Travels in My Eighties

About the Book

After my wife died, I decided to remain active, including travelling. This book is an account of twelve journeys I made over the four years since then, and it is liberally illustrated with my photographs. Many of these journeys were individual but some were group tours. The places visited include various parts of Turkey, in particular the eastern part of that country. It also includes visits to Jordan, Albania, Uzbekistan, Warsaw, Iran, the former Russian Republic of Georgia, Kosovo, and Armenia with Nagorno Karabagh. I am still travelling, and in 2013, I went to Myanmar (Burma), Bulgaria, and the semi-autonomous province of Iraqi Kurdistan. In the last of these, we found ourselves to be the first tourist group ever to visit and as a result were greeted by the Minister of Tourism and the collected representatives of the local press and television networks.

About the Author

Dermot Hope-Simpson is a retired teacher and headmaster, who frequently travelled with his wife to places where few other tourists are to be found. He has a keen interest in history and archaeology. Since the death of his wife, a well-established children’s author, he has continued travelling, sometimes going to even more unusual places. He has lectured to various societies and is a room guide at Montacute House, a large National Trust Elizabethan manor house. He is also very active in church matters, still serving on his Diocesan Synod, Diocesan Board of Education, and the Standing Committee of his Deanery Synod.