Journey without maps

The rain threatened as the train pulled into Glasgow Central shortly after 9am. I needed to get some cash for use later in the museum locker (I planned ahead) and then walked across the street to the bus stop. Fifteen minutes later I arrived opposite the Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum. I hadn't realised that on Fridays the museum doesn't open until 11am so I had time on my hands (it is 10am most other days). I started to walk towards the park that held the statue to Lord Kelvin (more on him, again, later) when the threatened rain started to descend. I sought refuge in a nearby excellent coffee shop and enjoyed two delicious cups of single origin coffee. At five minutes to eleven I joined a small queue of people waiting to enter the museum. The museum itself is free, but there is a charge of two pounds (cash only) to deposit bags or coats in the left luggage area on the ground floor. I was happy to leave my coat and suitcase there, and then explored the museum at a fairly co...

 Final morning walk in Largs along the beachfront to the Pencil. The Pencil is a memorial to the battle of Largs in 1263. Although celebrated every year in the Viking Festival. it was probably a minor skirmish between Viking raiders and King Alexander III of Scotland. I went back, heel-scuffing the tide-line of Largs, where once I lobbed sea-stones, dulled and thumb-warmed, into the jelly-white bulge of marooned creatures— their tremble not enough to stop the shatter. The smaller flints I skimmed— quick flack and bounce— across the gunmetal skin of the Clyde. I then packed up the Airbnb and walked up the main street to Largs station for the 08:10 to Glasgow. 

  Largs is Nardini's and Nardini's is Largs.  The Italian family owned ice-cream and coffee place is located deep within my cerebral cortex. I have a specific neuron that responds to the sound of the espresso machine, whooshing fountains of childhood delight. As a youngster I didn't drink coffee as my father told me it would turn my skin yellow. But, I had a sweet tooth and could easily be bribed to be good, or relatively good, for an entire week or two, just with the promise of a Knicker-Bocker Glory ice cream. They used to be 75p, they are now about a tenner. The 11:45 pulled into Largs, and I dragged my bag purposefully down the seafront to Nardini's. I hadn't been good, so no ice-cream, but a bowl of soup, a sandwich and a delightful coffee.  Years before Starbucks and Costa, Nardini's was . 'Lord, who shall I say sent me. Tell them 'I am'', and where should I drink coffee? Tell them Nardini's. As a teenager and young adult I would sit in...

The ScotRail train pulled out of Stranraer and made its way slowly up the Ayrshire coast. I was reciting Burns poems in my head when we pulled into Ayr, and I got off to change trains. As a child I had memorised Burns, and his description of Ayr is in Tam O Shanter: '..this truth fand honest Tam O Shanter, As he frae Ayr a night did canter: Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses for honest men an bonnie lassies'  Next stop was Kilwinning for a coffee and a square sausage sandwich. Before getting the final train to Largs.  There has always been something emotional for me pulling into Largs. As a child we would drive to Largs from London, and as soon as we saw the sea our hearts would jump. I would be in the middle of my two sisters in the back of an end-of-times British car - Morris, Marina, Ambassador - all with the same door handles. My Dad would be driving and also visibly cheered about reaching his birthplace and heart-land. My mum glad that the 9 hour drive was soon to e...

The ferry from Belfast to Ayrshire was very smooth. Made smoother by the 25 pound 'upgrade' to the Stena lounge which offers free food and drink, a place to charge devices (that worked unlike Heathrow), and a comfortable seat to see the views and snooze. The ferry used to run from Belfast to Stranraer - but now goes to Cairnryan, a few miles away. It is a slow ferry, but I didn't complain. The 2 hours 22 minutes went quickly - some cake, some sandwiches, a glass of wine and some more Seamus Heaney. I was grateful to be picked up by a friend from Vietnam at Cairnryan, who drove me to his home nearby. His Vietnamese wife is an excellent cook and we had traditional barbecued fish as an appetiser and then Bun Cha for dinner - celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reunification of North and South Vietnam that marked the end of the second Indochina War. We had lots to catch up on, and the noodles and wine flowed freely. The next morning, a coffee to recuperate and one of the be...

I love trains. The 18:50 to Belfast rolled into the train station on time. I was staying at the Room2 Belfast Hometel on Queen Street, a fifteen minute walk from the station. A central, quirky hotel with great service and free fruit-infused water in the casual lobby area. I had eaten on the train and had some emails to catch-up on, and wanted to call it an early night. During the train trip a friend who lives in Belfast had seen a post on Facebook and arranged to meet me for lunch the next day. if I had planned things better and contacted them in advance, they would have picked me up from Dublin, and put me up. After a decent 'Irish' breakfast I went in search of the statue to Lord Kelvin (William Thompson) an Ulsterman, scientist and sailor who was born in Belfast. This entailed a twenty six minute walk to the Botanic Gardens, which were beautiful in the morning light. Belfast looks like a city worthy of a second visit. There was some very grand buildings visible on my morning...

I last visited Dublin more than twenty years ago.  I was investing money on behalf of an Asian bank in promising technology companies, and we came across an Irish company providing foreign exchange prices and transaction capabilities to global financial services companies. I made several due diligence trips to meet the somewhat odd founder, and his capable team. The deal eventually turned out to be a disaster, and we and the other global investors lost all our money. The founder's odd-ness became front-page news in a bizarre 'I will sleep with your wife for a million pounds' High Court case. But Dublin has 'Craic'. In my ignorance I tried to buy my first Guinness with a five pound note. I had no Euros, but the bartender was okay with my foreign money. It was the first of very many of these delicious meals-in-a-glass. Due diligence is thirsty work, and I tried many of the famous bars around the city, lots of traditional local music, sawdust and pints and pints of the...

It used to be the way I travelled - much to the initial annoyance of my wife. It is the title of a Graham Greene Novel  Journey Without Maps  I read in my late teens. This book gave me the itch for independent travel - at least to justify the way I travelled. I would inter-rail and hitch-hike around Europe in 1988, take a bus across America 1999, test my nerve in Peru in 1990, and then take the backpacker trail around SE Asia in 1992 I then travelled across India by train, walked through Nepal into Tibet and China in early 1993. Re cuperating in H ong Kong, playing Bridge on a boat to Discovery Bay, I decided to fly back to Bangkok. There, on a beach I met a traveler, whose tales of adventure and fortune in Cambodia led me on my own journey without maps. Now, forty years on from reading the book, my journey is anything but without maps.  Even 15 years ago we planned a meticulous train trip from HK to Scotland - see  Traintripwithson In my recent work trip to Ireland ...