Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

Posts from 2017

  • Catching the ship from Faulensee to Sundlauenen, hiking through the forest past St. Beatus Caves to Merligen, and then home by paddle steamer.

  • Die neue Landeskarte der Schweiz

    Einblicke in die neueste Technik der Aufbereitung und Speicherung topografischer Daten und deren Nutzung in der heutigen digitalen Welt. Der Film gibt ausserdem einen interessanten Überblick über die neue Grafik der Schweizer Landeskarte.

  • Photos from a wet night-time walk from Tate Modern to Southwark, via London Bridge and Tower Bridge, in 2014.

  • The Petite Camargue Alsacienne is a French nature reserve along the Rhine, just north of the border with Switzerland. It was founded in 1982 as a protected habitat by the French government and is named for the huge nature reserve seven hundred kilometres away, on the shores of the Mediterranean. We visited a couple of…

  • There is a yellow field, nestling in a small valley, which sways gently in the breeze. It is surrounded by deep green trees and amongst them, a thatched cottage sits with an elevated view across the scene. I haven’t found it yet, but I have found many picturesque alternatives on my travels. Like this one,…

  • Birg, Switzerland

    Beginning a hike from Birg station to the Schilthorn revolving restaurant, before changing my plans and walking down the very steep path to Allmendhubel and Mürren.

  • My England

    My England is green and pleasant. In my mind’s eye, the countryside is green and rolling, with occasional villages surrounding leafy, oaked cricket pitches or busy duck ponds. The lanes of my youth lead past scattering pheasants and floral hedgerows which echo the sound of a slightly ropey semi-classic British sports car. Towns are timbered and…

  • Gimmelwald to Stechelberg

    Time-lapse video of the cable-car ride from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg in Swiss canton Bern.

  • Roses wave gently in the breeze, and a wood pigeon coos from a tree, unseen. A cyclist glides silently by and a muffled, childish swear word echoes quietly from a nearby football pitch. Bees buzz, breezes waft, and a boy bounces past on a pogo stick.

  • Basse Ville

    I regain a holiday feeling by sitting in an old town square, eating pizza, whilst locals perch on a wall, smoking cigarettes before a little bus arrives and rattles them away. Swifts and martins race through the narrow lanes, far above us, to catch their own dinner. The sun slowly retreats up the old stone buildings surrounding…

  • Kilmuir Easter Church, Scotland

    The only remains of antiquity that stood in this parish, were last year removed.  In the place of Delny, once a principal seat of the Earls of Ross, stood the ruins of a Romish chapel on a pleasant bank surrounded by graves.  This spot has been deserted as a burying place for many years; and…

  • Dear Konstantin, I was born in London and spent a lot of time there during my twenties, as you know. I was still in my twenties when I moved away – far away, as you did – before I found my feet as a photographer and found my niche as an explorer of everyday places. Even…

  • Itching to visit the historic Hörnlihütte in Zermatt.

  • A year with a drone in Switzerland

    By Christian Cueni.

  • On Hound Tor

    Your author as a mysterious fictional character.

  • Thunersee and Brienzersee – Pure Switzerland

    The region I’ve been calling home for sixteen years.

  • As my working career moves towards being involved with WordPress 100% of the time in future, I’ve started to gradually invest a little more of my time and effort into the WordPress community. My aim is to work with friends and colleagues to coordinate our efforts in Switzerland into bringing WordPress even more to the…

  • After six years with my current employer, the time has come to move into a role which better suits my abilities and which will provide me with new challenges. I’m really excited that I’ve been asked to join WordPress agency Cubetech in Bern as Head of Development.

  • Spending money on an informed, experienced website concept document will usually work out cheaper than trying to battle through for days on your own. It will also mean that the end result will be more reliable and more likely to properly present your business online.

  • Melchsee-Frutt, Switzerland

    Abrupt sunsets

    Sunsets in the mountains are different from those over flatter landscapes.

  • Why the software you love may not always be the right one for the project at hand, and how you can recognize and plan for it.