Hi, On 27th August I flew from Glasgow to Calgary on a work related trip. On this journey Graham and I accompanied Charlie on his dream venture, which was a train journey through the Rockies from Banff to Vancouver on the famous Rocky Mountaineer train. The photos were taken by myself as a narrative of the adventure and are reproduced here with Charlie's kind permission. As usual I am not really writing a full travel blog but rather using this script as a guid...

Hi, On May 28th Amanda and I flew from Edinburgh to Beziers to spend a week with my old pal Duncan who is living in Arles sur Tech in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France quite near to the Spanish border. The area is within France but borders on Catalonia so the Catalan influence is reflected in the language and cuisine of the region. Duncan picked us up at the airport after the two hours ten minute flight and the drive to Arles sur Tech took just over t...

Hi, This is just a quick note to accompany the photos taken at the recent reunion of the Israel tour party on November 12th at the Beaufort Hotel in Inverness. Twenty nine of the original party of thirty eight were present on the night and hopefully these photos will compensate those who were not able to make the trip and take part in what was a very enjoyable experience. Thanks are due to those who submitted videos and slides for us to watch and brought along...

Hi, On Friday 18th I drove north and spent the night in Dingwall with George and Christine Harvey. On Saturday George and I took the trip north to Achiltibuie where I took part in the second Coigach Half Marathon. This would be my third half marathon this year and my fifteenth in total. The reason for taking part was partly for running but also for nostalgic reasons. My paternal grandfather Donald MacLean was a native of Altandhu, Coigach and was born here on...

Hi, Travelling to France to visit World War sites and cemeteries has been on the 'to do' list for a long time. World War 2 memories were handed down from my dad, but tended to be more of a sea faring variety as he was in the RN. However we covered WW2 very thoroughly in school, so it was a large part of my favourite subject. John MacQueen my grandfather fought in WW1 and I have his regiment book so have always intended to explore the sites where he fought as t...