‘We'll always have Paris’ – true not only for Rick and Ilsa (in Casablanca) but also for me and my husband. We spent our honeymoon there; I’ve celebrated several significant birthdays there; and with a short journey by train on the Eurostar, it is the easiest European city for us to visit.
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I have been fortunate to have seen many different animals in the wild, or in ethical preservation projects. When asked to name my favourite I am always torn between elephants and the various big cats. Usually my answer is whichever I have seen most recently, as it's impossible for me to choose!
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On the outskirts of Nairobi is a very special place, where orphaned baby elephants find safety and refuge. As an elephant lover I was charmed by the residents and inspired by those who care for them here.
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We travel to see things we cannot see at home: different cultures, different landscapes, different wildlife. It’s easy to think that because we share a common language, Britons visiting the US might find it too much like home. But I've never found it so.
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Fadiouth is an island village, and a rather unique one. It is also known as Shell Island, and the reason for this is pretty obvious; it is built on layers and layers of shells. These have accumulated over the centuries as the locals subsisted on cockle fishing in the shallows of the mangrove lagoons and simply discarded the shells, or used them as building materials.
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As one of the rainiest places in the US, the Olympic Peninsula coast is notorious for bad weather. So we counted ourselves fortunate to experience slightly damp but by no means unpleasant conditions.
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Japanese gardens are not beautiful by accident. Every detail is carefully considered, every plant and rock precisely placed. And the result is often stunning. It was in Kyoto that I really came to appreciate the nuances of Japanese garden design.
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The road wound up and up, at first tarmac, later gravel. If it weren’t for the few scrubby bushes we might almost have been on the moon, the landscape was so barren and rocky. It was hard to believe that this road led anywhere at all ...
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Our arrival at Wonsan’s International Airport delivered another of those surreal ‘only in North Korea’ experiences; a glitzy but surreally empty new airport, built for international flights that never come!
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The former leaders of North Korea have almost mythological status in the country: the Eternal President and Great Leader Kim Il Sung, and his son, the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. As such, their birthplaces have become pilgrimage sites for their adoring people, and compulsory stops for visitors to the country.
