Europe Archives - Wolfie Wolfgang

I’ve caught up with blogging about the last seven years of my European adventures.

Colin Bell — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:17:11 +0000

I’ve been catching up with the blogs on my website, sadly neglected for over a year, but now back in action. In fact, I’ve neglected it for longer than that, considering I hadn’t posted anything about my foreign travels since 2015, when I went on two trips, to Italy https://wolfiewolfgang.com/it-was-all-mistake-my-three-inspiring/ and to Portugal https://wolfiewolfgang.com/my-time-in-lisbon-portugal-was-pure/

During my travels, I usually take my camera and, when armed with that, I am unstoppable. Looking through my photographs recently, I was worried that soon it would be too late to remember the details and, reluctantly, I would have to abandon ideas of writing about my experiences abroad.

So, to make it up with all those photographs lying dormant and ignored in my crazily crowded computer files, I decided a few weeks ago to do a blog-marathon and write these 17 blogs about my European travels over the the last 7 years – 7 years of real change in all our lives, here in the UK, and around the world.

There was BREXIT

Four failed UK prime ministers – plus another one soon.

There was Covid and Trump

Putin

Netanyahu

The world definitely changed and some of those changes were made only too apparent on my various journeys around Europe. I’m hoping that although things have got so bad, they can’t get much worse before, who knows, the bad guys are forced out, and the rest of the world will be pressured by the rest of humanity to make a real change for the better.

With apologies to all you disenfranchised UK citizens, and on a totally selfish note, there was at least some good news for me since 2017. I got my Irish citizenship and retained my EU passport.

If you want to look up my latest set of travel blogs, the links are below:

Amalfi Coast, Italy (2017): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/on-the-amalfi-coast/

Naples and Sorrento, Italy (2017) : https://wolfiewolfgang.com/category/travel/page/2/

Puglia: Polignano a mare, Italy (2018): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/two-weeks-in-puglia-polignano-a-mare/

Puglia: Lecce, Bari and Trani, Italy (2018): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/some-other-towns-my-journey-through-puglia-in-southern-italy/

Puglia: Alberobello to Matera, Italy (2018): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/on-the-road-from-polignano-to-matera-via-alberobello/

Milan, Italy (2019): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/milan-city-of-fashion-music-and-art-even-in-the-rain/

Naples, Italy (2020): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/back-in-naples-weeks-before-covid-soon-we-were-all-told-to-stay-home/

Pompeii, Italy (2020): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/in-2020-i-went-to-pompeii-and-then-to-troy/

Tropea, Calabria, Italy (2022): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/tropea-taking-it-easy-in-calabria/

Lahti, Finland (2022):https://wolfiewolfgang.com/flying-to-lahti-in-finland-for-sibelius/

Helsinki, Finland (2022): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/a-week-in-helsinki/

Ainola, Finland (2022): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/a-week-in-helsinki/

Tallinn, Estonia (2022): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/day-trip-to-tallinn-in-estonia/

Leipzig, Germany (2023): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/an-easter-meeting-in-leipzig-with-js-bach-300-years-on/

Berlin, Germany (2023): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/im-a-berliner-now/

Sysmä, Finland: (2023) https://wolfiewolfgang.com/away-from-it-all-at-the-centre-of-all-things-in-rural-finland/

Lahti, Finland, (2023): https://wolfiewolfgang.com/back-to-lahti-in-september-2023/

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The Last Brexiter exits – what a load of wallies!

wolf01 — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:54:00 +0000

Exited BREXITER Andrea Leadsom stands down from the Conservative leadership election.

So there they all go! Whoops. After the Leave campaign in Britain’s EU Referendum claimed victory, it all looked like celebration time for its leaders, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom. It was not long before the champagne went flat, the bubbles burst and those conquering heroes all fell like flies caught by a self-aimed can of fly spray.

Andrea Leadsom, the last one to go, had been one of two contenders for the Conservative Party leadership election, called after Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation after losing the EU Referendum debate. Her ill-considered and hurtful remarks about her credentials as a mother making her a better candidate than the childless but massively more experienced Home secretary, Theresa May, did for her as it should’ve done even if in her stepping down speech she claimed that it was all to do with the good of the country blah blah blah.

