Arts & Culture
Text and pictures by Michael Webb Nearly sixty years after a first youthful tour of Morocco, I returned to that enchanted land in March. Covid restrictions forced me to reschedule the trip three times and I decided to go at the earliest opportunity. I struck out with the weather, which was cold and wet, giving…
Read MoreThe first time I explored Sicily, nearly 60 years ago, I stayed in cheap pensions, walked around the cities and took local buses and slow trains from one place to the next. This past September I returned with a friend and we retraced a similar route with an experienced driver in the comfort of a…
Read MoreIf you want to enjoy England as it was a century ago, skip the overcrowded, domesticated south-east and head north to Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Those counties cradled the Industrial Revolution, growing prosperous on coal and steel, manufacturing and trade. The mines and mills have shuttered, the great cities are trying to reinvent themselves; in between…
Read MoreReview your bucket list. Does it include Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan? This is one list entry considered mandatory by Jane Adams, a recent delegate at the world’s largest writers’ festival held every year in the ‘Pink City’of the Rajputs. It was the sci-fi writer Stephen King who wrote, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” The…
Read MoreThe world’s most populous metropolis that sprawls across 23 city wards, islands and other towns and villages, boasting 9.26 million citizens can seem daunting but only from the outside. Gently peel off its layers, and every day will deliver the unexpected, treasured moments and memories, from shochu shared with sumo wrestlers to retired military-uniformed soldiers…
Read MoreMichael Webb enjoys the more luxurious side of the cities of Sri Lanka. My first visit to Sri Lanka, many years ago, was a frugal adventure, bumping around in crowded buses from one ancient site to another, exploring the historic city of Kandy, and staying in a vintage guest house in the hill country of…
Read MoreKristina Foster explores the Lake District discovering spectacular hiking trails and poetic history. Nestled in the northwest corner of England lies the Lake District, 885 square miles boasting the longest bodies of water and the tallest mountains in the country. As the first ray of summer sunshine emerges from the clouds, locals escape to…
Read MoreMichael Webb takes a 12 day tour of the Baltic States. Having explored most of Europe, I left the three Baltic States–Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania–till last, hoping they would offer as authentic a taste of the pre-war era as Romania. I arrived too late–the three glorious capitals have been swamped by mass tourism and…
Read MoreMichael Webb embarks on a 10 day road trip around Poland. Resilience is the greatest asset of the Poles, who retained their pride and sense of nationhood during two centuries of foreign occupation. Twenty years of independence between the world wars were succeeded by the brutal onslaught of the Nazis and the Red Army, devastation…
Read MoreMichael Webb visits Singapore to explore its culture, food and architecture. In its fifty plus years of independence, the city-state of Singapore has transformed itself into an Asian version of Switzerland: prosperous, clean, and meticulously organized. But the vibrant street life of its multi-cultural enclaves–Chinese, Islamic and Indian–still flourishes amid the gleaming towers. Taxis and Uber…
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