There are some things that are so beyond the range of your normal tourist sightseeing that it's hard to do them justice in a blog post. Of course, experiences like swimming under a two-thousand-year-old Roman aqueduct spanning the river Gard near Nîmes in southern France, or emerging from the labyrinthine arches of Córdoba's Mezquita into… Continue reading The Pyramids of Teotihuacán
Author: Ralph Lavelle
Web developer by trade. Married to Tina. 2 kids, Alexander and Eoin. I'm from Ireland, but we all live in Australia.
Ciudad de México, the town they call CDMX
Well, we flew in on a redeye from LA, having spent three days in the Californian desert, and were met by our friend Luis's dad, Luis, at Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México (the city goes by the abbreviation of CDMX nowadays more than the older 'DF', which stands for Distrito Federal. And yes, it's usually… Continue reading Ciudad de México, the town they call CDMX
Guanajuato, city of Don Quixote
Guanajuato twists and turns, soars and plunges. Callejones empedradas - cobblestoned laneways - descend into plazuelas and teatros. Tunnels, once rivers, convey the newly-arrived visitor on an old green boneshaker from the bus station through improbably narrow calles, past a statue of what looks like Don Quixote, and into the crowded pavements of the centro historico.… Continue reading Guanajuato, city of Don Quixote
The Mountains on the Way Up
The Ivory Curl trees were in full bloom the day we drove to the mountains. Other than Milano's on the Mall after work on a Friday, the loose scattering of odd-shaped volcanic plugs called the Glasshouse Mountains are one of my favourite places in Queensland. Driving up to the Sunshine Coast these past few weekends, Mt. Tibrogargan always catches me… Continue reading The Mountains on the Way Up
Sunday morning, Alexandra Headland
Walking over the rocks that separate Alexandra Headland from Mooloolaba I nearly stood on a sea snake. I made sure it was dead before inspecting it closely. It was silver, with dark bands, and up close you could see it had non-overlapping hexagonal scales. They weren't perfect, however; it was as if they came from the… Continue reading Sunday morning, Alexandra Headland
On the good ship Gráinne Mhaol
The Mooloolah river flows into the Coral Sea just south of the seaside town of Mooloolaba. In its final half kilometre it wraps around a spit, enveloping the boats anchored in Mooloolaba Marina that stick out into it on hundred-metre-long arms. On arm C of the Marina is a thirty-five-or-so foot yacht called the Gráinne… Continue reading On the good ship Gráinne Mhaol
The end of a long road
It’s nearly time to leave Zákynthos. Our year-and-a-half-long odyssey to Europe is nigh-on over. What a time we’ve had! And yes, I can feel another book about Zákynthos, or better, about the whole trip, coming on. View of Ναύαγιο When we got back here, after leaving Ireland, and spending six weeks in France and Italy, people… Continue reading The end of a long road
From Dublin to Nîmes
This guy got up from his seat two rows behind us on the Toulouse-Nîmes TGV to have a go at the family in the four-seater space opposite us, whose kids were - fair enough - being a bit noisy, albeit harmlessly so, I felt, since they looked like nice people, and you could tell the kids were smart, and while naturally I couldn't catch everything… Continue reading From Dublin to Nîmes
The Queen’s walk on Mayday, London
At the end of a raw spring week sleet and windy, Sunday turned the corner into May, ready to make amends. That morning we stepped out of our Theseus Walk Airbnb pied-à-terre and caught the number 38 bus to Charing Cross Road, ready to take it on foot from there. Leicester Square Maybe I'd been listening to too… Continue reading The Queen’s walk on Mayday, London
A little piece of Greece in Bloomsbury
Our travels took us to London this past weekend, and to a part of town we weren't at all familiar with: Angel. Sandwiched between the City Road and Regent's Canal, our Airbnb place at Theseus Place took us along the calm waters of the canal with its colourfully inhabited barges each time we came and went to Angel tube… Continue reading A little piece of Greece in Bloomsbury
