Rhodes is a remarkable island. The Old Town is a Unesco site – and in this post I will explain why. Firstly, the walls. Their current shape dates from the 14th and 15th centuries. The main builders were the Knights of St John who then occupied the island. Not only is Rhodes a perfect walled […]
Travel Writing Essentials: Openers
I saw a competition for travel writing openers recently and I shook my head. I wish I could wave a wand and remove Opening Sentence Stress from budding travelogue writers. You see, I don’t think the opening sentence important. The opening paragraph is. Let me emphasise that this doesn’t apply to articles or short stories. […]
Wi-fi in Germany: no laughing matter
I’m writing this at home after a long, three-week trip to Germany. Hardly blogged from there as I usually do. The reason? German hotel wi-fi or W-LAN as it is called there. Germans have a very ambivalent attitude to wi-fi, like they do to credit cards. I still remember the shock when only ten years […]