Podworld - Exploring interesting places

I often think the people who reside in London are spoilt. The problem is they do not know it. The other day I was in England's capital city and within 100 metres of my hotel on Tower Hill were two extraordinary landmarks with unique histories. The first was a grand Georgian looking building. In fact it was really old at all but was built in the early years of the 20th century as the headquarters of the Port of London Authority. In those days ships from around the world berthed on the adjacent Thames. Now as ships grow larger and the Thames in London becomes unsuitable for ocean going traffic, the PLA has moved up to Gravesend. The building has been acquired by a developer who is turning it into another hotel. The building though retains two claims to fame. First it was where the first United Nations congress was held. Second, look closely, and you will notice where several early scenes from the James Bond movie Skyfall  was filmed. Port of London Authority Building - 1922 ...

To celebrate its Viking heritage, the Yorkshire village of Flamborough has inaugurated a fire festival to welcome in the new year. Here is a video showing part of that celebration plus some still images. Viking Fire Festival Fire parade around Main Street, Flamborough The Nordic vessel paraded in Yorkshire In Norse times, Flamborough, with its distinctive white headland and beach at Thronwich Bay, would have been an ideal landmark for Scandinavian raiders to use as a navigation aid and landing site. They went on to settle Jorvik which became York and Wyke which is present day Kingston-upon-Hull.

I have fixed the link so you can enjoy watching the semi-wild orangutans and wild monkeys in Sepilok Forest on the island of Borneo. They eat dinner and disappear into the great rain forest.  Orangutans on Borneo

There are a number of places in the world when one is minded to go but other destinations get in the way. Whether they are adjudged to have more glamour, better facilities or countless other reasons, many places remain on the book-it list. Poland was one such place but quite by chance there was an opportunity for me to visit at the end of the summer. I suppose Poland is often judged against the conflicts it has endured be it from wartime Nazi Germany or Cold War repression under the Soviet Union. Nowadays Poland is fully paid up member of the European Union but I was not certain what awaited me. The nearest template I had was Lithuania, a land which had been under complete Soviet control before breaking free and also joining the EU. Lithuania was a hybrid between Soviet style austere buildings such as railway stations and old factories and newer modern glass and concrete structures paid for by European money. Would I find Poland the same after all I had enjoyed Lithuania? T...

I hope lovers of Yellowstone find these geysers a visual treat. It was a filming treat capturing these moments

Tucked away on a quiet back road between the Yorkshire town of Doncaster and its Lincolnshire neighbour Scunthorpe lies a unique collection. A group of enthusiasts have been preserving an often forgotten tradition of transportation, the trolleybus. A brief history. The golden age of the trolley bus was a short period between the end of World War II and the early 1960s. Twin overhead cables carried electric power to the motors which powered these transportation giants. In all the major cities of Britain including London, Glasgow and Hull the trolleybus transported thousands of people to their place of work or to centres of shopping. The were green, clean and dependable. So how did they come to leave our streets and roads? The answer lies in what is now called the baby-boomer era. Rising populations encouraged municipalities to build big housing estates out-of-town, beyond the capabilities of the trolleybus network. Recognising that with more disposable income, families were tur...