Podcast Thursday 18th June 2009
In this high-pace edition of the podcast, we head for the beautiful highlands of Scotland for a wedding, but not without travelling on the Caledonian Sleeper first, or without establishing whether some horses are dead or alive. Just for fun, the programme is brought to you in the style of Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. Don’t worry, it’s a one off!
If you have no idea what a podcast is, this video will tell you everything you need to know to get started.
If you do know what you’re doing, the address you need to subscribe to is below. Or, if you find it more convenient, subscribe via iTunes.
Cut & paste this into your podcast application:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/HereToGenevaPodcast
As usual, if you have and feedback or questions, send me an email, or message me on Facebook or on Twitter.
Introducing HTG 10.5
While I’ve got you attention, may I introduce HTG 10.5, the latest batch of modifications to this website. If you’re reading this in your feed reader, drop in and have a look. The major changes are:
- Wider pages to help make reading more comfortable.
- Larger, higher quality photos. The roll-out of larger photos in posts is on-going.
- More delicious white-space between elements.
- Contact form now up and running.
- Less-conspicuous adverts.
- Big red footer to finish things off nicely.
Hope you like both the changes to the site and the podcast.
Last weekend, my sister and I headed to Scotland for a wedding. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to go. Scotland has long been absent from my list of visited countries, so to tick it off was great. It would have been nicer to have spent some more time in the mountains rather than tearing about from one place to another, but in all, it was a very nice weekend. The photo above was taken from the edge of Loch Achray.
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As you may have gathered from previous posts, I’m a webcam fan. It’s nice to be able to see live snapshots of life from cities all around the world from the convenience of my iPhone. Most of the webcams I visit regularly are of Swiss scenes (as you may have guessed). One such scene is of Barfüsserplatz in Basel. Normally a reasonably quiet market square with constant visits from green and yellow trams, last weekend when I dropped by, things were looking a little different.
After a few minutes of research, I managed to find out that this was the second event in the Coop Beachtour, a series of seven Beach Volleyball meets. Courts are set up for around four days before being dismantled and moved on. Three days later, normality had returned.
The next event takes place 11-14 June in Locarno before heading on to Geneva, Zug, Winterthur and Bern. Visit the website for more information.
Places Saturday 2nd May 2009
Later this year, I’ll be adding another country to the list of countries I’ve visited. In fact, I’ll be adding two countries, but this article is only about one of them. I already know a fair bit about Scotland. Technically, I live in the same country as the Scottish (The UK) so give or take an undecipherable accent here and sheep-stomach-based main course there, I’m not expecting to be challenged too much on the Scottish culture and identity front. This article then is about the other country I’m visiting. Spain.
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Podcast Saturday 2nd May 2009
In this short, third edition of the podcast, I clumsily explain what you can look forward to later in the year from the programme, but not before we take a ride on the tube from Kings Cross St Pancras to Euston.
If you have no idea what a podcast is, don’t worry! This video will tell you everything you need to know to get started.
If you do know what you’re doing and you want to crack on, the address you need to subscribe to is below. Or, if you find it more convenient, subscribe via iTunes. Either way, I hope you enjoy this third edition and that you stay subscribed for future editions.
Cut & paste this into your podcast application:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/HereToGenevaPodcast
I’d love to hear what you think of the podcast. Send me an email, or message me on Facebook or on Twitter.
Places Saturday 11th April 2009
My Saturday mornings are normally my laziest. I slouch in front of the tv, trying in vain to find something good to watch. Then, having found only news and the Coronation Street Omnibus, I catch up with my news feeds on my phone. Having done that, I try to find something else on my phone to keep me occupied. My first port of call is normally a webcam App (WorldView Live). Do you remember when webcams were cool? Everyone had to have one and everyone marvelled at how fantastic the Internet was in allowing us to see live and grainy images from around the world. Well, I’m still there. I still love webcams.
Last Saturday, having been through my usual Saturday morning routine, I went into WorldView Live to see what was going on. Bern was holding it’s usual Saturday market, skiers were still queuing for the lifts at the resorts, everything seemed normal. Except in Brugge that is. Something different was going down.
I quickly discovered that I was watching the start of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), an annual UCI ProTour road cycling race. You can see the cyclists waiting at the start at the bottom left of the image. On next image refresh, the race had started and the team cars wee in pursuit.
Although I was only seeing the event in still frames, it was rather exciting. I have a lot of favourite webcam locations, but only very rarely is something interesting actually happening. in the next image, the crowds had been allowed from behind the barriers.
25 minutes later, the crowds had all but vanished and tidy-up was in full swing.
This isn’t the first time the Brugge webcam has been featured on this blog. In December 2007, I managed to capture my mum and sister in the same market square.
Travel Tips Tuesday 3rd March 2009
So, the tickets are booked, you’ve done whatever you need to do with the liquids in your hand luggage and you’ve made sure your passport hasn’t expired. You’re ready! You’re ready to fly for the first time. Oh, god! You’re going in an airplane! You’re going to be several thousand feet up in the air in a metal tube! What have you done?
Fear not! Here are my top tips for first time flyers.
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In the first part of my non-skier’s guide to the mountains, I talked about hiking as an option for those who can’t or won’t pony up the dough for skiing or snowboarding. Hiking is a great way to experience the beauty of the mountains. Arguably, it’s actually much easier to appreciate the mountains on foot then it is having experience gear strapped to your feet. Having admired the peaks though, what about something a little more exciting? On my recent trip to the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland, I gave sledging a try.
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I’ll let you into a secret. Not many people realise this, but you can experience the majesty, excitement and general brilliance of the mountains without specialist knowledge and without spending a fortune on expensive equipment. I’m not a skier, so on a recent trip to the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland, I went in search of alternative excursions.
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What a week it’s been! This is the 7th day that we’ve had snow on the ground after the worst series of snow storms the UK has seen for nearly 20 years. Schools have been shut most of the week, millions have been bunking off work and on Monday, London ground to a complete halt, making headlines around the world. Shops have been closing at lunchtimes or not opening at all while bus and train services have been cancelled.
While many have had their lives seriously disrupted by the wintry conditions, life for me has been reasonably normal. Unlike some, I’ve been into work on time, every day. I normally get to and from work by bus or car, but this week I’ve mostly walked. As a result, I’ve walked 15.96miles (25.69km) more than I would have done normally. Work has been a bit of nightmare what with staff shortages. I work in the office of a major retailer, but I’ve spent most of the week on the shop floor covering for people who couldn’t get in. On Friday, there was so few of us, we had to close our biggest floor and run the smaller ground floor only. It was very eerie standing alone in the middle of a darkened shop floor at one of the peak trading periods of the week.
Right now, the snow’s slowly thawing, although it’s too slow for it to vanish completely before the next weather systems sweep in over the next few days, potentially delivering another 20cm of snow to most of the country.
I’m really enjoying living in snowy conditions, so bring it on!
