One Man Travelling...

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I was visiting Ruse and made welcome by Димитър Димитров and his family at the Lombardi Family Hotel. Not only did I get to explore this city sitting on the edge of Bulgaria with the icy Danube marking the border but I also had a fantastic Christmas dinner in the midst of his friends and family. I wrote briefly about my visit in my post on my departure from this same city heading north to Romania at the start of my train journey across Europe.  Pyce (Ruse)... Winter and Summer  I still have much to write about and many photos for you to see both of this and other locations in Bulgaria. Returning to Varna and a cold icy January I had many more experiences of local life. My friends and neighbours in Neofit Rilski street, from Jordan, Proprietor of "Candles" Restaurant at the top to the girls in Te-Art Studio, who cut my hair and encouraged me to pop in for coffee so that they could practice their English, opposite. But m...

It is the morning of the 17th December 2017 and I am making my second journey from Madrid to France, the last by road in 2013, this time continuing my adventure by train from the Black Sea to the North Sea. My train leaves from Madrid Atocha ,one of the main railway stations in the capital. To get there my hosts for the past couple of months, Gonzales and Maria, drive me the kilometre or so to the local station where I board the local commuter much beloved of my journeys around Madrid. This drops me at Atocha where a change of area and of platform will be required. At first I thought that I was in the wrong place and entering the departure platform for the airport but no, it my train to France. I pass through airport like security where my ticket, baggage and person are checked. I seem to remember that this is a standard procedure on the high speed trains as I had to undergo the same checks when travelling from Segovia to Madrid a few years ago. As I am in the Schengen area my passp...

Yesterday I added a new post and photo album to "One man in Europe" describing my visit to the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest. I have just completed a second post for the day relating to my discovery of the museum ship S.M.S Leitha, a monitor class warship now fully restored and moored in front of the parliament building. Not well publicised even from close range I hope that you will take a turn around the deck with me at  SMS Leitha - guarding the Danube  . Enjoy. In case you missed it this is the link to the "Parliament Building" post, incidentally it was modelled on our houses of Westminster.  Visiting Parliament The first post of the day related my trip around the sites of Budapest and Buda Castle in particular.  Touring Buda and Pest  . Three posts in one day, something of a record even if it has taken me months lol.

A friend of mine in Portugal, whom I shall not now get to visit, showed me some photographs of quarrying in his area. This prompted me to look at some photographs I took at a "Marble and Granite" stonemasons in Colmenar de Oreja. This is one of the seven cities which, along with the capital, make up Madrid. I was trying to enter items on my blogs in date order but time and tide as we say in England; so I thought that I would include this on my new web page. After I arrived in Madrid at the, almost, end of my epic train journey in July 2017, I went to stay with my friends from Tenerife who also have a house in Los Arroyos, El Escorial. I had visited this location before when I was staying in Tenerife and have lots of adventures to relate eventually. To the point, José Luis was born in Colmenar and was in the process of updating a house there. I travelled through with him on several occasions giving me an opportunity to reacquaint myself with this wonderful and histor...

My journey across Europe is almost complete. I have arrived in Spain to stay with friends from Tenerife in a community called Los Arrayos. Situated approximately 60 km to the west of Madrid it falls under the umbrella of El Escorial. I say almost complete as I have some exploring to do here then I am off to France, yes by train, on the 20th December for six months. We are in the high ground with the mountain ranges in the distance, the campo between here and El Escorial spread out before us and breathtaking views as we descend to the plain and on to Madrid itself. Once again I shall be travelling by bus and train. My amigo Jose Luis has helped me to obtain travel passes for the Madrid area and beyond which make the journeys quite economical. The Madrid conurbation is served by both green buses and trains whilst Madrid itself is served by blue buses and the metro. The systems interlink on the ground and by ticket. I have a red card containing a computer chip. As we are about as ...

Standing outside the Hungarian Parliament building or Palace here in Budapest the Gothic Revival structure is a far cry from Ceaușescu's "Palace" or "People's House". Once inside the same was true, no depression here, warm and inviting, sumptuous and stylish this is a place to inspire. Polished wooden surfaces, deep carpets, intricate carvings, well padded seats and all that glitters is gold. To me it summed up the total difference in ideologies. As I mentioned before, I pre-booked because a friend could not get a ticket, I wish that they had, this is one of the highlights of my trip. Those sitting in the parliament are constantly reminded of the diverse population which they have served for hundreds of years. Statues abound depicting trades, nobility, farming, soldiery, musicians and scholars. As you walk down the corridors of power.....

Two years in Bulgaria and it is time to move on. However "Brexit" looms in 2019 and I decide that my plan to spend a year in each of the major European countries is not going to work. So, here I am with an Interrail one month global pass in my hand boarding a train at Ruse bound for Bucharest in Romania. The journey will take me to Budapest in Hungary, Vienna in Austria, Bratislava in Slovakia, Florence, Rome and Salerno in Italy, Marseillaise in France then on to Madrid in Spain where I shall stay with friends for a couple of weeks in August. The link is at the top of the page or you can go directly from here  https://onemanineurope.blogspot.com