Archive for the ‘Europe’ Category

On the last morning of our long weekend in London we headed to one of my favourite spots in London, the Natural History Museum. For me, it’s what come to mind when you picture a museum – from the rooms filled with fossils and precious stones to the stuffed animals and the entrance hall filled by the dinosaur skeleton, it has it all. This time however, my eye was drawn to the outside of the building, in particular the sculptures on the facade. When it was built, the Victorians believed they were building a cathedral to knowledge, and looking at the work that went into the decoration of the museum, you can see what they meant.

It’s a classic comment – when you live somewhere you don’t visit the tourist sights. How many Londoners haven’t climbed Tower Bridge or taken a look round Buckingham Palace? As I was not only coming to the UK on holiday but also travelling with Laura how had never visited, I decided to treat my stay in Dorset as a tourist would.

Which is how we found ourselves in the cute little village of Lulworth at 10am on a nice sunny English day ready to tackle one of the the most iconic stretches of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. As we were with my parents we needed to stop and have a cup of coffee – it seems that retirement requires a coffee break every 2 hours or so, but I made the most of it and had a bacon roll as well in preparation for the hills ahead.

After a quick look at Lulworth Cove, a near-perfect circle opening onto the sea, we tackled the path out of the village up onto the cliffs. After 10 minutes of huffing and puffing we arrived at the top and were rewarded with a spectacular view as far as Old Harry Rocks to the left and Portland to the right.

The highlight of the short version of the walk is without a doubt Durdle Door, which Laura described as looking like a dinosaur taking a drink, which seems fair enough to me.

We left Mum & Dad at this point and continued eastwards towards Osmington, 5 miles away. There were 3 more steep climbs as the cliffs rose and fell, but each summit provided you with stunning views and an ever-changing vista. Despite having visited Durdle Door with guests several times, I had never ventured east and was amazed at just how beautiful and tranquil it is.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot and have visited some truly beautiful places around the world, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this stretch of coast can give any of them a run for their money, and all this only 10 miles from where I grew up.

I’m back in the UK for a few weeks and have been playing with my new camera – it’s got lots of fancy, fiddly settings which I am trying to get to grips with. One preset function I have been having a lot of fun with is the tilt-shift setting, which basically focusses the centre of the picture whilst blurring the top and bottom, giving the image the look and feel of a model. Here are some taken from the top of Conwy Castle which I think work pretty well.

Some snow in Wales. It’s not all tropical beaches you know…

Well, this is it – where it’s all gonna happen, unless you’re me of course. Finished at the BNP (that’s a bank by the way rather than the right-wing political party) yesterday and ain’t going back! Got a few days to finish off all the lovely Geneva admin stuff, then the serious packing stuff starts. Come back soon for more updates.