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Ambleside, Cumbria, United Kingdom There is a problem with the Lake District, Ambleside especially, despite the region’s beauty and popularity. It is, after all, a World Heritage Site. The snag is that you feel you must be a walker. Around you are 16 lakes, 150 peaks and more than half-a-million acres of national park. With 3203 kilometres of footpath weaving here and there, it is no wonder that so many of the park’s 20 million annual visitors feel they must be clad as professional mountaineers. It is why I was puzzled when[...]

Eyam, Derbyshire, United Kingdom When Covid-19 finishes, if it ever does, my first stop will be the UK’s Peak District. It may have been England’s first National Park, it may have been where freedom to roam was created in 1932, but it was also where the most perfect example of quarantine and self-sacrifice was created. That was more than 350 years ago. The village was Eyam, the year 1665, and a damp bundle of cloth had arrived from London for the local tailor. It was late August, the time for Eyam Wakes[...]

London, United Kingdom If I was a virus called Covid-19, I would look no further than London’s Oxford Street. As mankind dashes left and right, focussed on a busy day, I can infect anyone I choose. Man, woman, young or old, makes no difference. All I need is the human lung. Once there I am in my element. But I am no virus, I am a surgeon, and spend my life practising what is called aseptic technique. It is my job to reduce the chances of infecting my patients and, for that[...]

Staithes, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom On the face of it, Staithes should be wonderful, an ideal visitor’s location. A fishing village tucked away on the North Sea coast, at the topmost tip of the North Yorkshire Moors. Beautiful colours, seagulls crying, a sheltered harbour, haphazardly stacked lobster pots, and the distant chug-chug of a vessel’s engine. Tiny Staithes, with its population of barely 1200, is another word for relaxation, somewhere it is difficult to feel stress. This is the home of the coble fishing boat, the Staithes bonnet for ladies, serious art[...]

Tripoli, Lebanon Let me be clear. I do not strip naked for anyone, generally only a select few. So, to be told to disrobe in full view of others, my modesty protected by a lookalike beach towel held by an Arab, was not something I had expected. It was Tripoli, northern Lebanon, and I had decided to visit its one functioning hammam. Before I entered, I thought hammams were designed for washing. By the time I left I realised they were a life experience. The Hammam Al Abd is tucked away at[...]

Taormina, Sicily, Italy I have lost count how often I have tried to take the perfect sunrise photograph. Or, for that matter, sunset. It is why I am sitting on a rickety plastic chair, on a roof of a rectangular apartment block, slightly west of the Sicilian town of Taormina. It is also why, at 4 a.m. as my watch shows, I am feeling stupid for not realising that sunrise is still an hour away. That could have been longer in bed. The sharp silhouette of a smoking Mount Etna forms the[...]