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One of my favourite walks by the Thames is from Southwark Cathedral. Famous Borough Market is nearby. I get the train to London Bridge, then walk down past Southwark Cathedral, round to the left past a replica of Sir Francis Drake's Tudor Galleon Golden Hind walking along Clink Street home of the Clink Gaol. Which gives us our colloquial term for prison: clink.
Moving along into Bankside we have the historic Anchor Pub, 34 Bankside, Southwark, LONDON SE1 9EF. Here in 1666 Samuel Pepys witnessed the Great Fire of London in 1666: "a little alehouse on bankside... and there watched the fire grow." The Anchor was rebuilt in 1676 after fire devastated the area.
One bar is named after Dr Johnson, (Samuel Johnson's Dictionary) who drank here regularly. A copy of his dictionary is on display. Then we wander past Sam Wanamaker's newly reconstructed Globe Theatre, a wonderful way to see Shakespeare in the round, plein air!
Then you come to the Tate Modern, stop for lunch or a coffee, then pop over to St Pauls Cathedral on the other side of the Thames linked by the wonderful Millennium Bridge, a footbridge. Come back over and wander on past the Oxo tower...
Eventually your walk ends by the wonderful London Eye, great at dusk with the lights twinkling into view, great view of the Houses of Parliament. Next door is Saatchi's Gallery (for the next two years anyway). By this time you will be knackered.
London Bridge Station
This is one of the last and (in my opinion) one of the best traditional Dublin pubs. Tucked away down an alley off Dame Street, it is characterised by dim lighting and pints of excellent Guinness lined up along the bar. It does food (of the traditional variety), there's a good crowd and it has a small snug but you have to get there early to get a seat.
Dame Court, off Dame Street
A great old fashioned pub with a great restaurant at the rear. A small bar but seats outside in the summer and decent real ale.
Cross Street, Manchester M2 7AR
0161 832 2245
www.tomschophouse.com
An excellent institution, which sometimes confuses European visitors. The acronym means "bring your own", i.e. alcohol when you dine at a restaurant.
Formerly almost ubiquitous, the practice is becoming less common - some say even dying out - no doubt to the pleasure of many Sydney restaurateurs.
It makes dining far more affordable than when you have to include the restaurant's alcohol mark-up, which is usually greater than on anything else you consume.
It also means you can occasionally splash out on a very nice bottle - of Hunter Valley Semillon, say - to accompany a spread of Sydney seafood without worrying about your starving bank account.
BYO is more common at medium range and casual restaurants.
Like entering your grandmother’s front room, if your grandmother was a crotchety, curmudgeonly old man who was inclined to throw people out for using mobile phones (fair enough) or giving “looks” (a bit harsher), but who on the plus side serves up a great pint of stout and stubbornly refuses to enter “modern” Ireland. An island in a sea of change, the Hi-B is a haven (provided your phone is off).
Location: Corner of Oliver Plunkett Street and Winthrop Street, upstairs.
Telephone: (353-21) 4272758.
Unique triangular shaped pub dressed in garish green tiles. This pub is an insitution in Manchester. Three contrasting rooms surround a central bar area from which great Guinness and fine ales are dispensed. This pub has a local feel for a city centre pub with the usual suspects propping up the bar and passing trade all getting along famously.
Great Bridgewater Street, close to Oxford Road and Deansgate stations.
Bar that serves food upstairs, with a restaurant for more refined dining downstairs. Excellent fresh seafood as well as a wide range of other meals made with locally sourced produce, friendly helpfull staff. Good value upstairs, worth the extra for the more special but unintimidating experience downstairs. The name is a Scots word meaning to wander.
Gibson street, round the corner from Kelvin bridge underground (exit on the right instead of taking the elevator to Gt Western road, follow the river as it flows towards the bridge that carries Gibson street over it, turn R after taking the stairs up to the bridge).
Bar and restaurant.
Converted Catholic church in the city centre, all the features have been kept including the 300-year-old stained glass windows. Hundreds of candles adorn the building - it is beautiful.
Seel Street, Liverpool. Just accross the way from FACT
Friendly city centre bar, good beers and wine, decent food in the early evening.
Thomas Street, Northern Quarter
Tel: 0161 833 0070
Bratislava's Old Town centre is completely pedestrianised and has wall-to-wall bars, restaurants, cafes and clubs.
