Now that the five-working day quarantine has been lifted, we’d appreciate to listen to about your favorite metropolis in Italy. Not significant hitters like Florence or Naples, but the scaled-down, far more idiosyncratic jewels that dot this state – Cremona with its violin record, Modena’s balsamic vinegar lofts or the historic stones of Matera. Notify us what you saw and did that created it particular – possibly it was a wonderful position to continue to be, a brilliant household restaurant, the architecture or a neighborhood competition – with web-sites and selling prices if acceptable.

If you have a relevant picture, do send it in – but it’s your phrases that will be judged for the level of competition.

Retain your tip to about 100 terms

The ideal suggestion of the week, picked out by Tom Hall of Lonely World, will gain a £200 voucher to keep at a Sawday’s property – the corporation has more than 3,000 in the British isles and Europe. The finest guidelines will look on the Guardian Journey web page, and it’s possible in the paper, way too.

We’re sorry, but for legal factors you have to be a Uk resident to enter this competitiveness.

The competitiveness closes on 7 September at 9am BST

Have a glimpse at our previous winners and other suggestions

Read through the terms and circumstances listed here

If you’re owning issues making use of the variety, simply click listed here. Read phrases of assistance here and privateness plan below

If you were to blindfold me and drop me unexpectedly almost anywhere in the New Forest, I think I would know, the moment I unmasked myself, where I had arrived. It is such a distinctive landscape, with its unmistakable blend of wide-open pasture woodland filled with ancient trees and dead wood, swathes of gently rolling lowland heath studded with grazing ponies, winding streams of red-tinged water, and boggy hollows in valley bottoms.

It is a landscape in which I instinctively feel an immediate sense of belonging. I grew up not far away, and visited regularly throughout my childhood, so the place is filled with early memories of wandering in the unfenced forest and seeing birds and animals I had no hope of spotting at home. As soon as I was old enough, I would come to camp and explore alone.

One side of my family originated from here; they were New Forest Gypsies. Gypsies lived peaceably alongside commoners in the forest for some 500 years, until the 1920s when they were rounded up and compelled to live in a small number of designated compounds. A generation later they were evicted from the forest, most ending up in the newly built council estates of the neighbouring cities.

When I left home as a teenager, my travels took me all over the country, and the world, but never back home. Yet finally, a lifetime later, and with my own children growing up, I began to feel the call of the past. I determined that over the course of a year I would spend as much time as I could in the forest, revisiting my childhood haunts and beyond, and recording what I found. In all, I visited about 30 times, an exercise that I most conveniently completed just a week or two before the first lockdown began.

It is rich in species of plants and animals that are in steep decline elsewhere, and in some cases absent

This is by no means an entirely natural landscape, though it has changed little since it was first designated as a hunting forest by the invading Normans 1,000 years ago, and possibly for much longer still. It is in effect one huge fenceless communal farm, where commoners (residents of the forest who still practise the ancient “rights of common”, such as the right to pasture livestock) graze ponies and cattle – and pigs too, in autumn. Centuries ago, before the Enclosure Acts, a third of England was common land and would have looked much more like this than it does today.

And yet while this is a working landscape, it is incredibly welcoming to wildlife. Its three key habitats, of pasture woodland, lowland heath and valley mire, have all but vanished over most of the country. It is rich in species of plants and animals that are in steep decline elsewhere, and in some cases absent. This is a place of superlatives: the greatest concentration of ancient trees in western Europe; three-quarters of its remaining valley mires – all drained away elsewhere to make way for farmland; the greatest diversity of lichens and fungi; three-quarters of Britain’s dragonfly species; and a place of last resort for specialised birds such as Dartford warblers and woodlarks, hobbies and honey buzzards.

More than 200 square miles of the forest have been a national park since 2005, and attract a lot of visitors, especially in the summer holidays, as they are more accessible to large population centres than many of our parks. Having a car is not vital; there are good rail and bus links, and I conducted my year of visits entirely using public transport. There is also a fantastic network of cycle paths, with bicycles for hire in the larger villages. Many visitors stay in the forest’s well-equipped villages, or in the vicinity of the car parks by noted beauty spots such as Bolderwood and the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, or the tourist attractions of Exbury Gardens or Bucklers Hard.

But it is easy to get away from the crowds. You don’t have to walk far for the number of people to thin out. Take a trail into the woods, and when paths diverge choose the path less travelled. By doing this you will quickly find yourself alone in the woods with the wildlife. Walk quietly, and walk slowly: you will see much more this way. I have often found myself lost in a quiet spot deep among the trees, staring into the orange eye of a goshawk or face to face with a secretive muntjac.

Head out on the vast expanse of the open heathland, away from the roads, and you’ll have them to yourself – just you and the larks and stonechats. Or leave the trail altogether and follow a winding stream into the woods, sit on the bank and wait for a kingfisher, or possibly a mandarin duck, to pass by. The upper reaches of Bartley Water to the west of Ashurst, or Highland Water west of Lyndhurst, twist and turn through the woods, deep channels overhung by trees, while the upper reaches of the Beaulieu River have a fringe of trees, but head right out over the heaths and bogs. There are many tiny streams that trickle out of the bogs and mires, and because the forest is uncultivated, these are some of the healthiest freshwater habitats in the country.

My favourite thing to do is to head to where the woods meet the heath and wait for dusk

You will inevitably see plenty of commoners’ livestock, and have a good chance of seeing fallow and roe deer. But many of the gems of the forest may be harder to find; in truth, you have to be in the right place at the right time. To focus on the summer: from late June the heaths may light up with the white, purple and pink spikes of the heath spotted-orchid. The greatest concentration I found was at Matley Heath southeast of Lyndhurst. Around the same time, look out for the silver-studded blue butterflies. These are a nationally scarce species as they live only on lowland heath, yet colonies here can number in the hundreds or even thousands – and they make for a spectacular sight. The best location I found was on the heath south of Longdown Inclosure.

