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An entertaining evening at a lecture by mountaineer Simon Yates talking about his lifetime of climbing.
We used another city centre campervan overnighter to visit the "Alfred Buckham - Daredevil (Aerial) Photographer" exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition was excellent with his stories and anecdotes as entertaining as the aerial photography itself. After that, but before a refreshment and a bite, we wandered the city for a while and it quickly became evident that "red" would be the theme. It happened to be the day between Remembrance Sunday and Remembrance Day and the city was illuminated in red. A decent autumn sunset added yet more.
We spent a beautiful, sunny October day at Pompeii, guided by the engaging and knowledgeable Ida. When her tour was finished, Kim became guide with her app giving us a route and some purpose as we roamed the huge city. I’d been unaware of quite how vast the place was and while there’s no denying that it was busy, it was easy enough a turn or corner or two and lose yourself on a quiet back street, not unlike the experience in a modern, occupied city.
We took a three night trip to Napoli, primarily to visit Pompeii. Pompeii was as impressive as expected but we also fell in love with the bonkers, graffiti-clad, football and Maradona daft Napoli. Napoli, or Naples, was a full-on assault on the senses with so much to take in while walking the narrow streets, being mindful not to be mowed down by a scooter at any moment. Somehow, and I don't know how, they always managed to miss. I loved the graffiti, which sounds odd, but it was everywhere, artistic, photogenic and colourful and the city wouldn’t be the same without it. Pompeii photo blog. Maradona photo blog.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Napoli is Maradona obsessed and worships the man like a god. He arrived in 1984 and helped them win the league for the first time in 1987. Despite leaving in disgrace in 1992 after being banned for cocaine use and being addicted to it throughout his entire time there, the legend lives on, witnessed on every street corner. There's even a museum dedicated to him. Of course, as Scots, we have a couple of reasons to have a soft spot for him too. This blog started as a project to capture each Maradona image we stumbled across. That quickly became ridiculous - he is EVERYWHERE! Instead here are just a few of the highlights.
We took a weekend van tour in Yorkshire and turned it into an unexpected four-nighter dictated by the weather back home. With iffy weather and no real plan, we seemed oddly attracted to pubs and waterfalls; an unlikely combination but one that worked well. There was a little bit of walking in between, passing a waterfall or two, on route to the pub, usually! The final tally was six pubs, all featuring here, and definitely more than six waterfalls. Special mention should go to railway themed Ribblehead with its viaduct and its Station Inn, both excelling in what they do. The weather was bleak up there, but wow, what a place.
We visited Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece in Helensburgh and unexpectedly felt parallels with its story of commissioning a renowned architect and great personal friend to design a domestic house. Sadly though, desperate attempts are now having to be made to save the building from a complete deterioration due to the fatal mistake in Mackintosh’s choice of external render. Unlike our architect his genius was flawed!!
We pointed the van at the west coast for a short break, the length of which was uncertain for reasons I'll not bore the reader with. The weather forecast was a bit uncertain too, though that all turned out pretty well in the end. We visited the small islands of Kererra, Seil and Luing, as well as exploring around Crinan and down the long peninsula to Tayvallich and Carsaig. All camp spots were off-grid and all, even including the last one near Helensburgh, were superb. Along the way we took in the heritage museum at Kilmartin and the outstanding Mackintosh Hill House at Helensburgh - see separate blog for that: graemeritchie.com/The-Hill-House
Making the most of the van and the city to have a wander and a bite to eat while searching for Murphies, all the while being perfectly positioned for hospital visiting in the morning.
A wander from East Links to Dunbar Harbour and back, unexpectedly bumping into Bob Street and his dog, with a good drenching just before we got back to the van.
Second time out and about with the X100V. No decent light this time though, so harder work.
First time out with the Fujifilm.
Abruptly ended with a catastrophic "dad moment".
We took a fun "24 hour holiday" to Peebles, not Falkirk, to see Hotel Califonia - an Eagles-esque band that we'd seen before in Haddington and been unexpectedly impressed by. We parked the van and took a walk along the Tweed a bit and up a little hill overlooking the town, leaving time for a beer and a bar supper before the show. They band were decent enough, given the middle-of-the-road tunes they have to work with, but it was a little disappointing that the presence of a new vocalist meant standout man, Al King, did a bit less of the singing this time - we were really only there for him. Another reason for going though, was to see the Eastgate Theatre - Richard's church conversion, now over 20 years old. We'd never made it upstairs past the cafe on previous visits. Just before the show we bumped into flying student Mike Davidson. I'll whisper it to Richard, but he got the one seat in the house with the restricted view. Oops. The theatre was lovely though. After a blether with Mike, we stealth camped in the town centre, and early next morning wandered past the theatre again to take a few more photos on the way for a catchup with flying friends and Peebles residents Pawel and Kasia.
One of the many warm, sunny days in the summer of 2025.
Cruising time for the young bright lights (of Gullane?). A great night out last night at Fringe By The Sea to see the Boomtown Rats and wow! - what a performer and showman Bob Geldof still is, 50 years on from when they started playing this stuff. They opened and closed with my first single as a twelve year old - Rat Trap - and the standard never dropped. It was fun also to meet Andrew and Rosie, by chance, again, as per last year at The Stranglers.
https://graemeritchie.com/