Venice - Five star luxury for a Five star city

Surely there is no better way to approach a hotel than travelling up the Grand Canal in the Beautiful city of Venice. Our destination was the Ca' Sagredo Hotel, formally a 15th Century palace now declared a national monument housing a five star establishment.



Our water taxi was greeted at the hotel’s private dock by a staff member who led us into the reception area, where we first took sight of the opulence the interior of the building housed. The initial impression of the hotel was mesmerising, and as we were being shown up to our room there was just so much to take in. The majestic marbled staircase, artworks abound, and the exquisite lighting all along the hallways; it was clear this was no ordinary hotel.



Within the room itself, the experience of grandeur continued, periodic furniture together with quality decor added to the sense of indulgence. Our windows afforded views of the Grand Canal looking up towards the Rialto Bridge. We partook in the complimentary “Prosecco” left in our room, contently sitting back watching the array of vessels using this most beautiful of water ways.



The communal halls of the hotel were astonishing, a surreal atmosphere for a public place. It felt like walking around a museum with the hushed silence and the leisurely viewing of an array of art, sculptures and architecture. The difference being these items were accessible by taking just a step out of your room. Large murals, frescos and masterpiece paintings from artists such as Bambini, Ricci and Longhi adorn the walls and whilst taking breakfast you can admire the painting "Tribute to Venice" by Giambattista Tiepolo on the ceiling right above you. The large collection stems from the Sagredo families’ love of art and their acquisitions collected throughout the Centuries.




The hotel is in an excellent location too, just a short walk through the fascinating back streets of Venice to the main tourist area of Piazza San Marco, with plenty of bars and Restaurants en route. Right outside the front door is the Traghetto Gondola crossing, mainly used by locals to cross the canal to the bustling Rialto market on the opposite bank. Just further down from the hotel is the Ca'd’Oro Vaporetto stop, allowing you to catch the frequent water buses to various points around the area.



The Ca' Sagredo also houses its own restaurant the "L' Alcova" offering top class Venetian cuisine with the added allure of incredible views of the Grand Canal from your table. The Ca’ Sagredo fully deserves its luxury tag, it not only fulfils the objective of providing excellent accommodation in a ideal location, but it also gives the opportunity of experiencing living in the extravagance of days gone by.

Kensington Gardens...A walk in the Royal Park

   

 

It was a cold wintery weekend afternoon but that wasn't deterring an army of people from visiting Kensington Gardens, one of London's Royal Parks on  the west side of the Capital City. The park offered an ideal opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy the large open air spaces with the added bonus of plenty of attractions to keep both young and old amused.



The park was like an open air fitness centre, jogger after jogger flashed by choosing their own course down one of the many paths ahead, one going left, one straight on like a real life Pacman game. Cyclists continuously rode past, from the Lycra clad enthusiasts to the family groups with the mom always seeming to be lagging behind. The open grass areas playing home to groups playing sports, surprisingly not the traditional English games of Soccer and Cricket but the adopted overseas loves of American Football and Baseball, with a physical game of Rollerblade hockey also to be found (on the tarmaced area)...pads and all. Elsewhere Dog owners let their pooches wander freely off lead, nervously smiling and nodding at each other, both sides hoping that it's not their pet that turns the Canine sniffing ritual into a full on dog fight.

The recent heavy snowfall was only evident by the rapidly diminishing snowman bodies around the park leaving what looked like giant scoops of ice cream instead of the much loved winter icon. Although the iced up pools within the "Italian Gardens"did demonstrate the cold spell the country had just encountered. The gardens built in the 1860's were a fantastic example of opulent times gone by, containing a number of classical sculptures and water features as well as affording wonderful views across the Long Water lake.

From there I wandered round the garden areas of Kensington Palace, once the royal home of Princess Diana .Although not the most spectacular of palaces it still gives that regal feeling due to the royal statues and the glorious "Golden Gates" at the south entrance. The Garden area, although not at its best, due to being out of the "blooming" season, still had plenty of character, particularly the iced up sunken garden and the Orangery now home to a stylish cafe.

As I approached the Round Pool I came across a massive gathering of people, in turn being greeted by an even bigger gathering of water birds. An ornithologists dream with a wide variety of species of Ducks, Geese, Swans and Glebes amongst many others. However most people were here with their children for feeding time, tiny hands grasping their bags full of bread, laughing with glee as a small piece thrown caused a large melee of thrashing wings, with the strongest and biggest birds normally coming out with the prize.



I ventured into to the neighbouring Hyde Park,
the much larger, more famous neighbour of Kensington Gardens, my mission to visit the Princess Diana Memorial Fountains, just a stones throw away. I must admit I was extremely underwhelmed, struggling to comprehend that someone, somewhere, thought that this would be a fitting tribute to the much adored Princess.




