Author Archives: charlesgannon

Montenegro 2025

As Montenegro was a country that I always wanted to visit, for it seemed to be less well-known than some of the other Balkan states, I decided to join a week-long Travel Department tour of the country in April of this year (2025). I wasn’t disappointed; Budva, where we stayed, proved to be a very pleasant seaside resort, and we went on several tours, taking dramatic scenic routes, to the former capital Cetinje, to stunning Kotor and Kotor Bay, and even made a quick day tour to Albania!

Egypt 2024: A Cruise up the River Nile

Egypt is a country that captured my imagination from about the age of ten, when I was shown pictures of the famous pyramids of Giza and the temples that had been moved to higher positions during the construction of the new Aswan Dam. However, I never got to visit this fascinating country until December 2024, when I joined a tour organized by the Travel Department (Ireland). We started in Cairo, where we visited the brand-new Grand Egyptian Museum and the old National Egyptian Museum, and were driven to Giza to see the very impressive pyramids.

Turkey 2024

Now on tripsandtravelogues: the final two chapters of ‘Turkey 2024’. In Chapter 2 you can read about our trip from İstanbul to Anatolia, stopping first of all in the Dardanelles, where we saw many gravestones of soldiers who had been killed during World War I. We then went to nearby Çanakkale and what is left of the excavated ancient city of Troy. In Chapter 3, you can read about the fascinating excavations at Pergamum and Ephesus, and about our stay in the seaside town of Kușadası.

Turkey 2024

Turkey 2024, A Week in İstanbul and Anatolia, is a new travelogue available now on tripsandtravelogues.com. Organized by the Travel Department (Ireland), this trip in October 2024 consisted of a fascinating tour starting with Turkey’s capital city, İstanbul, then continued with a journey across Anatolia, where we stopped in various places to see several important archaeological sites such as Troy, Pergamum, and Ephesus.

New travelogues needed!

If you want to read some new travelogues on my website tripsandtravelogues.com, you’ll have to write them yourselves, for I’ve finally completed all mine! So, it’s over to you, folks! Among the Irish contributors who have written travelogues for me are the novelist Anne McLoughlin, the oboist Lindsay Armstrong, the musician Andrew Robinson, and a former work colleague, Margaret Martin.

Moscow and Leningrad 1979

The journey continues: we’re now in the elegant city of Leningrad (St Petersburg), where we’re brought to see some of the wonderful buildings, such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and the carefully reconstructed Catherine Palace and Cameron Gallery in nearby Pushkin. The latest two chapters (7 and 8) ofContinue reading “Moscow and Leningrad 1979”

Moscow and Leningrad 1979

Travel back in time with me to 1979, when a friend and I travelled to the USSR for a twelve-day tour of the capital Moscow and the beautiful city of Leningrad (St Petersburg). At that time Leonid Brezhnev was holding SALT 2 talks with Jimmy Carter, and the country was busy preparing for the OlympicContinue reading “Moscow and Leningrad 1979”

A Week in Greece

New on tripsandtravelogues is Chapter 1 of ‘A Week in Greece’: a description of a trip around mainland Greece, organized by The Travel Company (Ireland), which I joined in 2019. In this first chapter we visit Athens, where we see the Parthenon on the Acropolis, then Delphi, which is quite spectacular, then on to Corinth and the seaside town of Tolo (where we were based). As we had an excellent guide, it turned out to be quite a fascinating trip!

A Week in Andalucía

‘A Week in Andalucía’ is a travelogue of an organized tour around the south of Spain in March of 2017. Andalucía is a fascinating part of Spain because of its mixture of cultures: Neolithic, Roman, Moorish, Roma, Jewish and Christian. Our group was based in the small town of Antequera (see photo above), just north of Málaga. The first chapter, about Antequera, Córdoba, El Chorro and Málaga is now available on this website, and the second chapter (about Granada, Seville. and Ronda) will be available here on Monday, 26 February. Enjoy!