August may be the worst time of the year for birds – most go into moult after the nesting season – but the heather will be in full bloom, and this is the best month for dragonflies. Possibly the best location of all is Upper Crockford stream, in the far south of Beaulieu Heath. My favourite thing to do is to head to where the woods meet the heath and wait for dusk, listening out for the strange mechanical churring of the nightjar. If you’re lucky, you may see them, swooping after moths in the half-light.

Of course, the other seasons have their highlights too: birdsong and arriving migrants in the spring, autumn colours and fungi that reveal the forest at its most beautiful, and in winter vast flocks of waders and winter wildfowl that arrive at Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes on the New Forest coast. You may have places that seemed busy in the summer almost to yourself, especially if the weather is less than ideal. Don’t be put off: pack your wellies and a raincoat and be prepared to get muddy.

The New Forest: how to do it

If you have a few days to hand, why not try to track down some of the most imposing of the forest’s ancient trees. Look around Balmer Lawn near Brockenhurst for ancient oaks, or Mark Ash Wood near Bolderwood for ancient beeches. There is also an isolated clump of ancient beeches out on the heath; the Soarley Beeches are close to the lovely Berry Wood near Burley Street, a location I am particularly fond of as it is the first place in the forest I camped as child – back when wild camping was still allowed. As a shortcut to find some of the biggest trees of all, the New Forest Explorers Guide highlights some of the best.

There are fabulous routes to walk in every corner of the forest, but here are a couple of suggestions that, as well as being great for nature watching, also give a glimpse into parts of the forest’s little-known history. Look at your map, and you will see that the entire forest is studded with signs of occupation, from bronze-age barrows and boiling mounds, to the ruins of royal hunting lodges and Norman earthworks, to wartime relics.

Hampton Ridge in the north-west of the forest offers great long views – and take a look at the many gorse brakes, for this is one of the best locations for the elusive Dartford warbler. The ridge overlooks Ashley Walk, site of a wartime bombing range, and the heath is dotted with bomb craters and unexpected wartime relics, including a 30-metre-long concrete arrow, a directional marker for approaching pilots. And keep an eye to the sky – not for bombers, but for the forest’s array of birds of prey.

Setley Plain, just south of Brockenhurst, is the site of a prisoner of war camp, the traces of which can still be seen. First it housed Italian and German prisoners of war, and then, when the second world war was over, it housed Gypsies displaced from their compounds, all in a series of Nissen huts. Look out for the woodlark, another scarce species that has its heartland in the New Forest. It is not much to look at, but it has the most beautiful of songs. If you then head west along the disused railway track you will come to a causeway that leads right across the valley mire at Hincheslea Bog, a rare opportunity to take an inside look at this extraordinary habitat.

If you’re struggling to make much headway with the forest’s elusive wildlife and want help, Wild New Forest offers guided walks with extremely knowledgable local naturalists.

Where to stay

Wild camping is no longer permitted in the forest, but there are 10 campsites in the national park, and although some of these are designed for the owners of mobile homes, four are suitable for tents. Hollands Wood Campsite is close to the facilities of Brockenhurst at Balmer Lawn, home to many huge ancient oaks. But my personal favourite is Ocknell campsite, tucked away among the woods at the heathland edge in the north-west of the forest. It has good walking in every direction, and is also the cheapest, at £13.95 a night for two adults.

All of the forest’s villages have a selection of inns and hotels, but for somewhere a little more out in the wilds I recommend the Beaulieu Inn, which is surrounded by heaths adjacent to Beaulieu Road train station, but in easy reach too of beautiful woodland – a great base for walking. It also has its own pub and restaurant, the Drift Inn. Rooms from £122 a night.

Eat

The forest is full of country pubs serving locally sourced food. Two that come highly recommended are the Foresters Arms at Frogham and the Royal Oak at Fritham – both, coincidentally, in easy reach of the Hampton Ridge Walk. Not that I would possibly suggest turning this lovely walk into a pub crawl.

My idea of eating out in the forest has tended to be a sandwich and a bottle of water while sitting on a fallen log in the woods, but I did once treat myself to a gourmet meal at the Crown Manor House Hotel in Lyndhurst, and very good it was too, even for an awkward vegan.

Neil Ansell is the author of The Circling Sky: On Nature and Belonging in an Ancient Forest, out now (Tinder Press, £18.99). Buy it for £16.52 at guardianbookshop.com

Askham Hall, Penrith

This grand Cumbrian farm has almost five hectares of lawns, herbaceous borders, meadows, stone griffins and sights throughout the River Lowther. Being in this article (or at the Queen’s Head close by) offers you access to the grounds and outdoor heated pool in summertime, which is the time to catch purple alliums, peonies and rambling roses in entire flower. The Michelin-starred on-site cafe employs veg from the cornucopian kitchen back garden.
Doubles from £130 B&B in summertime, askhamhall.co.uk

Cambo Gardens, Fife

If you can find a hole in the backlog of weddings going on listed here this calendar year, seize a cottage or 4-postered bedroom for no cost obtain to Cambo’s walled garden and flowery paths. There are summertime sunflowers and sweet peas, a neighbouring gin distillery, and a beach at the finish of the woodland stroll.
Cottage (sleeps 4) £850 for 4-midweek evenings in summer time, camboestate.com

