’t believe in politics. I believe in humanity and friendship and I have been avoiding this topic for a long time, but it seems that it’s time to talk about terrorism. News haven’t been pleasant recently. Humans are turning on each other, either on difference in opinion or on the …
You know that moment when you realised that you’ve just filled your entire camera’s memory on the same back drop over and over again? I had that moment recently when we spent a weekend in Lausanne, sitting on the lake shore being mesmerised by the snow dusted mountain peaks directly across the water from us. …
It’s Guy Fawkes Day this Thursday (5 November), something that I experienced last year as a fresh arrival, and having just came from a country where fireworks are banned (outside the nation’s tiny capital) it was quite a stir. People freely let off fireworks in their backyards, on the streets and along the riverbanks, …
Come together, right now. Over me. My mother is a big Beatles fan. I am also partial to a good tune by the Fab Four, and visiting Liverpool was somewhat of a pilgrimage, made on behalf of my mother, to the home of the band that made millions of girls worldwide scream their hearts out …
Last in my interview series about family travel is with well known travel blogger Lois Yasay. She co-founded the We Are Sole Sisters website sharing her travelling stories, recommendations and advice, as well as encouraging more women to make travel happen for themselves, and is now also e-book author and motivational speaker. Last year, Lois turned …
I’ve started a small interview series because there has been a surge of people having babies at the moment. I guess I am at the age where friends and family are going to be thinking about adding the extra numbers to their little gangs. It’s delightful, because parenthood does make one happy (so I can …
I met Nila during the 2013 Asian Womens Empowerment Conference in Kuala Lumpur. She is the founder of Travel Sparks Indonesia, and the all inspiring Taman Bacaan Pelangi (Rainbow Reading Gardens), a non-profit organization focuses on establishing children’s libraries in remote areas of Eastern Indonesia. Like me, she is a keen traveller and 32 countries later …
People in their environment have always intrigued me. While meeting them on my travels and taking part in festivals and cultural events form the highlights of most of my trips, I also take a lot of time people watching, observing behaviours and actions as the inhabitants of a place go about their daily routine. …
So, as you now know, that it has been a year since our formal move to the UK. While we don’t actually live in ‘London‘ proper, we do spend a load of time working, studying and entertaining in London. While having explained myself numerous times, there are still questions about what exactly what I like …
Here’s a question I’ve been asked recently: “what does living unconventionally mean to you Amy?” It was on Twitter, so I was limited to 120 characters. In short, my answer was: I think that everyone needs to be true to who they are and what they want out of life, and not to follow a path …
There was only one reason, and one reason only for my recent trip to Cardiff. Doctor Who. Go on, call me the nerd, but I am simply in love with this quirky time traveller created by the BBC and couldn’t help but make this special journey to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff. For the show’s …
It was really nice to be able to see Moscow during the day, for my previous trips had been on business and I don’t always have the spare time at night to explore. I wrote about Moscow in winter in all its cold and snowy glory, but I thought I write a proper ‘guide’ post …
I hear that some of you have been inquiring over me. Never fear, I am still alive, despite mum and dad’s insistence of not feeding me every time I actually need to be fed. I keep telling them by nagging and clawing at the door, but I get ignored each time. So I spend most …
I love train travel, so it’s no surprise that when we were in Russia I wasn’t going to pass on a chance to get on a Russian train! While there is an express train that we could have taken between St Petersburg and Moscow, which would have only taken a little over 4 hours, we …
Two hours train ride away from St Petersburg took us somewhere in complete contrast. Stepping out of the train we were greeted with a bland concrete station building adorned with the Soviet hammer and sickle, and image that told us that we were definitely not in imperial grounds anymore. This was Veliky Novgorod (or simply …
My previous business trips to Moscow had given me a taste of the extravagance of the Russian architecture and their love of showing off, so on arrival in St Petersburg I wasn’t surprised to find a metropolis of grand palaces and elegant gardens, encircled by cathedrals and churches with golden onion domes. We chose to …
Wimbledon is a word that is synonymous with tennis, and is conveniently just four train stops from where I currently live. However, I am currently avoiding the area due to the crowds that have descended in the area for… well, the tennis of course. However, there is another side of Wimbledon that isn’t about tennis. Wimbledon …
Wanting to explore the region where we live, I jumped on Google Maps (what else) and looked for places and areas of interest in Surrey. Being Google, it knew my strong preferences to places with lots of nature and walking trails so immediately pin pointed the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Beauty on the map. …
Thinking of taking an eco-friendly approach to travel? On some of our previous trips, we’ve rented bikes to explore towns and cities, and I found travelling on bikes fantastic for seeing a place from a different point of view. Therefore, it is always an interest of mine to find bike friendly cities to visit on …
We all have places where we go to just breathe, sometimes for a long time but more often just for a couple of days, where we escape the daily grind, away from the routine that is wake up, breakfast, train, work, lunch, work, train, home, dinner, sleep. Some escape to shop, others escape to enjoy …
I have been thinking about the Pacific lately, thinking about the islands, the beaches and friendly people. Combining the European setting and thoughts of smiling islanders I landed my mind back in bustling Noumea, where it is easier to get a good croissant than it is to order the Bougna, a traditional Melanesian feast cooked in banana …
Dad’s turn :) 爸爸寫: Dad writes: 法國人浪漫崇尚自由，巴黎被稱為浪漫之都. 艾菲爾鐵塔，凱旋門,羅浮宮,凡爾賽宮,塞納河,紅酒左岸咖啡,這些名詞都是我來巴黎之前所學到的． The French are romantic and adore freedom, and Paris is known as the romantic city. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Palace of Versailles, Seine river, red wine and coffee are some of the words I associated with Paris before our visit. 這一次的歐洲之行，是女兒幫我們規劃的，法國是我們造訪的第四個國家. 我們從德國法蘭克福搭火車三個小時到達巴黎，女兒的朋友 Ching 已經在火車站等我們了，他將負責導引我們在巴黎三天的旅遊. This European …
媽媽寫: Mum writes: 女兒女婿親子來荷蘭接我們，由阿姆斯特丹坐快車到德國的科隆.科隆有世界著名的古教堂，高大宏偉壯觀是世界古蹟遺產之一，也有很大的廣場，在廣場的酒吧內第一次喝到了德國啤酒. My daughter and her husband came to pick us up after the cruise in Amsterdam, and we took an express train to Germany’s Cologne. Cologne has the iconic historical church, tall and grand and is one of the world heritage sites. 科隆的小餐廳並非以華麗取勝，而是有很多典雅的擺飾. 店內只賣啤酒和一些傳統的食物. 客人多為喝酒而來，侍者均以小杯呈上，不過會推銷無數次的續杯. Cologne’s small pubs and restaurants are decorated with …
