by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 11, 2023 | Close to Home, Memorable Days, North America, Opinion
The Day Our World Changed For over two decades, when meeting new people and the conversation turns to where do you live, it inevitably gets to 9/11. Here is my recollection of that day that changed the world. Life was going pretty well! We lived, still do, in a...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Mar 14, 2023 | Best Train Rides, Memorable Days, North America
Vancouver to Toronto By Train Trees…great scenery, mountains, prairies….trees…history, geography topography…trees…photography, trains, massive trains…trees…multiple 3 course meals, random enlightening conversations, moonlit snow…trees…searching for Northern Lights...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Apr 4, 2022 | North America
Puerto Rico – Nature is Everywhere. Further Photographs can be seen at TimRoebuck.photos A Complex WebHours of work IguanoIn majestic pose A crab……its the eyes that surprise And again Hiding And coming in to land PelicanAmazing diving Sky at nightAnd...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Feb 28, 2022 | South & Central America
by Routes Beyond Tim | Feb 3, 2022 | Resources, Summary, Travel Ideas
A Selection of Signs! Further Photographs can be seen at TimRoebuck.photos Tokyo Subway Perhaps wettest mountain…in the world! MelbourneAustralia New Orleans TramsFind your Poles Indian RailwaysSignage All American CityScranton Stasi MuseumLeipzig, Germany...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Dec 3, 2021 | Best Train Rides, Europe
Cobh Originally called simply Cove, the town became Queenstown during British rule but now it is know as the Irish version of Cove, Cobh. The train service from Cork to Cobh runs every hour and takes around 25 scenic minutes. Cobh has become notorious as it was the...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Dec 2, 2021 | Best Train Rides, Europe
Dublin's DART An Easy Way To See Dublin Bay & More The map below shows all of Dublin’s rail network. The DART is shown in green. Starting a few minutes north east of Dublin’s central area is the lively, socialable fishing town of Howth. The DART has 2...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 23, 2021 | North America
Movers & ShakersThe owners moved into politics pretty quickly and for a long time played pivotal roles in early American Independence and they clearly all moved in the same circles. Berkely Plantation was the home of President Harrison (he is the one who delivered a...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Apr 1, 2021 | Close to Home, North America
War ProductionDuring the American Civil War (1861-65) Scranton produced much of the iron needed to fight the war as well as weaponry from the ammunition factory (which to this day produces drones for the Army). The early Iron Ore production building is shown and is...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Dec 5, 2020 | Africa
The Palace Hotels Of Egypt Egypt being a fascinating country with a remarkable history, an important colonial outpost, a trading and communications center, it is unsurprising that Egypt was a very early and important destination for wealthy folk from Britain, the USA,...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Nov 3, 2020 | North America
Beautiful healthy Maine FoxCarrabasset Valley ME Narrow GuagePhillips ME River streamRiver stream Water FountainWater Fountain Rangeley LakeSunset Rangeley LakeSunset and stars Milky Way and moreRangeley ME Do Not Get In My WayKingfield Maine FireySunset...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Oct 12, 2020 | North America
Pine Creek Rail TrailThere is a 62 mile cycling trail along the bottom of the valley, from the curiously named town of ‘Jersey Shore’ to the gem of a little town, Wellsboro at the northern end. Being an old rail line it is flat and well surfaced and along the way...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Sep 20, 2020 | Resources, Summary, Travel Ideas
Trends and ConcernsWe Live In A More Connected and Yet More Divided World, Than Ever Before “With affordable global air travel, the internet and telecommunications, we are more connected than ever in the history of the world. Yet it seems that as residents of this...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 26, 2020 | Opinion
Fear is rife. Isolation is inWe Live In A More Connected and Yet More Divided World, Than Ever BeforeWith affordable global air travel, the internet and telecommunications, we are more connected than ever in the history of the world. Yet it seems that as residents of...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 8, 2020 | Best Train Rides, North America
San Francisco A Private Trip A Cracking Cable RideMidweek, late January travel has its benefits. The weather of San Francisco’s winters is famously mild and so I had pottered down to the starting point of the Powell Mason Cable Car in Fishermans Wharf and I...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 6, 2020 | Africa, Middle East
The Old CataractSet overlooking the Nile, the islands and cataracts is the magnificent Old Cataract Hotel. A famous hotel opened in 1899 and precipitated by the arrival of the railway and tourists! Remarkably, thanks to Thomas Cooke it was really one of the worlds...
