Festivals in Seville set the bar for Spanish festivals generally – they are intense and unforgettable. Just make sure you book your travel and hotel or accommodation well in advance, as they get really really packed. Semana Santa Important throughout Spain, Semana Santa, or Holy Week (Palm Sunday – Good Friday), is celebrated in intensely [...]
The remains of the provincial Roman city of Gerasa have been remarkably well preserved by the dry desert air of what is now Jordan. Situated in rich farmland in the north of Jordan and blessed with a Mediterranean climate, Gerasa thrived as a cosmopolitan city throughout the Roman period, becoming one of the Decapolis (10 [...]
Aqaba is Jordan’s only seaside town, perched on their tiny foothold of coastline at the north of the Red Sea, and like so many places in Jordan, it is an ancient place now bought up to date in true Jordanian style. In recent years Aqaba has evolved into a funky seaside resort with this typically [...]
“The crags are capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than the body of the body of the hill. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place, this processional way greater than imagination…vast, echoing and godlike.” T E Lawrence The desert which the Queen of Sheba crossed on her way [...]
A glass of sweet mint tea at the Haret Jdoudna in the heart of Madaba was our welcome to Jordan the evening we arrived. A traditional merchant’s house, Harat Idoudna is built around a courtyard complete with pots of vivid flowers sprawling over the stone stops and a fig tree in the central courtyard. The [...]
We saw Petra for the first time at night. Inky blueblack sky above, punctuated by a mesh of stars. Deep black in front, behind and around us, candles in paper bags lighting the path beside our feet but little else as we followed the Bedouin leader down the ceremonial Siq. As we entered the rock [...]
The Cathedral and La Giralda Probably the most popular attraction in Seville is its enormous cathedral with its gorgeous and dainty Moorish minaret, la Giralda, which is now topped by a renaissance belfry and bronze weathervane (giraldillo) from which it takes its name. La Giralda was originally built in the 12th century as part of [...]
As technological advances push the boundaries of what is possible, our ability to enjoy the winter cold wherever we are increases apace. We now have the largest igloos ever known, carved from the ice and erected anew every year, machines that blast out snow where there isn’t any so we can ski whenever we want, [...]
Claire Burdett
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