Travel, technology, media, politics, rinse, repeat

It’s been a busy few months working on two new guidebooks plus the new edition of an Italian phrasebook, but here are links to a couple of my recent contributions in print.

Every September, history and architecture buffs have a field day as countless private and government buildings across Britain throw open their doors to visitors – for free.

For Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris magazine; read it all at silverkris.com

One of my favourite Dorset walks takes me in and around the “ghost village” of Tyneham, by the southern coast of the Isle of Purbeck. This farming hamlet at the foot of Ridgeway Hill was requisitioned by the War Office in 1943 (the area was suited to gunnery practice), with a promise that it would be returned to the villagers after the war… It never was.

A short contribution to the Telegraph‘s “Best countryside holidays in Britain”; read it all at telegraph.co.uk

Finding the best late holiday deals online. It isn’t only tour operators’ websites that offer bargain holidays. For the best deals, you have to look farther afield.

Read it all at telegraph.co.uk

First visual impressions of Masterchef winner Mat Follas’s Beaminster dining room are of a tearoom that’s been subjected to a lick of paint and some design consultancy. Exposed brick, chunky wooden tables and a daily menu on the chalkboard give The Wild Garlic a studied “refined rustic” look. It’s not unpleasant, just a bit mannered. However, that’s the last so-so impression this place makes.

Follas’s love of foraging is evident right from the starter: both are delivered in hearty portions on wooden butcher’s blocks garnished with wild leaves and edible flowers. The brill ceviche is fresh and delicate with a whisper of zest, lacking only a grain or two of salt for my taste. A flash-fried and optimally cooked pigeon breast comes with a chunky compote of dark berries and beetroot. It’s delicious.

[Read more →]

A handful of bits and pieces relating to Italy have appeared while I’ve been on my recent Italian research trip…

8 Italian masterpieces that barely survived

War after war, occupation followed by revolution, bad luck combined with bad judgment — all have contributed to the destruction of Italy’s art treasures. A fire in the Sala del Scrutinio and the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in Venice’s Doge’s Palace destroyed several Titians as well as work by Bellini, Gentile da Fabriano, and Pisanello. A half-crazed Botticelli tossed several of his own “decadent” works onto the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497.

Italian art has, unfortunately, not been immune from the turbulent influence of the peninsula. But the history of Italian art and architecture isn’t short of happy endings, either. Many works we admire today have dodged a bullet or two during the journey to the 21st century.

Getting up at 5.30 in the morning, and on a Saturday morning at that, isn’t usually my idea of a good time. My drive through the empty streets of the East End is eerie and somber. A hoary drunk props up a bus stop. The last of the morning mist clings to the Limehouse canal known, with Ripperesque undercurrent, as The Cut. A gull squawks and hovers overhead; the city, at the cusp of day and night, is taking a breather.

As I step out of the car, a bitter spring wind howls straight from Norway, over the flyover on the A1261 and up my sweater. Small sacrifices. I’m hunting the freshest fish in London, at Billingsgate Market, which has already closed by the time any advanced civilization is eating breakfast.

Read the rest at Perceptive Travel

IF (Lib–Lab deal) –> 100% reliance on assorted Nats and recalcitrant backbenchers –> Government falls without enacting anything significant –> Tory majority within six months –> Full enactment of Tory manifesto

IF (Minority Tory government) –> Tory extremes stymied in short-term –> (Lib–Lab opposition brings government down, takes blame as ‘irresponsible in time of crisis’) OR (Cameron goes for dissolution at time to suit Tories) –> Tory majority within a year –> Full enactment of Tory manifesto

IF (Lib–Con coalition deal) –> (Tory extremes stymied in short-term) AND (Small number of key LibDem priorities enacted in short term) AND [?]

There’s likely to be a whole load of flak flying the LibDems’ way in the coming days, months and years, especially from the “progressive left”. I suggest they accept no criticism that begins without unpicking the puzzle above – one that the election result set them. That [?] might include the implosion of the party. It might also include the large-scale loss of anti-Conservative tactical voters in the North and Scotland, or the gain of anti-Labour tactical voters in the South, or both. But it might just include major changes to the way we elect representatives to both Houses of Parliament. Our major political parties are stuck fighting for the perception of occupying a bland, but pernicious, centre ground. Voting reform (AV is just one essential baby-step) is the only way to unlock the system, to set them all free to properly represent their constituencies.

It reads to me like Clegg has bet the house on electoral reform. His coalition deal, for all its faults, was worth the risk. Maybe.

I wrote a longer, more speculative piece on this before the coalition deal was announced, at Liberal Conspiracy.

How is technology changing the way we travel?

Smarter search

Searching the web means typing in words and expecting Google, Bing or Yahoo! to deliver the answer. It’s the way we’ve got used to working, but it’s not how real human beings sift information. We want to know what’s nearby, what our friends like. Improvements in local search, social search and visual search will do just that.

