Like hopefully the rest of you we are home keeping a low profile. And with no travel plans in the foreseeable future i have had a chance to start going thru 35 yrs of travel pics and at least 20 journals of various trips that were written the old fash

It is dark when I wake . It is Day 48 of the lockdown . The sun has not risen and the birds have not woken. It is Thursday . Sage are meeting today with our government . Sage used to be that herb that you stuffed up a chicken together with onion . Now it i

I woke early again . The bedroom was still in darkness . Tossing about I found I could not get back to sleep. My mind was going round and round . Odd thoughts . Day 49 how many hours have we been locked down. 1176 hours or thereabouts. I could have begun

Morning she shouted across the road . Morning I replied . Busy isn't it I thought it was lockdown Yes seems like a lot of people still travelling in their cars was my reply. We agreed the lady on her morning walk and I that this was a lovel

SPAl final hasta las 10 no he salido del hostal ya que habia desayuno incluido. De ahi por la carretera transcanadiense directamente hasta el puente. Un seor puente 13 km de largo hubiese sido divertido recorrerlo en bici pero esta prohibido y

Hi All Just to update you I have converted my Travel Blog from Private to Public as several people could not register with their email addresses. Not all addresses are accepted for some reason. Anyway now public. This time next Sunday I will

Hi everyone I must apologize for the lack of recent posts... nothing new and exciting has been happening here recently. It's funny because now that I have been here for over a month it really feels like I live here so it isn't BRAND NEW anymore. Bu

Having spent 2 months travelling to the north south east and west of China it is time to leave.After a lot of consideration our next port of call will be Myanmar. Human Rights violations decrease in areas where there are international visitors

A day of travel is never uneventful and this was true for me as well My flight from Denver to London was great I got a middle row seat in the front of the economy section so I had extra leg room The steward was really friendly and thanks to the eventfu

So far Barcelona is my favorite. As usual I have to report that it is really beautiful. Our hotel room has a balcony that has an awesome view of the city.Tonight we got a tour through downtown by the Barcelona GLS coordinator. We were reminded at least

Hello allI have moved through so many towns and now cities that the names are blurring and at times the experince feels unreal I am now starting to wake up and not having to orient my self. So far the experinces have been all they describe in the books

Hoera het zonnetje komt eindelijk tevoorschijn boven Sydney Dat was voor Heidi en mij gisteren reden genoeg om absoluut niets te doen en een heel dagje in het park te vertoeven. Ook zijn we vaoor een avondje van hostel veranderd...een groot nadeel geen

Tuesday 28th September cont...Later that same day fuelled with a bit of dutch courage and convinced that we'd been imbued with some local knowledge through the consumption of a Kangaroo Crocodile and Barramundi mixed grill we decided to enter a lo

I have had the privilege of being at the IHF centre in Thailand for just over two weeks now. It has been quite the adventure but as life is an adventure I have loved every minute of it well most of the minutes. I arrived on the night of the 15th of Septe

Hej igen..Vi er gjort opmaerksomme paa at man ikke kan se de nye blogs uden linket der bliver sendt ud til jer paa mail saa derfor beder vi jer der ikke har tilmeldt sig maillisten om at goere det saa i kan faa det hele med. Vi tror det er pga. d

I just realised I saved this blog but never published it. So it's a week late but here it isI am supposed to be working right now but with only 14 stayovers of about 10 minutes each and the need of a full days pay I am chilling in the stairwell unti

My day started off in a fabulously stylish greasy diner at 1000 a.m. when I spied out of the corner of my eye a very handsome diner...as I drank my fabulously strong coffee I noticed that he was nursing a glass of white wine...Chardonnay no doubt to comp

Anyone who's dined at El Colibri in San Juan del Sur knows why I forgot what happened the rest of the day leading up to it. In truth we took it slow today sleeping in and tooling around the small town of San Juan so Robyn could get to know the place. We

Welcome to part 1112 of the blog.continued from cracker in melaka ...The morning after the hindu procession i awoke to find Reuben and Livia had backed their bags and left for Cherating. After moving into a single room across the hall I went for s