Actually the brutal truth is that she was never up to the job, only an MP for a short time, a junior and hitherto invisible force in the Conservative government, she was quite plainly out of her depth not only as a potential prime minister but as a credible spokesperson for the rapidly withering BREXIT leadership.

No one could’ve guessed that within a couple of weeks of their triumph, these out-spoken and wool-pulling politicians would’ve all fallen from their perches. The BREXIT leaders lied and exaggerated when they weren’t just plain wrong. Now they are paying the price wth their public humiliation. We, the poor Brits, will pay a heavier price however when the full consequences of BREXIT are revealed.

Exited BREXITER Michael Gove, who betrayed his friend David Cameron in the Referendum campaign before betraying his other friend Boris Johnson in the race to the premiership.

Exited BREXITER Boris Johnson, the betrayer betrayed. He turned on David Cameron too in a bid for the premiership before receiving a traditional Conservative Party assassination.

Exited BREXITER Nigel Farage. Self-proclaimed BREXIT leader, side-lined by the Conservative BREXITERS, disliked by his own UKIP politicians. There was nowhere else for him to go but away.

David Cameron cried when the truth of his political failure sunk in.

It was all prime minister David Cameron’s fault for gambling on the EU Referendum in the first place. His career has ended in tears and there is no reason for him to smile even though all of his leading opponents in the Referendum campaign have choked on their own malice.

So, here we go again, the UK is showing the world how it won its so-called democratic independence from Europe and Theresa May, the new prime minister in waiting, will lead the BREXIT from the European Union, unelected, even by the narrow majority that voted leave in the Referendum. Folks, this is how we made the greatest change in British history since the Second World War. Not with a bang but a whimper. Is it time yet for Britain to reconsider the wisdom of a Referendum decision so blatantly based on misinformation that it no longer has validity?

Theresa May, Britain’s next prime minister – the only actor left standing.

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What should we BREXIT from next?

wolf01 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 10:47:00 +0000

Horrified grenadier guard hears the EU Referendum result.

So now that Britain has caught the Referendum habit and voted to leave the European Union, what next? Shock horror is still taking the fun out of Britain for me, but I’m trying to look on the bright side. After BREXIT, maybe we should do it again. After-all, it’s typical of Northern European puritanism to encourage us to give up the good things in life. After Europe, a good thing, I’ve always thought, what else can we give up?

Well, the obvious answer is football, the English National Team did their own unilateral declaration of BREXIT when they decided to give up any skills they might’ve had in the interests of giving non-EU Iceland a famous victory. and had to leave Euro 16. Yes, let’s BREXIT from football. I hope someone will draw up a Referendum so that we can vote to either Remain as football losers or Leave the game to people who know how to play it. The trouble with that is that if we BREXITED from football, we wouldn’t be giving up a pleasure. Anyway, the team’s already done it and the manager has done a Dave Cameron.

Horrified English football team after their BREXIT from Euro ’16.

So what else could we give up by Referendum? I suggest the Olympic Games. It was great and fun when it came to London and Rio is a city of sunshine and laughter. Yes, lets vote to Leave the Olympics. We could abandon all those athletes that have been training for years to win, we could upset loads of other countries around the world, make Britain look like a bad loser, Nike and Adidas shares would collapse, and we Brits would lose another holiday destination. Sounds perfect.

So lets vote Leave and carry on enjoying the misery of BREXITING.

Until the next disaster, sing yourself a happy song – this perhaps:

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Are You In Or Out? I Know What I Think

wolf01 — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:57:00 +0000

I’ve been tempted to stay silent through the EU Referendum campaign here in the United Kingdom assuming, after last year’s depressing General Election result when 26% of the electorate voted in the incompetent government that has led us all the way here to the worrying final days of a national debate on Britain’s future which appears to pay very little attention to the complexities of the EU itself or the reasons for Britain being a member of that much criticised institution.

