Walking the Wicklow Way throug
Travel

Walking the Wicklow Way through Ireland

A week walking in Ireland is a week of softening: eyes trained to see jagged London switch to a diet of green hills, still lakes and moodily-lit ruins. Stomachs used to virtuous quinoa and the Paleo diet gently expand into a universe of potato-and-beer based cuisine. In short, we left for Ireland old and grey, and came back in the bloom of youth. Here’s why the Wicklow Way should be your next city break

Flightless Dave | Barcelona Bo
Travel

Flightless Dave | Barcelona Bound

Trains trains and more trains because there is no time deadline to this trip and I’d like to see as much as I can of the countries I am visiting. That’s pretty hard to do from 30 000 feet.

Lunch – and more – in Lille
Travel

Lunch – and more – in Lille

Just an hour and a half by Eurostar gets you from London to moules frites anwhich probably would have to be moules-frites and a glass of local beer in the Grand’ Place, a magnificent square encircled by elegant buildings and gracious shops. (Pause between moules to glance up to the facade of the Old Bourse to notice the black dots around the windows near the roof. Not high-flung graffiti but Austrian cannonballs lodged in the facade.)