Portmeirion, Gwynedd

Strolling gelato-in-hand by way of subtropical woods earlier mentioned white sandy shorelines, you could nearly be by the Med alternatively than the saltmarsh-fringed Dwyryd estuary. Inns and cottages arrive with cost-free entry to this 1920s Italianate village, its winding forest paths and vibrant gardens.
Rooms in summer from £244 a night self-catering cottages (slumber 5+) have availability in September from £990 for 3 evenings (from £450 for 3 evenings in winter), portmeirion.wales

RHS Bridgewater, Salford

The Royal Horticultural Society’s enormous fifth garden finally opened on 18 Could 2021 following the pandemic set programs again virtually a year. Restored walled gardens are set among the ferny woods, flowery meadows and waterside Chinese acers. Novotel Manchester West, just off the M60, may perhaps not sound like a desire destination, but it’s out there, reasonably priced and near to the new website with Worsley village and canal walks also close by. Associates of the group planning RHS Bridgewater normally stayed listed here and the supervisor quickly hopes to offer discounted costs for backyard garden guests.
Doubles from £50, place only, all.accor.com

Monks Dwelling, Sissinghurst, Kent

There are beams and inglenooks in an previous brick cottage on the edge of the White Backyard at Sissinghurst Castle. Out-of-hours obtain to Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson’s extraordinary backyard garden rooms indicates you could view the solar rise above the orchard and established amongst group-cost-free vines, scented roses and honeysuckle.
Sleeps 6 for £1,835 for 3-weekend nights in August or £734 in November, nationaltrust.org.uk

Petwood Lodge, Lincolnshire

A rich baroness developed this Tudor-style Edwardian property in the village of Woodhall Spa and commissioned Harold Peto to landscape the gardens. As the rhododendrons fade, the restored Long Walk from the household to the Temple of Atalanta, created by the award-successful Julie Toll, lights up with peonies, sage and loosestrife. Afternoon tea on the terrace and croquet on the lawn finish the state dwelling idyll.
Doubles from £125 B&B, petwood.co.united kingdom

YHA Cambridge

This hostel in close proximity to Cambridge railway station is a five-minute stroll from the University’s botanic yard, established by Darwin’s teacher in 1825 (£7, ebook on the internet) and still has loads of rooms no cost this summer, with the historic colleges and Grantchester meadows also in just walking length. A switch close to the gardens at this time of 12 months passes cascades of climbing roses in the scented back garden and bees buzzing in the lavender. The linden blossom smells of clover and honey though patches of wild poppies and cornflowers conjure a rural oasis in the metropolis.
Personal two-bedded rooms from £39, yha.org.british isles

Swiss Cottage, Endsleigh, Devon

Oh we do like to beside the seaside … specially if there is a extended pier or wide promenade for a sunny stroll. Your favorite pier may well be raucous and kiss-me-quicklike Blackpool, or a historic Victorian splendor promenades can be lined with palm trees – or amusement arcades.

If you have a applicable photograph, do mail it in – but it’s your phrases that will be judged for the opposition.

Maintain your suggestion to about 100 terms

The ideal tip of the 7 days, decided on by Tom Corridor of Lonely Earth, will gain a £200 voucher to keep at a Sawday’s property – the company has far more than 3,000 in the United kingdom and Europe. The best ideas will appear on the Guardian Journey web site, and possibly in the paper, much too.

If you are possessing hassle making use of the kind, simply click below. Go through phrases of company below.

We’re sorry, but for lawful causes you must be a British isles resident to enter this opposition.

The levels of competition closes on Tuesday 15 June at 9am BST

Have a seem at our previous winners and other guidelines

Examine the conditions and circumstances below

If you’re obtaining trouble using the type, click in this article. Read terms of assistance here.

On 30 December 2019, I was on my arms and knees crawling through a narrow granite ring on the stark extend of moorland in between the north and south coasts of westernmost Cornwall. My travelling companion, Amy, was waiting around for me on the other aspect, both of us not able to include our laughter as we chanted, “Rebirth, rebirth!” to the empty wintertime skies.

The granite ring was the Adult males-an-Tol, a bronze age monument involving two upright fingers of grey rock. It can take an hour and a 50 percent to stroll there from the village of Madron, a pair of miles inland from Penzance on the south coast. The route is wild and desolate, the undulating land lined in dark gray and crimson gorse.

For a although, Amy and I saved to the one-monitor street, along which the only indicator of life was a solitary tractor grinding along slowly but surely, its driver blowing cigarette smoke out of the window. But, city young ones by means of and via, we wanted anything other than concrete beneath our toes, and so veered off the street to clamber as an alternative around large, thick brambles and excursion in the mud at the edges of faded fields. The land would seem unlimited in all directions right here, so it came as a shock when, nearing the Men-an-Tol, we abruptly noticed the grey waves of the north coast’s Celtic Sea in the length.

That new calendar year journey to Cornwall’s final peninsula, West Penwith, not significantly from the village where by my mother grew up – and from my namesake, Lamorna Cove – has remained at the forefront of my brain mainly because it was the very last journey I took in advance of the pandemic. As these, it has developed into some thing considerably bigger and additional freighted with that means than it may possibly have been.

Most evenings, when I’m lying in bed, staring out as a result of the very same skinny blinds at the very same London main highway beyond, I envision what it would be like, in its place, to be back with Amy, marching across this abundance of earth between two seas. (In concept we could be there this 7 days now that self-catering qualities in England are open all over again, but we stayed in a hostel and they do not open, further than an exclusive retain the services of, until eventually 17 May.)

