We could never be accused of taking it easy. On just one sweaty Singapore day we visited the Botanic Gardens, tucked into a fine afternoon tea at the legendary Raffles Hotel and spent an evening gambling at one of the city’s most extravagant new destinations, the Marina Bay Sands. It was another hot and humid day so it was a…
Tag: City breaks
Singapore’s National Museum and Fort Canning Park
There’s variety in Singapore’s weather. One minute it’s hot and sunny, the next there are downpours and crashes of thunder. On the day we were planning to visit the Botanic Gardens, it chucked it down and the buildings we’d got used to seeing from our bedroom window were lost in the murk. So we opted for the National…
Exploring Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore
There’s something ridiculous about going for a walk in a hilly Singapore nature reserve when the weather is so hot and humid. But we were never going to find out much about the country jumping from one air-conditioned building to another. So visiting the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve stayed on our list of things to do. However, our planned trip to…
Singapore’s stunning Gardens by the Bay
Singapore has spent a fortune making itself a city in a garden rather than a city with gardens. And one of the stars of the transformation is the amazing Gardens by the Bay. It’s the city-state’s answer to the Eden Project in Cornwall, but on an even grander scale, and it was top of my list…
First class to Singapore and Little India
As upgrades go, it couldn’t be better. Arriving at Heathrow for our business class flights to Singapore, we were told by the check-in assistant that we were going to be enjoying the 13-hour flight in First instead. I could hardly believe our luck! With better food, better champagne and a better bed, it was going to…
Copenhagen’s crown jewels
There’s much to see and do in Copenhagen, but somehow we managed to go overboard on the royal attractions during our long weekend. Take our last day in town. We chose to spend much of it enjoying the treasures of Rosenborg Palace, including the state’s Crown Jewels, before tearing ourselves away for something rather more egalitarian at the Botanical Gardens. With…
Copenhagen: From a palace to a commune
Copenhagen has much in common with London – drunks, litter, too much homelessness, and old men who don’t think twice about peeing up against a wall in front of passers-by. But it’s also relaxed, vibrant and welcoming. It’s easily walkable, is packed with history and has some fine modern architecture as a contrast to the old….
Danish design and royal knick-knacks in Copenhagen
We couldn’t go all the way to Copenhagen and not indulge our love of Scandinavian design. So with rain falling on our first full day in the city, the Designmuseum Denmark was an obvious destination. Despite getting on the wrong bus and having to walk further than we expected in the showers, we eventually found it in…
Copenhagen: Red lights and hearty food in Vesterbro
Much is written about hygge, the Danish word that translates into something like comfort, cosiness or warmth in English. It’s said to be one of the reasons why the Danes are among the happiest people in the world. But are they? Is hygge a myth? Is their happiness more to do with their work-life balance? Their welfare state? Their…
Dusseldorf: The architecture of MedienHafen
Contemporary architecture has given a new lease of life to Dusseldorf’s old harbour. The district known as MedienHafen features striking buildings by such world famous architects as Frank Gehry, David Chipperfield, Joe Coenen, Steven Holl and Claude Vasconi. On a day blessed with beautiful blue skies, it would be the conclusion to our walk through the…
Dusseldorf: A visit to Schloss Benrath
Dusseldorf isn’t blessed with palaces and historic houses but it does have Schloss Benrath, a summer retreat built for royalty in the late 18th century. It was our principal destination on a cold and misty December Saturday. Near our city centre hotel, the Hofgarten park looked fresh and inviting, its leaf-less trees throwing long shadows…
Dusseldorf: Art, museums and memorials
Dusseldorf may not be one of Germany’s picture postcard cities but it’s only an hour’s hop by air from London and has a festive Christmas market to brighten those depressing December days. Our base for a weekend break was the modern and comfortable Melia on the edge of the park known as the Hofgarten, a short…
Toronto: A museum, a distillery and a market
There was no mistaking that we were staying slap bang in the middle of Toronto’s Entertainment district. Throughout our first night we were woken by police sirens and Friday night drunks shouting their way home from the bars and clubs. I somehow managed to get some sleep despite the racket but a disturbed night and…
The memorials of Berlin
From the top of the Panoramapunkt viewing platform at Potsdamer Platz, it’s easy to see the grey slabs of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial on Ebertstrasse far below. The memorial was something I’d put on my ‘to see’ list because it was still being built when we were last in the city back in January 2004. This was…
Berlin: Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain
In the district of Prenzlauer Berg, in what was once Communist East Berlin, is the undistinguished open space of Mauerpark. But it comes into its own on a Sunday when it hosts a famous flea market. It gave us the chance to explore a Berlin beyond the historic centre and the popular tourist attractions we’d…