It’s just a short 30-minute hop across from Naxos to the beautiful tiny islands of Koufonisia, the main island of Ano Koufonisi, the sparsley populated island of Kato Koufonisi and the mysterious archaeologically rich island of Keros. It’s our second visit here to see our dear friends N&H, spending four days unwinding on this unpretentious…
Tag: history
It’s Bath Time!
Bath has to be one of England’s most beautiful cities and perhaps one of its most unique, for this stunningly amazing place is not just famous for its ancient Roman Baths (Aquae Sulis), dating back to 60AD, but for its stunning Georgian Regency architecture and, of course a certain Jane Austen, who brought regency Bath…
Mells, Wells, Bells and Smells
If you wanted more picture postcard England, then Mells in Somerset is it. Straight out of ‘Midsomer Murders’, this impossibly bucolic village oozes the very essence of Englishness (without the murders of course). The lush hedgerows heave with earthy Cow Parsley, beaming Yellow Gorse, pale pink Dog Rose, towering Foxgloves and the heady early summer…
A Walk On The Wild Side – Gastown and Chinatown
The oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver is Gastown, down on the waterfront dock area. It largely began its life with a certain fellow named “Gassy (chatty) Jack” Deighton arriving in the area in 1867 with a barrel of whiskey to his name, offering thirsty mill workers as much as they could drink in exchange for their…
Haida Heaven. The Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver
The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Colombia, designed by celebrated Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, was opened in 1976 and is considered a masterpiece of modern Canadian West Coast architecture. It’s around half an hour’s drive south west of downtown on the beautiful forested Point Grey peninsula that looks out over the Strait…
Charleston and the Churches
It would be hard to pick a more bucolic English setting than Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex. Once the home of Vanessa Bell, her lover Duncan Grant and, as was their modernist way, his lover David Garnett. This was a very unconventional household for 1916. Part of the Bloomsbury Group, they were some of the…
The Battle For Hastings
The gorgeous Old Town of Hastings in Sussex is set between two imposing chalk cliffs and serviced by a couple of creaky old funicular railways. They link the old-school seaside town with the imposing Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian villas up on the grassy hill tops looking out across the hazy English Channel towards France. There’s…
Travels With My Ant 