Imagine. It is 1937. The Hook Continental is leaving shortly from London’s Liverpool Street station for Harwich, to connect to the night ferry to the Hook of Holland and the ongoing train deep into the heart of a dark, anxious Continent. In the Great Eastern Hotel, next to the station, a couple stand at the… Continue reading
Browsing Category Travel Blog
Swansea shortlisted as candidate for City of Culture, 2017
Swansea has been shortlisted as one of the candidates for the City of Culture, 2017 Craning my neck I could see the dreamer’s window in one of the most famous back bedrooms in literature. From here, at no 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, a 20th Century superstar looked down over the town to the “twin tongued…carol-singing sea” and… Continue reading →
A link to my pieces on France
A link to my articles on France.
Amsterdam regains the Rijksmuseum, with an art-themed Andaz hotel to match
I was in Amsterdam recently, as the guest of Hyatt at their new Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht. If ever there was a hotel that refleted the culture and history of the city around it, it is this, set on a canal in a former city library. It opened (in 2012) just before the great Rijksmuseum, where builders were… Continue reading →
InterContinental’s grand new Hotel Dieu rises out of old Marseille
Marseille, for so long the dark, dowdy, run-down and edgy seaport on France’s Mediterranean coast, has been transformed in this, its year as European capital of culture (2013). Is this the year, too, when this renewed and restored city finds a hotel to match its proud new status? Time will tell, but the InterContinental Marseille –… Continue reading →
Electric car Twizy delivers green driving in the New Forest
We often see new cars advertised against the background of a beauty spot, the implication being that you have the freedom of such wonderful places if you buy that particular model. It is a spurious and somewhat insincere message if, like most people, you live in a town or city and must drive many miles… Continue reading →