Inside the Travel Lab

Eighteen days ago I set out on a journey of more than a thousand miles. It took me through nine different countries, six different currencies, two continents and it strayed both in and out of

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. I was at school at the time and I wasn’t entirely sure what all the fuss was about. Fast forward through the years and despite – or perhaps because of – having studied it briefly, watched the odd Bond film and read plenty of spy thrillers (both fact and fiction,) I’m still not all that sure.
Then There’s Ljubljana…

Today, I am doing something unusual. At least unusual for me.

As I type this out, I’m sitting in darkness, my face lit only by the glow of my computer screen. There’s sand beneath my feet, chirping outside and the occasional snort of an irritable camel. Twenty minutes ago…

I’d been to Paris once before. It was one of those rush around the museums by coach on a tight schedule affairs, one minute looking at bizarre hanging installations in the Pompidou Centre…

In the world’s largest delta, transport takes place on water. While a few motorised boats cruise along the main waterway, to travel through the reeds, you still need a traditional mokoro…

At 2039 metres above sea level in Austria, someone is watching. One hundred someones in fact…

No, I’m not talking about the life of James Bond (or at least, not as far as I know.)

I’m talking about life as a conflict resolution and peacebuilding specialist, a real life job with plenty of travel and overwhelming responsibility…

Emerging from Clapham Junction’s grey and predictable train station, I saw him straight away. A scarlet Mini Cooper, unflappable sixties gear, a glamorous assistant and the promise to show me London in a whole new light.

“Mental salvation,” Jean-Marc tells me when I ask why he left his banking job to run a charity full time. He talks about his dismay at the practices in the City in the run up to the crisis. Then he tells me about his son…