Bruges is known as the Venice of the North, but the combination of canals and crow-stepped gables made it feel more like revisiting Amsterdam and the start of my transitional photographic road trip. In its calm friendliness, it also reminded me of Ljubljana. Bruges was my last stop before returning to the UK after 30 days and 6,500km. Its medieval centre is a World […]
The rigour and control of winemaking in France is taken to another level in Champagne. I respect the producers and like the product and I had visited Épernay a few months earlier to mark my 50th birthday. I drove the 570km from Zurich to see another centre of champagne in Reims and to photograph its magnificent Cathedral. […]
My journey from Southern Tyrol took me through the Val Müstair, over Ofenpass at an elevation of 2,149m and through the 19km Vereina Rail Tunnel on a car transporter. Thereafter, the road wound past Kueblis and down, out of the mountains to Landquart, where I joined the autobahn to Zürich. The following day as I explored […]
A circuitous route to Glorenza took me over the Julier Pass at an elevation of 2248m. As I moved above the tree line, the landscape became stark, rugged, lunar and I recalled the transition from forest to desert on the way to Zadar two weeks before. But this time it became colder. Glorenza (Glurns) is a charming and very well-preserved […]
I left Venice in the late morning and drove to Milan and then North towards the Alps, stopping for tea with a friend from school who I hadn’t seen for over thirty years. It was wonderful to meet her again and to feel the connection and ease that come with even distant shared experience. Relieved […]
I had long wanted to visit Venice and was excited as I arrived at Piazzale Roma. I parked and took the vaporetto water bus along the Grand Canal to Rialto. Although it felt cold, I stood outside the cabin to take in the canals and buildings. The sun had just set and Venice was beautiful. Deep […]
My early visits to Florence were full of wonder at its art, architecture and history. I read extensively before arriving and imagined past events being played out in the streets and squares. I sought, found and delighted in difference and maintained a state of excited otherness. Indeed, this was my approach during 15 years of extensive business travel, until my tenth trip to […]
Before working in the City, I had intended to be a historian and so I was excited to visit Pompeii. I had taken the overnight ferry from Durres to Bari and after negotiating tight immigration and customs, which at one point seemed would involve dismantling my car, I drove the width of Italy over the Campanian […]
The journey from Dubrovnik into Montenegro was breathtaking, with massive mountains, rugged and appearing recently hewn, plunging directly into the sea. I drove around the Bay of Kotor with the sunset, rather than taking the Kamenari – Lepetane ferry. Arriving in Kotor, I could see the chain of illuminated ramparts high above the Old Town. In the morning I climbed 1,200m to the […]
One of the more satisfying aspects of my transitional photographic road trip is not knowing where I am going more than a day or two in advance, but I had always intended to return to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik has a magnetic energy and presence. A free city state for 500 years until the early C19th and an early abolisher […]
Colin Melvin 