Let me put it clearly (as all obfuscating politicians, on both sides of the debate, keep repeating), I didn’t vote for this government and I disapproved strongly from the beginning in the idea of the referendum especially as the subject is particularly complex. I do, however, believe in parliamentary democracy. We hope to vote in MPs who will represent us and our interests and who will strive to unravel the very complexities that have so confused and worried the British people in the months building up to this week’s potentially nation-threatening referendum. We are the people, we want the best for the country but we’re not economists.

It was, I think, a major dereliction of duty, for the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to risk the future of the country for his own narrow interests in the future of the political party that he is currently leading. He now says it would be a disaster for the British economy and for the future of Britain to leave the EU. If he knew that then why did he risk such a disaster by asking us, unqualified economists all, to settle such an important issue with a simple yes or no poll? He was worried before the last General Election about the dangerous influence of the emerging UKIP leader Nigel Farage and the potential split that UKIP’s anti-European policies could have had on the election result and on the large number Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party.

Farage, of course, didn’t even get elected as an MP and only one of his party’s members did, but the damage had been done, he has been helped by the referendum debate, and we are now in risk of having to live with the consequences now that not only the Conservative Party but the nation has been plunged into a deeply unpleasant debate which has resulted in a shocking escalation of racist, jingoistic and simply incorrect opinions being banded around as if they were traditional British values which they most definitely are not.

Anyway, the referendum has been implemented, at an enormous financial as well as national cost, and it is too late now for Cameron to change his mind about what he must realise was just the most serious of a long list of mistakes he has made since becoming possibly the weakest Prime Minister in living memory. British politics too, since the General Election, has descended into a series of miscalculations and mistakes where any objective observer must wonder if Britain is actually capable of governing itself any more. The electorate, understandably underwhelmed and confused by its leaders, has sought consolation in single issue politics – the politics of simple solutions which ignore the complex nature of practical politics, economics, and international relations.

It has become too easy, in this party political vacuum, for easily digested emotional ideas to take on the form of concrete policy whether it be to the right or the left. In a democracy this is truly dangerous and it is even more so when major decisions are made by referendum. That is why we hear more outrage over that shot gorilla than we do for the four hundred thousand people who have been killed in Syria in the last five years. That is also why , if the polls are correct, a large number of British people think it is worth risking the collapse of the United Kingdom because they confuse the fate of fleeing refugees with an ill-thought through economic analysis of the effects of immigration on a nation. An analysis often based on the politics of hatred encouraged by UKIP and some of the nastier members of the Conservative Party.

I have been told many times, mostly by taxi drivers, that many people want to leave the EU because ‘they want their nation back,’ that they are frightened that immigration will ‘swamp’ traditional British values. Apparently, the Great Britain that they are nostalgic for actually existed. When questioned, that traditional Britain appears to mean white blokes in pubs free to be ‘politicly incorrect,’ a nation where everyone was a racially pure Englishman who ‘ruled the waves,’ and that was on the best possible terms with the former colonies of the British Empire, and where everyone was financially secure before those evil Europeans started to take all our cash. It doesn’t take much for people to pine for a past that never existed and which will never be created by leaving the EU.

Those pure-blooded Englishmen who lament Great Britain’s demise by being ‘swamped’ by other cultures, really do need to look at their history books. Being British in the 21st century is indeed something to be proud of and anyone whose family can be traced to the shores beyond the last two hundred years or so, can feel truly proud of their heritage, whether their DNA can be traced to the Ancient Britons who now live on the British Isles’ furthest extremities, or to the Roman, Viking, Danish, Anglo-Saxon or Norman French invaders who all in various quantities ultimately settled and intermarried with the peoples that they found here. It was the very mix in British blood that gave the nation its unique character that has benefited from modern developments and a forward-looking acceptance of change . Modern Britain continues to benefit from new ideas often coming from talented and energetic peoples who have fled from less fortunate nations.

Many of the problems associated with immigration are the consequences of failures in government. We are a rich nation that can well afford to house our peoples, educate them and look after them in sickness and in health. If a majority of voters worry about these issues, as they should, they should look to their elected politicians to make the changes in housing, education and health policies that would address these issues without putting the blame on immigration.

