Archive by Author

Wine, Art & a Château

While I was in Aix on my recent France trip we made a little excursion to Château La Coste in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, close to the town. The winery, restaurant and art complex is owned by Belfast-born Paddy McKinnen who had a colourful tussle for control of London’s Claridge’s, The Berkeley and The Connaught Hotels. Well […]

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Cold War Relics – in both directions

En route to the Chernobyl reactor and the ghost town of Pripyat we made a short detour to an amazing Cold War site. Here’s my diary entry: ‘a fascinating diversion to the Duga-3 early detection array (aka Russian Woodpecker), where the Russians watched out for missiles heading towards the Motherland from those untrustworthy Americans or […]

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Absurdistan

I really liked Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story and I’m weirdly fascinated by any country that ends in ‘-stan’ – I’ve been to a few of them – so his earlier novel Absurdistan looked like a certainty. Sure enough the vulgar misadventures of the grossly overweight Misha Vainberg, spoilt son of the 1238th […]

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A Little French Trip

Having returned from Kiev and Chernobyl with my radiation levels under control I set off for a driving trip through France and Italy with a group of friends. ▲ First it was Eurotunnel under the Channel then along the autoroute to Gevrey Chambertin. ◄ Yes we’re in wine country ▲ More driving, but now on […]

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Kiev – the Capital of Ukraine

My recent travels to Ukraine featured a couple of days in Kiev, as well as pointing a gieger counter at Reactor 4 at Chernobyl. Kiev’s a surprisingly attractive city and there’s plenty to occupy a few days. ▲ Plenty of glittering Orthodox churches and cathedrals for a start. They don’t come much more golden and be-domed […]

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