The first “Covent Garden After Hours” takes place this month (July, 2016) from Wednesdays to Saturdays, with a series of special events every Thursday. It’s a smart way to put a focus on the area, and draw its many component parts together, with late night shop-opening, free gifts and inducements, and street food from local restaurants. ****… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel
Football success gives Iceland tourism boost money can not buy
Close to economic melt-down in 2009, Iceland is staging a remarkable come-back. And on June 22nd, this nation of 300k reached the knock out stages of Euro 2016 in France. Forget all the financial computations on the level of improvement in the economy, this single event has done more to promote Iceland positively to the… Continue reading →
Is Lyon an easier version of Paris, with better food?
Lyon is a city for all seasons. An easy visit by train (five hours by direct Eurostar from London St Pancras in the summer) or plane, this UNESCO world heritage-listed destination offers fine old buildings, sensational shops and heavenly eating. And as the nights draw in, the lights go up (it is, after all, the… Continue reading →
Toulouse, elegant city in France’s south west reaching for the stars
Toulouse, La Ville Rose, the “Pink City”, deep in the south west, is one of the venues for Euro 2016. Wales played there on June 20th. It is of France’s most handsome cities, mid-way between Atlantic and Mediterranean and close to the Pyrenees, it contains elegant ancient wonders alongside the modern marvels of the European… Continue reading →
Lille – French city transformed by high speed train
Lille and Lens The Euro 2016 football venue is the small industrial town of Lens, centre of the swirling carnage of the First World War, which was happening here exactly 100 years ago. Today the pre-eminent attraction is the new Louvre-Lens gallery, opened in 2012 as an offshoot of the great Paris museum to display some… Continue reading →
Spice Island Zanzibar traps tourism’s wind of change
You don’t go on safari on the island of Zanzibar. But there is Capt. Morgan. Is it his real name? He is coy on the subject. But any confusion with the famous pirate of the Caribbean ends with his scrupulously honest assessment of our chances of seeing wildlife when we are out on his dhow…. Continue reading →