Similarly, if we don’t like the structure of the European Union then we, represented by our elected leaders at the council of Europe, should campaign to make the very necessary changes. I don’t particularly like my local town council but I don’t expect to abolish it and somehow live without it.

I went to York last weekend and, on Sunday, I visited York Minster with the express idea of hearing the excellent choir performing at the main services there. I must have been one of the few people in Britain to have failed to notice that all over the nation there were national celebrations of the Queen’s official 90th Birthday. It was true also in York Minster where the main event, at evensong, was Handel’s great coronation anthem, Zadok The Priest, the one with that magnificent long introduction which has thrilled anyone with ears to listen since the great German (nationalised English) composer, George Frederick Handel, first composed it for the coronation of the German Prince George as King George II of Great Britain in 1727. I’m not a royalist but, like many would-be republicans, I can still admire the elderly woman who has worn the crown as well as anyone ever could and, in that wonderful German music, I could recognise the deep emotions that we all wish to invest in the ideals of our land of birth and which Handel was so brilliant at evoking. I was moved not just by the music but by the reminder, in that wonderful French-style Gothic architecture, listening to the 16th Century English words of Archbishop Cranmer, that Britain should take full delight in its European inheritance and those promises of a great shared culture to come. Don’t knock the best about Britain, often it’s the best about Europe too, I thought, just think of Syria, and North Korea, if you think things are so bad.

York is a beautiful city, rightly proud of its inheritance – proud of the Roman and Viking invaders who were so influential in its creation. York is also a centre for new archaeological research into the ethnicity of those Romans who settled there and who settled even further north along the famous Hadrian’s Wall. It is now becoming clear that, far from being shivering Italians in sandals and mini-skirts, the Roman invaders and settlers of Britain mostly came from France and Germany and some even from Africa. Being a Roman, as the excellent Mary Beard has been recently stating in her BBC television series, did not mean being an Italian born in Rome. To be a Roman was to be a citizen of the largest and most successful union of peoples in the ancient world.

In York Minster that day, one of the Bible readings was from The Acts Of The Apostles, Chapter 21. Now these days, I’m always wary of people who quote Holy Scripture, they usually do it to reinforce their prejudices, but I was intrigued to hear this section about St Paul (not the most liberal of the saints) who had been arrested in Judaea for allegedly blaspheming against the Jewish religion. Whatever happened to St Paul in the end, on this occasion he was not convicted by Judaean law

because the Roman Governor of judea, Felix, found out that Paul was a Roman citizen.

‘And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

When the centurion heard [that], he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.

Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.

And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was [free] born.

Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. ‘

Now, when I hear all those complaints about the EU being undemocratic and how people want all legislation to be controlled by Parliament, I go back to that depressing General Election of last year and remember that only 26% of the electorate voted for this government. A government where its beleaguered leader struggles on a daily basis to avoid being pushed to the authoritarian right in his own party and who, as a result of the referendum campaign, whichever way it goes, is now severely weakened. If you like the sound of a right wing government then don’t relax too much either. Those of you that dread a Corbyn premiership, might also wish for another legislative tier. If Britain leaves the European Union, many Britons may well regret losing that right of redress that they once had in Europe.

I was reminded of the great Spanish painter Goya’s etching in an article in the Guardian newspaper last week and it was well chosen. The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters (1799). I am more than worried that not only has reason been allowed to sleep during this referendum campaign but that here and overseas, some of those monsters have already started to appear.

So, please vote, if you have a vote, for Britain to remain in the EU. Vote for the EU and then campaign with all your strength for the reforms that many citizens of the European Union would like too.

In case you need reminded about the glories of that Handel anthem, here’s Zadok The Priest as sung by the choir of Westminster Abbey. However ambivalent anyone is about the coronation elements, I for one will be singing the words to ‘let all the people rejoice, alleluia,’ if the nation votes as it should to celebrate this country and its rightful place in Europe on Thursday:

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Has David Cameron got a plan for Europe?

wolf01 — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:40:00 +0000

It just shows I daren’t turn my back for a minute. I take a couple of weeks off for a holiday, now look what’s been happening. Poor old Dave – the Prime Minister of my country – you remember, Britain, that small island off the Northern coast of Europe.

