Some cities are easy to define. Bilbao is the Guggenheim Museum, Jerez is sherry and Pisa is the leaning tower. Ask Mr or Mrs Average to name another reason for visiting any one of them and they’d struggle. That doesn’t mean they don’t have other attractions but while Pisa throbs with tourists, most of them…
Tag: City breaks
The trick fountains of Schloss Hellbrunn in Austria
The Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg were a wealthy bunch. They ruled over their dinky city state, part of the Holy Roman Empire, for centuries before it was absorbed into Austria. And they built grand palaces and fortresses to prove to everyone just how important they were. Schloss Hellbrunn became their summer playground, a yellow jewel in…
Heat and cold: Salzburg in summer
The irony about a city that celebrates Mozart with such uncontained commercial hysteria is that the young composer hated Salzburg. He couldn’t wait to escape the clutches of its Prince-Archbishop and find fame and freedom elsewhere. Wherever you look in Salzburg, Mozart’s ghost lurks. We landed at Mozart airport in our BA A319, we could…
Brussels and its bonkers Atomium
We could see the Atomium from our hotel room, far out to the north in the Brussels suburbs. Its stainless steel globes sparkled in the May sunshine, much as they have done since this bizarre symbol of the 1958 World’s Fair first opened. My late grandparents owned a souvenir model of one of Belgium’s more…
Brussels, beer and beautiful buildings
The Belgians have a reputation for being just a little bit boring, but I saw precious little proof of it during our city break in Brussels. A jazz festival was in full swing throughout the city and the squares were crowded with music fans, dancers and drinkers. In Place Sainte Catherine we joined them, beer…
Oktoberfest’s little sister and other Munich treats
So who knew that Oktoberfest had a junior sibling? Not me, that’s for sure. But with great good fortune we discovered its existence coincided with our May weekend break in Munich. However, with the beer cruelly not being served until 4pm we needed to find something to do to keep us occupied on what was…
Munich: Sausages, beer and history
Munich is proud of its native white sausage, the weisswurst – a staple of breakfasts across the city. But I don’t get it. It looks flabby and anaemic and tastes little better. The beer, on the other hand, is a triumph. No wonder tourists in their tens of thousands are drawn to the city, particularly…
A walk through Thessaloniki and its history
Thessaloniki looks impressive from the old city walls in the hills of Ano Poli. Beyond, the bay shimmers in the sunshine and the distant mountains are capped with snow. But the city is not quite as neat and tidy close up. Our walk from the centre to the upper town revealed evidence of decay, economic…
Thessaloniki: The second city of Greece
Thessaloniki was a surprise. I hadn’t expected it to have such a vibrant nightlife, so many stylish and busy bars and so much atmosphere. Perhaps, as a waitress told us over cold beers on a warm and sunny April afternoon, it’s because Thessaloniki is a city of students. There are tens of thousands of them in…
A winter weekend in Reykjavik
Welcome to Iceland, where rain, snow and hail falls horizontally, where gales shred umbrellas and the cold really does hurt. In Iceland we experienced foul weather at its foulest, wind so strong that we could barely stand up in it and cold so perishing during a tour of the Golden Circle that I would’ve got…
A walk around East Melbourne
Our last full day in wonderful Australia and we found somewhere I’d be happy to call home – East Melbourne. But sadly I can’t see our budget stretching that far… Just a short walk from the central business district and its famous Laneways, East Melbourne is overflowing with the most glorious houses and cottages, perfectly…
Melbourne’s gardens and memorials
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…
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…