Globalwanderings is the personal photoblog of Richard Cain showcasing some of the amazing places I have experienced while living and working throughout Asia and more recently, Europe. In 2009, me and my wife Jackie left Asia to renovate a farmhouse and live a new life in deepest Portugal. We are now renovating our second house and that story is told on a blog called The House on a Hill. We also run the podcasting site podcastsinenglish.com for learners and teachers of English as a foreign language.
Latest posts:
Roman Gold and Gaudi’s Palace
15 Jun 2025We’d seen a lot of what Galicia had to offer but for our latest trip we went just a little bit more east, into the region of Castile and Leon and more specifically the locale of Ponferrada. So far inland there were no beaches but we were after history and a bit of hiking in spectacular countryside. We were rewarded with both. We’d booked three nights in a cottage in a small hamlet just outside Ponferrada which was about 4.5…
Elephanta
26 Feb 2025The final day of India 2025! Another boat trip, this time to Elephanta Island and more caves. As usual I was up early and headed for the Gateway of India. As is also usual, there was no definitive information about the first ferry to Elephant. I got to the ticket office about 8:15 and the man there sold me a ticket and told me the first ferry left at 9 but could be earlier if there were enough people and…
Mumbai
22 Feb 2025 Got the bus from Murud up the coast to Alibag. Quite a pleasant trip, coastal scenery and a nice breeze coming in the window. At Alibag bus station I needed a few directions to the ferry company offices from where I got their bus to the ferry terminal at Mandwa and we were soon away on the open sea. The ferry trip was quite pleasant, followed most of the way by loads of gulls coming quite close,…
Island fortress
22 Feb 2025From Pune I was headed due west over the Western Ghats to the coastal fortress of Janjira and the ancient Princely State of the same name. However, there was no transport. Everything went via Mumbai, so I took a taxi. The reason there were no buses was probably because the land was fairly sparsely populated and we had to descend through one of the few valleys of the Western Ghats, the long chain of mountains running parallel to the west…
Pune
19 Feb 2025Sat 15th Feb 2025. Another first. I thought I was just getting a regular bus for the six hour trip to Pune. It certainly looked very ordinary inside – rather worn and mildly decrepit but it turned out to be electric! Pune is certainly a very large city of seven million people and like many large cities in India is currently building a Metro system. I didn’t go on it but here’s a photo taken near the hotel and the…
Random posts:
Walking in the Pyrenees
20 May 2016Having followed the Tour de France on the TV for a number of years we had always wanted to visit the Pyrenees. This May our dream came true. As we don’t like driving for too long we decided to split the journey and visit another of the great cathedral cities of Spain – Burgos. But before even Burgos and just across the border we stopped for lunch in the delightful and picture perfect medieval town of Ciudad Rodrigo. Restored by…
On the road to Santiago
21 Sep 2013Santiago de Compostela is supposed to be the final resting place of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) and so is also the end of the Camino de Santiago, one of the most famous pilgrimage routes for Roman Catholics. You are supposed to walk there from your home and although there is a route marked out from Portugal we decided to take the car. Located in the far North West of Spain and about 400kms due north from our home in…
A Coruña
30 Sep 2023I can’t believe we’ve been living up north (Ponte de Lima) for over a year already. As we are still in rented accommodation and waiting for our new house to be built, our traditional September getaway is restricted to just a couple of nights away. Of course, the whole point of living up north is the ease of travel to Galicia so it is no surprise that we chose to spend a couple of days in the Rias Altas, near…