It was inevitable that we’d end up in Italy’s most tourist-tastic region one day. Our excuse for the trip to Tuscany was a friend’s wedding in Pisa, but historic Florence was top of our list for a top en route. It turned out to be a city of crowds. Monumental crowds. It was a city…
Tag: City breaks
A short break in the historic French city of Angers
Give me a good history book and a glass of wine and I’ll be a happy man. She-Wolves by Helen Castor turned out to be a particularly good read, the story of three of England’s great medieval queens and their various battles to make a mark in a male-dominated world. But it also introduced me…
A walk around Brooklyn
I’ve been drawn to Brooklyn on all my trips to New York City. I love its historic architecture, the quiet residential streets that stand in stark contrast to busy Manhattan and the excellent views of the city it offers from the waterfront. As one of NYC’s most exciting neighbourhoods, it also has some notable cultural…
A journey of discovery at Hong Kong’s history museum
Hong Kong’s Museum of History is a fantastic place to spend a couple of hours, learn about the territory’s past and kill time before the flight back home. It was our last day in the city, and one that dawned with us suffering the after effects of a marathon drinking session the night before. Fortunately the museum…
Hong Kong’s heritage in the New Territories
It would be easy to spend a holiday in Hong Kong and not venture beyond the Island or neighbouring Kowloon, but our Lonely Planet guide suggested a walk in the New Territories that would take us back in time. Half an hour away from our hotel on the efficient MTR railway lies the modern station…
A date with Buddha on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island
There are things I don’t miss about Hong Kong and one of them is queueing. In a city of so many people – residents and tourists – waiting your turn is a frustrating part of everyday life, and we faced some seriously monster queues during our visit to Lantau Island. We were going to see its…
Hong Kong Central and the Happy Valley races
An evening of horse racing at Happy Valley is a Hong Kong tradition and one that we, as 10th-rate gamblers, couldn’t resist. On a Wednesday nights, the course is the place to be in town and tens of thousands of locals, ex-pats and tourists flock there for a flutter, a drink and to be seen….
Hong Kong: Kowloon, from top to bottom
It would be a day of striking contrasts – of beautiful gardens and choked and dirty streets, of seclusion and overwhelming crowds. But that’s probably like every day in Kowloon. After several days exploring the islands of Hong Kong, it was time to stick to the mainland so in the morning we took the metro…
A day exploring Hong Kong’s Lamma Island
Hong Kong is a territory made up of more than 200 islands and we were keen to take a hike across one of its most popular, Lamma. That meant we needed fuel, which was provided courtesy of an excellent breakfast at the Hotel Icon. Throughout our stay we found the food to be delicious, fresh and…
A day out on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong
Strange dreams. A restless night. A raging thirst. Drinking too many cocktails on our first day in Hong Kong had taken its toll on me. Graham had it worse, lying awake for three hours, which meant jet lag was still punishing us several days after landing in the Far East. Fresh from our stay in…
Discovering Macau, by day and night
Beyond the casinos and glitz of the Cotai Strip lies the real Macau, with its colours and sounds, its smells and sights. It was in this real Macau that we discovered the territory’s people, its history and culture. We’d woken on our second day in the city to brilliant sunshine and it was tempting to…
A short break in Macau – exploring on our first full day
The Macau we discovered on our first night in the city is modern, glitzy and built for tourists. Known as the Cotai Strip, it’s a stark contrast to the historic, atmospheric old town. It has elegant and colourful Portugese influences from colonial times, while its streets are crowded with old apartment blocks, temples, shops and…
Macau and Hong Kong – day one of a special birthday trip
How should I celebrate a 50th birthday? Apart from hosting a drunken party for friends and family, I opted for a week-long trip to Macau and Hong Kong. Day one was never going to be one of the highlights of this special holiday. Eleven hours in a British Airways Boeing 777 is a bit of…
Christmas in Muscat, the capital of Oman
Where would we spend our first Christmas away from family and piles of roast turkey? A home from home in the UK? The snowy Alps? Or further afield? Our eventual choice was the capital of Oman, Muscat. An odd choice but a very good one as it turned out. Muscat is a city that by all…
A quick break amid the madness of Las Vegas, USA
I went to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas expecting to hate the place but ended up falling for it, despite the tackiness and materialism gone mad. We’d chosen it as the first stop of our American adventure because we love a gamble, but we’d also booked a trip to the Grand Canyon and Vegas is…