This photo essay accompanies my latest post for the Visit Britain Superblog. “In the footsteps of Monty Halls on North Uist“. The Udal Peninsula was one of Monty Halls favourite spots in the Uists in Scotland’s magnificent Western Isles.

View across Harris Sound to the mountainous Isle of Harris.

A boat moored a long way from the nearest habitation.

Pebbles on the beach near the elusive “Cross on the wall”.

Yellow moss apparently only grows in unpolluted environments.

One of the best examples of a wheelhouse in North Uist. This spot was occupied for over 5000 years.

Never managed to find out if these were grown as a crop or were natural. They completely covered a crofter’s field.

All photos by author.

While walking the streets of Brussels, I am often aware that I am following in the footsteps of Georges Rémi, better known as Hergé, creator of Tintin. From where I type this article, I can see both of the schools he attended in his youth. He left his mark in the form of murals at both schools. One when he was a Boy Scout and the other when he was an accomplished author / illustrator. They are not available for viewing by the public, but Brussels has lots of other Tintin related works that are accessible to all.

VisitBrussels publish a map that folds down to credit card size; “In the footsteps of the little reporter – Sized for Tintin”. It retails for 0.50 Euros and is available from the Information Offices. The trail starts in the Parc de Bruxelles where a temporary information panel explains that the park was the inspiration for the drawings in King Ottokar’s Sceptre. It then continues on around the centre of Brussels highlighting sights that provided inspiration for the Tintin stories, murals featuring Herge’s work, the Tintin shop and the Belgian Comic Strip Centre.  It also includes the Hergé / Tintin locations outside the centre of Brussels, including his birthplace and tomb.

Compared to Tintin, Hergé didn’t travel extensively. He used the work of photographers who had recorded scenes from the locations in his books, as the basis of his drawings. He also researched the locations thoroughly.  National Geographic was a favoured source. He drew the planes, trains, automobiles that interested him from life. Even the rocket that Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy take to the moon, was inspired by the V1 test rockets developed by the Germans in the Second World War, then used by the American Space Programme after the war.

Brussels provided much of the inspiration in the cartoon strips. Exhibits from the Musée Cinquantenaire and Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren appear in many of his stories. In 2009 Grand Place was the venue for the World’s largest Comic Strip, when a page from Objective Moon filled most of the square. It was so large that you had to climb up on a viewing platform to appreciate it.

When Spielberg made his animated movie, he remained true to the books and original locations that inspired them. The film starts in place Jeu de Balle, in the Marolles quarter of Brussels, where Tintin gets his portrait drawn by Hergé, before finding the Unicorn on sale.  The flea market is is still held every morning. When I went out with my camera, I didn’t find the Unicorn, but I did come across a trawler. Perhaps it was a clue pointing towards the reason why all the fish are disappearing from the world’s oceans. Tintin the young Belgian Reporter, would have loved to expose that story.

Not the Unicorn, Flea Market, Marolles

It is the overhead snippets of conversation, that tells me that Winter Wonders or Plaisirs d’Hiver in French, is popular with visitors. “I was like…” the repeated “like” in twenty something females’ conversations. The oral version of a Facebook Wall. Or “I am lucky, as I can catch a train and be here in less than two hours” uttered by a fifty something male, identifies them as having English as a first language. You will often find English spoken in conversations in Brussels, but away from the main visitor attractions. It is a common means of communication between speakers whose first language is differs, such as between the Flemish and the Finnish.So having established that the Winter Wonders attracts lots of travellers from outside Belgium, let me give a brief overview of what is on offer. The event opened on the last Saturday in November and runs until January 1st.

Starting from Central Station, head towards the Bourse and you should find a blue trailer (caravan in UK), this is the Information Centre for the Winter Wonders Festival. I suggest you pick up the Winter Wonders brochure / map published before proceeding. Notice the smell of Brussels waffles and mulled wine from the nearby stalls and perhaps listen to the musicians on the corner.

There is an abundance food stalls around the Bourse. I tried some Vin Chaud (Mulled Wine) from the Belgian wines stand, but there is abundant alternative warming drinks on offer nearby. If you are visiting Brussels for the first time, you could sample a Geuze at Á la Becasse or Le Cirio, which are both very close to here.