There are two prevailing theories about the first reason of the Adult men-an-Tol’s ringed stone: either it was section of an historical stone circle manufactured to body unique elements of the horizon, the other stones because taken out or shed to time or it the moment formed aspect of a tomb. In Cornish folklore, the website was considered to keep miraculous healing powers, such as raising the fertility of all those who clambered via the ring a quantity of situations, preferably while bare. On that occasion, Amy and I made the decision in opposition to the bare portion, and selected to reinterpret fertility as resourceful fertility, hoping our chanting would enable create a year that was much less tumultuous and unsure than the past just one experienced been for the the two of us. (It did not.)

20 minutes’ push from Madron in direction of Land’s End, there is a next stone ring. This a single is not very old: it’s a duplicate of the original, sitting in the city centre of St Just in Penwith, a person of my favourite locations in Cornwall. St Just, once famed for its mining and now strung prettily with bunting, is much too much off the beaten monitor to come to be as common as St Ives or Newquay. But it has a large amount heading on for a little city. There are quite a few great pubs – significantly the Kings Arms – a medieval granite church, galleries, resorts and numerous cafes. When I was dwelling in Newlyn, a fishing city in the vicinity of Penzance, my elderly neighbour would travel over to St Just to get pasties from McFaddens butchers each individual Friday, arriving at noon as they arrived contemporary out of the oven. One particular morning, he took me with him: the pasties were the finest I’d ever eaten – very hot and peppery, the pastry golden.

Amy and I were being a limited walk from St Just at YHA Land’s End. Accommodating up to 41 friends in 11 bunkbed rooms, it is a friendly, cheerful location, decorated in pastel blues and yellows, with a big front garden the place persons can camp for £14 a evening.

The youth hostel overlooks Cot valley, or Porth Nanven, a secluded, rocky beach front shielded from the winds by black-soaked cliffs like curtains framing a phase. From there, a higher cliff path prospects to Cape Cornwall, aspect of an spot acknowledged as the Tin Coastline. This seven-mile-very long Unesco-shown internet site was mined for tin and copper for much more than 2,000 yrs – although all that is remaining of the mines now is a collection of stone ruins suspended above the sea. The Cape Cornwall headland alone is spectacular and forbidding: the monument at its edge was the chimney of Cape Cornwall Mine.

On that last trip to St Just, I sat at a picnic desk in the hostel garden on the 1st early morning of 2020 amongst numerous other bleary-eyed people, each of us staring out at exactly where the land commenced sloping toward the sea. I keep in mind speaking about our hopes for the coming yr, our bold vacation and lifestyle options – none of which have appear to fruition.

At the start of the pandemic, I was annoyed I would not be in a position to check out Cornwall for a lengthy time. But, staying expected to remain in a single spot has its merits. It will make you more acutely aware of the areas you pass up, somewhat than consistently wanting to consider out new, considerably-flung destinations. This summer season, if it is secure, we hope to return to St Just, the place it will be significantly less active than other sections of Cornwall, to camp in the grounds of the youth hostel, retrace all those walks we did a 12 months and a 50 percent back and crawl as a result of the Gentlemen-an-Tol all over again, wishing this time for more compact things – not innovative rebirth but some return to an approximation of normality.

Lamorna Ash’s reserve Dark, Salt, Distinct: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town (Bloomsbury, £9.99) is now accessible in paperback

A surge in the number of pop-up campsites organizing to open up this summertime has elevated environmental concerns in the Lake District and other tourist hotspots.

Limited-term, back again-to-essentials campsites have proliferated given that final year’s government relaxation of organizing laws for landowners, a move intended to aid rural communities recoup money missing to the Covid pandemic.

Very last month, the Lake District nationwide park authority launched a information to environment up pop-up campsites for landowners, who can now supply short-term camping on their home for up to 56 days with out requiring arranging permission. It is hoped that pop-ups will support avert fly-camping in splendor spots, which induced problems these kinds of as littering and campfire problems in spots such as Cumbria, Yorkshire and Cornwall very last summer season as need for domestic vacations outstripped source.

Even so, summer time 2021 pop-up campsites at White Moss in close proximity to Grasmere and Chapel Stile village at the mouth of the Langdale valley – equally well-liked Lake District hiking locations – have been criticised regionally. Objections centre all-around the absence of amenities, which opponents believe could guide to littering and pollution from people today washing in the river, as effectively as likely overcrowding, enhanced targeted visitors in spots with now overburdened infrastructure, and tree injury from campfires.

In Scotland, where by wild tenting is authorized in a lot of spots, some locations are wanting at applying added infrastructure to stop concerns like these after a increase in wild tenting previous calendar year. The Highlands Council demanded an injection of money past summer to hire countryside wardens to law enforcement increasing damage from campers soon after the leisure of lockdown constraints, and the Pentland Hills regional park known as for a formal campsite to be established to assistance deal with delinquent conduct at the Lothian natural beauty location.

Susan Briggs, director of the Tourism Community operating throughout the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, stated there are clear concerns among the regional enterprises that she works with. “We comprehend that farmers and other landowners may want to take advantage of desire for pop-up campsites to make money and provide additional again-to-essentials pleasure of the countryside. Nonetheless, we’re actually anxious about the site of these web-sites.”

One purpose campaigners are alarmed is that there is no requirement for pop-up campsites to undertake an environmental assessment, to present services or to restrict the number of tent pitches – the onus is on the unique landowners to run responsibly.

“We’re also worried that this may possibly established a precedent for much more wild tenting,” said Briggs, including: “While several readers are respectful of the natural environment they come to enjoy, sadly a minority do not take their litter absent and undervalue the injury a campfire can trigger.”

