Art Gallery
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Taste Toronto: Exploring Chinatown and Kensington Market’s Best Eats
Food tour of Chinatown and Kensington Market What better way to explore Toronto’s Chinatown and Kensington Market districts than by joining one of Culinary Adventures award winning food tours. We were advised to come along hungry so we restrained ourselves at breakfast in readiness for meeting up with our tour guide Morgan at 11.00 a.m.…
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What to See and Do in Margate, Kent: A Visitor’s Travel Guide
Margate: Margate is the largest of the three towns in East Kent comprising the Isle of Thanet. It’s a popular seaside resort that became fashionable during the 19th century and this is still evidenced today by its splendid Georgian seafront terraces. The resort’s hey day continued with the arrival of the railway bringing hordes of…
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Exploring Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood: A Complete Travel Guide
San Francisco had been fun and the time had now come to embark on the second part of our Californian holiday. We’d booked tickets with Southwest for the short (50 minute) flight down to Los Angeles. It was our first time travelling with this low cost airline who include checked bags in their ticket prices…
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Helsinki Biennial 2023 – Vallisaari Island
The second biennial arranged by Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) took place between June-September this year with its main venue being on Vallisaari Island. I didn’t have an opportunity to attend the inaugural exhibition so I looked forward to being in Finland when the second one was happening. The Biennial is divided between Vallisaari and Helsinki…
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Caracalla Spa, Baden-Baden: A Complete Guide to Germany’s Famous Thermal Baths
We were blessed with sunshine once again on our final day in south west Germany and what better way to end our trip than with a visit to the stunning Caracalla Spa in the centre of Baden-Baden. The town’s Roman Baths date all the way back to the first century when the Roman emperor Caracalla…
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How to Spend a Day in Wrocław: Hydropolis and the Panorama Rotunda
The final day of our lovely visit to Wrocław had come around all too soon but with our flight home not scheduled until the evening, we had almost a full day to continue enjoying this wonderful city. After setting ourselves up for the day with a hearty buffet breakfast at the Ibis Styles Wrocław Centrum…
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Top Things to Do in Mechelen, Belgium in Just 2 Days
Mechelen is one of Flanders art cities and a hidden gem located midway between Brussels and Antwerp. We travelled there by train from Leuven, taking just 30 minutes, with Brussels even closer at 15 minutes for easy onward connections to Eurostar or flights from Brussels airport. The perfect two day itinerary Day 1: We’d arranged…
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A Guide to Exploring Bath and the Jane Austen Centre
After a leisurely breakfast our day began with a visit to the Bath World Heritage Centre on York Street. The centre is free to visit and features interactive exhibits and displays. UNESCO added Bath as a cultural site to its World Heritage list in 1987 and from reading an information board we learnt that it had…
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A Guide to Bath’s Hidden Gems and Lesser-Known Attractions
After sleeping soundly in our lovely room at the Hotel Indigo Bath we popped downstairs to start the day by tucking into a delicious buffet breakfast in the attractive Elder restaurant. Ready to go after a couple of cappuccinos we ventured south east of the town to visit the American Museum and Gardens (standard adult admission £14.50,…
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Exploring Spitalfields Market and Shoreditch: London’s Trendy Hotspots
Our day started with a visit to Spitalfields Market and on the way there we stopped to take a look at one of the 13 cast iron statues marking the boundaries of the City of London. The dragon symbol is thought to have been derived from the legend of St. George. Moving on we soon…
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A Day Out in The Wirral: Port Sunlight and The Ness Gardens
After starting the day with a brisk walk along the seafront at Hoylake, we popped back into the car and headed to Ness Botanic Gardens located in Neston, Cheshire. The gardens are open daily from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. with standard admission £8.25. The gardens were founded in 1898 by Arthur Kilpin Bulley, a Liverpool…
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Explore the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – Scotland’s Premier Botanical Attraction
All good things have to come to an end and before we knew it, we had reached the final day of our Scottish holiday. Our train home wasn’t until 6.30 p.m. though so we had the entire day to explore Edinburgh. After checking out of the lovely Altido Vita aparthotel and leaving our luggage to…
