Please scroll down to see my photo galleries in order of country

My travels throughout Europe have been made with the intention to experience and learn about other cultures and languages, to meet other conservationists and volunteer in support of projects for my own learning.

I have never left the continent for America, Africa or Asia, and I’m perfectly content with that, mainly because I’m worried about the impact of flying – I’d love to visit all those place in a sustainable way. Growing up in London I have had friends in my life with roots from all over the world and I am committed to supporting a multi-racial and multi-cultural Britain and Europe. Immigration from Ireland is the reason I live in Britain today.

I’ve been to the Romanian Carpathians, the Great Hungarian Plain, Bavarian Alps the lowlands of Belgium and the Netherlands, and one of the most important wooded landscapes in Europe in Poland.

European culture and nature is one of my great passions. We each live with the fallout of European history every day, not least non-European nations due to the impacts of slavery and colonialism, and I love to learn about how and why that is, and the new histories being made. In Britain we must address the darkness of our past and challenge how that darkness lingers today.

Like many of my fellow Brits, I was devastated by the referendum result in 2016. I respect other people’s views (within reason) but I will never stop believing it has been a colossal mistake for Britain. The evidence is there for everyone to see – we are worse off, in so many ways.

Like most people my ancestry is a mixture of many different nationalities and cultures. I have strong Irish heritage and, for me, being British also includes that Irishness. Britain leaving the EU has challenged the identity of many people in the UK, not least the UK itself. It has also led to a rise in racist, xenophobic ideologies which we must take apart with patience, education and a focus on equality and inclusion.

In my political views I reject nationalism. As a white male I have been privileged in many ways in my life. Being able to travel freely throughout Europe has added knowledge, experience and friendships which are very important. Likewise, the freedom of movement for people around Europe has enriched our societies in ways we have failed to understand and celebrate. That said, the good will go on.

As human beings we have more in common than that which divides us, as the deceased MP Jo Cox once said. As a British person I am committed to supporting fellow conservationists, artists and campaigners in Europe, whatever colour my passport becomes and am grateful for all my European friends and family have given to me.

Europe galleries

Austria

I’ve travelled around Austria by train, visiting Vienna a couple of times as well as Salzburg and the Salzkammergut.

Belgium

Bruges is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It’s easy to get there from the UK by train – no British person should be flying to Belgium! These are photos from a visit in 2018, taken with a compact camera. The light was beautiful and the architecture is spellbinding. The step gables that top so many of the houses and buildings are a key feature of the cityscape.

Czechia

I have been visiting friends in the Czech Republic (now known as Czechia) for several years. I have been lucky to meet some amazing people there who have shown me the natural wonders of Czechia and taught me so much about the culture and traditions of the region.

Czechia blog post archive

Germany

I first visited Germany in 2006 to celebrate a friend’s birthday in Munich. I have returned to Bavaria several times since, branching out into the Bavarian Forest on a trip by train to Czechia and then to the Bavarian Alps when travelling east to Romania. Germany holds incredible mountain landscapes and cultures. Below you can see a selection of the images I captured in Bavaria.

Hungary

In 2015 a friend and I travelled by train to Hungary, taking in Budapest and the Great Hungarian Plain. There we witnessed the bird paradise that is Hortobágy.

Hortobágy is a small town in the heart of the Hortobágy National Park, three hours east of Budapest by train and a little bit to the west of Debrecen. The area is a magnet for wildlife enthusiasts and we were visiting on our way to Romania by train. The main focus of our visit, being without a car and dependent on public transport, was the fishpond complex known as Hortobágy-Halastó (Halastó meaning ‘fishponds’ in Hungarian). Halastó was ‘dripping’ with birdlife. This vast area of water was cut through with a single gauge railway (which we never used) and a mile-long, single file footpath. We saw a long-eared owl sleeping in a bird box, six eagles in the sky at once, marsh harrier at every turn and many other wonderful species.

In the town, storks cavorted in front gardens and battled for prominence on streetlamp platforms placed there to support the storks. I had wanted to visit the region for several years after reading Patrick Leigh Fermor’s 1934 account in Between the Woods and the Water, as the teenage Fermor travelled from Rotterdam to Instanbul on foot. To see this area of land over ground hid none of Europe’s failings: people living in rubbish, vast areas of land devastated by extractive industries, huge infrastructure projects half built and deserted, rivers channelled, concreted and their banks denuded, and more rubbish, so much rubbish. But we met wonderful people who invited us into their homes and villages and guided us around the lands they call their own.

The Great Hungarian Plain

Netherlands

In 2017 I visited the Oostvaardersplassen rewilding project in the Netherlands. For some reason this is the most popular content I have on my website, possibly because rewilding is such a popular concept now. I have an open mind about rewilding and its definition.

The Oostvaardersplassen: rewilding the Netherlands, or maybe not

Poland

Poland is a special country. I have visited several times and have good friends and indeed family from the country. In 2016 I had the pleasure of visiting Białowieża Forest in the north-eastern part of the country, close to the border with Belarus. Below are some of the images I captured on that trip.

Białowieża Forest is a precious natural landscape of ancient oak trees and deep, largely untroubled woodlands. My friend and I managed to see seven species of woodpecker in a couple of days. Białowieża is a one of Europe’s most precious woodlands. It must be protected indefinitely from over-zealous logging and ecologically-illiterate management practices. You can read more about Białowieża Forest in the link below:

Białowieża, Europe’s mythical forest

Romania

In 2015 I travelled to Romania with my friend by train. Visiting Romania was an experience like no other. There you can find long-lost rural landscapes where people plough their fields with horses, while bears, wolves and lynx still inhabit the deep forests of the Carpathians. You can read more about my journey to Transylvania in the link below:

A journey through Transylvania

Switzerland

I visited Switzerland by train in the spring of 2024 during my honeymoon. We were awestruck by the great peaks of the Jungfrau region during our stay in Grindelwald. Below are a selection of my images from that trip.