The Wildlife Trusts, a federation of British isles character conservation charities, has urged campers to tread frivolously this summertime. “Our natural heritage is priceless and so vital for us all – for our wellbeing and happiness – but it is fragile and we urge individuals to be liable,” mentioned Rob Stoneman, the Wildlife Trusts’ director of landscape recovery. “It’s critical to prevent lighting barbecues, littering, or building a mess in mother nature reserves as this can hurt wildlife and is high priced for reserve managers to sort out.”

Based mostly on suggestions from momentary web-sites that opened previous summer time, few were criticised by their regional communities.

Jim Bliss, the assistant estates supervisor at Lowther Estates, which will run the 50-pitch pop-up campsite at White Moss in the Lakes, said: “The quantities that we’re talking about in the campsite are about 2% of the quantity of site visitors that now arrive to the White Moss car parks and use the strolling routes all around there. So it’s a little proportion.”

To further more minimise the effect of the web-site, Bliss suggests campers will be expected to use the current White Moss difficult-surface area parking to avert automobiles degrading the discipline, and wardens will be employed to gather litter and verify the spacing between pitches is at the very least eight metres.

“It’s not likely to be like Glastonbury or an additional competition, where by the tents are again to back,” explained Bliss.

Dan Yates, founder of Pitchup.com, the reserving site in which the White Moss campsite is staying marketed, claims this new breed of campsite is aiding to widen entry to the purely natural surroundings. “It’s apparent that pop-up websites are tapping into a market place standard web pages may well struggle to reach,” he said. Teams that are underrepresented at traditional campsites include people today from BAME backgrounds, as effectively as single-sex groups (normally restricted from scheduling due to the fact of the affiliation with disruptive stag and hen get-togethers) and groups of learners.

“Our present pop-up sites have already commented on a better proportion of youthful website visitors in 2020. 1 longstanding pop-up web page in the Yorkshire Dales documented its 1st visits from Asian families” reported Yates.

He included: “Based on the responses we’ve had from far more than 200 non permanent web pages that opened final summer months, number of ended up criticised by their community communities, not least simply because of the significantly-necessary money injection travelers introduced to rural economies.”

Visit Britain has forecast that Uk domestic tourism will have lost £87bn in paying out owing to the pandemic by the finish of 2021. In accordance to Yates, new pop-up websites stated on Pitchup gained all-around £12,000 every single last 12 months after launching for significantly less than 56 days at the conclusion of July or early August, giving a lifeline for little firms this kind of as farms and stately households.

A number of several years ago, I travelled to the Cascade mountains of Washington state to study fire lookouts – crow’s nests for smoke spotters to elevate the alarm in scenario of forest fires. My purpose was Desolation Peak, the cabin exactly where rookie vedette Jack Kerouac expended 63 eventful days in the summer season of 1956.

At the time I was producing a e-book about significantly-flung and deserted beacons, sheds, and ghost cities. Of all the outposts, Desolation Peak (1,860 metres tall, about six miles south of the Canada-US border) was possibly the riskiest in terms of who I’d fulfill when I acquired there due to the fact, not like Massive Creek Baldy in Idaho (indeed, that was its identify), Desolation Peak was still staffed and in company. So I understood that there was somebody sitting on best of the mountain. I was heading to hike up to their cabin and it would be pot-luck no matter if they’d be an fanatic and welcome me in or a grizzly jobsworth who’d inform me to get stuffed.

With my longsuffering buddy Colin, I drove north from Seattle on Interstate 5, then east along the Skagit River and into the densely forested Cascades. The journey took 48 hours with a stopover in a Bates-design motel in the one-horse city of Marblemount – the past providers for 70 wild miles of boscage and bears.

Jim’s part is continue to important in the terrific wireless-no cost wilderness of the Cascades

Next early morning, we traversed a sequence of dams before zooming 20 miles up Ross Lake in a powerboat pushed by a taciturn lumberjack. The rest of the day, we hiked pine needle paths beneath western crimson cedars and ponderosa pines with trunks a few of metres throughout trees so superior that the Pacific silver firs beneath appeared as mere ankle-biters. Up and up Desolation we went until, around dusk, we emerged near the best and pitched our tent.

Owning set up camp, we set off for the summit, slaloming earlier boulders and spinneys and into snow, a granular crush on a rise from where by we could see the small pyramid roof of the summit belvedere. It was a excellent minute. Then we saw a determine. A tall male, strolling down from the hut. He saw us at the very same instant. He waved. We waved back and fulfilled on the path a minute later on.

“Hello”, he said, “I was just likely out for a stroll all-around.”

He hadn’t expected to meet up with any person. Would we like to arrive up and see the cabin? He was Jim Henterly, the Desolation Peak fire watchman.

From afar, he’d appeared forbidding. I’d experienced the thought then, a split next just after he’d observed us but before he waved, that here was The Guy arrive to convey to us to scram, piss off back again down the mountain. But Jim was all smiles and, as if in added welcome, alpenglow instantly flared to flood the summit scorching pink and lit up the cabin.

We all went in and Jim established to building us tea, telling us the cabin’s historical past as he lit the stove and got the kettle heading. The sun reduce gold across the panelled place, dazzling on a central brass turntable, buying out the textbooks on the desk, the sleeping bag neatly doubled on the mattress. The huge panorama of the windows – mountains shadowed blue and saturated purple. You could see it all from that marvellous glass pagoda.

“You can see correct into Canada,” he gestured with his mug as soon as we had been all settled with a consume.

In the time it experienced taken to make the tea he’d explained to us that the cabin was an L-4 built in 1932, explained how the entire issue would have been carried up as a kit by pack horses and mules explained that the round apparatus in the middle of the space was an Osborne Fire Finder that its crosshairs had been horse tail – nothing else did the job so effectively.