From a distance it looked like it was just a concrete path but as I got closer could see that it had water running inside it. At various points the water ran faster, bubbled and swirled, with all kinds of water effects going on, however it reminded me of a white water rafting course for toddlers. I'm sure this is not what the designers intended visitors to think of when paying their respects to Diana. In turn the signs around the area warned of slippery surfaces and with the water also having strange colour growths in it, I left feeling somewhat disappointed .  
 

I crossed back into Kensington Gardens and traced my way through the many pathways in search of the Albert Memorial... now this was everything a royal tribute should be and more. Towering into the sky, glistening with gilt bronze and adorned with elaborate sculptures, a truly magnificent monument.

 

Commissioned by Queen Victoria to commemorate her beloved husband, Prince Albert sits at the centre, proudly looking out at the splendid Royal Albert Hall building on the other side of the parks boundary.

 

 

Visiting Kensington Gardens makes a wonderful day out, with a great variety of monuments,  parkland, children's playgrounds, formal gardens, beautiful water features and even art galleries to view. It was wonderful to see the area being utilised by so many, be they local families, fitness freaks or even tourists.The park must change dramatically over the seasons, particularly the Summer when the full colours of the garden areas are out and the grassed areas become the perfect place to hold a leisurely picnic and a relaxing afternoon snooze.

NFL...Battles on a foreign field

 

 

 It was on October 28^th 2007 that the first NFL regular season game was played at Wembley Stadium, London, a rain drenched clash between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants in front a capacity crowd. The success of that initial game and the continued support of the fixture by the paying public as meant an increase to two regular season games in 2013. 

 

This London International Series offers a fabulous opportunity for any American visitors to tie in a visit to England’s capital city and see their beloved NFL team in action on a foreign field. The 2013 season offers up the Jacksonville Jaguars against the San Francisco 49ers, perhaps one of the most supported teams in the UK due to the Joe Montana/Steve Young phenomenon when NFL first hit the British shores back in the early 80’s thanks to Channel 4's TV screenings. With Jacksonville now committed to a four year programme of games at Wembley, it will be interesting to see how their support grows with the regular attenders at the International Series games. Will British fans will stay loyal to their existing teams or adopt the Jaguars as their own? Also scheduled for 2013 is the much anticipated game between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers, a fixture that I’m sure will have the “terrible towels” out in force considering the Steelers considerable following around Europe.

  
 

So what can any guests from the USA expect from a British NFL experience?
  

Since the original game in 2007 each subsequent year as seen further developments in pregame events ranging from Cheerleaders appearances across London, Saturday night musical events, open air film showings, NFL rallies and the Tailgate event on the day of the game.
The NFL rally at the iconic tourist attraction Trafalgar Square, as become a regular occurrence on the Saturday afternoon before the game. A free to anyone event, offering live performances from bands, related entertainment from the corresponding teams such as Drum lines, appearances from players and coaches of both teams, Q and A sessions with past stars of the game and of course, the ever popular Cheerleaders. The crowds are large with a mixture of ardent NFL fans and just the curious passing through.

 

The “Tailgate Party” on the Sunday morning prior to the game, held in the shadows of the impressive Wembley stadium, is free to all match ticket holders. This event is not what most Americans would normally expect from a Tailgate experience, they probably being used to its stadium car parks full of home town fans and their smoke billowing barbecues. Instead it is an official NFL run event with an array of attractions such as exhibitions, hands on games, NFL related entertainment , live music and past stars usually from the competing teams . In turn there are a number of beer tents, food outlets and merchandise stands spread around the large site designated to the event. The gates usually open at 11am and the numbers who attend are vast, demonstrated by the large queues at most of the attractions. There is a great atmosphere however with fans of all 32 NFL teams in attendance, a colourful spectacle of AFC,NFC, Collegiate, European and British team shirts on display all mingling together.

 



 

The game atmosphere itself is very different to a normal regular season match up, the International Series games so far have generally tended to have the so called away team having the biggest support . Therefore, despite attempts to rally the fans to back the home there does seem a “ Superbowl game” atmosphere where a large number of the crowd just want to see a close, well fought , skillful game with little sign of the fervent partisan behaviour shown when their own team is playing. However, this doesn’t distract from what is a wonderful spectacle played in a well equipped modern stadium in front of a 80,000 plus crowd who are full of excitement and anticipation.
 

Whatever the rights and wrongs are of Roger Goodell's International Series ambitions, the interest in the NFL within the UK as grown substantially since the introduction of the regular game experiment, now an annual event with ticket sales taking off as soon as they are released. With the UK fans knowledge of the game increasing ten fold and the interest in American Football widening across all age groups it seems inevitable the International Series will continue. Although my sympathies do lie with the American fans whose team loses a home game each year, the occasion does give them an opportunity to visit the great city of London and see a very different take on their beloved game.

