When it comes to city breaks, Yolanda Zappaterra knows her onions. A features writer for Time Out and regular contributor to their travel guides, here she offers an overview of what to do in the Dutch capital over the summer…
The swallows and I were competing for the pool; they kept diving in front of…
“This is the sacred hollows of The Sloane Club, an oasis of civility tucked amongst the hubris of commercial Chelsea.”
“So our esteemed managing editor, Toby, throws me a curve ball knowing I will not be able to resist: a short but luxurious Venice weekend to launch a new upmarket cruise ship.”
“It may well be that the northern Portuguese are uniquely equipped to withstand the rigours of the economic crisis. It’s perhaps due in part to their nature, more placid and patient than many of their neighbours.”
“The No5 tram pulled round the corner, sending a few loitering pigeons into the grey sky. I was somewhere close to Rembrandtpark to the west of central Amsterdam, looking for the towering Ramada Apollo hotel.”
“The time is around 10.30am, but rather than coffee, I brought a bottle of champagne: Möet – Vintage 1966 – which we’ve dispatched, so we’re in rather high spirits.”
“I don’t need to check your tickets, do I?” the inspector beams, before guffawing, as he enters the swanky Pullman Dining Carriage…
“It doesn’t look like much beneath the wing of the plane. A sand coloured, shrubless land and a low, pale sky, not exactly tourist board porn; if anything it looks like a biblical landscape, Old Testament.”
Harry ventures to Ventnor, wife and toddler in tow, taking in the annual Fringe and Film Festival, late summer swims and traditional tea rooms as he goes…
I met a traveller from an antique land who said, somewhat to my surprise, ‘Have you been to Shrewsbury?’ To be honest, I’d never really thought about it…
Our next port of call, literally, was to be Mykonos. And here was a taste of the infamous island hopping so inclined by itinerants, backpackers and lunatics.