Dave has been thinking again and just look what’s happened.

It’s like being the most unpopular kid in class.

Your enemies get all the plumb jobs and you’ve got nothing to say. (Editor’s note: If you missed it, David Cameron tried and failed to stop Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as President of the EU).

You know everyone is laughing at you but you don’t know what they’re saying.

And even your best mate decided enough is enough. (Editor’s note: British Foreign Secretary William Haig resigns to spend more time doing almost anything else).

And the school bullyboy is laughing to your face. (Editor’s note: this, if you don’t know, is Nigel Farage, leader of the Britain’s Out Of Europe/ Blame It all On Immigration Party, UKIP).

I wonder if Philip (Out-of-Europe-Conservative) Hammond is a good choice for Britain’s new Foreign Secretary. Hmm, let’s not worry, I’m sure Dave’s got it all worked out.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20lovefeature=mhee

COLIN BELL’S PUBLICATIONS:

Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love
Ward Wood Publishing
October 30, 2013

http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm

Genius Floored: Uncurtained Window
Soaring Penguin Press
June 15, 2013
Poetry anthology

http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Genius Floored: Whispers in Smoke
Soaring Penguin Press
June 6, 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.soaringpenguinpress.com/publications/poetry/genius-floored-whispers-in-smoke/

Reaching Out
Cinnamon Press
December 2012
Poetry and short story anthology

http://www.cinnamonpress.com/product-item/reaching-out/

Tic Toc
A Kind Of A Hurricane Press
June 2014
Poetry anthology

http://www.kindofahurricanepress.com/2014/06/tic-toc-is-now-available.html

The Blotter
The Blotter Magazine Inc.
November 2009
Three pages of poetry in the American South’s unique, free, international literature and arts magazine.

http://www.blotterrag.com/back-issues/2009-11.pdf

The Fib Review
Musepie Press
My Fibonacci poetry has appeared in this journal from 2009 until the present

http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/writers.html

Shot Glass Journal
Muse Pie Press
My poetry has appeared in various issues of this short form poetry journal

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/writers.html

Every Day Poets Magazine
Every Day Poets
I have various poems of the day published in this 365 days a year poetry magazine.

http://www.everydaypoets.com/?s=Colin+Bell

In The Night Count The Stars
Bittersweet Editions
March 1, 2014
An “uncommon anthology” of images, fragments, stories and poetry.

http://www.bittersweeteditions.com/in-the-night-count-the-stars.html#%2EU8ZFXY1dXoo

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Conchita Wurst: the new voice of Europe – I hope.

wolf01 — Mon, 12 May 2014 22:00:00 +0000

I’m unapologetically uninterested in our great European songfest, the Eurovision Song Contest and I have never joined in with all the razzamatazz that accompanies that over-valued concept of it’s-so-bad-it’s-fab campery but, everyone to their own taste.

This year though, like everyone else, I’ve heard (and seen) the winning song and, while it’s not my kinda song, I was delighted to see the phenomenal and very charming Conchita, or Tom, Wurst win such an overwhelming victory while making absolutely no concessions to the social conservatives and bigots that refuse to let people express themselves as themselves. Conchita Wurst is terrific and looked great. Let’s hope this break-through moment in Middle-Of-The-Road music will become a significant milestone in the great unravelling of human prejudices and insecurities. Besides, as a fellow bearded one, I’m glad to see beards win through.

I’m still not bothered about Eurovision though. Sorry about that but I am proud of being European after this demonstration of just how culturally progressive the great mix of Europe’s peoples can be. Let us Europeans, bearded or smooth-chinned, remember this when all those frightened Little Englanders try to persuade us to reject our future at the European Elections.

If you haven’t heard it yet or still can’t believe it, here’s Conchita Wurst winning it for Europe. Let’s not underestimate just how brave this performance was even if the song is a string of cliches.