So today I am aiming to make you all hungry! Oaxaca is often dubbed the gastronomic capital of Mexico, so where better place to go on a food tour with a local?
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When I told people we were going to Mexico, a frequent piece of advice was, make sure you visit Oaxaca. It’s beautiful, they said, and the food is amazing! The advice however was unnecessary, as the city was already on my must-see list. And Oaxaca de Juárez, to give it its full name, definitely lived up to my expectations.
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In 1531 a peasant, Juan Diego, reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac, today swallowed up in the metropolis of Mexico City. The Virgin, he said, spoke to him in in Nahuatl, his first language, asking that a church be built on the site in her honour.
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Some ten kilometres or so south of the centre of Mexico City lies historic Villa Coyoacán. Today it is a picturesque corner of the wider conurbation but was once a village in its own right. It was founded by the Tepecana people on the shores of Lake Texcoco, a huge lake now largely drained, its area occupied by Mexico City.
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Long before the Aztecs set foot in what is today Mexico, another people built their city there, creating one of the first urban societies in the Americas. But little is known about these people. When the Aztecs arrived the city was already abandoned. Yet the new arrivals were so impressed by what they found that they named it Teotihuacan, 'the place where the gods were created'.
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There is only one solution to the challenge of jet lag in my opinion. Not a cure, but a way to minimise its impact. And that is, to ignore it as much as possible, adopt the time of your destination as soon as possible and stay active.
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A few hours’ drive north of Ecuador’s capital, Quito, is the market town of Otavalo. Like similar towns the world over, market day is traditionally an occasion for local people to come together, to trade goods and probably a fair bit of news and gossip too.
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How do most grandparents respond when asked to do something by their grandchildren? They try their best to oblige, of course. So when, on our recent visit to Paris, our friend Pete mentioned that he had promised to send his grandchildren a photo of himself by the Eiffel Tower and to buy them miniature towers, we all agreed to accompany him on this mission.
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We had been to Paris just a couple of months previously, in September. So why return so soon, and in chilly (make that freezing!) November? Well, this was to be a rather different visit. Newcastle were to play Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League and although we didn't have tickets we wanted to meet up with friends and enjoy the atmosphere.
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Where the River Tyne meets the North Sea lies the aptly named appealing town of Tynemouth. In the summer this is a popular low-key seaside resort, despite the chill of that well-named sea. And in winter it is an equally popular place for a bracing walk, either on the sands or on the paths and promenades above.
