One person I did not expect to meet in North Korea was a monk. In this famously atheist country, where tourists are forbidden to disseminate religious texts and the prevailing religion might be said to be belief in the supremacy of the Dear Leaders and the Juche idea, true religious conviction is hard to find. And I am still unsure whether or not I found it here.
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The most successful buildings are those in which form and function work in harmony. Buildings that not only look amazing but serve their purpose well. And also, buildings which reflect the culture of their location and contribute to it, rather than tug against it. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is one such building.
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Our arrival at Wonsan’s International Airport delivered another of those surreal ‘only in North Korea’ experiences; a glitzy but surreally empty new airport, built for international flights that never come!
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Architecture could be said to have begun with geometry. Since earliest times, builders have imitated natural forms, such as circles. Pattern can be found everywhere in nature, and nature knows what it is doing; geometrical shapes are not only pleasing to the eye, they provide strength.
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There is something about a tale of a deserted city that tugs at the imagination. Here on this rocky ridge near Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the third Mughal emperor Akbar built a new capital: the walled city of Fatehpur Sikri, the ‘City of Victory’. But soon after its completion he abandoned his great city due to a lack of water at the site.
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Sofia’s St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is not only a place of worship but also a memorial and a symbol of gratitude – the gratitude of the Bulgarian people to the Russian and Bulgarian soldiers who had earned the country its freedom.
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On a wooded hillside in the Aravalli range of hills in Rajasthan, north of Udaipur, is an exquisite Jain temple, intricately carved in white marble, Ranakpur. It has a cool serenity, its pale stone a welcome contrast to the vivid colours and assault on the senses that is India.
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Rarely is a city defined so clearly by one single feature in the way that Newcastle-upon-Tyne is defined by its river. The city’s history has been shaped by the river, especially by shipbuilding; and now that the ship-yards are largely lost to history, the life of the city, especially its cultural and social life, continues to flow from the banks of the Tyne. A favourite walk in the city is along the Quayside past the Tyne’s famous bridges.
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There is no getting away from the fact that I am a city girl at heart. On my travels I wonder at stunning landscapes (mountains and deserts in particular). And I'm always thrilled to observe wild animals in their natural homes. But I couldn’t live anywhere other than a city. I like to be close to the action: to galleries, cinemas and restaurants. And I enjoy the buzz of city streets and the diversity of modern city living.
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There are two ways to get to Taos from Santa Fe. There is the quicker (but still pretty) Low Road, and the more dramatically scenic and historically interesting High Road. This winds through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through high desert, forests and tiny communities. On the way there are stories to be discovered, stunning landscapes to marvel at and picture-perfect churches to explore.
