Author: Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

home thoughts from abroad

Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.

Our few days in Montreux were very busy. On our first day we caught a bus* to Vevey Funi and took the funicular railway up the mountainside to Mont Pèlerin (no views sadly because of the fog lingering over the water) then walked back along the promenade (Quai Ernest-Ansermet) into Vevey town centre for a look around. From Vevey-Marché (lac) we caught a ferry boat to the Castle of Chillon which is at the far side of Montreux, with the intention of visiting the castle in the afternon before walking back via Quai des Fleurs and Quai Alfred Chatelanat to our hotel (2 miles). A full self-guiding tour takes approximately 1.5 – 2 hours, depending on how fast you walk and how much reading you do. Castle of Chillon is the result of several centuries of constant building, adaptations, renovations and restorations with excavations affirming this site has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

*free transport passes are provided to visitors by your hotel in many parts of Switzerland on local buses, trams and trains.

postcard from america

“They Also Faced the Sea” was an art installation of five large black and white photographs of Provincetown women of Portuguese descent mounted on a building on the end of Fisherman’s Wharf in Provincetown Harbor (2003 – 2005). Norma Holt’s beautiful portraits of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral and Frances Raymond are meant to represent all the women of Provincetown who over the years have been the backbone of this vital fishing village. The installation was designed to help keep the spirit and the presence of the Portuguese culture alive. Please click on the link to find out more about these women and this installation.

home thoughts from abroad

Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.

 

You might be forgiven for mistaking this image for a beach in Cornwall. It certainly looks like the Bedruthan steps. But it isn’t. These two stacks are part of the “Twelve Apostles” along the Great Ocean Road in southern Victoria, Australia. Sadly there are only 8 of these left now, the  ninth having collapsed dramatically in July 2005. I was there in March 2000. To get an idea of the epic scale of this place from the wide beach below follow the Gibson Steps 70 metres down the cliff face to the sand, where you’ll be literally dwarfed by a gigantic rock stack.