    

Lanzarote ....The roads to nowhere

“Try this turn” suggested my son.....…On a daily basis when we wanted to explore more of Lanzarote we had needed to drive through the busy town of Playa Blanca in order to head north to the other attractions the islands offered. My sons advice seemed to make sense, there were a number of side roads that suggested they would link up with the main road in the distance which would allow us to by pass the traffic laden journey through the town itself.

 

Initially it seemed a good idea, wide modern roads heading past numerous complexes of Lanzarote’s traditional white building as per Cesar Manriques stipulations, with the main road which would lead us to Puerto Del Carmen ahead of us in the distance. We hadn’t noticed that these houses were empty but we did see the large boulders we were approaching placed to signify that the road went no further. The tarmaced surface just stopped, leaving us looking out at a view of open dusty ground with our destination agonisingly close but yet so far out of reach. Having turned round and attempted other roads in the near vicinity it seemed that our idea had come to a dead end as all the other roads were blocked by these large rocks too, as if one day the workers had got bored and just gave up on the route in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

It was a surreal experience, look straight ahead and there was nothing but dust, dirt and rocks but turn around and there was the infrastructure of a small town, roads, road signs, street lighting, houses, the only thing missing was inhabitants. In some parts of the area although no houses had been built in these sections, there were roads aplenty even with pedestrian crossings and car parks able to house up to 50 cars. This was strange considering there was no buildings within walking distance for any one to have the requirement to park there. Weeds 3-4 feet high were growing in the gutters of the roads, signifying that these through fares had been there for a while but seldom visited.

 

 

 

We decided to go back and take a look near the properties we had passed, there were hundreds of them, from a distance looking beautiful with their white washed walls and

simple "Manrique" architecture in the shadows of the Los Ajaches Mountain range. It was only as we approached nearer that we could see they were boarded up with rubble strewn across the tiled patios.  
Instead of happy children splashing around in the water, the pools were empty apart from rubbish and debris that had blown in there. This was certainly a case of the dream life which had turned into a nightmare situation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile sale offices were locked up, their windows full of pictures of what this place should be like, happy families soaking up the sun in their idyllic homes. This certainly seemed a case of the Planners dream going wrong. However, just like the Planners dreams, the photos were fading, the bright sunlight taking its toil on the images, gradually becoming a distant memory of what the community could have been. In one part  of the scheme there were a number of unfinished houses, building equipment still in place, as if ready for the next day but the operatives never returned.

 

Close by we came across parked cars, which judging by the dusty state of them seemed to have been there an age and had just been abandoned. In some cases windows and doors were open as if the drivers had fled some impending doom. There was an eerie atmosphere, each gust of wind breaking the silence as strange noises were emitted from within the empty properties. Creaks, squeaks and bumps echoing through the barren passageways led to an uneasy feeling as if we were being watched by some post apocalyptic tribe.....watching too many futuristic disaster movies seeming to play overtime in my mind. It was time to leave and return to the normality of a seafront bar with views of the island of Fuerteventura in the distance.  

 

 

 

 

Back at the idyllic harbour resort of Marino Rubicon, I asked a couple of local waiters about the area, the story seemed conflicting. One claimed that the project was abandoned due to the poor sales of the units, whilst another explained the authorities had withdrawn planning permission due to the failure to adhere to Cesar Manriques guidelines on the setting up of residential areas.     

 

It is hard to imagine that a deserted area like this could literally be a 5 minute drive away from the tourist resort of Playa Blanca and it's hive of activity, a sharp contrast to the Domesday type scenario witnessed. However with its infrastructure still pretty much in place perhaps there is a chance that one day this area will serve the purpose it was built for, allowing families to make the most of the many superb attractions this Southern coastal region offers. 

Tavistock Square...London's Peace Park

London is renowned for its gardens and parks but some are rarely seen due to their location being well away from the normal tourist tracks. Within the streets away from the main thoroughfares are large numbers of these green areas offering relaxing refuge from the daily hustle and bustle that a large city of this kind thrives on.

It was during a recent trip to London that I came across Tavistock Square in the Bloomsbury area of the capital. With time on my hands I entered and sat on one of the many benches there and just watched the world go by.

It was extremely peaceful, a quietness in the air despite the heavy traffic on the four roads surrounding the small park. It was obviously a popular spot for rest and reflection judging by the number of people quietly sitting there with the benches all around the park being occupied.


The atmosphere reminded me of a library, a hushed and respectful silence being observed by all visitors, quite fitting considering the Bloomsbury areas role in literacy history. For part of the Mid Nineteenth century Charles Dickens lived in Tavistock House facing the park and it was here that classics such as Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities were wrote. Although the house is no longer there, a blue plague signifying the fact can be found on the front of the British Medical Associations building.



