The summer’s test cricket programme is underway, and the purest form of the game, with the reassuring sponsorship of Waitrose, reasserts itself against those many upstart versions. But whether they play test cricket or T20, cricketers turn to essential and traditional tools, the most important of which is the bat. Older readers will recall the… Continue reading
Browsing Category Everything else
Wild Highlands life in a year of changing weather
A Bird’s Eye View of a Highland Year, by John Lister-Kaye. Canon Gate, £14.99 hardback, £12.99 e-book. Any preconceptions I might have had that this would be the standard “Year in the life of” nature book were summarily dispelled on page 3 of the preface. John Lister-Kaye has run the study centre at Aigas in the… Continue reading →
Linz’s bold opera vision pays off in new Musiktheater am Volksgarten
Over many visits to European cities, I’ve concluded that two things set them apart from similarly-sized places in Britain. One is public transport. The other is a commitment to culture, and in particular music. We hold our own in fine historic buildings, and archeological remains. It’s when we look at the creations of planners and… Continue reading →
Island-hopping on Sweden’s Bohuslän Coast
The Bohuslän Coast is Sweden’s western strip, 150 quiet miles of fjords and little inlets, pebble-dashed with 8000 islands, stretching temptingly north from Gothenburg to the border with Norway. Leaving Gothenburg, the plan was to work our way quietly up, deviating to the occasional island, and taking in the many small-scale attractions and wide open country. How do you pick… Continue reading →
Le Loir breaks cover from its better known cousin (La Loire)
No, it’s not a spelling mistake. The river Loir, and its tranquil countryside setting, is emerging from the shadow of its bigger and much better-known cousin, the Loire, as a destination in its own right. I visited this too often overlooked slice of France. His list includes a château fit for a Queen (Mum), wine served… Continue reading →
High-fly wi-fi York bids to be UK’s best online tourist destination
Could the guidebook and the tourist leaflet become obsolete, before too long, at least in town and city centres? Using ubiquitous, and free, Wi-Fi, tourists may never again need to look up the height of that steeple, the age of that ancient market cross, the architect of that building. That’s the reality in York. And… Continue reading →