My travels to the largest city of Ecuador where pretty uneventful Nothing went wrong and everything ran pretty smoothly which was nice. I flew from Boston to Miami and from Miami to Guayaquil. At MIA Miami International Airport I met up with Gabriel whi

Hungry Horse Dam Reservoir Canoeing on Lake McDonald and checking out Lake McDonald Hotel this was our agenda for the day. We had a great time learning all about Hungry Horse Dam and it39s power sources for the states of Montana Idaho Nevada Or

i handed my notice in today at work so 8 weeks to go they were really good about it and now i have done this the nerves have set in and im actually thinking what have i done.... well theres not turning back now.... yipeee So 8 weeks today ill b

Hi GuysI have just set up my own Travel Bog and will update this whilst we are away and hopefully attach photo's.I have added you guys so every time I make an entry you will get an email.Just adding this now to test I have set it up correctly

Three weeks into our stint at Monkeyland. times are good sometimes too much spare time the volunteer house is very basic... and as sad as it sounds sometimes it is just nice to sit back and watch mindless or mindful TV. We keep ourselves busy though

Wow It's been so long since an installment that I almost don't know where to start but alas I will do my bestSo upon the recommendation of Chloe the three of us girls headed off on a 2 day Mahout Course to learn the fine art of Elephant training. Rea

Well I'm back here after spending the summer at my apartment in Paris with side trips to Marseilles and the Calanques county Dorset on the south coast of England London and oAmsterdam . On the way back to California I stopped off for a week in Bost

There is a strange thing that happens when you live overseas. People take weekend trips to Vietnam or Japan or Korea or in my case Thailand. In the states this would be like taking a trip to Florida or California or just to a random city in the midwest.

This is a frightening thought but I may be the most photographed person in all of China In my first few days here I kept catching people taking pictures of me on the sly and when I looked at them I noticed them waving but thought they wanted me to

sorry if you got 2 msgs re previous post Blog site said unpublished so did againthis is written the day after and its noon in Bruxelle as I was just so tired after yesterday that beauty sleep I referred to a catchup day mostly setting an alarm

a city one of no comparison that i have yet to stumble upon...with great pleasures my fingers do the electric slide across these keys to the rythm of my thoughts hoping to do justice to barcelona. arriving on a saturday morning roughly about the time

We left HCM at 8.30 by taxi and arrived in Mekong Delta around midday. We met our guide Nam and boarded a long wooden boat to take us down the river making several stops along the way.The first stop was a brick factory where Nam told me about how bri

Okay so I haven't yet skyrocketed to the top of the Chinese Alist and I don't think the foreignerdirected jeerscatcalls on the street invariably a snickering hoot Hellooo Yeah nihao to you too jackass these days are any different from

I had not had a real vacation since April 2009 and I was going crazy for warm weather. Jason knew how badly I wanted to get away and gave me one of the best Christmas presents a girl could ask for a CRUISE I'm apologizing now for the lack of detail

Hi AllWell with the weather being so beautiful at the minute we decided to go to the Yellow River yesterday. It's only 20 km north of the city. So we hopped onto a bus which was stuffed to the gills seriously the driver could only just shut the doors

Hello Dalai LamaWell Hello Dalai LamaIt's so nice to have you here while China's doing wrongYou're looking swell Dalai Lama We can tell Dalai LamaYou're still glowin' you're still crowin'You're still goin' strong.We feel the World sw

Got the wonderful suggestion from my boyfriend James that we start a travel blog together and keep a track of our trips and travels and of our expanding adventures as we get to see and learn more about our mysteriously beautiful planet. Being a bit of a

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers bill is the most tedious outrage ever, right down to the dreary acronym. But oh, the horrors it will bring …

David Cameron cares about your safety. It's all he ever thinks about. It's his passion. He's passionate about it. Every time David Cameron thinks about how safe he'd like to keep you, passion overcomes him and he has to have a lie down. With his eyes shut. A bit like he's having a nap and doesn't care about your safety at all.

Right now he's so committed to keeping you safe, he's rushing something called the Drip bill through the House of Commons. Drip stands for Data Retention and Investigatory Powers and critics are calling it yet another erosion of civil liberties and … see, I've lost you because it's just so bloody boring. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I hear about some fresh internet privacy outrage my brain enters screensaver mode and displays that looped news footage of mumblin' Edward Snowden and I automatically nod off only to be awoken shortly afterwards by the sound of my forehead colliding sharply with the table.

