Writing by Peter Hilton

Photographs

Index of photo captions.

A departures lounge at Heathrow airport, converted from one of Battlestar Galactica’s landing bays

A field of lavender in Surrey, England

Alex and Jessica acting up

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: "Yes Marion, all the way to the other side"

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: Fleur puts our wet stuff to dry in the sun after the rain

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: Marion getting better shots than this one

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: Ray Desjardins has a rare quiet moment

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: Ray, Emily and Fleur find a moose

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: a really big tree - one of the old pines

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: our camp site for the Above & Beyond Adventures trip

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: sitting by the camp fire in the afternoon

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: sitting by the camp fire in the evening

Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada: tree tops - the view from the ground at our camp site

Amsterdam: a statue near the maritime museum

Amsterdam: fireworks at the millennium celebrations

Amsterdam: shutters on the front of a house

Amsterdam: the crowd at the millennium celebrations

Amsterdam: the stage at the millennium celebrations

Antwerp: one of the more unusual statues at the toll house by the river

Antwerp: the Antwerp Hilton - no connection to Hilton Harbour whatsoever

Antwerp: the Antwerp Hilton - no connection to Hilton Harbour whatsoever

Antwerp: they thought it was a game so they joined in - Marion, Mukund and Chris

At sea on ‘Logica’: Chris and Johan chat on deck, amidst rolling seas

At sea on ‘Logica’: Marko and Mascha watching the sea go by

At sea on ‘Logica’: Marko, Monique and Chris

At sea on ‘Logica’: a cold October morning at sea

At sea on ‘Logica’: a darkening sky over the North Sea

At sea on ‘Logica’: a stormy North Sea

At sea on ‘Logica’: finally making it out of the storm an into Ramsgate harbour

At sea on ‘Logica’: getting ready to set sail - also known as faffing about on deck

At sea on ‘Logica’: nearing the British coast in a force eight gale

At sea on ‘Logica’: on watch at dawn in the North Sea

At sea on ‘Logica’: setting the sails for the first but not the last time...

At sea on ‘Logica’: setting the sails off the Dutch coast as we leave Scheveningen

At sea on ‘Logica’: the setting sun as we head West for England

At sea on ‘Logica’: waving good bye to fine weather in Scheveningen before heading out to sea

Avénue de la Liberté, Luxembourg

Boston Tea Party in Bristol, England: my favourite cafe in Europe

Budapest: a stereo photo of the parliament building

Budapest: a view of the parliament building

Budapest: full of stark contrasts between the grand and the grotty

Budapest: like many old buildings, the grand building that looks across one of the Danube bridges is beautiful but tatty

Budapest: many smart squares in the city centre

Budapest: the big posh cafe I went to has leather sofas inside.

Budapest: the railway station was a very grand start to the day

Café des Tramways, Luxembourg

Cafe Central, Echternach, Luxembourg

Cafe Hoegaarden, Antwerp, Belgium

Cafe MAK, with adjoining museum, Vienna

Cambridge: Carl Dolby’s famous beer bottle collection, shortly before we took it to the bottle bank

Cambridge: Daniel Sturdy in CB2

Cambridge: Indigo Coffee House

Cambridge: Peter and the PI cycle team on Midsummer Common after having cycled from London

Cambridge: the neon sign outside the Picturehouse cinema

Cambridge: the rum collection in Cambridge Blue, one of the proper pubs

Camden: Camden Lock is an oasis of calm in North London

Camden: the bright colours

Camden: the busy main street

Canine canoe race: Leiden, the Netherlands

Connemara, Ireland

Construction at the World Trade Center south of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Das Mobel’s door is hidden behind a big curtain in the corner, unlike the rather more striking chairs

De Drie Graefjes cafe, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Dublin on a Saturday morning - everyone is still in bed!

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh: Marion and Lisa

Edinburgh: a doorway

Edinburgh: looking East down the Royal Mile

Edinburgh: looking North from the castle

Edinburgh: near the city centre

Félix Faure, when it was my local metro station

Fleur, Alex, Dave and Silvia on the staircase

Fleur, Peter and Marc go paddling in the lake at La Peche, Canada

Gail struts her stuff at my birthday party in 2001

Having had one cocktail too many, Alex attempts to hack into my microwave during my birthday party in 2001

Judith on the road

Judith, her car, Takeshi and our beers

Kaffee Alt Wien, just right for a beer in Vienna

Katie Walker and myself in Maastricht, the Netherlands

Kleines Cafe, an excellent small cafe in Vienna

La Creperie, a pancake restaurant in Vienna

La Palette, my favourite cafe in France - rue de Seine, 6th arr., Paris, France

Lancing, England, where I grew up

Languages Of The World - the book by Kenneth Katzner

Le Loir dans la Théière (has sofas), rue des Rosiers, Paris, France

Leiden in the summer: so relaxed, there is even a sofa outside

Leiden, the Netherlands

Luxembourg’s big red bridge, also known as the Pont Grand-Duchesse Charlotte

Luxembourg’s big red bridge, also known as the Pont Grand-Duchesse Charlotte

Maastricht: clocks on lampposts are nothing out of the ordinary

Maastricht: sitting outside the Falstaff in summer, with a glass of Wickse Witte

Maastricht: the Dutch do it right - in front of this pavement cafe a cycle path is much better than a busy road

Maastricht: the flag in the main square

Maastricht: the terrace of Cafe de Percee

Marc Smits on the edge of the lake at La Peche, Canada

Marc Smits, Szilvia Biro, Russell, Peter Hilton, Alex Zeffertt, Carl Dolby, Marion Smits, Fleur Van Rootselaar and Jean-Didier Garaud stopping off in the Netherlands on the way home from the 1999 total eclipse

