Patrick Arends
Photography

Overview forUK

Deserted City?

A quick evening visit to Oxford turned out to be intriguing! A city so well known for its' Harry Potter-esque quality of historical buildings, with so many students and even more tourists can actually feel deserted! Imagine starting your city centre visit at 5pm, on a fairly grim and cold day in early March. You would expect the streets to be filled with tourists, cars honking their horns to get through. Bicycles passing by left right and centre. However, the moment you turn into a side street, there's no one there! Is it because they're all done with shopping and sight seeing and have retreated to the comfort of an English Pub? Are they hiding in some hidden backstreet beer garden? (more...)

 

HMS Victory!

The HMS Victory is one of the few - if not the only - remaining historic ship of the real old days (1765). Admiral Lord Nelson defeated the French and the Spanish with it in the Battle of Trafalgar. It is a scary thought knowing that this massive wooden box has sailed the world's seas with over 800 people on board and survived it all. The timber floor boards crack under foot and the beams and supports are hundreds of years old. Visiting Nelson's Great Cabin is surreal. He was in charge of 27 ships of the fleet from this room. You can imagine how he would have stood over a large table with hand drawn nautical charts, plotting his next move. You can feel his spirit is still alive! (more...)