It’s surprising what gets classified as a tourist attraction in some parts of the world. How about a shop? That’s where we found ourselves on a wet morning on our last full day in the Scottish Cairngorms, guided by the local tourist board’s ever-optimistic marketing blurb. It was billed as the Scottish Heather Centre but…
Tag: History
Scotland in the spring: Rain at Brodie Castle
The number one challenge of holidaying in the UK is the weather but the Cairngorms in Scotland had been good to us on our first visit. Would we be lucky a second time? Stepping off our dinky British Airways Embraer 170 at Aberdeen, to the soundtrack of helicopters heading for the oil rigs, the drizzle was…
Jordan: From Roman Jerash to the Dead Sea
I associate coach tours with infirm pensioners, but that didn’t stop us joining one during our fortnight in Jordan. We were easily the youngest on board but our guide Ibrahim was invaluable and we got to see much more of the country than we would have done on our own. Take just one day, which…
Marrakech: Ruins and royal tombs
Our riad was a cosmopolitan place, home to holidaying Brits and Spaniards, Germans and Americans. So breakfast was taken to a background hum of languages and accents, all of which could also be heard on the vibrant streets of Marrakech. The city has become a popular holiday destination in North Africa, reasonably safe and with…
Marrakech: A day of palaces and history
The call to prayer is one of the essential sounds of a stay in an Islamic country, and the first one of the day came at 5.30am or thereabouts. Some may find it annoying and curse the interruption of sleep, especially at the crack of dawn, but I’ve always found it romantic, reassuring and exotic. At…
A day out in the village of Fiesole, Tuscany
Florence on a busy day can be bonkers, but we managed to escape the crowds and the stress with a day trip to Fiesole in the nearby Tuscan hills. About 9km from the city, it takes hardly any time to get there on the number 7 bus from the Piazza San Marco. The only aggro we…
In the heart of Tuscany – the city of Florence
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…
The magical world of Petra
Back when we were first planning our trip to Jordan I was under the impression that Petra consisted solely of the famous Treasury. It was only when I read the Lonely Planet guide book that I realised there was an entire city awaiting us at at the country’s premier tourist attraction. The Treasury is the…
Exploring Nizwa Fort, Oman’s majestic historic site
A few decades ago the town of Nizwa was off-limits, a focus of rebellion and violence. But now it’s a popular day trip for visitors to Oman, and its main attraction is a 17th century fort. So it had to be on the itinerary of our trip to the country despite my lack of driving…
Discovering the historic village of Locronan in Brittany
A spontaneous decision can sometimes turn up a gem, as we proved with the gorgeous village of Locronan in Brittany. We were driving back from visiting Great Uncle Ray’s grave in Milizac on a gloomy June day when we decided to turn off the main road into the picturesque hills. And there it was, a…
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…
An Easter city break in Stockholm, Sweden
Easter isn’t the best time to visit Stockholm. The trees are bare and the weather can be drab and chilly, but the weather couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for the capital of Sweden. I actually had very few preconceptions about it. I knew it as a city of water, islands and ludicrously priced alcohol. I knew it as…
A few days in Naples, Italy
Naples is the gateway to southern Italy but my first experience of it was overwhelmingly negative, for it had been like stepping into the third world. Years later, with Graham in tow, I still found it challenging but warmed slowly to its charms. That first visit to Naples back in the early noughties was nothing more…
Visiting the Desert Castles of Jordan
On our two-week visit to Jordan, we took a tour of the Desert Castles that lie to the east of the capital, Amman. And poor Graham coped remarkably well bearing in mind he had a stomach bug. The weather was bleak as we hit the highway out of the city, fresh from a night in the…
Istanbul: A long weekend in Sultanahmet
Sultanahmet is the historic heart of Istanbul, the most famous of Turkey’s cities. It may not be the capital but it’s the only city that sits astride Europe and Asia. Just a few months after we visited Istanbul, it was gripped by the worst riots in years. But it seems that historic Sultanahmet escaped the…