Absolutely loved Milan and that whole stretch of Northern Italy. We had a week there at the end of '23 and beginning of 24.
So, let's start with something childish, but still quite cool.
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What to do in a place you've been to a gizzilion times? All of the definitive must see sights and sites have already been seen (plobly!) but there must be other stuff. Atlasobscura is great for finding those non-A list attractions. Sometimes they are still pretty major things but perhaps a bit odder than average. Anyway, this was one of their things to see in Edinburgh... A disused railway tunnel.
In the hay-day of steam, the locomotive train, the city of Edinburgh was served by a network of railway lines. The advent of the automobile caused a massive decline in rail travel starting in the 1920s. Miles of tracks would lie dormant for several years around the city. It wasn’t until the end of the 20th-century that many of these abandoned pathways were converted into walking and cycling routes.
This particular train track was once traveled by novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, who would take the train to see his grandfather, Dr. Lewis Balfour and one of the poems he wrote is about his memories of riding along the rails. The poem was called From a Railway Carriage and is the inspiration for a public art installation that adorns the walls of the Colinton Tunnel.
Pictured below is part of the mural of RLS sat at his writing desk musing on the poem. ![]() When we lived in Tianjin, we always used to like wandering around the Art District when we came to Beijing. It had a very different vibe to it - relaxed, laid back and generally not that busy. Now that I am living in Beijing, it's still one of my favourite places to head to, but it has changed somewhat over the years! My first trip back here was a more crowded experience - admittedly, I did come on a public holiday! (will try not to do that again!) The red dinosaurs are one of the first instillations you see when you enter from the main road. They're big; you can't miss them! Some of the other instillations that I remember from our early trips seem to have gone. There are plenty of new art galleries of varying sizes open these days and most are free to enter. It's always been a place for finding quirky little shops, and many are still there, but quite a few seem to have been replaced with more general tourist tat - it's a same really!
Going on holiday outside of Thailand wasn't really possible this summer. Well, it was possible to get out and go just about anywhere, but getting back would then be nigh on impossible. I can confirm that you don't get much sympathy when you moan about HAVING to go on holiday in Thailand. However; I don't hugely like beaches.... Great for a morning but after that, I'm bored and we've been to most of the other major sites. This is might well end up being the first time in 20 years we spend a whole year in one country! We might get away in October but I wouldn't bet money on it.
One of the places we'd been planning on going to this year anyway was Chang Rai but up until now that's not been do-able. So here we are. The place was pretty much deserted! We didn't literally have the hotel to ourselves but pretty much did. Walking around, we rarely saw another pedestrian, tourist sites were deserted, so all-in-all that worked out OK for me. We did notice that apart from restaurant and hotel staff very few people wore masks (although we didn't see many people out and about either!). In central Bangkok pretty much everyone does. Another difference was the lack of motorbike helmets: Virtually nobody wore them either. It's been a discussion point here: The Government has stopped Covid but done nothing about road deaths which daily claim the same as the total number of Covid deaths in the country and they are usually motorbike riders. The big tourist draws to Chang Rai are all colour related. There's the Blue temple, the Black House and the big daddy of them all; the White Temple. All are cool in their own way, but we'll start with the White Temple... Which for some reason they weren't charging even foreigners for when we there.... Usually its free for Thais and foreigners pay 100 baht. A one week visit to Victoria for work. As always on these jaunts its unusual to see much more than the inside of the hotel and a school. However, my flight left late at night on the last day so I had a day at leisure in Melbourne. Spring had sprung, the grass had rizz, I wondered where the birdies is. The weather was glorious... early 20s, sunny and fresh. Melbourne is a nice city to walk around and that's just what I did. I downloaded a few walking tour guides and plumped for the street art self-guided walking tour. Although by the time I'd found the beginning of it I was already a bit knackered and didn't really get going in the afternoon like I planned. In fact, I found a park and lay in the sun and read for a good part of it.
Another Place is a piece of modern sculpture by Sir Antony Gormley. It consists of 100 cast iron sculptures of the artist's own body, facing towards the sea. They are all 185cm tall... Apparently casts of his own body are a bit of theme with him.
Many (most?) of the sculptures are submerged at high tide. This means that they are gradually evolving as the sea works on them, Well, we finally made it to Sri Lanka. We originally had it lined up 9 years ago as a place we wanted to go but pregnancies (both ours and those of family members) have, several times, but the mockers on it to the point where we thought it just wasn't meant to be.
Like most visitors we landed in Colombo we then chose stay for a few days to get settled. We have the big advantage of being teachers so get a long break which means we can take our time with our summer break, so weren't in any rush to do anything or go anywhere. This was true of the whole trip and we could easily have knocked a least a day off each destination and got to see considerably more, but it is supposed to be a holiday and relaxing so why rush? To round off our mini China tour with the mother-in-law we went to Beijing. I had (for once at least) a plan as to the kind of pictures I was looking for. This is definitely easier to do once you know where you are going and what you are going to see.
The idea was taken from the Winner of the TPOTY competition. His were almost, but not quite, silhouettes of Paris to give nice monochrome graphic images. I'n not sure I got what I was after but I do like the first two in particular.
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AuthorsWe are teachers and have worked in various schools in Europe & Asia. This is really a chronicle of out travels over the years. It is meant for us to look back on, reflect and remember where we've been, what we've done and all our little adventures. If you like it too, then fab! If you don't, do you think we care? Archives
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