The Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) is what’s known in the business as an architectural showstopper. Designed by the late great Iraqi-British Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid it’s a breathtakingly adventurous and innovative building like no other (except maybe others by Zaha Hadid). Construction first started in 2009 and was officially inaugurated in 2014 and built at a…
Tag: travel
Out and About in Sombre Seoul
There are certain famous go-to places in the world that you’ve always heard of and thought: okay, why not? Give it a whirl. Sure, they’re bound to be tourist haunts, but hey, could it really be that bad? Sadly, Gahoe-dong Alley in Bukchon is one of these overly touristy crowded places, as charming as it…
Living It Up, Gangnam Style
We’ve left the intense heat and humidity of Far North Queensland and headed to the deep winter of Seoul, South Korea – and in particular the uber trendy district of Gangnam, south of the Han River, 60 k’s inland from the frigid Yellow Sea. We’ve never been to South Korea, so flying a surprisingly civilised…
Green Island – A Rainforest Coral Cay on The Great Barrier Reef
One of the ‘bucket list’ things to do when up in Far North Queensland is to experience the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal. There’s perhaps nowhere so spectacular and readily accessible than Green Island, a stunningly beautiful rainforest covered coral cay, 28k’s and just an easy 45min Catamaran jaunt off the coast of…
Koufonisi, A Dose of Paradise in the Windy Cyclades
Koufonisi is made up of two island gems, Pano (upper) and Kato (lower), both part of the Lesser Cyclades that include Irakleia, Schoinoussa, Donousa and Keros with Pano Koufonisi the most populated with some 400 or so souls – more in summer when tourists arrive to stay, no day trippers though, as these islands are…
Lyme Regis and The Jurassic Coast
Another bucket list location ticked off, Lyme Regis on the stunning Jurassic Coast. It’s where the rugged cliff tops and coastlines of West Dorset and East Devon meet. Bucolic Thomas Hardy countryside with ancient castles, medieval churches, impossibly cute villages and gorgeous seaside towns. Perhaps none more beautiful than Lyme Regis, the so called ‘Pearl…
Deiá and the Serra de Tramuntana
After a couple of days in sunny Palma we headed out of town, having been picked up by good friends to drive across the island and over the mountains to the magical hilltop village of Deiá where they’ve been living on and off for some 10 years. We’ve been looking forward to coming to Deiá…
Ciutat de Mallorca
I can’t believe we haven’t been to Mallorca before. After all the years of travelling, arriving in beautiful ancient Palma de Mallorca (Ciutat de Mallorca) is somewhat of a revelation. Capital of the Balearic Islands, Palma was first founded by the Romans in 123 B.C., but of course given its strategic position in the Mediterranean,…
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 