Across the other side of Boulevard Anspach,  light frame human figures float over rue Paul Devaux. These are “Les Voyageurs de Cédric Le Borgne” which have toured the world for about five years. A night their wire framed bodies are illuminated like ghosts watching the revellers at Winter Wonders.

Continuing on to Place Sainte Catherine you will probably encounter the Greek Zone, in the small square by the entrance to Saint Catherine’s church. Here a number of stalls sell Greek produce under the lines of blue and white flags. Greece is the guest of honour at this year’s festival, last year it was Morocco.  You will also find the first of the two Steam Punk carousels by Andrea’s Magic roundabouts.

You will need to walk to the centre of Place Saint Catherine to find the second children’s roundabout. You will find most of the Christmas Market stalls here as well as more refreshment stands. The Big Wheel is the most striking feature  found at the opposite end of the square to the Church forms a striking backdrop.  The Ice Skating Rink is one of the most popular attractions is in front of the wheel. There is also the perennial Ice Monster, which I find tempting me to enter its opening and closing mouth. Shame it is for children, but I’ll go looking for my Ice Monsters in Chamonix. The children’s sledding run for children is also found down this end.

From 10 December until 25 December snow will hide the street of Mont Des Arts and the only way down will be on skis or a snowboard.  The surprise for me when I visited yesterday was seeing a piste groomer  and a team of men building a magic carpet ski uplift.

Finally, the attraction marked number one on the Winter Wonders brochure is Electrabel Nights.  Using environmentally sensitive technology, light is projected onto the Hotel de Ville and all over Grand Place, while beams reach up into the sky in time with classical music, but look out for an orchestra and choir performing AI.  Even the Christmas Tree lights are synchronised with the music. Don’t leave without taking a look at the realistic Nativity Scene in the full size stable.

The theme for the photo sharing day on Twitter on Friday 18 November 2011 was Flags. If you look at my Twitter profile you will see that I tend to spend time between three locations. In this piece, I will include photos, including flags from each of these places.
Wales

Starting with my birthplace. This photo was taken while looking for new angles to take photographs from. The castle on the skyline is Dinas Bran. It was built by the Welsh sometime in the 1260′s but fell to King Edward 1 of England.

Belgium

Taken while at Fete de la Musique in place des Palais. This photo was used by the Belgian French language Radio and TV broadcaster to illustrate how far Belgium was from forming a government. Belgium went to the polls on 13 June 2010 and didn’t agree on a workable coalition until 11 October this year. The country now holds the world record for the time taken to form a democratically elected government. The article can be found here. You may need to use Google Translate. They did accredit me as the copyright holder but did not link to my Flickr page or give me a link back, but I was humbled to have it included.

France

Finally a photo of the French Flag from outside the Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM), Chamonix’s High Moutain Police. They operate a professional mountain rescue service. I end up at Chamonix at some time each winter, even if I don’t always spend the season there. I for one am glad that these brave policemen are there to rescue anyone in distress high in the Alps. The memorial plaque outside is sobering, as it records a the death of at least one policeman each year for nearly all the time it has been in existence.

There are a lot of widely held views  built on hearsay and misinformation. The deeper I look, the more  complicated the story seems to get. One of my aims is to educate myself on travel environmental issues. Then to share my findings on this site and hopefully start a discussion for all involved to gain further enlightenment. This should end up as a regular feature on transport sustainability and eco-myths. The idea is to research and discuss information that will enable anyone with an interest, to discover how much of a carbon footprint a particular travel option would generate.
Statistics published by transport operators and environmental pressure groups tell totally different stories. But as the “X Files” slogan reminds us; “The Truth Is Out There”. These posts will attempt reveal that truth, or at the very least get a lot closer to the real story.

The airline industry comes in for a lot of flak from environmentalists, but in their favour their carbon footprints are widely available, even if they do just report emissions of carbon dioxide and fail to include oxides of nitrogen that also contribute to climate change. In addition the altitude at which the emissions occur, leads to a bigger impact on the climate than discharges at ground level. Flights even create artificial clouds that are visible to the naked eye. There are some transport operators that publish no figures whatsoever and then paint themselves as green due to the lack of evidence to the contrary. They may be innocent until proved guilty, but they certainly aren’t providing evidence of their real carbon footprint either.

When it comes to finding low carbon travel options, we don’t even have a complete map, let alone SatNav.

