It’s the light. You can feel it, you can see it, you can almost smell it, and if you pass a lavender farm, you know you’re in Provence -...

Sweet Raspberries, Whipped Cream flavoured with Honey and Whisky and toasted Oatmeal – what could be more yummy – a gourmet dessert....

And now, for a complete change of ‘pace’, we decided to walk several sections of Scotland’s Fife Coastal Path, since Vicky is from...

What? The inspiration for the elvish city of Rivendell in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit? If you have seen the movie or read the book (perhaps...

If you have read the story about Tuscany in the Travel section, you will recall the pici pasta and meat sauce that I raved over – so...

Ah, Tuscany… vineyards, olive groves, hill-top towns, Florence, pizza, Sienna, pasta, Volterra, la bella vita… we came for all of this…...

z So, did you know that Salzburg became wealthy because of one indispensable and highly prized item in the Middle Ages and well before...

Wiener Schnitzel is one of Austria's most traditional and representative dishes. The story goes that a gourmand Austrian field marshal,...

Cortijera Soup is an exceptional recipe for when autumn arrives and it starts to get cold. A stick-to-the-ribs kind of traditional...

Sure, sure, sun, sand, surf…any more s’s? Oh yes, beaches aplenty, and you can laze around if that’s your wish, but you could do that in...

Gulyásleves originates from a dish cooked by the cattlemen (Hungarian: gulya = cattle herd, gulyás = cattle herder), who tended their...

Largest thermal spa lake in Europe The first reaction to Lake Héviz that I recall was from my grand-daughter, Maddie, who asked: “Grampa,...

Most people go to the Mayan Riviera for sun, sand and surf… for those who wish for unspoiled beaches, beautiful lagoons with great...

A couple of stories back, I wrote about our trip to the Cinque Terre in Italy. Well, it was in our B&B that we had the most delicious...

OK, so they are not so long as The West Highland Way nor Shakespeare’s Way, but the views are outstanding. Last stop before Italy is the...

What an amazing, unique place - Palm Desert - makes you wonder who thought it would be a good idea to build a town here. Like Phoenix, it...

OK, so you’ve decided to put off visiting the Amalfi Coast, too expensive, and you have decided to come to Tuscany instead, for the wine,...

You’ll remember this dish from our wonderful lunch at a small Normandy village restaurant: Le Lion d’Or. This picture features duck...

Tales of hauntings are all too common in the British Isles, and none more so than in Scotland. We have been around Scotland several times...

We had just left Le Lion d’Or having had an absolutely delicious, and completely unexpected four-course gourmet lunch. The starter was...