On Tuesday I travelled to Toledo, that city which lies at the heart of La Mancha, Spain. Home to Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, and Judah Halevi, the medieval scholar. Both accompanied me and my friend George on our way through the city on this week’s virtual pilgrimage. Through these characters, George illuminated the current … Continue reading Tuesday’s Toledo Travelogue
Today I received a gift through the mail from the inspiring author and adventurer Levison Wood. His book - An Arabian Journey- is sitting on my desk as I write, calling me to stop everything and luring me to enter those mountains of the mind that lie within its pages. It’s been a great week for … Continue reading Mountains of the Mind
There have been many press reports recently of COVID dreams, perhaps a feature of extended sleep as it seems that many of us now gratefully fall into the arms of slumber much earlier than usual each night, simply to escape the monotony of our own existence. Locked into our homes we are also to some … Continue reading Journey to the Interior
In almost every dimension of human society, whether in love or war, politics or the weather, improving our understanding of what the future has in store confers an advantage, and since the very earliest times we have been trying to peer over the horizon by one means or another to get a glimpse of tomorrow … Continue reading What Next?
The millions of pairs of feet that in normal times would already be striding out for Rome or Mecca, Benares or Mashhad are stilled today while so many patient pilgrims are waiting for the tide to turn on the pandemic. But the imagination is a fine thing and this morning I ventured virtually along the … Continue reading The Road Not Taken
Virtually walking from the Iron Age hill fort, Barbury Castle to the Bronze Age circle at Avebury via Google Maps and Zoom with my friend Richard earlier today, we happened across the topic of the long-view. He told me how, on the Coast to Coast Path, at the end of the first day of walking … Continue reading The Long View
Tea bags, 9volt batteries, baking potatoes, printer ink, headset and mic, new notebook.....Working from home and making a list over lunch of what we need to carry on with our daily lives under lockdown reminded me of the explorer Richard Francis Burton and the list of items he acquired in Alexandria for the onward journey. … Continue reading Listless by Moonlight
At a time when we are all confined to our homes, the question arises of what gives a place, home or abroad, its ‘draw’? This was the topic of conversation between Mary and I as we set out on our virtual walk from Walberswick to Blythburgh. We were linked via facetime and shared Google maps … Continue reading Home and Away
As the Easter festival approaches, I’m reminded of a journey taken one April weekend more than two decades ago, from Moscow to St Petersburg, that city first introduced to many of us through Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. It was a glorious if somewhat monotonous train ride, with snow laden pine and aspen forests slipping past … Continue reading Crime and Punishment
Over the coming weeks it is my intention to make a number of virtual pilgrimages with friends along routes they know well and, with the help of technology, to share in their experience of the route and the destination. Past experience of virtual pilgrimage is that it can be as joyous as the real thing … Continue reading Lockdown Lane
WhyPilgrim 