Travel with me

Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • About me
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    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Austria
      • Bulgaria
      • Estonia
      • France
        • Paris
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Spain
        • Seville
      • Switzerland
      • Ukraine
    • Beyond
      • Africa
        • Botswana
        • Cape Verde
        • Gambia
        • Kenya
        • Morocco
        • Namibia
        • Senegal
        • Tanzania
        • Zimbabwe
      • Americas
        • Belize
        • Canada
        • Chile
          • Rapa Nui
        • Costa Rica
        • Ecuador
          • Galapagos Islands
        • Guatemala
        • Jamaica
        • USA
          • New Mexico
          • New York City
          • Washington State
      • Asia
        • DPRK
        • India
          • Kerala
          • Rajasthan
        • Indochina
          • Cambodia
          • Laos
          • Vietnam
        • Japan
        • Nepal
        • Oman
        • Syria
        • United Arab Emirates
        • Uzbekistan
  • Themes
    • Architecture
    • Art
      • Crafts
      • Street art
    • Colour
    • Dark tourism
    • Eco-tourism
    • Food & drink
    • Gardens
    • History
      • Ruins
      • War
    • Landscape
      • Coast & seascapes
      • Deserts
      • Mountains
      • Rivers
    • Nature and wildlife
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Plants
        • Flowers
        • Trees, forests and woodland
    • People
      • Culture & tradition
      • Street photography
    • Travel in general
  • Photo galleries
    • Themed galleries
    • Travel galleries
  • Postcards from the road
  • Challenges
    • Photography challenges
      • Just One Person
      • Lens-Artists
      • Mid-week Monochrome
      • Monochrome Madness
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
      • Words of Wisdom
      • Cee’s challenges
        • CBWC
        • CFFC
        • CMMC
    • General challenges
      • Monday walks
      • Writers’ Quotes Wednesday
    • Challenges archive
      • Bird Weekly
      • Friendly Friday
        • The Friendly Friday Challenge: how to join in
      • Friday’s Foods of the World
      • Life in Colour
      • One-to-Three
      • Ten photos
      • Thursday Doors
      • Thursday Trios
  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive

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Topics I’ve touched on

africa architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia cffc chile churches cities colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks mountains nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC rivers ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife
  • Food & drink,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: cosy coffee breaks around the world

    November 30, 2021 / 53 Comments
    Two cups of coffee

    Sometimes it seems as if Starbucks is taking over the world. Wherever we travel, apart from in North Korea of course, we come across branches of this ubiquitous chain. But we don't go in. Even at home it’s a place we choose to avoid, preferring to support our local independent coffee shops. And when we travel the same rule applies. Even in Seattle, the birthplace of Starbucks, we refused to visit the first ever branch in Pike Place.

    Carry on reading

    Or what about ...?

    Restaurant with pavement terrace

    Bologna la Grassa: a foodie’s delight

    March 20, 2021
    Man frying insects at a food stall

    Exploring the street food of Phnom Penh

    April 3, 2021
    Dark table with lots of small dishes

    Gallery: Dining in (Japanese) style ~ kaiseki

    March 6, 2021
  • Dark tourism,  DPRK,  Lens-Artists

    Some short stories from the Hermit Kingdom

    November 28, 2021 / 33 Comments
    Factory gates with propaganda signs and various buildings

    We visited many strange and wonderful places on our tour of North Korea. But this is a short story about a place we didn’t visit. The Hungnam fertiliser factory was first established in Hungnam by the Japanese in 1927 and reopened by the Koreans after having been destroyed in the Korean War.

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    Or what about ...?

    Stone carved with cherubs

    Around the corner in Leipzig: die Runde Ecke

    April 16, 2021
    Painting of young slave

    Roots: dark history or tourist trap?