Fortunately information is available. “How Bad are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything” by Mike Berners-Lee, makes recommended reading for anyone wanting to know more about the subject. Unfortunately it is not comprehensive, so don’t expect to find ferries and cruise ships in the current edition.

The lack of transparency of transport’s place in the carbon footprint league table is exploited heavily by travel PR / Advertising Departments. To take an example High Speed Rail is sold with a big “Environmentally Friendly” label attached. Few ask why, and take it for granted. They suspect that airlines have large carbon footprints, so automatically assume that rail must be a lot better. But using this criteria how long will it be for the airlines to apply the same label, when space tourist rocket flights to space start, I can imagine the slogan:

“Don’t take the rocket, go by jet it’s better for the environment”

perfectly true as a statement; but you get my point?

Perhaps it comes across as a little negative? Certainly anyone choosing a fast train instead of a flight is reducing their carbon footprint. I opt for rail before flying but am aware that the issue is way more complicated and there is always more that I can do in my travel and lifestyle choices. I know very well that taking a high speed train doesn’t make me greener than green.  Complacency can prevent us all from making our travel more sustainable.  But if High Speed Rail isn’t as green as some of the alternatives, what are they and do they make viable alternatives? I for one would like to see an energy label for transport options like those that come with electrical appliances or cars. All things to discuss in future articles.

#FriFotos is the weekly photo sharing day on Twitter. On Friday November 11, the theme is “Fall”, but as is usual, it is open to interpretation. Fall is the term used for Autumn in North America. However, the eleventh of November is Armistice Day and a Public Holiday in much of Europe. It is a day when we remember the fallen. The fall that these soldiers made, is the one that will be foremost on my mind.
I intend to visit the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, near the French / Belgian border not far from Messines. In the First World War, Winston Churchill spent some time in the trenches here after the failure of his Gallipoli campaign. Hitler also spent time nearby, at Messines, even painting the church in his spare time.
I will not be going there to remember Churchill or Hitler. I will be paying homage to my Great Uncle, the twin brother of my grandfather. My grandfather had volunteered for the British Army working with the horses. Uncle Ted was conscripted into the Royal Welch Fusiliers but was transferred into the South Wales Borderers as so many units had been decimated by the onslaught. The South Wales Borderers were the regiment famed for their defence of Rorke’s Drift in South Africa, immortalised in the film “Zulu”. It made finding out the location of his memorial difficult, as the family had been searching for him in the Royal Welsh Fulsiliers, until my brother’s research lead discovered the story of his last days and hours.

Uncle Ted was listed as missing presumed dead, on 11 April 1918. It was at the height of the Georgette Offensive in Flanders. German troops had overrun the Allied positions and were pouring through Northern France towards the Channel Ports. The situation was grave. This was the day Field Marshall Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary force gave his desperate order.

There is no other course open to us but to fight it out! Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our Homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.

Uncle Ted was last recorded by Estaires, in the Nord Department of France not far from Lille. They were under fire from mortars. After that date he was not heard from again. He was listed missing in action. His mother refusing to believe he was dead, left her front door unlocked each night in anticipation of his return until her dying day.
We don’t know if he lies in a Flanders Field, or is in a cemetery with a headstone marked with the words “Known unto God”. His name was carved on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing in Belgium. The French already had a surplus of War Memorials and so King Albert 1 of Belgium offered to host the memorial originally planned for Lille.

Ploegsteert Memorial sits in The Royal Berkshire Cemetery Extension. British troops stationed at Ploegsteert, called it Plugstreet and this part of the line was known as Hyde Park Corner.
All I can do is pay my respects to my Great Uncle who fell in 1918, so that we can enjoy the freedom we take for granted today.

The abbey of Val-Dieu was founded in 1216 by Cistercian monks. Surviving wars, floods and moral crises, it was temporarily dissolved by the French Revolution. Then in 1844 with the aid of the church and the last surviving monk, it was re-established and flourished again for another 150 years. The last monks departed in the spring of 2001, but were replaced by a thriving Christian community. It is now a place of pilgrimage for Christians and tourists alike. The Val-Dieu cheese and beer is still produced here.

Have you ever stood on a railway station concourse and stared longingly at destinations on the Departures Board that were not printed on your tickets? Have you ever found yourself on the road somewhere and found that the you were travelling along one of the world’s more famous long distance routes and felt the urge to keep on going? Have you ever stood at the bottom of a valley and felt an irresistible pull towards the summit high up above? I suffer from all of these afflictions and then some.

