Please accept my apologies for the lack of activity on Mark’s Meanderings. For me January has been a crazy, challenging and disappointing month. The UK Government is not my favourite group of people at the moment, and that is even before the Mandelson affair broke out.
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I was hoping to bring you tales of Lyon but, sadly, those plans went for a burton. So in the meantime I’ve taken a little break to recharge, refresh and do a little reflection. I’m happy with what Mark’s Meanderings has become. Those who knew me in my young days would have known that school, reading and writing were not habits I particularly liked. 2025 had many hurdles but was a great year! I tried to bring a post a week and my audience grew slowly throughout. Anyone who thinks ‘travel blogging’ is a dream job is sadly mistaken – it will remain a hobby for the foreseeable future.Â
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The challenge in 2026 is not only to grow again but is to find ways to reach and connect with other people around the world. Competing with AI to bring real life and authentic personal experiences remains the challenge. There is still a desire to read the written word in a visually digitally driven world.
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Reading may be becoming a lost art but it is certainly bringing some joy to my heart. I hope that this feeling is mutual and you enjoy reading Mark’s Meanderings as much as I enjoy putting them together. Personally my collection of books is growing, as I break the modern mould. So, too, are your inboxes which, hopefully, are overflowing with my latest meanderings. This year I’m going to set myself some meaningful goals to help monitor Mark’s Meanderings success or otherwise. Â
Mark's Meanderings in 2025
Well what a year – slightly quieter than previous years but I still managed to visit Italy three times (Florence, Pisa, Volterra & Rimini), along with a break to Wales, and exploration of parts of England. My heart grows fonder of the Italian way of life with each visit. Tuscany, in particular, continues to pull on the heart strings. Adventures to other areas of Italy should not be ignored at the expense of continually returning to Tuscany. The similarities between Italian and British history provides fascinating interest.
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A week-long trip over the border into Wales opened my eyes to waterfall country and numerous castles. It showed how many intriguing and exciting places there are to discover nearby and that are often overlooked. The marshlands of medieval England certainly captured my attention. As one follower mentioned in the comments there are around 600 castles in Wales! Thanks for this information. That’s a lot of castles or castle sites and to visit them all would be a monstrous, impractical, even unrealistic goal to set. I do have work to do to fund these trips. Let’s park that one for the moment! Â
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Towards the end of the year 2025 you will have read a number of posts about my visit to Paris. Not covering everything the city has to offer, a return is surely warranted. I may explore the possibility of a day trip to the city. Paris is a destination that everyone aspires to visit, yet it still leaves me confused. I hope you enjoyed reading Mark’s Meanderings on Paris as I tried a different (and maybe controversial) approach to stand out from the normal posts on the city.Â
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London, like Paris, has much to offer. Both cities offer world class museums and a list of monuments to visit that is as long one’s arm. In the words of Samual Johnson, “When a man is tired of London….”, I’m not tired of London yet and not tired of life to finish his quip. I was able to bring you blogs another couple of London’s landmarks. A visit to Lambeth Palace was achieved – not an easy task. The palace is certainly off the beaten track and visits are only possible on a few days in the year.Â
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Mark's Meanderings in 2026
Well we’re already into the second month! Days, months and years merge into one as life moves at a blistering pace. The soul destroying weather in the south west of England combined with a failed trip to Lyon has blown the 2026 meanderings off course – you almost need a boat to get anywhere is Somerset at the moment! But fear not! The winds are changing and a new course is being set once I’ve dried out. I have some exciting plans and ideas onboard that I hope you will enjoy.
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There is also a long list of previous places visited that still need blogs. Rome, the Vatican, South Africa are just a few which I hope to bring to you in 2026. Plus I’m hoping to get my ‘blogs’ on the Lands End to John O’Groats and back cycle ride (2014) and walking the Thames path (2018) onto the site somewhere. These were both wonderful experiences and I’m sure you will appreciate reading about them.Â
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Travelling plans this year include a couple of days in London at the end of March and in July I have booked flights to California. The football World Cup final will be taking place on the east coast, so this wasn’t my reason for visiting. It is the chance to visit dear friends. One of the great joys of travel is the friendships made along the way. Who’d have thought that California would be visited again? I will use the time there to recall my first trip and the places visited. So around July you will have many posts on Californian dreams to read.Â
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My biggest plan this year is to bring more structure to the posts from the UK. A focus will be made on ‘series’ of posts on a certain subject. Castles, houses, walks, palaces, the list could go on. So I’m pleased to say that my first series will be on abbeys. Inspired by my visit to Tintern Abbey I aim to explore 5 or 6 of these fascinating places. Watch this space!Â
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Apart from that everything else is down to seizing the opportunity. Let’s hope some of those come along….Â
Mark's Meanderings needs you!!!
Firstly, let me say thank you for being ‘subscribers’. This is the first step amongst many to growing the website online. My first goal for Mark’s Meanderings in 2026 is to double the number of current subscribers. So my cry for help is asking you to share the website and encourage friends, family members, colleagues, or anyone who might enjoy reading about travel and history to subscribe.Â
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In 2026 I hope to bring you more exciting content, hopefully that challenges the status quo yet leaves you questioning my observations. Google loves comments on the posts and I love to receive comments and hear from you guys. So every time you read ‘my latest meandering’ please write a few words in the comment section below. I also implore you to search the post title in Google rather than clicking on the link in the email. It is another way of getting my posts to be higher up the list on Google searches.Â
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As my journeys evolve, I’m starting to create my own places to visit. The education received on one visit inspires the next destination. It would be great to hear of places you would like me to visit and write about. For example after visiting Paris the need to visit St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, a place I doubt many of us knew existed.Â
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One of the goals set this year is trying to get featured somewhere either in a newspaper, magazine, brochure, website, etc. This is a big goal, with some clear SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time based) principles, yet no idea of how to achieve it. I will be making contact with any and everyone I can to achieve this, but if you have any contacts in the world of publishing then please let me know. Or if you have a little village/town/city magazine that would appreciate a travel writer creating an article or two for them let me know.Â
Let's start again
So my time of reflection is over! I have put together some rough plans and challenged myself with some realistic and measurable goals. My time as an apprenticeship assessor is having a huge impact on me. I can recall sitting with many learners covering their Continuing Professional development (CPD) section in their portfolio and getting them to write some SMART goals. Yet here I am doing exactly the same – oh, how the times have changed. This break has provided me with a valuable reset and recharge of the brain cells. I look forward to starting afresh and bringing you a weekly post again. Until next time…
Always good to reflect, and take some time to reset and create new plans! Certainly nothing like relentless rain to get people looking for some travel inspiration, that’s for sure! California sounds dreamy, especially right now!
Difficult to know who or what to blame for the passport heartache. We have used the miserable weather to plan another adventure though not as ambitious as a trip to California. Hope that there’ll be no gremlins to deal with on your trip.
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