Marion (1998)

Marion Smits, Alex Zeffertt, Carl Dolby and Pascale Garaud in my back garden, in Weybridge, England

Marion and a sofa in Disco Biscuit, Queens Road, Brighton, England

Marion and my aunt’s cat

Marion drinks a Manhattan in Montreal, Canada

Marion enjoying the sofa upstairs in Puccinos, Brighton

Marion in 1999, demonstrating that doctors in the UK tend to wear their stethoscope around their neck; you only do that in the Netherlands if you’ve been watching too many American medical dramas

Marion in Budapest

Marion reading the paper (1998)

Marion’s cocktail in Montreal, Canada

News Cafe, a bistro in Oxford, England

Péché Mignon cafe, rue de St Esprit, Luxembourg

Peter Hilton, Anusha Edwards and Alison Noble in Bristol, 1994

Peter Lloyd philosophises at my birthday party in 2001

Peter Lloyd speaking at his fortieth birthday in Croscombe, England

Peter goes paddling at La Peche, Canada

Peter out hunting cafes in the Grund, Luxembourg

Peter, Angus and Takeshi on the way home from Chiggeri, rue du Nord, Luxembourg

Peter, aged five, at South Lancing Primary School

Quieter than Histon - the village I used to get the train to every the morning.

Ref enjoys a drink at my birthday party in 2001

Repairs to Big Ben (St Stephen’s Tower)? London, England

Reservoir Books, a cafe-bookshop in Oxford, England

Richard dancing with Gail at my birthday party in 2001

Rotterdam: De Buffel - a ship at the maritime museum

Rotterdam: Joost on a Logica Photo Club outing (photo: Marion)

Rotterdam: a swan near where I live

Rotterdam: arty reflected shot of Peter in at the harbour (photo: Marion)

Rotterdam: the Erasmusbrug viewed from the river - the Nieuwe Maas

Sitting around in the Boston Tea Party cafe, Exeter, England

Takeshi and Nasera modelling the armchairs upstairs in cafe Sul Palco, Luxembourg

Takeshi making a batch of sangria

Takeshi’s place

The Logica office in Wijnhaven, in the centre Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The Ministry Of Health, Luxembourg

The Ministry Of Health, Luxembourg

The Old Hall - a Landmark Trust property in Croscombe, England

The Windows NT Blue Screen Of Death writ large - on a big screen on the outside of a department store in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The bar is about the most conventional thing in Das Mobel

The bookcase in Das Mobel is slightly more easily identifiable than most of the furniture

The first cafe I went to in Budapest is even posher i than it looks from the o

The first-floor facade of the Picturehouse cinema, Cambridge, England

The impressively large rum collection at Comida y Ron, Vienna

The main dining hall in Christchurch College, Oxford University, England

The rose garden on Avénue de la Liberté, Luxembourg

The totem pole in Great Windsor Park, England

The vast upstairs room in the Boston Tea Party cafe, Exeter, England

The water taxi leaves Marion, Emily, Ray and Fleur, lots of bags and two canoes in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada

They’ve got sofas! Puccinos, 1 Bartholemews, Brighton, England

Upstairs, inside De Drie Graefjes cafe, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Vegan Power! Graffitied modern ruins by the Thames in Oxford, England

Vienna: Cafe Aera’s toilet models Vienna itself - stylish, and impeccably clean

Vienna: Heldenplatz is always full of people on a sunny day

Vienna: Michaelaplatz is typical of Vienna’s grandeur

Vienna: a dramatic skyline against its old buildings and statues

Vienna: all around town the facades seem to be smart, and often prettily decorated

Vienna: childrens’ play houses on a square

Vienna: inside Cafe Aera, my favourite of the more modern cafes

Vienna: it’s got books and a sofa, but Vienna Globe is still a rubbish cafe

Vienna: skateboarders making the most of the town hall

Vienna: the main cathedral, with its patterned roof tiles

Vienna: the roof of the natural history museum (I think)

Vienna: the stained glass window of one of the churches

Vienna: the town hall

Vienna: the view from the office where I worked at the UN

View across the river Adur to the skyline of Shoreham-by-sea, West Sussex, England

Walsall: a very industrial character

Walsall: some of the canalside locations are quite pleasant on those rare sunny days

You get quite close to your colleagues as a House Officer

a bridge in Cambridge, England

a carriage in an old British train

a pub in Dublin - a welcome sight at any time of day

a sign somewhere in Luxembourg

cardboard matches, which I recently learned how to light without breaking

five cold people in Aubeterre

i Péché Mignon cafe, rue de St Esprit, Luxembourg

inside Café des Tramways, Luxembourg

musicians in Vianden, Luxembourg

my favourite cafe with books - CB1, Cambridge, England

my favourite road sign: ball games allowed, in Luxembourg

my new duvet cover!

not your average bus - a Routemaster on Pont Adolphe, Luxembourg

o cafe ’t Smalle, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

sofas upstairs in Disco Biscuit, Queens Road, Brighton, England

the Tacheles captures the grimmer side of Berlin’s Oranienburgerstrasse, where all the best cafes are

the cathedral in Condom, France

the dark, welcoming interior of Cafe Sperl, Vienna

the front of Cafe Sperl, Vienna

the railway station at Betzdorf, Luxembourg

the sort of proper armchair that every cafe should have, Puccinos, 1 Bartholemews, Brighton, England

the studios of Condom FM, Condom, France

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