The donkey snorted and stamped its hooves. A flag flapped and snapped in the brisk breeze. In the valley below a goat bleated and a large bird cried out as it wheeled away into the distance. Surrounded by craggy mountains, the late afternoon sun glimmered through the heat and the...

The House of Hannover Hannoverian Kings of Great Britain and Sophia Electress of Hanover   If you’re British you’ll probably know about the House of Hannover (German: Hanover) from school history lessons or elsewhere but, if you’re like me, you may only have a vague notion of why and how we...

Bear Watching from boat Knight Inlet “Do you have any food on you? Chocolate, chewing gum, sweets? Please make sure you don’t have anything edible; bears have a very strong sense of smell.” We looked at each other in slight trepidation and patted our pockets to make sure we weren’t...

One of the most vibrantly laid-back cities in the world, Vancouver, the urban heart of British Columbia, has it all. Lively waterfront, beautiful skyscrapers, chatty cafe society, eclectic cuisine with plenty of funky places to eat and drink, quirky outdoor art, enormous park, fascinating museums and very friendly people. I’ve...

The moon gazes down into a darkness full of ghostly figures with hooked beaks, outstretched wings, fierce faces and threatening demeanour. Beneath the moon is a woman with vacant eyes clasping a head to her stomach; there is an air of warning and unknown forces at work here … It’s...

When you finally achieve a life-long ambition, there is the danger that it will not live up to expectations. Dreams become reality and illusions take on a definite shape and form that may not be one you want to see. So finally visiting Ecuador had an element of risk, having...

Historic Dundee on the Firth of Tay on the east coast of Scotland is having a renaissance after a tough period of change. I’d only been to Dundee once before, in the 1990s, so when Visit Scotland invited me to return as part of Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink,...