We crossed the Millennium Footbridge in twilight as the sun was setting over the river, having walked from St Paul’s Cathedral. The moon was coming out, brightening in the deep blue sky of a summer evening. The lights reflecting on the water were beautiful. We could see down the Thames towards Tower Bridge, with Southwark […]
On a trip to London with my girlfriend, we headed for St Paul’s just before sunset. There are roses of many colours growing up against the cathedral railings. They made for picturesque shots of the cathedral with a cloudless summer sky as background. Slanted evening light fell across the front of St Paul’s as the […]
The caves at Cheddar form an intricate and deep network of caverns hollowed out naturally by the action of water, over millennia. The caves were formed by the chemical reaction between water and limestone, which makes a weak carbonic acid. Rainwater easily erodes this rock, dissolving the limestone. A body known as Cheddar Man was […]
The Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge is famous for its unusual design. Although it appears to be an arch, the bridge is built entirely of straight timbers. Its component pieces are arranged at tangents that create a strong, self-supporting structure when pressure is applied to them all together. Originally built in 1749, it has been rebuilt […]
A couple of summers ago I visited south Cornwall, where we took some beautiful walks along the South West Coast Path. Maintained by the National Trust and spanning 630 miles, the path connects walking trails through Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. The coast path follows picturesque and scenic routes along cliff tops and beside beaches […]
The Llechwedd Slate Caverns are an old mining network under the mountains of Snowdonia. The caverns and tunnels are hewn from the solid rock of the mountains. Llechwedd lies in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, once the largest town in north Wales after Wrexham, but its population fell with the decline of the slate […]
This is one of my favourite places in Cambridge, the Mill Pond. Here the River Cam splits, meandering around a meadow at the back of Queen’s College and forming a pool beside the Silver Street bridge. From there the river flows on under the bridge, and in the other direction through the Backs, passing alongside […]
Last summer there was a wonderful display of colourful elephant statues around the city of Luxembourg. The statues were commissioned as pieces of artwork to raise awareness of environmental and conservation issues. Here are photos of many elephants I saw around the city while I was visiting. It was really fun to spot the elephants […]
For Mothers’ Day we visited fields of rare hyacinths, grown in Waterbeach. The fields north of Cambridge become Fenland, with rich fertile black soil and flat land. This region was marsh, drained and reclaimed during the seventeenth century. It is still low-lying and intersected by rivers and streams, with roads raised up above the level […]
Bath is a picturesque city with famous Georgian architecture and Roman baths. It is a spa city, built on a natural spring. Notable sights of Bath include the Roman baths, Bath Abbey, the Pulteney bridge, the Circus and the Royal Crescent. Here are some photos taken as I wandered around the city. The rotunda design […]
Last July I visited Luxembourg City for the wedding of two friends. It was the first time I had been around in Luxembourg properly rather than just passing through. My friend Tom collected me from the station and we drove past the European Court. I hadn’t been in continental Europe since early summer 2009, and […]
Last weekend I went to a wedding in Kent. The couple are friends of my girlfriend, and it was a lovely occasion that took place in a large country house. After the wedding we had an opportunity to go looking around some of the surrounding villages in Kent, so went out for a drive in […]
In Stetchworth I park by the church. Wandering through the village, sounds of home lives filter out through open doors. Someone is listening to a cricket match on a television or radio, and in another house someone is playing their piano. A child is learning to ride a bike, riding wobbling along the pavement, pursued […]
I visit the village of Dullingham one hot day in late July. It is a village of flint walls and chocolate-box cottages. Horses are neighing from stables, and bells chime in the church. I wander through the sleeping village, in the thick hazy heat of the afternoon. Roses tumble from flint walls, in their last […]
Recently I visited the city of Bath, in Somerset, for the first time. In ancient times Bath was the site of a hot spring, a place treated as a shrine by Iron Age Britons. A temple was built on the site in 60-70AD, during the Roman occupation of Britain. A complex of public baths gradually […]
Next I drove to Cowlinge, a particularly pretty village in Suffolk. It was midday on a Friday, and I’d expected the village to be deserted on a week day. However there were many people out and about: mowing lawns, riding horses, walking dogs, cycling, mending walls. This is the old blacksmith’s cottage. This is the […]
This is my first post in a series on English villages. I think many people don’t realise how beautiful Britain is, including a proportion of those that live here, and I want to share through photography some of the beauty I see here. I don’t live anywhere dramatic, not in those parts of the British […]
To celebrate the birth of the new Prince of Cambridge, yesterday, 22nd July 2013, here is a post on the city that is his namesake. I had to leave Mumbai to find more work, but once I got home to Cambridgeshire I decided to continue looking at places with the eyes of a traveller, even […]