Eva's map of Andorra, Charlotte's map of Monaco

In my quest for maps of micronations, I took a trip recently, travelling first to Andorra and onwards to Monaco.


In both places, lovely people working in the tourist offices drew maps for me. I'm nervous of tourist offices, as whenever I've asked their staff  to draw maps, they hand me one of their many printed maps.

Eva in Andorra was about to do this, but I convinved her that I wanted a hand-drawn map. "OK", she said, and set about producing the most detailed map I've got. It's in four colours and has a legend.

I explained in fledgling Spanish why I was asking for a drawn map. "It's very interesting", said Eva looking proud of her map. And well she should.

Later in the trip, in Monaco's tourist office, Charlotte drew another wonderfully detailed map of Monaco. At one point, I wondered nervously if she was just drawing Monte Carlo and not Monaco. Then I realised it's pretty much the same thing.

Charlotte seemed pleased with her map too. "We've never had anyone ask us for this before," said her colleague.

 

 So these two very detailed maps come from two very small states - and it seems very appropriate for my project to give them as much space as the whole map of larger countries like Russia or Germany.

2,500 days in London

As of today, 5 May 2012, I've been living in London for 2,500 days. I've blogged a lot about London and taked many pictures of London , and enjoying exploring this vast city.

To celebrate, I decided to make a collage of 25 photographs from London - it shows people, art, galleries, museums, nature, graffiti - all the kinds of things that add up to make London great.

Myriam's map of San Marino

I visited San Marino three years ago.

On my way there, I left my phone on the bus. Myriam, who worked at my hotel very kindly drove me to the bus garage to get my phone back. I spent some time talking to her, she was a very nice person.

During all this, for some reason, I didn't ask her to draw a map of San Marino. Maybe I just forgot, or felt a bit foolish.

I went back to San Marino this week, and found Myriam still working in the hotel.

She remembered me from three years ago, and then drew this wonderfully detailed map of San Marino.

Thanks Myriam!

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So now my collection of maps of European countries is nearly done - only Andorra, Bosnia, Cyprus, Moldova and Monaco are left. I'm determined to finish the collection this year - here's hoping.

Essex Estuary Evaluation

Last week, I volunteered to test a walk for the Royal Geographical Society's Discovering Britain website.

It is a great website with lots of downloadable guided walks all over the country,

My walk was along the Essex Estuary where the Thames meets the North Sea, and land meets water.

It's only 40 minutes away from London but an interesting walk along a relatively ordinary landscape made even more interesting by the tour commentary.

Iceland is geography

I went to Iceland a month ago, and was agog looking at the landscape. Iceland is a living geography lesson, with amazing landforms all over.

So, a game of spot-the-landform - Geysir hot spring, a hill (don't know its name), Gullfoss waterfall and Faxi waterfall.

And some more - Kerið crater, Strokkur geyser, Hvítá gorge and another hill (don't know its name either)

I made my photos black and white because the weather was mainly grey during my visit - except for Sunday, when the sun came out, and colour emerged: blue waters at the Blue Lagoon, and Reykjavik harbour

Transbritannia

Flights from London to Iceland fly over a lot of water, a little part of Iceland, but mostly over the length of Britain.

Take a look at these aerial photos of mountains, valleys, islands, cities and towns - mine are mainly of Scotland and the north of England, because it was cloudy down south.

Glasgow airport

The Firth of Forth, and Forth Road Bridge
The iconic Forth (rail) Bridge is just about visible in background, behind clouds.

River valley in Scotland
I haven't been able to identify this one.

Stornoway and Isle of LewisStornoway is in the left middle-ground.

Loch Linnhe
Two photos of Loch Linnhe - one of the north-western edge, and one where its two sides nearly meet.

Robin Rigg wind farm
I identified this as it was the only wind farm with 60 turbines.

Liverpool, the Mersey and Birkinhead
The lower half of the photo is Liverpool.

London » Lyon

I went by Eurostar from London to Lyon in November, full of plans to take photos of the journey - until I realised my camera's battery was empty.

So instead, I took out a notebook and got drawing the sights and landmarks the train passed - here they are as one animation.

Cork to London, from above

I've been flying back and forwards between Cork and London for nearly 6 and a half years now. Inspired by my last post with google maps screenshots of geographical landscapes, here are a variety of aerial photographs taken on my many flights between Ireland and the UK.

Britain from above

The first book I have read from my New Year reading list is Never Eat Shredded Wheat, which is all about the geography of the UK.

As the author described various features, like oxbow lakes, moraines, cliffs and so on, I looked them up on Google Maps (because aerial photography is great).

So here are some screenshots of fantastic British landscapes from Google Maps - I didn't keep a record of where these all are, but if you want to guess, leave a comment.

Charity paintings

Ages ago (before I started working there), I did a painting course at the Horniman Museum.

At the end of each class, there was usually some paint left over on our makeshift palettes (cereal packets). I hate to throw unused things away, so I would get this paint and smear it on to paper in the hope it would make interesting patterns and pictures.

And then I held on to these "paintings" for years...

A few months ago, I was giving some small picture frames to a charity shop, and thought how much nicer they'd look with images inside them.

So I dug out the paint-splash-paintings, added some circles, and put them in the frames. Here they are...

I wonder who bought them, and what they make of them...

Juraj's map of Slovakia

Even though it took me some time, I didn't have to look far to find someone to draw a map of Slovakia.


Juraj, who I work with, was happy to draw this great map of Slovakia. 

This takes my tally to 41 with only six countries to go: Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, Bosnia, Cyprus and Moldova.

Philipp's map of Luxembourg

There aren't many Luxembourgers in the world, but some of those in London meet at a pub every month. I went along, hoping to find someone to draw me a map.

The friendly gentlemen I found there happily helped, taking it in turns to draw the perfect map.

Luxembourg, they said, was shaped like a shoe on its side.

Phillippe's map shows some of Luxembourg's cities and towns including the small village Schengen which gives its name to Europe's open border visa arrangement. So three cheers for Luxembourg, the powerfully petit Grand Duchy.

Thomas Struth @ Whitechapel Gallery

I went to see the Thomas Struth exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Many of the photographs in the show are of city streets and urban landscapes. In some cases - like New York, Tokyo, Las Vegas - the architecture tells the location.

But in many, the architecture doesn't give away where the photograph was taken. The photographs lined up side-by-side highlight the same-ness of buildings, and (mainly) Western European architecture. It could be anywhere.

Only the street signs, the shop signs, and advertising gives clues to where the picture is.

Maybe it doesn't need to be obvious from the architecture where these streets are, but, somehow, it feels a little sad that it's not...