The Melbourne we’d been exploring was all concrete and steel, roads and traffic, but the city has its fair share of parks and gardens too. So on yet another boiling day we visited the Botanic Gardens and an impressive war memorial. The green spaces extend from the banks of the Yarra River in the heart…
Category: City breaks
Melbourne, a new year and St Kilda
Melbourne’s cityscape doesn’t have the drama of Sydney’s Port Jackson but I’d plump for it over the capital of New South Wales given the choice. We arrived on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve fresh from the Yarra Valley and parked ourselves in our funky hotel, the Ovolo, situated in the Laneways, a district famous for…
Exploring Balmain and Cockatoo Island in Sydney
Sydney is huge and we were only going to scratch its surface during our Australian jaunt. But I was keen to explore the suburbs away from the famous beaches and their crowds, so we opted for Balmain. I was also keen to explore a part of the city that would’ve been known to my ancestors….
The beaches of Manly and Bondi in Sydney
Christmas Eve back in England is invariably cold and grey. Waking in our hotel on the other side of the world in Sydney, we knew it was going to be a scorcher. Australia doesn’t do Christmas as excessively as the UK. Decorations are more restrained, the pubs aren’t as packed with work parties getting trashed…
Heritage and history in Hobart
Planning our Australian holiday, friends raised their eyebrows at our decision to go to Hobart in Tasmania rather than the Great Barrier Reef or Uluru. But while Hobart may once have been a backwater, we were drawn by its foodie scene, craft beers and the notorious penal colony further down the coast at Port Arthur….
Sydney: Hyde Park Barracks and Watsons Bay
Ahead of our Australian holiday I started reading A Commonwealth of Thieves, the excellent Thomas Keneally book that describes the arrival of the First Fleet of convicts in New South Wales in 1788 and its consequences. On our second day in Sydney we visited two places that played a key role in the early years…
Exploring The Rocks in Sydney
It’s difficult to picture what Sydney would’ve been like when convicts first arrived in 1788 but remnants of the city they helped to create can still be seen in the district called The Rocks. It was the first stop on our exploration of the capital of New South Wales, and the first stop on our…
A wintry day in Helsinki
Spending a day in the Finnish capital Helsinki could be considered a strange way to start a Christmas holiday in Australia. But there was logic to it as we’d secured business class flights on Qatar Airways for half the price of ones out of London, representing a massive saving on the cost of our three-week…
Jerez and its sherry
Jerez is a city built on the riches of sherry. And the word ‘sherry’ is itself a corruption of Jerez. This delicious fortified wine was our main reason for visiting and throughout our short stay we’d taken the chance to enjoy a tipple. Back in Britain it may be regarded as the drink of grannies…
Jerez: A palacio, archaeology and Flamenco
Sunday in Jerez means religion for many locals but for us it meant visits to the Count of the Andes’ palace, a flea market and a museum. But only after breakfast in Plaza Plateros, where we watched those religious types promenading past on their way to one or other of the city’s many historic churches….
Jerez and its Alcazar
Jerez and Seville are two of Andalucia’s great cities, and they have much in common. Both were born out of civilisations that were at times pagan, Islamic and Christian. That history is written over the streets and the architecture, and reflected in the way locals live their lives. It’s a fascinating muddle. Jerez in November…
Valletta: A city in transition
I look forward to returning to Valletta one day. And perhaps then it will be finished… Because our trip coincided with a huge building and restoration programme, being carried out in preparation for the city’s role as European Capital of Culture in 2018. Quite a few of its popular tourist destinations, such as St John’s…
A date at the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg
Our final day in Luxembourg was a bank holiday back in Britain but the city that had been our home for the weekend was going back to work as we packed for the flight back to London. However, before leaving we’d got a tour of the Grand Ducal Palace lined up. After checking out of…
Exploring Luxembourg old town
Small but perfectly formed, Luxembourg is one of the Low Countries, a founding member of the EU and our choice for a hot and sunny August bank holiday weekend. Its capital, Luxembourg City, is equally modest but turned out to be a real charmer, easily walkable and attractive. Our first day in town was spent…
Exploring Singapore’s Chinatown
I’ve been to good museums and bad, but among the best have been the ones that reveal what life was like for the poorest of the poor back when the Georgian and Victorian rich were living the high life. There’s the excellent Tenement Museum in New York, for example, which offers a compelling account of how poor…