Blog posts about city - Permanent Tourist

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

Another compilation of time-lapse sequences in London by Mattia Bicchi, which (as usual) makes me miss the city and encourage me to try and fit in a weekend there.

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The Lorraine quarter in Bern, not far from my office, used to be the trendy area in which to live, meet, dine and hang out. These days, a lot of the trendies seem to have moved on, but the quarter is still a nice network of little streets in which to take a stroll. Despite the […]

Walking from my office around a variety of city streets before returning to the office is a good way to put aside the complexities of my work for a short time.

A classic view of the ancient centre of the federal Swiss capital, Bern, photographed from the city’s Rose Garden terrace. Sadly, the view is often peppered with builders’ machinery, including the scaffolding which has been on various parts of the city minster with only a few short breaks since 1950.

…and I react with a start every time I realize how long it’s been since I was last there.

A recent blog post by a fellow Brit resident in Switzerland prompted me to head out into Bern. My goal for the lunchtime trip was a university building to the north of the railway tracks; a blue-painted building in the style common throughout the city, which dates to the end of the nineteenth century and whose original use is synonymous with the production of Swiss chocolate.

A panoramic view of the river Aare and much of the city of Bern, including the old town, the federal palace and minster. Photographed from the top of the viewing tower atop the neighbouring hill at Gurten.

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A small collection of images I took on a spring trip to Basel in 2005 with friends from the Swiss blogging scene.

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One of my favourite finds during my lunchtime walks around the city of Bern, this park is a haven of quiet and surrounded by a mix of views and architecture from the earlier part of the 20th century and onwards.

A visit to the ruined city of Pompeii is primarily about history, destruction and death. But there is a great deal of life there too; not just the tourists in abundance, but also a wide range of gardens and plants which have flourished amongst the dusty courtyards and cobbled streets. Beautiful hedges, flowers and trees […]