Any Excuse to Travel

Stories from travels in

November 2013

Sculptures and silhouettes

I’ve a great imagination. It doesn’t take much for me to imagine myself somewhere, to transport myself to another time and place, and let my

The Bethlehem Wall

I’m a fan of graffiti… not the aimless posts of I wuz ‘ere or the the like … but the clever kind, the witticisms, the

The valley of cheers

The last thing I expected to see in the Holy Land was a vineyard, which, given the fabled wedding of Cana, was somewhat silly of

The Holy of Holies

Described as the Holy of Holies from which the Divine Presence never moves, the Western Wall in Jerusalem was high on my list of places

Moses: whereabouts unknown

Nabi Mosa mosque is said to be a sacred place for Muslims because it is here that the prophet Moses is supposedly buried – mind

The oldest city in the world

Billed as the oldest city in the world, Jericho was one of the few places that saw little action during the two intifadas (Palestinian uprisings,

The tree of life

For years, local builders had been helping themselves to the spoils of what has since been discovered to be an eighth-century desert castle. Hisham’s palace

Fifty shades of … brown

It took a while for me to put my finger on what I was missing most – and then it finally dawned on me. Colour.

So where did it happen?

Here are four words… immersion, submersion, aspersion, and affusion. When you read them, what one word comes to mind …. apart from ‘clueless’?  I had

Nearly 400 metres below sea level… and counting

It seems as if much of what I’ve taken to be true is being challenged this week. And equally, what I’m expected to know as