Ukip has made thousands from merchandise on its online store. What could the other parties learn from it?

It can't be easy trying to fund a political movement in the current climate, when politicians are about as popular as a wasp in a submarine. You'd have more luck organising a whip-round for President Assad. That's why politicians are forced to suck up to billionaire donors, who expect them to tailor their policies accordingly, thereby further widening the gulf between parties and the public.

But wait. Not all parties are alike. The Daily Telegraph has revealed that, last year, Ukip made a whopping £80,000 from flogging branded merchandise to the public from its online store.

Russia v Ukraine, Isis, Boris Johnson, Cliff Richard and Ebola – there's not much to be cheerful about right now, though the ice bucket challenge is working overtime

Ah. Right. Looks like I picked a bad week to draw inspiration from current affairs for this knockabout comedy column. The news is rarely a warehouse of carefree chuckles but at the moment it's like an apocalyptic playlist on perpetual shuffle, with one harrowing crisis overlapping another. Palestine, Libya, Syria … it's all horrifying and upsetting. Not a single nice thing has happened all year, except the recent stealth launch of Cadbury's Wispa Biscuits, and even "stealth launch of Wispa Biscuits" sounds like a terrible euphemism for breaking wind.

The planet is currently playing host to countless alarming crises. There's the nail-biting tension of Russia v Ukraine, a depressing standoff overseen by facial-expression-avoider Vladimir Putin. I don't know if all the strings connecting Putin's face muscles to his brain were accidentally severed during a tragic smiling accident years ago, but I've seen brickwork convey more emotion.

The first rule of panic mode is you don’t talk about panic mode. And this is purely for personal reasons, but I don’t want Scotland to reject us

It used to be unthinkable. Now it’s thinkable. In fact, in some minds, it’s already been thought. Scotland might be voting yes to independence and splitting from the rest of the union. I’m not Scottish, and I’m therefore powerless to intervene, although I would personally prefer Scotland to stay – but only for entirely selfish and superficial reasons. Reason one: I’d rather not be lumbered with a Tory government from now until the day the moon crashes into the Thames. Two: I quite like Scotland and the Scottish, so it’s hard not to feel somehow personally affronted by their rejection. Why did you just unfriend and unfollow me, Scotland? What did I ever do to you? What’s that? Sorry, you’ll have to slow down a bit. Can’t understand a word you’re saying. Don’t you come with subtitles?! Ha ha ha! No, seriously, come back. Scotland? Scotland?

Apparently the consequences of a split in the union could be calamitous. The skies will fall and the seas will boil and the dead shall rise and the milk will spoil. There will be a great disturbance in the force. Duncan’s horses will turn and eat each other. Starving ravens will peck out your eyes halfway through the Great British Bake Off. Your dad will give birth to a jackal full of hornets. And in London’s last remaining DVD shop, Gregory’s Girl will quietly be re-categorised as “world cinema”.

From flooding to Benefits Street, the rise of Ukip to the Apple Watch, the year was filled with huge, grim events. We could all use a lie-down over Christmas

So 2014’s almost done, and unless you got married, or had your firstborn, or won a Subaru filled with Maltesers in a radio phone-in, it’s unlikely to be a year you’ll remember fondly. It was filled with huge, grim events. So is every year, of course, but in 2014 it seemed there were fewer light moments to offset the enveloping dread. And everyone seemed angry, all the time. A whole planet, gritting its teeth. Hundreds protesting. Thousands marching. Millions waiting to attach their internalised rage to a hashtag at a moment’s notice. We could all use a lie-down over Christmas.

The year started badly for Britain when the sky decided to waterboard the lot of us. It rained incessantly throughout early January; big grey raindrops the size of cupboards. The government issued snorkels to anyone under 5ft 4in, while areas of Devon were submerged for so long the residents evolved gills and blowholes.

