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Two of us went on a road trip to follow the paths of our grandparents and their siblings, including my grandfather Percy and his two brothers Jack and Walter.

With some research Chums find their own relatives and visit the spots where they fought ( and fell). I thought I knew a lot from books fact and fiction but the sheer horror of Passendale had not really got through. Wherever we went every metre was covered with bomb craters, every town and village, every wood entirely destroyed. I also had not realised that there are hundreds of cemeteries in each main area to cope with the men who were buried where they fell. The monuments are impressive because they were designed ( for free) by the main architects of the day.

If you were looking for a quick few words to describe India to a businessman, I think I would settle on “not like Japan ”.

India is noisy, exuberant, undisciplined, colourful, dirty, sensual and above all multi- cultural; and multilingual with two common languages English and Hindi that most people in Karnataka speak poorly. It is easier to think of India as Europe than a single state like Japan or even USA .

 The good kings of France would have been shocked by the current approach to this magnificent cathedral on the outskirts of Paris . You travel on an RER from the Gare du Nord ( two stops €4 return) then peer forlornly for a sign to the cathedral. Two other churches are marked on the locality map on the station forecourt but not the cathedral itself.

 My first introduction to the concept of sitting in steaming water was not a happy one. As a young adult in a mixed gender Rotary exchange group, we were led into a sauna in Finland . Water was thrown onto the stones, my face burned, I was claustrophobic, I ran out of the sauna. The group peered at me, I waved, I was naked. Still I learned then that Finns have the lowest rate of testicular cancer in the world and that sauna is the reason. I was hooked from then on.

 I love trains and on a visit a couple of years ago to my niece in Sydney I went via the Perth to Sydney train. 

Good fortune strikes thrice

The Indian and Pacific oceans. Names alone enough to excite the European heart. The mighty Australian continent stretches from the Indian Ocean in the west to the Pacific along its eastern coast. And, specifically, “The Indian/Pacific” is the name of the railway to and from Perth/Sydney via Adelaide . A three day, almost three thousand mile journey across the southern states. I love trains and had booked a single cabin on the Gold Kangaroo: Perth to Adelaide .

Wachau

I was charmed by Edward Enfield’s book Dawdling down the Danube and also aware that I needed to research the Vienna chums trip in October.

Enfield was 73 when he took his two week trip, which encouraged me as a cycling novice. He also carried his own luggage which I also wanted to try. The whole point of travelling solo is to be free of time/place structure: indeed Enfield writes a lot about the idiots flying past him down the tow path, working to self imposed schedules.

Renting a nice bike in Vienna (€100 per week) was easy, as was transporting it by train to Melk: there are special vans on all inter-cities to transport bikes.

Andrew suggested after a recent trip I took visiting Prague , that I might write brief notes about my strategies for travelling alone.  I am sure that there are many chums out there who have had similar experiences to me but if it helps anyone to take the plunge and do some rewarding travelling whether or not they have a companion to travel with, here goes!

The first thing to remember about travelling alone is that if you have the chance to go with a companion you will probably enjoy the trip even more – however, if the choice is to go alone or not to go, then go for it!  There are all sorts of ways to make sure that your trip is an enjoyable one!

Costa Rica wants to be known as the Eco capital of the world. Coffee is no longer the economic mainstay and bananas are a bit down-market for an ambitious country. So tourism is the thing.

The trouble is that all the development of the last ten years has been on the north west coast- the Pacific side- and there isn’t enough water to go around and there is now a bit of a pollution problem there.

Still it sounds like a good idea to go for the eco tourist if you are trying to compete with Mexico for US tourists. And we all need to do something for the planet. And Costa has a lot of rain forest to be proud of.

 We went there in December the two of us,as a follow up to the Chums Istanbul trip in November.

Ravenna was the western hub of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian and I wanted to check it out as a possible trip for the chums that came with us to Istanbul .

Emperor Justinian

Rowena Loverance, the chums historian and fount of all knowledge, said it was a pleasant enough town in its own right, apart from possessing the best medieval mosaics, period.

It’s easy enough to get there on Ryanair to Forli which is about 30kms away from Ravenna and costs £1 to get there (plus £50 for the privilege of having Ryanair put wings on the plane and £50 for Mr Brown).

 This seemed like good idea for two reasons. There would be some street action and we would not be confined to some appalling dinner/dance. And second, a chance to put some context around our Avignon trip in the spring: Venice was at its peak of power at the time when the popes were based in France .