Smag31 Historical Events in Les Halles Roman Era A marketplace was first established on the Right Bank of the Seine in a place then called Les Champeaux. 10th Century A larger market for meat, fruit and vegetables is known to have existed in the part of Paris which is now Les Halles. 1183 The market is … Read more
Beer Bars Le Sous-Bock A good place for moules (mussels), with 400 types of beer to wash them down with. There are also 200 whiskies. 49 rue St-Honoré, 75001 Le Sous-Bock Quigley’s Point Right in front of Eglise St-Eustache, this friendly Irish pub serves beer from Holland, Germany, Ireland and Britain. 5 rue du Jour, … Read more
A Day By the River Morning Start at Waterloo with breakfast and a self-guided tour of the Marriott Hotel, based in the splendid former headquarters of the Greater London Council. Cross Westminster Bridge to visit Westminster Abbey and nearby St Margaret’s Church. Continue along Abingdon Street to Lambeth Bridge and re-cross the river. Have a … Read more
Here there is a rich mix of things to do. Sights range from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament to the Tate’s stunning art institutions, the Southbank Centre and Shakespeare’s Globe. In between there’s the spectacular London Eye and other entertainments around County Hall, former headquarters of the Greater London Council. Two new footbridges … Read more
A Day in the South Morning Start your morning walk through Berlin’s southern districts by taking the S-Bahn (line S1) to Mexikoplatz. Here you can admire the beautiful villas and the lovely green square before dropping in to Café Krone in Argentinische Allee for a late breakfast. After refreshments, continue on foot or by bus … Read more
Berlin’s green south, which includes the districts of Grunewald and Dahlem, is dotted with numerous lakes, rivers, small castles, private estates and residential villas, leafy roads and cafés for daytrippers. Grunewald and Dahlem have managed to preserve their rural character, although affluent and famous Berliners have always built their houses here. There are many attractions … Read more
This is a part of Switzerland that has long attracted writers, artists and mystics. On the hillside above Ascona, Monte Verita (“Hill of Truth”) was a commune before such things were fashionable. Founded in 1900 as a “co-operative vegetarian colony” by the son of a Belgian businessman, it quickly became a mecca for well-heeled anarchists … Read more
The latter is famous for its dam, featured in the opening, 220-metre bungee-jumping stunt of the 1995 Lames Bond film GoldenEye, which anyone can now repeat (apart from the hit at the end where Pierce Brosnan shoots a piton into the rock to stop himself springing back up) thanks to the commercial bungee-jumping operation set … Read more
Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton is a sensuous land of lakeside beaches, unspoilt valleys, literary greats and mountain peaks. Lee Marshall salutes the Swiss Riviera The Restaurant Seven in Ascona One day, while exploring one of the many valleys of Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, I stopped to give a lift to a hiker. He turned … Read more
Sicily may have produced the real Shakespeare. Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza was born in Messina in 1564, and is known as a writer of plays. During a religious crackdown by the enforcers of papal authority, the young Calvinist fled to England, aged 24, and settled with his mother’s cousin in Stratford-upon-Avon. Crolla derives from the verb … Read more
With the World Shakespeare Festival in full swing, why not step back in time to visit the sources of the writer’s inspiration from Venice to Sicily? With a little help from some of Britain’s finest Shakespearean actors, Italian historian and broadcaster Francesco da Mosto is your guide Venice is my city, and the first Shakespeare … Read more
Places to Eat The Dining Room The setting, the service, and the food all live up to the Ritz name . Ritz-Carlton Hotel 600 Stockton Street 415 773 6198 Dis. access Tommy Toy’s Haute Cuisine Chinoise This elegant institution serves marvelous fare in a sumptuous setting. The cuisine is a melding of Chinese and French. … Read more
Cafés and Bars Caffè Trieste One of the most authentic cafés in town, rich with arty nonchalance. 605 Vallejo St 415 982 2605 Dis. access Tosca Dating back to 1919, this North Beach bar is a favorite with celebrities. The jukebox plays opera arias. 242 Columbus Ave Closed L 415 986 9651 Dis. access Tosca … Read more
Children’s Attractions Johnson IMAX Theater The movie screen at the Museum of Natural History is 66 ft high and 90 ft wide (20 m x 28 m), and some of the films shown are 3-D using polarized glasses. Most film subjects are hits with children (see National Museum of Natural History). Smithsonian Carousel This lovely … Read more
A Morning Walk by the Waterfront Begin at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial on West Basin Drive. A Tourmobile stop is directly in front of the memorial (parking is limited). The sweeping flow of this memorial carries visitors past waterscapes punctuated by engravings of the words of the president and evocative sculptures of his times. … Read more
Chile The Atacama Desert in Chile is not just the driest place on Earth, but one of the very best places from which to observe the night sky. And it is a very promising location to watch the Southern Delta Aquarids meteor shower, expected in late July/early August this year. Negligible rainfall tends to correlate … Read more
The stellar mysteries of the skies have inspired earthbound fascination for millennia. As the rare sight of the transit of Venus approaches this summer, Claire Wrathall picks the best places to stay and gaze at the beauty of the heavens Stars form arcs around the North Star above the Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii Captain cook … Read more
Having sworn off Italy’s Amalfi Coast for being overcrowded, Emily Wright is won over by the glorious old-world charm of the Excelsior Vittoria and the classical education she gets as she walks the Path of the Gods Towns like Positano look much as they did when writers like John Steinbeck came to hang out in … Read more
Burned out from her urban lifestyle, ANNA HUNT went to South America in search of healing. She could never have imagined how she would find it I am sitting in a small, filthy restaurant 24 hours into a two-week trek around the north of Peru. The trek marks the start of a three-month sabbatical from … Read more
Getting there The easiest way to travel to Burma from the UK is via Bangkok, from where Thai Airways International (www.thaiairways.com) flies to Rangoon daily. Journey time – The flight from London to Bangkok takes about 12 hours, and to Rangoon 80 minutes. The writer and photographer’s visit was arranged by Ampersand Travel (020 7289 … Read more