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Wonderful street art on the side of a Brussels block.
TinTin is a Belgian creation and the most famous example of their rich tradition of cartoons and graphic art.
Who can fail to love a country that venerates cartoons as an art form?
The historic heart of Strasbourg is effectively an island in the tributaries of the Rhine.
Everywhere there are bridges, quays, wharves and the marks of centuries of trade.
The Meseta plateau at the heart of Spain is scorching in summer, but can get very cold in winter.
As we climbed up towards the highest points on the route, the fields and villages were covered with snow.
We may have been going south, but the altitude meant it was far colder here than on the north coast.
Madrid is in fact the highest capital city in Europe - at 660m, it is 2/3 the height of Snowdon.
Silhouettes strip objects back to pure form and shape.
By doing away with colour and texture, they also make us less likely to bring our prejudices to bear on which things we assess in terms of beauty.
Take this collection of objects nicely composed here.
In silhouette, all have a grace and elegance to them, no matter what they are.
Left to right:
- Tamarind trees
- Traffic light
- Group of people under trees
- Lamp post x 2
- Tamarind tree
- Two people on sea wall
- Tamarind tree
- Palm tree
- Fisherman
- Lamp post
- Tree
- "Caution" sign
- Two fishermen
Berlin's public transport network is excellent and cheap.
Many of the trams, buses and trains are painted in this cheery yellow.
The wall of white conceals the Venetian lagoon and islands. It cast a ghostly light over the whole city.
Which all seems very apt - the whole place feels like an apparition.
This beach is Playa de la Concha - Shell beach.
And it does indeed have the perfect curve of a shell, with an elegant promenade running its full length.
Soaring palm trees fill the cavernous space in Madrid's vast Atocha Station.
The delicate patterns of the glasswork resemble those of the palms.
This building is at once restful and uplifting.
It almost makes you want your train to be delayed.
(Though delays are rare; Spain has an ultra-modern rail network which is one of Europe's best)
Hungarian baths are often beautiful buildings, and the Gellert is one of the grandest of them all.
This stunning ceiling would not look out of place in a Byzantine cathedral.
I saw sun, rain and mist in Venice. It looks gorgeous in all three.
The mist casts the city in a dream-like pall. Which seems apt as the whole place feels like an apparition.
"I remember - I was being transported slowly and gently in the darkness along this broad avenue. On each side, there were rows of beautiful palaces, full of light and the most amazingly ornate decoration.
Now get this: these huge palaces looked like they were floating! And then I realised that I was floating too - the whole avenue was actually water!"
As I say, dream-like. Except real.
The domes dazzle with the light of heaven itself on the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Riga.
This was no doubt exactly the effect intended.
Riga has a large Russian-speaking population, a legacy of its time as one of the great ports of the Russian empire and of the USSR.
You hear Russian often on the streets, from locals and visitors alike.
Never was a stretch of water more aptly named.
This is one of the world's great thoroughfares, and the heart of Venice.
Like a rocket waiting to launch, or a young sapling thrusting upwards towards the light, the Eiffel Tower, with its graceful silhouette, dominates the Paris skyline.
No matter how many times you've seen it, in real life or in pictures, it never fails to draw the eye.
Built in 1889 for the World Fair, which marked the centenary of the French Revolution, it was only supposed to be temporary.
130 years later, it is one of the most famous structures in the world and is still drawing around 7 million people a year.
The Belgians do bars - and lounging in them - so much better than most of their northern European counterparts.
Spending time in and around beautiful stations like this is one of the most thrilling parts of the journey.
The architecture is often majestic and uplifting.
When do you ever say that of a car park?
This huge development looks like those built during the Soviet era. While many buildings from that time were very poorly maintained, this one looks, at least from the outside, as though it is being well looked after.
Easily overlooked by many visitors heading straight to the resorts of the Costa del Sol, Malaga has beaches to rival any of them.
This one is a five-minute walk from the middle of Malaga's bustling and very alluring city centre.
Although the Chain Bridge is better known, this one is actually my favourite of the main bridges across the Danube in central Budapest.
I walked across them all of course.
Its girders are very graceful and its decorative steelwork is beautifully intricate. The views along the river are just as lovely as from the Chain Bridge. And as it's green it provides welcome colour even on a grey day.
But the clincher? You can cross it by tram.
Lovely ironwork in this elegant balcony overlooking a sunlit square in central Seville.
Orange trees are everywhere in Seville. Maybe they could think about exporting some oranges? Or making marmalade perhaps?
Oh. Of course.
This is the Giralda, the tower of Seville's spectacular cathedral.
Like many churches in Andalucia, it was originally a mosque, taken over for Christian use when the Christian rulers conquered Muslim territory.
The tower was originally the minaret of the mosque.
Like the architects of the London Underground, the creators of the Paris Metro took design very seriously.
The result is beautiful Art Nouveau features like this sign, dating from the early 20th century.
Whatever the time of day, the light at Cadiz is always mesmerising.
No wonder they call it Costa de la Luz - the Coast of Light.
This is a visionary and inspired piece of art and urban design - Las Setas.
They are a group of giant mushroom-style structures, joined together at the top, and dropped straight into the middle of a square in Seville, like some life form from outer space.
Viewed from below, they are magical. What makes them even more special, however, is that you can walk across the top of them, giving you fabulous views of the city.
Cities need show-stopping public art like this.
Some say projects like this are elitist, and only for the few.
This was 3 Euros to get in, absolutely packed, and with locals and visitors alike, all of them spellbound.
Sizewell C – October 2025, aerial view
Rising beside the familiar white dome of Sizewell B on the Suffolk coast, Sizewell C represents Britain’s next generation of nuclear power. The project will comprise two European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) producing a combined output of about 3.2 GW — enough low-carbon electricity for around six million homes.