An Android-iPhone Shootout

Apple won’t have it all its own way this year. We’ll hear a lot more from Google’s Android mobile operating system, which is available free for phone hardware manufacturers to install. Several new handsets from Sony Ericsson, Motorola, HTC, Samsung and Google itself (the Nexus One) are Android-powered.

Read it all at Telegraph.co.uk


Then read my guide to the best iPhone and Android apps, eReaders, Augmented Reality, travel inspiration websites, and freebies for travellers (also at Telegraph.co.uk).

Can we rely on travel information we find on the Internet? An exchange on Twitter with entrepreneur and world travelling phenomenon Gary Arndt set me thinking.

@hackneye (me): Being right more of the time is what guidebooks do better than the Web. It therefore makes me sad to see one with horrendous errors.
@EverywhereTrip (Gary): I’d disagree that they get things right more than the web. They are always 1-4 years out of date given the publication cycle.

@hackneye: Yes, they can be, and sometimes that’s important. But they also tend to be researched and fact-checked more carefully.
@EverywhereTrip: So long as the public can edit the info, errors can be corrected quickly online. 1,000′s of people checking instead of 1.

@hackneye: I agree. But the public don’t correct most of the travel content on the Web. Hence the variable quality.
@EverywhereTrip: What is an example of this? Most pages have comments, or at least a way to contact the owner.

@hackneye: An example of what? An uncorrected error on a travel site? Just Google your hometown and dig around.
@EverywhereTrip: That’s the thing. I don’t see much incorrect information. People always give theoretical examples, never concrete ones.

@hackneye: Chelsea’s football ground is the site of a battle that took place 200 miles away: http://bit.ly/agSoZN… Michelangelo’s David is in the Uffizi: http://bit.ly/aq8Vfn [it isn't]. 2 quick searches, 2 highly ranked sites.

@EverywhereTrip: So leave a comment correcting the information problem solved.
@hackneye: I admire your idealism. It’s a fine quality. But I suspect ‘correcting the Internet’ is too big a job.

@EverywhereTrip: The internet is a work in progress. If you see an error, correct it. Everyone does a little bit and it adds up…

And so it continued, with a 140-character limit becoming increasingly unsatisfactory for expressing quite complex ideas. [Read more →]

One of the (many) things I find genuinely useful about Twitter is the ability to get an instant answer or opinion on just about anything. Like this:

Wondering: in the medium term, which is worth more to a tourism business: 1. Nice mention in a guidebook. 2. Nice mention in a paper. Ideas? [@hackneye]

I  didn’t really have a motive for asking this, other than genuine, theoretical curiosity. It strikes me that many PR companies put a lot of effort into courting periodical, weekly and daily media, and a whole lot less time on guidebook writers. Maybe PRs know something that isn’t immediately apparent to me. [Read more →]

A short series of pieces in the Sunday Telegraph this winter on saving money on your travels: cheaper mobile phone calls abroad, prepaid currency cards, booking travel with cashback websites.

New ways to save money with your phone appear almost weekly. If you’re not confident on the web, invest in a Multi IMSI travel SIM card. This new generation of SIM slots into any unlocked mobile and can come with two numbers (one UK, one US). Callers can dial either number to reach you, wherever you are in the world.

Read about Multi IMSI and VoIP technologies for your travels at Telegraph.co.uk

Do you want a 10 per cent discount on your next weekend away, no strings attached? With planning and basic web-savvy, that’s how much you could save if you currently buy your spending money in high street or airport bureaux de change. Even habitual credit and debit-card travellers could secure savings of about five per cent.

Read about prepaid currency cards and the best places to buy travel money online at Telegraph.co.uk

For travellers who are comfortable booking on the internet, cashback websites can unlock a new tier of savings. With very little effort, you could pocket six per cent off an Istanbul city tour with Isango!, or hundreds of other deals – on top of any discounts or offers available booking direct with these operators.

Read about cashback websites, and the savings you can bag booking travel with them, at Telegraph.co.uk

So, my ‘Google phone’, the Nexus One, arrived and has already busted a whole afternoon of non-work, just as it promised. The good stuff is really good: crisp OLED screen, super-fast 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. Battery life sucks, of course, though turning off the pointless ‘active wallpaper’ helps.

I love the fact that Google integration is just there. No syncing with the desktop, or plugging into the laptop. Everything is there: contacts, Gmail, calendar, the lot. Admittedly no one has yet rushed up to me and spluttered ‘OMFG is that a Nexus One?‘. But it still feels like they might, at any moment.

Anyway, this isn’t a Nexus One review (plenty elsewhere), but a selection of recommended apps from the Android Market for anyone new to the phone or operating system. [Read more →]