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…
Tag: History
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…
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…
Malta: The ancient splendour of Mdina
The glorious fortified city of Mdina in the heart of Malta is a must-see and full of atmosphere. Once the island’s capital, it’s been shaped over the centuries by Phonecians, Romans and Arabs. But we nearly didn’t make it there at all. Our mistake was to rely on the country’s public transport. Despite Mdina being…
New York’s fascinating Tenement Museum
Our visit to the Chinatown Heritage Centre in Singapore, a museum that revealed much about the lives of the poorest of immigrants to the city state, prompted memories of my favourite museum in New York City. The Tenement Museum in the bustling and traditionally working class Lower East Side explores the experiences of German, Irish and…
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…
Italy: A day out in the Tuscan city of Siena
Famous for its architecture and the terrifying horse race the Palio on the broad Piazza del Campo, Siena heaves with visitors doing the grand tour of Tuscany. I was as keen to visit the city as a recent James Bond movie location as for its history. It’s in the otherwise disappointing Quantum of Solace that Bond, in…
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…
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…
King Ludwig’s Linderhof
King Ludwig II of Bavaria lived a strange life. Forced to surrender the independence of his kingdom to the all-consuming Prussia, reclusive and sexually confused, he sought consolation in the theatrical scores of Wagner and fantastical architectural projects. The palaces he built are among Bavaria’s most popular tourist attractions but for the king they sustained…
Niagara-on-the-Lake: Just a little too perfect?
Niagara-on-the-Lake is one of the most picturesque towns I’ve had the good fortune to visit. But there’s also something a bit odd about it. After a couple of days exploring, I couldn’t help but feel a bit spooked. It’s just a bit too perfect, and its population just a little too nice. It brought to…
Toronto: Cabbagetown and the CN Tower
Wherever we went in Toronto, the soaring CN Tower haunted us. The city’s trademark building dominates the skyline by day and by night, when it’s illuminated in a rainbow of colours. I loved it. But before we took our inevitable trip to the top, we had a few other stops to make on the city’s…
Toronto: Historic homes and a cider festival
After a day of rain, we woke in Toronto to sunshine ready to visit some great houses and explore the city’s history. But late-night revellers and the sirens of a city weekend had meant for a broken night of sleep so it wasn’t easy dragging ourselves away from the duvet to grand Casa Loma. Still,…