The site was first earmarked for new nuclear development in the government’s energy strategy of 2008, and formal planning consent was granted in July 2022. Site preparation began soon after, with full construction now under way. The first electricity is expected to be generated sometime in the 2030s.
The station is being developed by Sizewell C Ltd, a company backed by the UK Government and EDF Energy, with additional institutional investors. EDF will oversee the design and construction and will operate the station once complete. It will use the same EPR design as Hinkley Point C in Somerset, adapted for Suffolk’s coastal conditions.
Current projections put the build cost at roughly £38 billion in 2024 prices, employing up to ten thousand people during peak construction. Once operational, the plant will run for at least sixty years, cooled by seawater drawn directly from the North Sea.
In the image, the broad cleared expanse inland of the beach shows the main construction zone, with temporary works and access roads fanning inland. To the south stands Sizewell B, in service since 1995 — a striking visual contrast between Britain’s existing and future nuclear eras.
Generation → Sizewell C Ltd (UK Government + EDF, UK/French ownership)
Transmission → National Grid plc (UK-based, shareholder-owned)
Distribution (local supply) → UK Power Networks (owned by Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure Holdings)
Many people live in apartments or have only small gardens. So this is a common sight in the residential neighbourhoods.
This is an ordinary street, and at the end of it, where the lamp-posts are, is the lagoon and the Grand Canal.
The beach near Ostend on a bracing winter's day.
A lot of people make fun of Belgium. They should just go there instead.
It took a while, but the outside world has finally woken up to the beauty of Belgium’s great medieval cities - Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp - and the energy and vitality of Brussels, one of Europe’s most under-rated capitals.
The Belgians also happen to make the best beer and chocolate in the world. Their cuisine is as good as the French, but without the haughtiness.
Then there is their coast.
The Belgians themselves and their neighbours in France and the Netherlands flock here. Yet to the British and many others it remains an under-explored part of an under-explored country.
Its beaches are vast expanses of sand, washed by North Sea waves and spray. The huge open skies and flat landscape make for majestic panoramas and unforgettable sunsets.
'Ashraya' is a contemporary low carbon 'Paragraph 79' house located in the heart of the Chiltern Hills, Hertfordshire. The house was designed by British architects Kirkland Fraser Moor (KFM) and completed in 2021. I visited and documented both inside and out, more images coming soon:)
©Kings Davis 2021
Please do not use or reproduce this image on Websites/Blog or
any other media without my explicit permission.
This statue tops the monument to Latvian independence which was erected in the 1930s. It marks the country's emergence as an independent state for the first time in the wake of the First World War.
It was short-lived. Like Lithuania and Estonia, Latvia was occupied first by the Nazis and then by Stalin, who annexed it to the USSR.
In 1990, when the USSR was collapsing, the 3 Baltic states took their place once again amongst the independent nations of the world.
All three are now members of the EU, plugging them into the wider European family.
This bridge is just below the Mezquita in the heart of old Cordoba.
The river Guadalquivir runs down to Seville and then on to the Atlantic.
It was an important waterway in Roman and Islamic times. The ruins of mills are still visible on its banks near the bridge.
Today it is a haven for wildlife. From the bridge I saw egrets, herons, ducks, shags and cormorants.
In the bottom right corner of this picture you can see a shag spreading his wings to dry them in the last rays of the afternoon sun.
A rare jewel awaits you in San Sebastian.
Set on a perfect horseshoe bay, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, San Sebastian is Spain's most beautiful and elegant seaside city.
Quite some place to end an epic train journey. I'm looking forward to exploring it.
London - Paris - San Sebastian by train!
(Flags at European Commission building, Brussels)
In a few short decades, half of Europe has moved from dictatorship to democracy. See the list of countries below.
In some cases these were countries shut off to the outside world, or wracked by civil war.
Places like Croatia, Estonia, Poland. Nowadays Britons think nothing of going there for the weekend.
The EU has played a crucial role, often overlooked, in spreading and strengthening democracy in Europe.
It requires would-be members to meet stringent criteria before they can join.
* * *
LIST
14 of the 28 EU member states that were dictatorships up until recently:
Southern Europe
-Greece
-Portugal
-Spain
Soviet republics, part of the USSR:
-Estonia
-Latvia
-Lithuania
Part of wider Soviet bloc:
-Bulgaria
-Croatia
-Czech Republic
-Hungary
-Poland
-Romania
-Slovakia
-Slovenia
This is still in Austria, though of course national borders are far less significant here.
The defining feature here is the Alps, and whether you are technically in Austria or Italy is secondary. The houses and landscape in the region look similar on both sides of the border.
How utterly limiting it is to see the world purely in terms of nations.
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On my journey from London to Venice by train (follow it all in the album)
From my vantage point in a lovely corner café near the station, where I was continuing my research into food and café cultures around Europe.
Locals, visitors and two gondoliers waiting for their next fare.
Their foliage created a lovely translucent green light.
Seville is apparently Europe's hottest city. The summer temperatures can reach a stifling 40 degrees.
So the cool shade of trees like this must offer blessed relief.
This is a visionary and inspired piece of art and urban design - Las Setas.
They are a group of giant mushroom-style structures, joined together at the top, and dropped straight into the middle of a square in Seville, like some life form from outer space.
Viewed from below, they are magical. What makes them even more special, however, is that you can walk across the top of them, giving you fabulous views of the city.
Cities need show-stopping public art like this.
Some say projects like this are elitist, and only for the few.
This was 3 Euros to get in, absolutely packed, and with locals and visitors alike, all of them spellbound.