Products I’ve made up for the sheer giddy thrill of it include Total Farage Plus, which skilfully Photoshops the Ukip leader into whatever you’re looking at

This week it’s the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an annual opportunity for tech companies to unveil their latest gizmos during January’s traditional slow news week, thereby picking up precious coverage that might otherwise be spent detailing something – anything – more important than an egg whisk with a USB port in the side.

At the time of writing, the show is yet to kick off, although some of the offerings have already been unveiled – such as “Belty”, the world’s first “smart belt”, which monitors your waistline and tells you when it’s time to lose weight, just like a mirror or a close friend might. More excitingly, it adjusts to your girth (again, like a close friend might), and will tighten or loosen itself according to your current level of blubber. No word yet on whether it’s possible to pop a Belty round your neck and order it to squeeze you into the afterlife, but there’s no reason they can’t incorporate that feature in Belty 2.0, except maybe on basic ethical, moral and humanitarian grounds.

Researchers have created a version of Mario that experiences basic emotions – now he needs a purpose that affects the real world

• It’s-a-me, Mario! And soon I’ll be playing my games without your help …

January is traditionally a fairly sleepy month, current affairs-wise, but a horrified gawp at the news confirms that 2015 has already had one heck of a morning. Clearly it takes a lot to knock a garish underage sex allegation involving Prince Andrew off the news agenda, but the Parisian terror attacks managed it, partly because the horror of it all warranted such blanket coverage, but also because the resulting conversation about freedom of speech is taking up so many column inches, there’s scarcely room to run anything else. There hasn’t been this much furious debate about the merits of a cartoon since the introduction of Scrappy Doo.

(Fun imaginary scenario: in a bid to revive their flagging ratings, ITV launch a live, feelgood Saturday night version of Celebrity Pictionary. But chaos ensues when Paddy McGuinness pulls the first card from the deck to discover it requires him to sketch the Prophet Muhammad.)

The prime minister has refused to go head-to-head with Ed Miliband – and the multi-party debate we are getting will be a 90-minute cry for help on behalf of the democratic system

Last week, Germany chose its entry for this year’s Eurovision: Heart of Stone, performed by Andreas Kümmert, former winner of the German version of The Voice (which is known as The Voice of Germany in its native country, rather than Die Stimme von Deutschland. Presumably the producers didn’t want to put viewers off by making it sound too German).

After wailing his guts out and winning the public vote, Kümmert abruptly announced, on live TV, that he didn’t actually want to “do” Eurovision after all, and awarded his “prize” to the runner-up instead. A chorus of boos broke out. German boos. Buhen.

For somebody who did less for Britain than, say, Olly Murs, we’re making a dreadful fuss of our late monarch

Who’s your favourite dead king? For me it’s a toss-up between King Henry VIII (likes: Greensleeves, beheadings) and Nat King Cole (likes: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose). Those are definitely my top two.

Below them, there’s King Kong, King George III, Good King Wenceslas, and about 500 other assorted types of king before you get to Richard III. Never warmed to him. Don’t know why. I’ve just never really been into Richard III. Maybe it’s his Savile-esque haircut, or the fact that his name is widely used as rhyming slang for fecal matter, or just the way he’s routinely depicted as a murderous, scheming cross between Mr Punch and Quasimodo; a panto villain with nephews’ blood on his hands.

Jedes Bild ein Hingucker: Hier sind die besten Fotos der vergangenen Tage.

Annalena Baerbock und Robert Habeck warnen vor einem gesellschaftlichen Rückschritt infolge der Coronakrise. Was würden sie tun, wenn sie an der Macht wären?

An American woman goes to the police in Las Vegas. She claims she has been raped by an athlete: global football star Cristiano Ronaldo. What really happened has never been resolved because lawyers settled the case with a payment of $375,000 by the Real Madrid star. By SPIEGEL Staff

Christine Simon-Noll is active helping refugees in Hamburg's HafenCity neighborhood. She says it is getting much tougher to find volunteers. In an interview, she outlines what needs to happen in order to ensure successful integration.

A DER SPIEGEL reporter committed large-scale journalistic fraud over several years. Internal clues and research have provided significant evidence against reporter Claas Relotius, who has since admitted to the falsifications and is no longer employed by DER SPIEGEL. Other media organizations may also have been affected.