It has a much more relaxed, easy-going and friendly ambience than many other European capitals and, because there are no cars, you can try all the superb Slovak beers, wines and fiery spirits, tottering from one bar to another without fear of being mown down by a Skoda in a hurry.
Highly recommended for gourmets and bon-viveurs everywhere.
Bratislava Old Town
Tram 13 from the main railway station
Bus 61 from Bratislava's M R Stefanik airport.
Only 64km from Vienna
Nestling at the bottom of Arthur's Seat, in Duddingston, this pub is the perfect antidote to the hustle of Edinburgh's city centre - especially at this time of year. In its long history, it counts Bonnie Prince Charlie and Mary Queen of Scots among its visitors and is a real, proper Edinburgh institution. Off the beaten track, perhaps, but as close to a country pub you get in the city.
43-45 Causeway
Edinburgh, EH15 3QA
0131 656 6951
Posssibly one of the best spots in Europe for a night out. Take the elevator up the hill to the Bairro Alto and wander through the lanes of bars, fado houses and clubs - fantastic on a weekend night when hundreds of people congregate on the streets drinking mojitos and cheap beer out of plastic cups, listening to music from samba to African rhythms. Don't expect to get home before four, or sober!
Walk through a small doorway in the city walls and you come out onto an amazing bar set into the rocks on mutliple levels, overlooking the sea. You get waves crashing in front of you, and the city wall rises behind you. Stay for a glass of wine or local beer at sunset, and the only noise you'll hear is some quiet chatter, the waves crashing below, birds squawking as they play above your head, and some Sinatra or similar playing quietly in the background. When it gets dark, the waitress brings out candles for all the tables.
It's all very basic, with plastic cups and chemical toilets, but it's so worth it for the view and the atmosphere.
There's two Buzas (the name means 'hole in the wall', I think) but Buza 1 seemed to be closed when we were there.
Follow the city walls around at the very south of the old town on Od Margarite. Look out for a doorway in the wall, with a wooden sign saying 'Cold Drinks'.
www.dujoy.com/default.asp?mode=locator&idLocation=415
Tiny little bar in converted public toilets. Dark and full of atmosphere. Wide range of bottled world beers.
Great Bridgewater Street
M1 5JW, Manchester, Just off Oxford Street
A modern-version of an old-fashioned boozer with a good choice of real ale. Just across the road from Deansgate train station. Excellent food as well.
374 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4LY
Microbrewery and bar in a huge converted boat shed on the Fishing Boat Harbour in Fremantle – you can sit and drink their Pale Ale while you watch it being made. Also has a restaurant and a harbourside terrace.
40 Mews Road, Fremantle;
tel: (618) 9430 5555;
open: 10am–midnight every day;
www.littlecreatures.com.au
Google map: tinyurl.com/knsn6j
No matter how little time you have for visiting Istanbul, you have to take a boat trip along the Bosphorus. All boats zigzag the Bosporus stopping alternately at a European and an Asian port. The best time to take the boat is on a warm summer’s evening so that you get to see the sunset and, if lucky, full moon over the city.
There is a public service ferry that does the full length or privately run boats that also offer shorter routes
A Mexican bar/restaurant found on Broughton Street. The food is pretty basic fare, but is a reasonable price and the restaurant is always busy. It's a great place to go for lunch or a light evening meal or even just some drinks with friends, with a good atmosphere and a great location.
It's simple, but effective.
Basement bar and restaurant
10a-12a Broughton Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3RH;
tel: 0131 557 0097; www.thebasement.org.uk/thebar.htm;
email:info@thebasement.org.uk
If you want to have drink spoiled by camera-wielding tourists, this is the place for you! Hopefully you will have no need to avail of toilet facilities - they are still in the Victorian age. This establishment's claim to fame is that it's "unspoiled" since it was built - do you really want to drink in Dickens' time?
Victoria Street - opposite Europa Hotel
The New Asia is on the 72nd storey of one of the tallest buildings in Singapore. It offers spectacular views of the city centre and the whole of Singapore - you might even see Malaysia on a clear day. Drinks are reasonably priced (for Singapore!) as long as you go before 9pm. Expect to pay around S$7-9 (£2.50)for a beer.
About 72 floors above City Hall MRT station
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