He swivelled the sights to zero in on popular peaks – Prophet, Terror, Challenger, Fury, Ruby, Baker – way off yonder in the glowing haze beckoning us in excess of to have a go. He showed us how the windows opened, observed that the cabin’s green was a shade of paint named Irish Meadow, showed us his Pulaski hatchet – a sort of hearth-fighting Swiss Military axe. And then, very abruptly, it was dim and night was in this article. How extensive experienced we been speaking?

“I guess I’m a form of evangelist for the historical lookout knowledge,” he reported, turning on the central light-weight.

Hearth lookouts experienced their heyday concerning 1930 and 1950. There the moment have been additional than 10,000 watchers staffing much more than 5,000 check out stations in the US alone, but all those numbers were being massively minimized with the advent of satellite imaging and cell telephones. Having said that, Jim’s job is however critical in the excellent wi-fi-no cost wilderness of the Cascades and these days, as very well as viewing for telltale smoke trails from lightning strikes, prepared to radio and immediate firefighters, he acts as a radio relay for rangers and path crews in the peaks all around.

He experienced some thing of the actor Matt Smith about him – the glance of “a young guy created by outdated adult men from memory”. Kindly, craggy, lean and tall – head virtually brushing the ceiling. Timelord Jim, alone up in his Irish Meadow Tardis bathed in radio static, materialised in this article on the mountain. Watchman, medic, radio relay, army veteran, trainer, artist, raconteur …

“The motto of my military division was ‘Rendezvous with destiny’,” he reported. “The motto of my battalion was Ne desit virtus – Let valor not fail.”

I’m delighted to report that we’re continue to in touch.

Most not too long ago he wrote to share his disappointment at the passing of the fantastic character author Barry Lopez, signing off with a quotation from Arctic Goals:

Throughout Cumbria regional communities, businesses and grassroots organisations are becoming mobilised to map out approaches that they hope will support it grow to be the UK’s very first carbon-neutral county. The county is aiming to decarbonise by 2037, an ambition originally supported by £2.5m of nationwide lottery funding, awarded previous August and to be drip-fed above 5 several years setting up this thirty day period. Tourism will be an location of target, alongside housing, transportation and agriculture.

“The nationwide lottery funding is an injection of adrenaline at the beginning of a lengthy journey,” said Karen Mitchell, CEO of Cumbria Motion for Sustainability (Cafs). The funding was secured by the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership, which was set up by Cafs in 2019 with the enable of the county council. The partnership has 68 members tasked with major the push to slice emissions, which includes the Lake District countrywide park authority.

The British isles federal government has a authorized dedication to obtaining web zero CO2 emissions by 2050, but past thirty day period introduced an additional concentrate on of lowering carbon emissions by 68% by the finish of this decade. Last November, Uk h2o businesses launched a sector-vast dedication to acquiring net zero by 2030, and a handful of cities, including Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds, have also committed to getting to be carbon neutral by that day.

“We’re not excluding becoming equipped to do it earlier,” explained Cafs’ Mitchell. “This is a climate crisis and we should be throwing anything at it.”

Accomplishing decarbonisation poses difficulties for a county that in 2019 was frequented by 48 million people today. Visitors lead £3.13bn to Cumbria’s economic climate and aid 65,500 careers. Tourism’s affect on its carbon footprint is largely joined to transport. In February 2020, the partnership commissioned A Carbon Baseline for Cumbria, which was created by Professor Mike Berners-Lee, an qualified in carbon footprinting – who also comes about to live in Kendal.

The report identified that the driving emissions of site visitors to Cumbria are three times the British isles normal their emissions from taking in out and leisure actions are also greater than residents’. They account for 49% of Cumbria’s use-based mostly greenhouse gasoline emissions, whilst 36% of individuals emissions arrive from travelling to and from Cumbria.

“Tourism does create major difficulties [to decarbonising], but it is a huge element of the regional economy,” reported Chris Hodgson, operator of Haven Cottage B&B in Ambleside, which is now doing the job in direction of gold certification with the Environmentally friendly Tourism accreditation body. He believes becoming carbon neutral will provide new possibilities for regional tourism, but also that it should not have to necessarily mean lessening customer numbers. “You just have to uncover means for people to check out in a a lot more sustainable vogue,” he reported.

This could mean expanding the public transportation possibilities, the number of bike seek the services of places and cycleways, and on the lookout at pedestrianisation. Hodgson is a member of the Ambleside to Zero action group, which is working with Cafs on some of these problems.

The Lake District countrywide park authority is about to release a new administration prepare that will deal with transportation, one of the most important causes of emissions in the environment heritage web page. As nicely as emphasising the community transport options out there in the park, it will encourage active vacation times that can be undertaken with out a motor vehicle.

We will will need every single small business and home in Cumbria to get on board with the net zero ambitions.

“Three quarters of people previously go for a walk while they’re right here,” reported Emma Moody, sustainable transport adviser for the countrywide park authority. “It’s about obtaining them to do it a lot more, and also to get them to consider about walking from the doorway of in which they are remaining somewhat than emotion they have to soar in the motor vehicle each individual early morning.” In essence, it’s about persuading website visitors to experience Wordsworth region in the exact way the poet would have.

Electric vehicle charging details and electric powered buses are also on the agenda. The nationwide park has presently set up charging factors in quite a few of its automobile parks, and is doing the job with Cafs and other companions to map need hotspots and the probable volume required to cater for visitors in the long run. Electrical buses are a far more complicated obstacle, according to Moody, as the know-how essential to be capable to do the sorts of journeys desired in the Lake District is not in place. The area has a lot of electricity-draining hills and rather prolonged distances concerning charging points.

