Once again it may appear that all M. and I do is consume large amounts of alcohol when we go away for the weekend. So besides visiting Swhisky, what else can you do in the region of Ardon and where can you stay to get to it all?

PLACE TO STAY:

La Petite Cigale

This Bed ‘n’ Breakfast has earned every one of its four stars. Rarely have I stayed somewhere where the owners have paid such close attention to…

Visitors associate Switzerland with whisky, about as easily as they would Italy with poppadums. But one small enterprise, is now putting Swiss whisky or ‘Swhisky’ on the international map.…

1. Pretend you’re Tattoo from Fantasy Island and yell, “Da plane! Da Plane!” everytime you see one…

… And then when you do, take some time to admire it! Some of Europe’s bridges may not be able to compete with the likes of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but what they lack in size they make up for in charm and character. Here are some that I believe deserve to be mentioned.

The ‘Devil’s Bridge’…

©MRandin

As we drove through the winding roads, following the coast line all the way to Portofino, I had to say that the Italian Riviera lives up to its reputation.

Suddenly, the pace of life slows down and the glamour factor moves up…

Well you start doing this…..

(©MRandin)

Continue reading on…

Someone remarked the other day, that our travel agenda is often dictated by the quality of wine on offer. I would just like to say that our weekends away are as cultural as they are ’spiritual’. And just to prove it, here’s a travel post on things you can do in the Piedmont region of Italy, aside from wine tasting. But first, here’s where you can stay to get to it all.

Amalia Cascina is…

An interesting façade don't you think? (©MRandin)

M. and I happened upon this shop in the sleepy town of Barolo, exactly the kind that tickles my fancy, but not that of M.’s.…

I’ve been blogging about Dubai for over a month now and today will be my last post on the city.

As we went around, I tried to remember how things were so that I could describe the changes to M.

In 20 years time, it may be harder to see the evolution. So M. decided to preserve a few shots of Dubai in 2010 to make the comparison easier!…

In the town of Barolo in the Piedmont region of Italy (©MRandin)

In his novel Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts wrote that “The Indians are the Italians of Asia”.

At first I thought that Roberts’ words were a liberal stretch of the imagination. But after…

The golden horses of Madinat Jumeirah (© MRandin)

Dubai is good at hotels and shopping malls. And Madinat Jumeirah brings together both.

According to Wikipedia,…

…what’s there to do?

You can swim with the sharks or ice skate… at the Dubai Mall

When you’ve got such a high concentration of shopping malls in one country it’s good for business to do something “different” to attract the crowds.

Cue giant aquarium at the Dubai Mall.…

Aside from driving around in an air conditioned car and spending time in a cool shopping mall, you could also try… skiing.

The entrance to Ski Dubai at the Mall of the Emirates. (© MRandin)

Continue reading on…

1. Everyone still works with landmarks even though there are street names

(©MRandin)

In the 1980s, Dubai was the epitome of the U2 hit, “Where the streets have no name”. Instead, directions were given using landmarks, which were sometimes as…

Someone decides to put “miracle grow” on the buildings

At one time, the Dubai World Trade Centre, with its 39 floors, was the tallest building in the city.

Image Credit: Gulf News Archive…

My family and I moved to Canada from Dubai in 1997. At that time Dubai was a not-so-talked-about dot on the map, vaguely located “near Saudi Arabia”, for many people. Some people even wondered if we went to school on camels or had to hunt for our food. When my brother once told someone he grew up in Dubai, that person’s reply was “To buy what?”

Continue…

The Burj Al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Copyright: MRandin)

Want an honest description of the Burj Al Arab? Here’s one by Sam Wollaston of The Guardian who described it as “fabulous, hideous, and the very pinnacle of tackiness – like Vegas after a serious, no-expense-spared, sheik-over.”…