    October 29, 2020
    Sepia photo of Buzludzha Monument

    Buzludzha Monument

    September 4, 2020
  • Crafts,  Culture & tradition,  Photographing Public Art,  Seville

    Gallery: Majolica, the ceramic tiles of Seville

    November 27, 2021 / 40 Comments
    Tiles painted with a bull's head

    Spain, along with its neighbour Portugal, is home to some of the most beautiful tilework in the world, and much of it originates in Seville. Or more accurately, in the Seville barrio of Triana. Known as Majolica, or sometimes Talavera, after the ceramic centre of Talavera de la Reina in Castilla, these tiles have been produced in this country for hundred of years. Made initially for churches and palaces, the art later spread to homes, adorning floors and walls.

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    Sign saying Tinkertown

    ‘While you were watching TV’

    May 20, 2022
    Man's hands working with tin

    Using our hands: handicrafts around the world

    April 27, 2021
  • Friendly Friday,  People,  Travel in general

    Friendly Friday: meet some amazing guides (part two)

    November 26, 2021 / 17 Comments
    Banner with photo of a man in black and white football top

    As I said last week, this is the last in this series of Friendly Friday: meet … challenges, as I’m planning a shake-up for the New Year. So I’m finishing the series by introducing you to some of the most amazing, wonderful, helpful and knowledgeable guides I’ve met on my travels.

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    Or what about ...?

    Large group of teenagers

    My first taste of adventure: a 1970s camping trip

    August 14, 2021
    Hand holding knife and straw shavings

    Gallery: getting up close and personal

    September 24, 2021
    Four women in kimonos passing a shop

    Gallery: these feet were made for walking …

    May 1, 2021
  • Lens-Artists,  Seville

    The bliss of returning to the air

    November 24, 2021 / 46 Comments
    Cityscape with river in the distance

    I believe I’ve mentioned once or twice in this blog that I love travelling! It’s the thing I’ve most missed during the past two years, when the world has been turned upside-down. Yes, I know that sadly worse things have happened to very many people than a few missed trips abroad. But the fact remains, I’ve missed travelling, and I know many others have felt the same.

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    Trees, pool and raised boardwalk

    From forgettable to favourite: editing for impact

    February 7, 2021
    Jumble of flat roofed buildings with distant castle and glimpse of sea

    Gallery: looking back at buildings

    January 15, 2023
    River with small boats and rocky cliff

    A day on the Nam Ou

    July 3, 2021
  • Colour,  Sunday Stills,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: what’s in a name? Burgundy / Beaujolais / Ruby reds

    November 23, 2021 / 30 Comments
    Dark red hollyhock with raindrops

    A brief extract from one of my favourite poems by one of my favourite poets to introduce a gallery of burgundy-red images. Of course this colour takes its name from a red wine, the French Burgundy, but we might just as well use the name of any other red wine to describe it. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the French themselves tend to instead call the colour Bordeaux!

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    Coloured glass bottles in a collage

    Gallery: through a glass darkly

    October 25, 2022
    Group of ladies in pink saris

    Gallery: La Vie en Rose in Rajasthan

    June 14, 2021
    Sign mimicking an artist's palette

    Gallery: all the colours of the kaleidoscope

    December 10, 2021
  • Friendly Friday,  Oman,  People,  Travel in general

    Friendly Friday: meet some amazing guides

    November 19, 2021 / 30 Comments
    Banner with photo of a man in Arab dress

    A local guide can make or break the travel experience. A good one will not only smooth the path and tell you about the sights you are seeing, they will also share something of themselves. Spending time together you will get to know each other and learn more about the country than you ever would from reading guidebooks, from the perspective of someone who lives there. They will be able to introduce you to some insider secrets: a little-known site; a café or bar frequented only by locals; a short…

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    Hand holding knife and straw shavings

    Gallery: getting up close and personal

    September 24, 2021
    Mountain road with car on verge

    Following the High Road to Taos

    February 14, 2021
    Red and black igiana

    The ‘Christmas’ marine iguanas of Española Island

    December 6, 2020
  • Architecture,  CFFC,  Culture & tradition,  DPRK

    A look inside the Grand People’s Study House

    November 18, 2021 / 20 Comments
    Large building with green oriental roof

    Nearly all the great buildings and monuments of Pyongyang were built to mark a significant event linked to the Great Leaders, usually a birthday; and Kim Il Sung was especially fortunate on his 70th to be honoured with three such gifts. This special event was marked with a grand library, a triumphal arch and a tower.