A lower-carbon food stuff programme is one more region wherever the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership hopes to get travelers on board. Dining places will be inspired to decarbonise their food stuff menus by lowering food items miles, although also showing the effects of food items choices by highlighting the carbon footprint of every single item mentioned on the menu. The notion has been highway-tested by the National Trust-run Sticklebarn pub in Langdale, which in 2019 was a single of the initial in the British isles to record carbon calculations from its dishes.

Some of the £2.5m funding will go to placing up a “grow regional, take in local” scheme, by encouraging Cumbria’s livestock farmers to set apart land to mature fruit, vegetables and cereals. At the second, local agriculture is geared towards lamb and dairy, according to Cafs, which leaves substantial gaps for decarbonising places to eat.

“We will want each individual business and residence in Cumbria to get on board with the internet zero ambitions,” reported Jonathan Kaye of Cedar Manor in Windermere, 1 of Cumbria’s leading eco-resorts, which previously retains Eco-friendly Tourism gold accreditation. “It’s taken us far more than 12 a long time to get to exactly where we are, and we are nowhere in close proximity to carbon neutral,” he mentioned.

“The plans are not also bold, they are essential, but it will acquire time and income to get there, and there is no stage starting up in 2035. Let’s be absolutely honest – we have to have to get on with this now.”

Just when you assumed matters could not get a lot more ridiculous in this most surreal of a long time, a firm is now offering vacant bottles for £25.

Relocation site My Baggage is marketing “bottled air” from diverse sections of the Uk, claiming a whiff of home can enable homesick expats “reconnect” with their roots – and could charm to individuals in lockdown, too.

There’s a decision of air from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Eire, “captured” by team in Nottingham, the Highlands, Snowdonia and a field close to the Irish border respectively. But the firm claims it can meet requests from other British isles locations, and has experimented with the aroma of a fish and chip store in Norfolk and the London Underground.

“Our sense of smell is regarded to be connected to emotional recollections and this calendar year Britons residing overseas have been coming household much less than common – so we assumed we’d give some thing novel to remind them of home,” mentioned My Baggage taking care of director Paul Stewart. “And, of study course, it works for individuals in lockdown and not in a position to journey.”

Just about every 500ml bottle of air will come with a cork stopper so people today can open it for a rapid sniff, and then close it once again for upcoming olfactory “trips”. The web-site claims to provide blasts of almost everything from freshly mowed village greens to inner-city fumes, collected using “traditional methods” (which contain waving or swooping the bottles close to, in accordance to Stewart – though personnel tactics may differ).

The plan is reminiscent of the episode of Seinfield when Kramer attempts to make a cologne termed The Beach, which captures the essence of the salty ozone. But inspite of the price tag tag, the bottles have been snapped up by expats living as much afield as the US and Australia, explained Stewart.

“In a year when factors have been so tricky for everybody, we’re really just seeking to put a smile on people’s faces – most of them just want it for the mantlepiece or a novelty gift for a good friend,” he added.

A fun existing when thoughts operate dry? Most likely. Building funds out of slim air? Surely.

• A bottle of air charges £25, which includes no cost postage in the British isles and £5 off transport prices abroad. mybaggage.com

The travel marketplace has welcomed the alter in quarantine guidelines that will allow for travellers returning to the British isles from significant-danger nations around the world to lessen the time they self-isolate to five days, if they can deliver a damaging Covid test final result.

Journey corporations have been campaigning versus the mandatory 14-working day quarantine for all returning travellers since it was released on 8 June. Paul Charles of the Personal computer Agency, who led the Quash Quarantine marketing campaign, with the backing of 500 vacation and hospitality organizations, claimed shorter quarantine will “boost vacation self-assurance and bookings and enable more quickly restoration in such a tough-hit sector”.

The modifications occur into result on 15 December, and will require passengers to e-book and spend for a Covid-19 test from a personal company on the gov.united kingdom listing.

Derek Moore, deputy chairman of Aito, the Expert Travel Association, mentioned the move was a very good get started but was unlikely to lead to a sudden increase in bookings. “People are seeking for an indication that the pandemic won’t go on for at any time. It’s sending the right information,” he said, but included that the expense of screening will be a barrier for several. “Charging £120 for tests is outrageous when other international locations cost much fewer, or not at all.”

Derek Jones, CEO of travel agency Kuoni, agreed that the cost of testing would stop some individuals from booking. “It could cost £400-£500 for a spouse and children. There will be some who will not flinch at that but it will be a barrier for some sectors of the sector.”

Jones claimed that the appetite for journey had strengthened due to the fact the current information of effective vaccines, with enquires up in the past 7 days, but pointed out that any rise in enquiries and bookings is from a lower foundation. There will however be main hurdles to global travel, even after lockdown finishes in England on 2 December, including a return to a tier system that will protect against all those in the highest risk spots of England travelling at all, and the consistently transforming travel corridor record.

The the vast majority of nations on the British isles travel corridor list have their own limitations avoiding people from coming into the country. Sri Lanka, for case in point, was amongst the most recent tranche of nations around the world included to the corridor checklist on 19 November but it has a ban on all non-nationals and tour operators believe that it is not likely to reopen right up until at least March.

Rupert Longsdon, founder of the Oxford Ski Corporation, was a lot more hopeful that a reduced quarantine period of time will have an immediate effects. “It helps make a large variation for skiers,” he claimed. “For many of our purchasers, 14 times was far too prolonged to navigate, notably with households, but they can make five days function.”