by Routes Beyond Tim | May 23, 2020 | Asia, Best Train Rides
My JapanJapan is one of my top places to visit. It has such a unique culture, it having been largely isolated for many centuries. The history is so different to other countries, well documented and illustrated across the country. It is a wonderful, if somewhat...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Apr 10, 2020 | Opinion
It Too Shall PassWhen this all ends, I would like to see these changes Polio, malaria, typhoid, ebola, the 1918 epidemic etc and now Covid19 are all products of poverty and/or poor education. We are learning too, that they disproportionately affect and are...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Mar 21, 2020 | Europe
Contender for the Prettiest City in Europe Over the years I’d learnt about Gdansk (or the Free State of Danzig as it was in the years between the two World Wars) and was curious to see more. My research began to indicate that to visit all the interesting sights,...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Mar 13, 2020 | Opinion
Cruising. Blocking The View?Sydney Harbor Bridge is behind the Ovation of the Seas. It is a huge vessel and of course cannot get under the Sydney Harbor Bridge to where cruise boats and others normally dock. Presumably the cruise line is paying a lot to moor in...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Mar 11, 2020 | Best Train Rides, Europe
Above: Dresden Panometer 1945 Air Raid & Insets Karlovy Vary & Thermal Springs. Lwr Left : King Charles Bridge and Castle, Prague Off Peak PragueIt was 30 years since I was last in Prague, a short while after the border opened following the collapse of the...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Feb 18, 2020 | North America
Presidio and Golden Gate Bridge Much of the Presidio and Golden Gate Bridge area is run by the National Parks Service, NPS,(so it is well explained, signed and easy to get around) with free, (yes free) Shuttles from the nearby city center. We were going to walk...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Feb 6, 2020 | Asia
Dourpour's, Window Breaking Hail. Melbourne Summer 2019/20 “Weather about to get better – it’s going to rain”. Overheard in Melbourne’s St Pauls Cathedral. The context is that Australia, in the summer of 2019/2020, is in the grip of awful Bush Fires and Melbourne...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Feb 2, 2020 | Europe, Opinion
It is going to be a long path. On this Brexit Day…. My View has remained unchanged ever since the untimely and ill understood Referendum. Economic reviews have really not changed. Obviously. The United Kingdom (and there remains a risk to that name in the future...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jan 23, 2020 | Asia, Best Train Rides
Left: Melbourne Centrals Arrival Hall A Bit of CountryIt is not the quickest mode of transportation between the 2 principal Australian cities, but there were a few reasons why I wanted to travel this way. I have seen cities and suburbs in Australia, but I wanted to...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jan 7, 2020 | Uncategorized
Above: Fulton MO. The National Churchill Museum. Photo includes part of The Berlin Wall, a church moved, brick by brick from London and Winston Churchill’s Statue Two Hours West of St Louis and you find.....Whilst researching a route back to St Louis, I...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Dec 17, 2019 | South & Central America
A Nation Shattered Few flights were going to Port au Prince and we went on Delta out of JFK on their weekly flight. On board was a group of a dozen nurses….and our Team of 10. No one else. The Flight Crew gave us all the blankets and First Aid supplies as we...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Nov 5, 2019 | Europe, Travel Ideas
; Beyond AmsterdamCanals – Windmills – Bicycles – Rembrant – The Pilgrim Fathers –Classic Dutch Architecture –Museums Once you have had enough of the frantic, crowded, often overwhelmed, but still interesting Amsterdam, why not visit one of the several other nearby...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Oct 30, 2019 | Africa, Asia, Memorable Days, Middle East
Mount Sinai or ‘Moses Mountain’Sinai Peninsula: Mount Sinai and St Catherine’s Monastery are 2-3 hours drive from Sharm el Sheik, although we had driven in 6-7 hours from Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The last few hours navigating the arid, starkly beautiful...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Oct 23, 2019 | Uncategorized
Civil Rights in Little Rock Little Rock saw several key moments during the Civil Rights era. The most famous being the stand and suffering of 9 African Americans in 1957 during the era of segregation at Little Rock Central High School. Today there is National Parks...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Oct 8, 2019 | Memorable Days, North America
Above: Rime Ice forming and nearing the summit. First Steps!I had been slow to accept the invite to climb Mt Washington as when my daughter was in Elementary School a friend’s father had perished on it during a winter climb. Finally though, knowing I was in the...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Sep 29, 2019 | North America
Maryland’s Atlantic CoastThink of Maryland’s Atlantic 79 mile Coastline? Likely the playful Ocean City, first comes to mind, with its 12 or so miles of wide beach, hotels and all sorts or entertainment. As fun and as American as this all is there is more, starting...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Sep 13, 2019 | North America