Camino de Santiago waymarker

Long distance footpaths can also be found there in the mix saying “Come on! I dare you to walk me and find out where I go through and end up”. My gaze is always arrested by the waymark stickers for the Camino de Santiago and get I exited just by seeing the white and red horizontal  bars signifying a GR (Grand Randonée – a European long distance trail). These markers are as valuable as SatNav for anyone hiking on these trails. Perhaps I’ll post again to explain how they’re used for navigation and how they vary across Europe. I’ll certainly post extracts from some of my hikes on these walking routes.

Waymarker on GR5

So when I’m out shopping in Brussels and come across a litter bin with a white and red bar painted on it, I stop and sometimes even take a photograph, but each time I’m wondering where the trail leads. In fact the one in this photograph is for GR126, which starts in Brussels, crosses GR12 in Grand Place then heads off south through Namur, Dinant and finishes at Membre-sur-Semois by the border of the French and Belgian Ardennes, where it joins GR16, which in turn has followed the River Semois from by Arlon in South East Belgium. This then rejoins GR12 on its way from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels.

Grand randonée waymarker: GR126

It is amazing where two painted bars on a litter bin can lead.

Street art

Last week I visited the Ixelles Museum here in Brussels before their exhibition on Street Art closed and is replaced by a Dubuffet exhibition. Bonom was featured heavily, with insights into how he plans his pieces. The photo above shows a spider on a concrete building by Chapelle in Brussels. I think it adds an organic touch to an otherwise clinically cold concrete building.

The area around Chapelle Station is covered in Street Art and graffiti. I’m not sure that all of it has a positive effect. I can’t see much artistic expression in some of the tags in this next photo.

The monster series of officially sanctioned Street Art appears to me to have been semi defaced by other taggers wanting to make their presence felt.
On my cycle trips around Brussels looking for pieces I often end up speaking to locals who have been at the receiving end of these artists / taggers. One I spoke to felt nothing but contempt for the artist who placed a monster on the side of his house. I could see his point as well.
Do you have any views on the subject?

Why is it so many people aspire to fly in First Class, sleep in Five Star hotels (or even Seven Star hotels) and eat in Michelin Three Star restaurants? Don’t they know that it is very poor value for money? That you can sleep just as well in a £29 per night room as a £2900 per night room? That the carbon footprint of a seat in First Class is at least double that of one in Standard?

I don’t know whether anyone has researched the psychology of luxury travel, but studies undertaken for luxury brands, found that someone buying a handbag for $50,000 is saying ” I have so much money that I can afford to waste it”.  The message being “I am a winner” and if you mate with me, our offspring will have a great chance of promulgating our genes also. Or to sum it up in one word “Sex”.

It goes deep into the contemporary psyche. Role models are chosen for their looks and the brands and fashion ideals they endorse. Their values or contribution to making the world a better place seem to count for little.  School children not sporting the right logos, must either conform or be bullied. This is worse than the secret police in a Cold War Era Eastern European country, making life a misery for anyone not toeing the party line. Combine this with incessant  advertising from TV, film, computer games and even by stealth through their social media accounts and our youth don’t stand a chance. It is no wonder that many believe that being someone is a matter of having the right logos on their clothes, cars, hotel chain or airline.

But is travel like a Hermes handbag? Do extravagant purchases define us as someone successful? Is a tan in the middle of winter a status symbol to wear with pride? Does taking regular flights make you a member of the “Jet Set”?

In Europe since the 1950′s the cost of flying, encouraged by lenient taxation, nose-dived.   Spain was suddenly affordable and millions flocked there returning with a tan, donkeys wearing sombreros and other ornaments proudly displayed in the home to demonstrate that here is a person “well-travelled”. But then the Jones’ had to go on that trip to Florida and Disneyland! To keep up with them, a trip to the Maldives was a “must do”  for the following year, even if it meant getting into debt.  Does this explain why cruises to the Antarctic are now in vogue?

I’ve raised a lot of questions in this post. I don’t have answers to most of them. However, in a world of limited resources and Climate Change, it matters not only how much we travel, but how we travel. If a backpacker hiking for a year has a smaller ecological footprint  than someone flying 2,000 miles to stay at a Seven Star Hotel for a week, surely these questions are important?

If it really all does boil down to sex, why are our planetary life support systems getting screwed instead?