Gallery: More travel sketches from BBC’s Tim Baynes

by Meg Nesterov on


We wrote yesterday about Tim Baynes’ delightful travel sketches from around the world on BBC and liked them so much we came back for more. You can (and should!) get lost for hours looking at his drawings on Flickr with fun anecdotes and scribbles bringing depth and humor to his slice-of-life artwork.

Check out some of our favorites in the gallery below, from a look inside the BBC Starbucks to the madness of Dubai immigration during the ash cloud to a quiet barbershop in Tripoli.

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See more of Tim Baynes’ work on the BBC, his personal Flickr stream, or order a copy of his book Doors to Automatic and Cross Check, direct from the artist.



All photos courtesy of Tim Baynes.

Eyjafjallajokull still spewing – exclusive pics from a trans-Atlantic flight

by Annie Scott on

I was taxiing from my gate in Geneva, Switzerland on SWISS Air Lines when I was informed that due to some volcanic burps from the bane of Europe, Eyjafjallajokull, our flight to JFK would be an hour longer, as we would have to fly north of the Iceland ash cloud. The other passengers and I might have been disappointed if the pilot hadn’t informed us that we’d be able to see the active volcano erupting from the air. What a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

A few hours into the flight, the fancy individual video systems on our newly tricked-out SWISS A330-300 were paused and passengers, regardless of class assignment, bounded to the left side of the plane with cameras. I bogarted business class to get the closer shot above.

Eyjafjallajokull appeared to be spewing an ash cloud about twice as long as Iceland:

… And it’s nasty-looking stuff. My condolences if your flight was canceled, but you didn’t want to be flying through that. Yikes.

Check out more of Gadling’s ash cloud/volcano/Eyjafjallajokull coverage here.

My flights to and from Switzerland on SWISS Air Lines were sponsored by Switzerland Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are 100 percent my own.

Ash cloud continues to close European airports

by Sean McLachlan on

The long arm of Eyjafjallajökull has struck again. After the havoc it caused in April, and a second wave of hassles last week, a stronger ash cloud from this grumpy Icelandic volcano caused numerous airport closures in Spain yesterday.

Today the situation has spread. The cloud that closed nineteen Spanish airports yesterday has drifted east. Italian airports at Milan, Pisa, and Florence had to shut down this morning and there are reports of delays and cancellations at Nice, France. The Iberian peninsula hasn’t been totally cleared either, with airports in the northwest of Spain and Portugal closed through the morning.

Another arm of the cloud has reached back into the UK, closing several Scottish airports this morning.

Even countries not hit by the ash cloud are affected as transatlantic flights have to divert around a long curtain of ash, delaying their arrival.

The situation is changing constantly and travelers are advised to check ahead before flying. In fact, since dear old Eyjafjallajökull doesn’t seem to have any intention of easing up, now might be the time to look into crossing the Atlantic on a freighter.