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How to Spend a Perfect Day in Newcastle
To complete our weekend break in Durham we decided to spend our final day in Newcastle. Trains run frequently between the two cities taking just 15 minutes, with standard off-peak adult returns £7.90. As it was a Sunday we were able to travel on any service so we arrived into Newcastle station bright and early…
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What to Do in Manchester on a Rainy Day: The Ultimate Guide
It was a dreary, damp morning as we made our way to the station for our weekend in Manchester. Conditions were no better on our arrival and as there seemed little likelihood of the rain easing we decided to spend as much of the day as possible indoors. We were more than happy to be…
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Discover Morningside, Edinburgh
Although our hotel room was lovely and quiet there was no need to set an alarm as each morning we were roused from our slumbers at 8.00 a.m. sharp to the clattering sounds of a glass recycling truck emptying bins along the road. With so many nice things we wanted to fit into our Edinburgh…
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A Day in Hull: Explore Maritime History and the Iconic Humber Bridge
It was yet another bright, sunny morning as we enjoyed a final relaxing breakfast overlooking Hull’s marina, if only each day could start like this! Having set ourselves up for the day with freshly prepared smoothies and full English breakfasts we gathered our things together and checked out of our room, leaving our bags to…
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Nottingham – a perfect weekend break
Nottingham is often referred to as the ‘Queen of the East Midlands’ because the English kings held court there when they went hunting in its surrounding forests. It’s also famous for the legendary Robin Hood so we thought it was about time that we explored the city for ourselves. Nottingham is easily accessible from all…
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The Ultimate Guide to Spending a Weekend in Cambridge
We had arrived in Cambridge by train the previous evening and checked into the nearby Cambridge Central Travelodge a short stroll away. The hotel overlooks the central plaza of the Cambridge Leisure Park where there are several places to eat, plus two small supermarkets meaning that we didn’t need to venture into the centre that…
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How to spend a day in Sheffield
It’s been at least 15 years since I last visited Sheffield so it was time to return to see how the city centre has changed. We travelled by train arriving into Sheffield station late morning. The concourse seemed bright and airy leading out onto Sheaf Square, a pedestrianised plaza featuring a cascading water wall and…
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Exploring London’s Hidden Gems: The Faraday Museum & The Wallace Collection at Hertford House
A much brighter morning and gladly somewhat milder than yesterday. After taking a train to Victoria from Clapham Junction, the country’s busiest railway station we rode the Underground one stop to Green Park as we wished to visit the Royal Institution on Albemarle Street, just off Piccadilly. In the basement of the Royal Institution you…
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Salford Quays & MediaCityUK Day Guide – What to See, Eat & Do
Salford Quays, Greater Manchester’s waterfront destination is situated just a 15 minute tram ride away from the centre of Manchester, our destination today. An adult return from Piccadilly costs £3 see Metrolink for details and passengers need to take the Eccles line for MediaCityUK. If you are planning on travelling by car there is a large car…
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Edinburgh Christmas
Our final morning in lovely Edinburgh and the time has sped by so quickly. we’ve had so much fun. After checking out of our hotel, the Queen Street Travelodge, we left our luggage to collect later in the day and went off to a nearby pub for breakfast. A little later on, we returned to…
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Top Attractions to Visit in Greenwich and Along the Thames
We woke to clear blue skies and sunshine but needed to wrap up warm on this November morning. After checking out of our Travelodge, we left our luggage and made our way to Greenwich taking the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) from Canary Wharf. Please remember if using the DLR that there are no ticket barriers…
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Walking along the Thames at Richmond
We decided to try breakfast in the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to find the Travelodge offerings to be much better than we were expecting. So, feeling nourished, we boarded a main line train from Vauxhall to Richmond, approximately 20 minutes away. As mentioned previously, it’s possible to use Oyster cards on shorter main line…