Tsuyuko Hironaka and Other VisitorsIn the 1880s a few hundred Japanese came to Kauai in search of work and ended up working in sugar plantations. Clearly families developed and stayed. I photo’d one gravestone in the Japanese Cemetery at Eleele, that of Tsuyuko...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 22, 2019 | Europe
Linger Longer, and See More at Fewer SightsSomewhat surprisingly, in these security conscious days, there are reasonably priced, unsupervised Left Luggage Lockers right in the station. So having deposited bags and armed with a map and the bus, subway and tram...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 13, 2019 | Europe
Thank You Russia! Finnish Railways have a wide gauge. The railways in Finland were built in the 19th Century when Finland was a Grand Duchy of Russia and one positive consequence is that they use a wider gauge than most of the rest of Europe, meaning that, indeed,...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Aug 3, 2019 | Europe
Kingston upon Hull Whenever, Hull cropped up in conversation, my Yorkshire born father always chuckled and chirped “Hull, Hell and Halifax!”. A time worn phrase that reflected the classic image of the time, of the industrial powerhouses of Northern England. Hull...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 25, 2019 | Middle East
; Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium Sure enough, I was able to spend a day in the searing heat at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium watching England try to grind down a resilient Pakistan team (the Test Match lasts for up to 5 days and I only stayed for 1!). I was seated...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 24, 2019 | Europe
FollowFollow The Backroads of England England is a densely populated nation and it can seem very challenging to find those ‘routes beyond’, with interesting sights and history, interspersed with peaceful sce nery. If you take to England’s narrow canals network you...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 21, 2019 | Europe
Ypres FollowFollow Before You Go brush up on what led to World War I! I read The SleepWalkers by Christopher Clark consider booking into or taking a private tour of the various battlefields and cemetaries in the area plan to allow 2 to 3 days to see the main sights...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 21, 2019 | Asia, Memorable Days
The De-Miltarized ZoneMy feelings upon standing on the platform peering across the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) were: ones of amazement that in this day and age division and borders, can still be so stark and impenetrable sadness, families separated; and coming from the...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 21, 2019 | Best Train Rides
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 12, 2019 | Asia, Best Train Rides, Travel Ideas
Destination Bandung. And Why? I was in Jakarta for work and arranged to have an extra day for exploration. I decided this was the time to go to Bandung! I had long been fascinated by the Conference that took place there in 1955. Leaders from 29 newly independent...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 11, 2019 | Asia
Mumbai: History and Chaos FollowFollow India Give yourself time! A vast and varied country full of stimulation, anguish, frustration and fascination. Love it! Being a Brit I have always trodden carefully in India given the colonial past. Yet I am nearly always...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 11, 2019 | Asia, Best Train Rides
FollowFollow British ShimlaShimla is perhaps the British Colonial Resort in India. Set in the cool (and in winter darn right cold), foothills of the Himlayas it is a 7-8 hour journey from New Delhi by train, but you end up in the Indian Independence pre 1940’s era,...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 10, 2019 | North America
Explore Early MontrealOld Port of Montreal: if you are visiting outside of the pleasant summer period you might well gain a new respect of the hardships early settlers experienced – my, it gets really cold in Montreal in winter! From experience I can tell you it is...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 4, 2019 | Africa, Memorable Days
One of the most memorable days – ever! It is a long way to the remote Virunga Mountains in north western Rwanda which are right on the border with the DRC (Congo) & Uganda, and the Permits are difficult to get and really expensive. Yet there my daughter...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 2, 2019 | Africa, Memorable Days, Opinion
FollowFollow School DetailsStarted in late 2016 this school now has, as of January 2019, 297 children enrolled with 6 teachers (3 are volunteers). The school has 6 classrooms, teachers room, small Heads office, teacher toilet and a block of childrens toilets complete...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 2, 2019 | North America
Arcadia National Park. Maine North America PostsThe Canadian! Puerto Rican Nature James River Virginia Plantations Scranton, Pennsylvania Missouri – Show Me! The Grand Canyon PA San Francisco Off Peak Mount Washington Climb Maryland’s Atlantic Coast Alexander Hamilton...
by Routes Beyond Tim | Jul 2, 2019 | Middle East, Summary
Middle East PostsEgypt’s Palace Hotels Climbing Mount Sinai Abu Dhabi “Noisy Neighbors” Aswan – On The Edge Galleries Jordan Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi Jordan JordanJo Egypt Egypt Mount Sinai Aswan Aswan The Middle East – Five Extremes The Middle East contains so many...
