Another year of travel complete! This year I've managed to roam far and wide - from 'Benelux' for New Year's back in December 2024/January 2025, Turkey at Easter, Georgia in the summer - followed by a week on the Isle of Skye - and two weeks in Kerala with my Dad in October. As I write this I'm about to start packing for another trip - this time to New York and Boston for two weeks over Christmas and the New Year. For now I hope you enjoy my selection of images from the past twelve months, and I wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
TRIP 1 - LUXEMBURG, BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
This was a trip that really exceeded expectations. Luxemburg is a sleepy, pretty city, but a fascinating place to visit for a couple of days, while Brussels is the opposite - gritty, urban and crowded. Although it has a fantastic art gallery in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. The highlight however was Rotterdam and The Hague, two contrasting, interesting cities which were perfect for a New Year's break. The photograph below is from Scheveningen beach on the 2nd January, the inlets of water allowing me to play with perspective. See more here.
A trip that slightly underwhelmed, truth be told. It didn't help that the weather in Cappadocia was fairly mixed. Yet Istanbul is a ctiy that always conjures moods and emotions - I had visited once before, back in 2011. The second photo below in fact relied on the very changeable weather - the sky behind the hills of Cappadocia was thunderously dark, yet for a few minutes the sun shone bright on the foreground. See more here.
Another country that I returned to for a second visit in 2025 was Georgia. This time I explored several places I hadn't visited first time around - Stalin's hometown of Gori (fascinating as I teach Soviet history), the Black Sea city of Batumi, and the wine region east of Tbilisi. It was a great trip. The first two images below are from some urban exploration done in the remarkable spa town of Tskaltubo, while the third is from Batumi pier. See more here.
From the intense heat of Georgia in August I then visited the much more mixed, in terms of weather, Isle of Skye in Scotland for a week away just before starting the new school year. It's a stunning island and the two images below are my favourites for capturing the natural beauty, including the magnificant Old Man of Storr. See more here.
TRIP 5 - KERALA
The final trip of 2025 was to Kerala with my Dad for two weeks. Visiting Kochi, Munnar, Alleppey, Munroe Island, Marari Beach and Mumbai, I got to see a diverse range of landscapes. The food was delicious and the climate perfect for relaxation, save the odd rain shower as we were on the cusp of rainy season ending. The weather in Munnar was probably the most mixed, but I still had a moment to fire off the first image below from a taxi - it's probably my favourite of the trip. The second is a candid street image from Mumbai taken while on a day tour of the city. See more here.
