What makes a Vermeer is the special fall of light, the stillness of people – young women reading, sitting or standing, but always still – with the light coming from the left.
Category Archives: Europe
Lapland: Sámi Ways
Then there’s the quiet of walking through deep snow, bone dry from the sub-zero temperature and with a negative silence that sucks in any sound.
Istanbul: Turkish Delight
“Most tourists think the Grand Bazaar represents Turkish culture,” says designer and businesswoman Aysegul Ozmen. “The craftsmen there make the same stuff they have always made – as that is what the tourists buy. Our culture is much richer than that – maybe our problem is that our culture is too rich.”
Bruges: Tourism Central
One extraordinary thing about these works of art is that they are on show in the very city they were first created for. To stand in front of them is to be transported back in time.
Venice: The Ghetto
IT’S HARD TO stumble on the Ghetto of Venice. You have to go looking for it. Two entrances are low, uninviting gates. The third is over a lovely cast-iron bridge across Rio della Miseracordis. That’s well off the well-trodden path through the Cannaregio district between the Rialto Bridge and Santa Lucia train station. The diversionContinue reading “Venice: The Ghetto”
London: World Centre
The official center of London is at Trafalgar Square, marked by a small brass plaque in the pavement beneath a statue of Charles I on horseback. “Stand here and you will eventually see everyone you know in the world,” they say. And it’s true I once bumped into someone I worked with a decade before inContinue reading “London: World Centre”
St Petersburg: Tsarry-eyed Wonder
VISITORS TO FLORENCE will be familiar with Stendhal’s Syndrome, a kind of panic or ecstasy brought about by seeing too many wonders in too short a time, named after the impressionable young 19th-century French novelist. I’m sure the Russians have a parallel name for those overcome by the arguably even greater wonders of St PetersburgContinue reading “St Petersburg: Tsarry-eyed Wonder”
Lower Saxony: High Living
This is an extract from my article in the October issue of Food & Travel magazine: http://www.foodandtravel.com AMERICAN Michael Boyer (pictured) has the glorious title of “Rattenfanger’ in the town of Hameln (better known to us as Hamelin). It means ‘Rat-Catcher’ but he is, of course, the brightly arrayed Pied Piper who famously led the town’sContinue reading “Lower Saxony: High Living”
Kiev: Beyond the Orthodox
IT’S the statues. Kiev looks like many a European city while the people in designer clothes, ever so slightly out of London style time, and the shops featuring labels such as Louis Vuitton or Nike could be anywhere. But the statues of heroic people straining their every sinew to serve the Motherland could only beContinue reading “Kiev: Beyond the Orthodox”
Lisbon: Looking out for No.1
AS any Sharpe fan will know, and hopefully most of the rest of us, too, Portugal is Britain’s oldest ally. Visiting Lisbon, I was reminded of the link between the countries by one iconic image: the bright red pillar box. Lisbon’s post boxes are the old British Victorian design, given a local makeover with aContinue reading “Lisbon: Looking out for No.1”
Inherit The Earth 