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Istanbul is choc full of exciting things to see but there is one spot that could easily be missed.
It’s the Yerebatan Saray Sarnici, one of the many cisterns the Byzantines built to make sure they had a plentiful supply of water. It's a vast underground space full of elaborate columns and arches, which are reflected in rippling water. Everything is bathed in coloured light and there is soft soothing music.
It's an eerily fascinating atmosphere. You climb the steps and you are suddenly in the bustling streets around the Topkapi Palace.
It’s a great place to go if the streets above are hot! Cool and peaceful.
www.yerebatansarnici.com
Sultanahmet Square at the northeastern end of the Hippodrome, just off Divan Yolu
We booked a five star hotel last summer for our ruby wedding anniversary, but when we arrived we were disappointed with it. So we walked round the corner to the Meridien to see if they had vacancies.
The manager showed us to a beautiful room and it was at this point that we explained about moving hotels to make our anniversary special.
When we fetched our cases and went up to reception to collect our keys, the receptionists were very welcoming and handed us the keys to a penthouse suite! This was really beautiful and had views right across Brussels.
On our actual anniversary we had champagne and chocolates from the hotel management.
What a brilliant hotel!
Carrefour de l'Europe 3, Brussels 1000, Belgium
A fantastic hotel in the most central part of the city.
Carrefour De L'Europe 3;
tel: 02 548 4211
This brasserie is built in the art nouveau style and has a great tavern atmosphere with brown paper place mats and candles in bottles. It serves staple Belgian fare like moules-mariniere. The carbonnads flamandes and the stoemp are glorious!
17-21, Rue Henri Maus;
tel: 02 511 8789
It’s the focal point of the Lower Town, surrounded by guild houses in the Flemish renaissance style, and it’s pretty magnificent. However, if you start planning you will see something that happens every other year: the Tapis de Fleurs (flower carpet). For 5 days in August the Grand Place is taken over by a massive floral display. Son et Lumiere shows complete the spectacle every night. The next will be in 2008. Worth booking especially as the Brussels summer music festival runs from the 11th to the 20th.each year and this includes 130 free concerts and entertainment throughout the city.
In the Lower Town
A traditional tavern oozing atmosphere and serving typical Florentine cuisine. The speciality is florentine beefsteak. The food is tasty and inexpensive and there is a vast array of wines that sit on shelves along side of you!
Its in the San Lorenzo area near the market, which is well worth a visit, being the largest covered food market in Europe.
Via Borgo San Lorenzo,35/37;
tel: 055 212 206;
www.gianninoinflorence.com
The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a multi-billion rand development, is a really exciting place to be. More importantly for South Africa, it feels a safe place to be.
The Alfred Basin is the working harbour but alongside it is the Waterfront Craft Market, one of South Africa's biggest indoor markets. There is also a Maritime Museum and the Two Oceans Aquarium. The Victoria Basin has a huge amphitheatre and regularly stages free concerts, so there is a background of music as you wander around some of the hundreds of shops and eating outlets. The Red Shed is filled with African crafts, while in the Kings Warehouse the catch of the day is stacked side by side with vegetables, herbs, spices and hand-rolled pasta. The whole atmosphere is colourful and exuberant.
Of course it is from this harbour that you sail to Robben Island, which is an unforgettable experience. The whole island is now a museum and you are actually taken around by men and women who were once political prisoners on the island. A stark reminder that what lies on the mainland is very, very new.
There are reminders everywhere in Prague of people who struggled against oppression. Jan Palach, the student who burnt himself to death in protest at Soviet occupation, has a statue in Wenceslas Square.
But the most moving experience of national defiance that we had was at the spot where Reinhard Heydrich's assassins (Czech paratroopers flown over from Britain) were gunned down in the Church of St Cyril, just off Charles Square.
You first notice the bullet-scarred wall where the church was besieged in 1942, when German troops mounted an assault on the Czechs who were hiding there. Surrounded, they took their own lives and the crypt of the church is one of those places where you feel the hand of history.
The cafe next door to the church acts as a wonderful museum that honours those brave parachutists.
The Church of St Cyril: Resslova Ulice, Nove Mesto, the entrance to the museum is at the side on Vizeoska Street.
tel: 420 224 920 686
Nearest metro: B line to Karlovo Namesti; Trams: 10,14,16,18, 22, 24
The loveliest church in Rome is the 13th century Santa Maria in Aracoeli.
It's right on top of the Capitoline Hill, in the space between two palaces. There is a huge flight of stairs which challenges the many brides who enter the church. But it is utterly beautiful and filled with chandeliers, ancient columns and a wonderfully decorated ceiling as well as some amazing renaissance frescoes.
4 Piazza del Campidoglio
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