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    Three large highly decorated buildings around a central square

    Gallery: building in threes

    May 13, 2022
    Colourful paper lanterns at night

    Gallery: let there be light

    September 21, 2021
    Detail of ornate tiled frieze

    Finding geometry in the buildings of Marrakesh

    July 27, 2021
  • England,  History,  People

    Looking for Thomas Hardy in Dorset

    November 17, 2021 / 22 Comments
    Bronze statue of a seated man holding a hat

    It would be hard to visit Dorset without at some point coming across the name of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. He is inexplicably linked to the county, so many places in which featured in his novels. On a recent visit to the county I found links to Hardy everywhere.

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    Narrow path between flower beds

    Gallery: some favourite English flowers

    October 17, 2022
    Small boats on a river with grassy banks and old buildings

    A sunny day out in Cambridge, part one

    July 19, 2022
    Group of sculpted figures among dune grass

    The Conversation Piece and the Eye

    June 11, 2022
  • History,  London,  Sunday Stills

    Ruislip Woods: ancient woodland in suburbia

    November 15, 2021 / 39 Comments
    Path through green woodland

    When the Domesday Book was written, in 1086, what is now the pleasant London suburb of Ruislip was known as Rislepe, ‘leaping place on the river where rushes grow’. The book also tells us that it had more pigs than human inhabitants. These pigs roamed the extensive woodlands; and Ruislip Woods remain to this day, although smaller than they once were.

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    Part of a cathedral with blue skies

    Catedral de Santa María de la Sede: Seville’s cathedral

    January 15, 2022
    Brick church with domes against a blue sky

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022
    Sepia photo of old houses

    Port Royal, the richest and wickedest city in the world

    May 21, 2021
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Read my featured blogger interview

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By Marsha of 'Always Write'

And my answers to Bren’s ‘five at five’ questions

Lady in a hat and red top sitting on rocks

Some favourite photos

Man in a turban with fishing nets
Fisherman in Fort Kochi, Kerala
Two elephants in long grass
Okavango elephants
Blue glacier edge
Glacier Grey, Torres del Paine, Chile
Elderly woman in black hat and sunglasses
In Santiago, Chile
Very large statues of North Korean Leaders
Statues of the Great Leaders on Mansudae Hill, Pyongyang
Water reflecting the sky with clouds and low sun
Approaching sunset in the Okavango Delta
Feet of huge metal sculpture, with man standing beside
The feet of the Angel
Large moai with row of more behind
The ‘travelling moai’ and Ahu Tongariki
Man in knitted hat by water, black and white photo
Waiting for the ferry, Banjul
Mountain reflected in a lake
On the road to Dyrholaey
Sunset at Wahiba Sands, Oman
Squirrel with a conker in his mouth
In Walpole Park, Ealing
Silhouette of a man in a gateway
Looking out from Bundi Palace
Blue and pink bird on a dead tree
Lilac-breasted Roller, Chobe NP, Botswana
Buddhist monk in orange robes with mobile phone
Monk at Wat Nong Sikhounmuang, Luang Prabang
Man sleeping in a tuk tuk by a carved stone wall
Tuk tuk driver by the Terrace of the Leper King
Close up of flamingo with head tucked under
Flamingo (Jersey Zoo)
Lady with baskets of fruit sitting by a canal
In Hoi An, Vietnam
Small fishing boat with a man in it, on a large lake
Lake Atitlan
Wet street and two people with bright pink umbrella
Street in Lucca, rainy day – edited

Some topics I’ve touched on

africa architecture art birds black_&_white bulgaria cambodia cffc chile churches cities colour costa_rica dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india just_one_person_from_around_the_world landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks mountains nepal new_mexico north_korea paris people photography photo_effects PPAC rivers ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills usa village wildlife

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All images and texts copyright Sarah Wilkie - 2023 ©
 

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