Vienna is apparently famous for its high quality of life. In a study of 127 world cities in 2005, the Economist ranked it joint-first as the world’s most liveable city. For the last seven years, Mercer has ranked Vienna top place in its annual “Quality of Living” survey of hundreds of cities around the world. The UN-Habitat classified Vienna as being the…
I went for a run this morning through Vienna, up and down the banks of the river. The city was waking up to a beautiful sunny morning. It is always fascinating to run through a new place and watch the people – some were coming towards me, some sat on benches overlooking the river, some…
We were enjoying our annual winter break in the warmth of Tenerife. On Wednesday, we decided to relax by the pool later in the day, rather than straight after breakfast, which had been our habit. We surveyed the options for the best place to lie. With the sun lower in the sky and further round…
Let’s just call them people. Not a swarm of people, not migrants, not even refugees. As soon as we label people we objectify them. And if we label a group of people, we make them all the same. At least the word people allows for men and women and children, from different countries, each with…
The Black Forest nestles in the bottom left hand corner of Germany. A rectangle 50km wide and 150km long, it is the largest German holiday region, with the magnificent Rhine defines the southern and western borders. I first visited here as a child, and can still recall the black battalions of foreboding trees, standing tall…
One of the delights of travelling abroad is to sample the local cuisine along with the local atmosphere. And maybe some local surprises. Here in the Black Forest, we were not sure what to expect. Obviously Black Forest gateau and bratwurst, but what else? My previous experience off German dining had been excellent. A year…
I spend my weeks traveling to and from various Nordic countries. Tired of the procession of planes and nights in formulaic hotels, I decided, for once, to take the big slow boat from Oslo to Copenhagen, only to discover that this was an amorphous mixture of the two. Everyone who boards is staying in the…
A place and a time where there is no darkness only the all-consuming grey of a damp June evening Never starting, never ending, barely existing in very slow motion without definition or purpose. A dinner where the salmon is tasteless garnished with a disappointingly limp salad – Eating under artificial heating. Will that invisible sun…
And so, I was about to finally step into Russia. As a kid, of course, it was all part of the USSR. We lived as children in genuine fear of the Cold War between the Soviets and the Americans escalating into Mutually Assured Destruction, wondering what we would do if the apocryphal 4-minute warning sounded…
I had three people to find in St Petersburg – Fyodor, Dmitri and Claude. All six-letter names, all artists and all well past their sell by dates. Well, all longtime dead as it happens. So. I would be looking for their faint footprints rather than their living feet. A painter, an author and a composer.…
Unwrapping The World 