Category Archives: Travel notes

Night train tips

Posted on July 26, 2009 by acb

Swedish Railways runs some lovely sleepers which are, I think, the best way to get up to the north; and when you factor in the cost of a hotel room, they are also as cheap as flying and spending the … Continue reading →

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Dead elk and minicabs

Posted on July 26, 2009 by acb

I spent last week rushing around Sweden, mostly to places I had lived in or visited before, as part of a Radio Four Crossing Continents programme which will go out in early September. The rest of the series is full … Continue reading →

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Granny on a mobile

Posted on June 3, 2009 by acb

I found through the extremely eccentric google news alerts a lovely clip of a wolf in western Finland, where is was discovered by a couple of schoolboys out for a walk. Being modern Finns, they did not pull out their … Continue reading →

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Random resumption

Posted on February 6, 2009 by acb

I know I have written nothing here for the last month. I don’t think that’s good. It started off as a consequence of Guardian blogging, where I felt that I had to turn everything that occurred to me into a … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Journalism, Sweden, Travel notes | 8 Comments

Improbable statistics

Posted on September 22, 2008 by acb

According to Spiegel, there are between 8,000 and 10,000 wild boars living in and around Berlin today; according to the Guardian, the Independent currently sells, at full price, 131,566 copies. That’s before they put the price up 25% to £1.00. … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Travel notes | 4 Comments

Reversion to the mean

Posted on September 20, 2008 by acb

Austrian politics drift, farcically, to the right. Apparently there is a coalition proposed between the Social Democrats and the Freedom Party, as the former neo-Nazis call themselves. This is the outfit that used to be run by Jörg Haider, against … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Travel notes | 13 Comments

A wonderful tombstone

Posted on August 30, 2008 by acb

I was emptying my camera card today and came across these two pictures: front and back of a gravestone in Strethall Church (which itself is rather wonderful, dating back to around 900AD). Here is the Major-General’s daughter: And this is … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Travel notes | 3 Comments

A visit to Ammarnäs

Posted on August 7, 2008 by acb

The most important thing I saw this trip was a lynx, galloping across the road in front of the car about 40 km from Ammarnäs. The back legs seemed longer than the front ones, which made it look almost ungainly, … Continue reading →

Posted in Sweden, Travel notes | 2 Comments

FT review of Fishing in Utopia

Posted on July 14, 2008 by acb

Another gratifying review, from the Financial Times, where Hugh Carnegy, the executive editor, likes Fishing in Utopia,a lot, though he thinks, god knows why, that I am “a melancholy soul”. It is the window on Sweden that gives this book … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Literature, Science without worms, Sweden, Travel notes | 3 Comments

quick travel notes

Posted on May 31, 2008 by acb

I was in Edinburgh on Thursday. When I left my hotel to buy a paper, I found a dozen schoolchildren in the corner shop and the first thing I thought, accustomed as I am to the mores of the Home … Continue reading →

Posted in Travel notes | 4 Comments