TOBY TRAVELS THE WORLD.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to have travelled extensively around the world.

I have experienced many different cultures and exciting cities, so I thought that I would share with you some of my travel pictures, I hope you like them.

I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

Photo of Toby in New York.

New York.

This picture of me crossing the street in New York, was a bit risky, I could have been hit by a taxi or truck at any time, but like Gloria Gaynor, I survived.

New York, New York, so good they named it New York.

New York is a fantastic place it's so busy and vibrant that you can't really prepare for it, it just takes you.

New Yorkers are so cool. So cool in fact that they have decided to name different parts of the city after their favourite popular songs!

For example there is a place up in Haarlem, named after the Sugar Hill Gang.
But they must love Manhattan by Rodgers and Hart as they have named loads of places using the lyrics, We'll have Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island too. It's lovely going through, the zoo....what a stroke of luck that song was, genius !

The uptown part of the city is named after the popular Billy Joel lyric, Billy of course lived downtown.

Tobys top tip, apart from all of the obvious landmarks and attractions, take the ferry across to Statten Island, its free and you get some great views of New York, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Rome.

Photo of Toby, outside of the Colloseum in Rome.

What can I tell you about Rome?

Well it is the capital of Italy, it is in the Italian region of Lazio and locally it is known as Roma.

The city is situated at 41:52:00N 12:37:00E and sits at an altitude of 14m or 49ft whichever you prefer.

In 2001 Rome had 2,655,970 inhabitants, giving it a population density of 719 inhabitants / sq. km but bearing in mind that 98% of the population is Catholic then this has probably gone up a bit since then.

Rome is home to many important ancient buildings and works of art, at the top of the list has to be The National Pasta Museum (Museo Nazionale delle Paste Alimentari or Museo della Pasta), not far from the Trevi fountain. However following some scandalous decisions, this has been allowed to close as the lease on the building expired. Hopefully it will reopen in the future check out the website for updates, National Museum of Pasta and to post your meassges of support.

I came, I saw, I ate the pizza.

Photo of Toby in Xian, China.

Xian, China

Now Xian really is a different kettle of fish.
Never having been there before, I didn't really know how to approach it. But in the end I approached from the direction of the airport by taxi.

Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, is in the southern part of the Guanzhong Plain. With the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Weihe River to the north.

The city of Xian has a proud history dating back 3,100 years and has in the past been the capital city of the following Chinese dynasties, Western Zhou dynasty 11th century BC to 771BC, Qin dynasty 221BC - 206BC, Western Han 206BC - 24AD and the Tang dynasty 618AD - 907AD, wow, thats a lot of history!

These days Xian is better known for the karaoke singing at the KTV bars.

Tobys top tip, if you get the opportunity go to the theatre and see the cabaret show, along with hundreds of locals, this show puts the X-Factor to shame.

Singers, dancers, acrobatics, magic acts all at the same time as being plied with copious amounts of local beer, now thats what I call a cultural exchange, thanks Mr Whang.

Whilst in the area be sure to visit the famous Terracotta Army, it's a bit like the Toon Army but much older and much quieter.