Podworld - Exploring interesting places

A short business trip enabled me to visit a land that hitherto I had not considered for a journey. The country was Slovakia. I had early visited the capital of neighbouring Czech Republic Prague, which was for many years the major city for Slovakia too. Nowadays they are two distinct countries with Bratislava serving as the Slovak capital now. This trip took me not to Bratislava but a northern border town of Zilina which is home to around 80,000 citizens. It has a smart centre with new shopping centre and dominant church. However much like the other Slovak towns I passed it had an ugly industrial plant with giant chimney on one side of the urbanisation. Hidden away though is another industrial giant, the new KIA motor factory. This has brought Zilina new wealth and you can see evidence of the investment throughout the town. It was just a short trip which ended with a five hour rail journey to Prague. The train was clean and comfortable and the Slovakian countryside looked gree...

It has been a popular holiday island for nearly four decades but what is Corfu really like? That was the thought which taxed my mind as I embarked on a first journey there in 2014. Would it be one of those places so beloved by the Spanish costas, a warm weathers version of a tired British seaside town or would it, like Crete, be a style all of its own. The answer was affirmed to the latter although Corfu is quite different from Crete in many ways. It is tiny by comparison and this means that one only needs to travel a few kilometres between villages. However it lacks some of Crete's infrastructure so the roads are, by and large, inferior to those of its Aegean compatriot. It is though a beautiful holiday island with mainly pebble beaches to the east and sandier ones on the west. Corfu town, the island's compact capital is s splendid place to explore containing as it does many of the island's leading museums and attractions including Europe's most southerly crick...

It seemed possible when glancing at a map but how feasible would a trip to Albania be from Corfu? Albania is one of those places etched on one's mind from the Cold War. Isolated, austere and alone. A little research showed that a day trip was possible and for UK nationals, no visa fee was payable. Obtaining a ticket was not straightforward. The departure port in Corfu directed us a a local travel agent, Ionian Cruises. They sold us a ticket but only for a one-way journey at €19. A passport was also required. A return ticket, we were advised, could be purchased on arrival in the Albanian port of Saranda. And so it proved with the Albanian company also accepting payment in Euros. A nearby bus took us to Butrint, home of some splendid Roman ruins. It cost 100 Leke or about €0.60 or £0.50 each way. Allow two hours and take to bus back to Saranda and you have plenty of time to catch the return boat to Corfu. While in the country we made this short video. We calculated at the end o...

VIDEO: This is a short, fun film from Penang in Malaysia. This is said to be one of the steepest funicular railways in the world and it is one of the longest. Situated in Georgetown, it takes you up the mountain or hill as it is described locally, ....and down again as is shown here. Click on the link: You can find more via this link:  Penang Hill Railway

This is a short film I made on the Island of Crete in the resort on Analipsi near Hersonnissos. I hope you enjoy.

The one thing about travelling to southern Spain in December is that you will not be trampled under foot by hoards of tourists. Whilst many of the seaside attractions like ice-cream parlours and seasonal shops are closed there is something about an autumn Spain you can not find in the summer. That is the light. Due to the abstract nature of this phenomenon it is difficult to describe in words. Gone is the searing heat and haze of the summer to be replaced by a gentler sun casting a calmer  and often diffused light over the countryside.  Out to sea the clouds dance and cavort in ever changing shapes and sizes with shafts of sunshine penetrating through. Often they look like giant Alps resting on the sea's horizon and at other times giant waves threatening to overwhelm all before it. Then comes sunset and this being autumn the cloud formations present a giant canvas on which the sun can create its finest abstract. For an intense period of maybe 15 minutes ...