The "Bloomsbury Set", a group of Cambridge intellectuals, artists and writers, also played a part in the establishing the areas literacy heritage. Virginia Woolf was considered one of the most eccentric members of the group and wrote most of her best works whilst living at 52 Tavistock Square. Within the park itself there is a bust of the infamous authoress albeit perhaps not the most flattering example of her beauty.




The centre piece of the park is a magnificent statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the legendary leader of the Indian Independence movement. Gandhi's successful policy of peaceful protest is emphasised in the statue with his seated posture giving off a calming influence. This is enhanced further by the burning candles, messages of love and offerings beneath. It is more than correct to say this is a "Brilliant" statue...being the work of artist Fredda Brilliant, unveiled in 1968.

The parks message of  "Peace" is further evidenced by a large stone serving as a memorial to Conscientious Objectors who have given their lives over the years by refusing to be forced to participate in wars they do not believe in. A relatively recent memorial, being placed there in 1994, the plague carries the following message "to all those who established and maintaining the right to refuse to kill, their foresight and courage give us hope". A powerful statement demonstrating how the peace and anti-war movement has developed during the late twentieth century.


Also within the park is a Cherry Tree planted in 1967 to commemorate the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A memorial plaque provides a place for people to visit and pay their respects, an activity evidenced by the messages left round the trunk of the tree. The park is the site of a annual gathering by the CND movement on the anniversary of the bombing to promote their message of peace around the world.

Ironically, despite all the signs of peace promoted here, the park bore witness to the horrific 7/7 terrorist attacks back in 2005 when an explosion on a double decker bus passing the site killed 13 innocent victims. A commemorative plague on the railings facing the park lists the names of those who lost their lives.

Many of these public squares are missed by the everyday tourist but each one will have it's own stories to be told, they are certainly worth including on any visits to London.  Tavistock Square in particular provides a peaceful environment to stop and reflect and although it may not have the prettiest gardens in the world it's serenity can make the world look a lot nicer place.

Lanzarote.....The Macabre garden of Teguise

The convoy stretched out both in front and behind of us, a long line of rental cars all crawling along the seemingly never ending straight road with Lanzarotes barren but yet beautiful landscape either side of us. Like a posse of explorers searching for gold, all heading for the promised land where they had heard of the treasures that the tourist guides had promised there. The pot at the end of this rainbow was the tourist orientated market (Mercadillo) held weekly in the town of Teguise in the north of the island. Billed as one of the biggest events on the island, the market held every Sunday morning attracted thousands of visitors and is a big part of the excursion trips running from the major coastal resorts.

As we approached the town itself, an array of locals were frantically waving, as if they were signalmen guiding a taxiing plane into its gate. Some were waving to the left, others to the right all offering you a precious parking space as the market took over their town. Our space meant we had quite a long uphill walk up towards the quaint streets and town square which housed the stalls, however it led us to find a surreal visual experience that I'm glad we didn't miss. As we trudged up the steep hill past one of the houses we had to double take at the sights in front of us, others stopping too with mouths dropping open at the extraordinary exhibits in the large garden area.

There was so much to take in, a total visionary overload that i dread to think what would happen to your mind if you had just taken drugs before coming across it. In the garden were an array of stone sculptures of various sizes, most showing body parts of the kind we normally cover up. It's fair to say these sculptures would not be in line to win any awards for their artistic content but they were intriguing none the less.






For me the strange and macabre element of the gardens occupants were the weather beaten cuddly toys together with broken mannequins and baby dolls strategically placed around the area. Some sitting at broken computer monitors, others riding rusting bikes and some chained to trees amongst other
things.

To add to the scenario the owner of the property was sat on his porch with a big grin on his face taking in all the commotion of the tourists at the edge of his garden perimeter clicking merrily away with their cameras. He undoubtedly sees this as a totally innocent fun visual experience put on for the Tegusie visitors, however there was something unnerving about the place for me. Probably the result of watching too many American horror movies where the fun loving car load of college students breakdown and the only property in the area would contain strange elements such as those on show here.

Despite my reservations it is definitely worth stopping off here for some great unusual photo opportunity's however perhaps its best on a bright sun drenched market day rather than a deserted moonlit night when I'm sure it could be a more disconcerting experience.   




As for the market itself, it is certainly worth taking in a visit if you want to escape the beach for a day and is extremely popular as the large crowds roaming round the the stalls demonstrates. There are a massive number of vendors selling local handmade crafts,locally sourced produce such as wine and the obligatory stalls on tourist markets of this kind selling "designer" goods. Comically I saw one African stall holder selling items such as Chanel bags, Tag Heuer watches and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses telling a potential customer with all sincerity "look sir, they are genuine copies".

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