But Charles of the Computer system Agency claimed the “gamechanger” will be early 2021 when quarantine is dropped altogether and everyday exams introduced to permit international journey to commence a full restoration. Transport secretary Grant Shapps informed the Telegraph “We know that [daily testing] is coming, but we’re not likely to get that heading until finally the new calendar year, and then eventually there will be the vaccine to consider us out of this.”

Some in the marketplace imagine that even right after the necessity to quarantine is dropped, individuals will keep on being cautious about vacation. “A counterbalance to this is that for some travellers, now that an successful vaccination is on the horizon, there may possibly be a hold off in committing to travelling this wintertime,” said John Telfer, handling director of adventure firm Check out. “They may determine to wait until eventually it has been rolled out.”

Coronavirus has hit Spain challenging and its people have endured the strictest lockdown of any region in Europe. Outside activity was banned, except it was for going to perform or checking out the area grocery store for essentials (only a person member of the home at a time). The Guardia Civil rigorously enforced the legislation: roadblocks stopped vehicles, IDs, till receipts and distances travelled all checked. Illicit site visitors to my area seashore were being reprimanded and seriously fined. Alongside the promenade in the village of San Luis de Sabinillas, on the Costa del Sol, the outdoor fitness centers, petanca courts and children’s playgrounds have lain empty, cordoned off by law enforcement tape.

Through the winter, I cooled my menopausal flushes in the Mediterranean. A short while ago I have dreamed of clandestine nocturnal dips, but the menace of a €500 fantastic has chilled my ardour. I created do with training movies and on the internet parchís (Spanish ludo) with my mum.

Spain is all about socialising, sitting outside till late, owning pleasurable, building sound. Kids are to be viewed and read. For the first six months of the lockdown, the only human existence I noticed on the streets was from scurrying, paranoid, masked grown ups. On 26 April, Spanish small children ended up freed from captivity, bringing optimism, power and joyful sounds. Very last weekend was the convert of the adults. I prepared yoga on the seaside, then a socially distanced swim. As with lots of other people, I’d been counting the times. At dawn on Saturday early morning, runners, walkers and cyclists commenced to arrive at the seaside.

“Running is my implies of self-treatment,” stated Lizzie Evangelista, a lecturer and psychotherapist. “I’m an extremely-length runner: 190km, or longer, by way of jungles and deserts. It is a large deal for me. Staying permitted to run signifies currently being in a position to breathe all over again.”

“Lack of work out has an effect on your mood,” reported her spouse, Jo. “It feels like I’ve been sitting down with duct tape all over me, not ready to do anything at all to lift my mood. I cycled up into the hills this morning. It was incredible. I could scent the herbs and bouquets. Commonly, I go as much and as fast as possible, but today I took items bit by bit, I desired to savour the second.”

“Mentally oxygenated,” was how Elena, 51, explained herself immediately after her 1st sea swim given that lockdown. Elena on a regular basis takes section in races along the Mediterranean coastline. She explained that, as the operator of an ironmongers’ shop, she has been poorly strike economically, but she has enjoyed becoming at home and spending time with her daughter. “I’ve seriously skipped the social part of swimming – I really like becoming component of a group the pleasurable and laughter, the friendship. I felt a tiny anxious swimming on my own now and getting in a wetsuit was tiring for the very first five minutes, but I quickly got into the rhythm. I truly feel excellent now that I have been back again in the sea.”

Marisa was extra conflicted: “I’ve been looking ahead to swimming, but emotion a bit unsure about coming out and dealing with the planet with the virus even now all over. It was great remaining in the h2o while – a serious tonic.”

Twins Lola and Angela, 65, celebrated their independence by walking and dancing on the seaside. “My soul is dancing,” Lola exclaimed. “I am free and I have realised that we don’t value what we’ve got until finally we shed it.”

Diego Fernandez, a retired health care provider who has been volunteering due to the fact the outbreak of the virus, took the possibility to get again on his bike with his pal Francis, 66. “I worry that we will halt remaining so affectionate, which is section of the character of Andalucía. I saw my six-year-aged grandson but I couldn’t hug him.”

At 8am, I was undertaking yoga on the beach front, warming up for a big swim. Tentatively, I dipped my toes in the h2o. Despite the spring sunshine, the sea was chilly. As usually, I took a deep breath and threw myself in, permitting out an exhilarated gasp of delight. For 15 minutes I left the world’s cares and the confinement of the previous 48 days at the rear of me.

• Lola Culsán is co-creator of Wild Swimming Spain (Wild Items Publishing, £15.99)

Strategies for a 3rd runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled unlawful by the court of charm mainly because ministers did not sufficiently take into account the government’s commitments to tackle the climate crisis.

The ruling is a key blow to the task at a time when community issue about the local weather crisis is growing quickly and the governing administration has set a focus on in regulation of internet zero emissions by 2050. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, could use the ruling to abandon the undertaking, or the government could attract up a new coverage document to approve the runway.

The federal government is thinking of its upcoming actions but will not appeal against the verdict. The transportation secretary, Grant Shapps, said: “Our manifesto would make distinct any Heathrow enlargement will be business-led. Airport enlargement is core to boosting global connectivity and levelling up throughout the Uk. We also consider critically our commitment to the setting.”

Johnson has opposed the runway, stating in 2015 that he would “lie down in entrance of those bulldozers and halt the construction”. Heathrow is previously a single the busiest airports in the globe, with 80 million passengers a 12 months. The £14bn third runway could be crafted by 2028 and would convey 700 far more planes for every working day and a major rise in carbon emissions.

Johnson is thought to have been hunting for a pretext to withdraw assist for the additional runway and could make the argument for Birmingham to give greater airpot capacity for London supplied that teach journey instances will be decreased by HS2.

The court’s ruling is the 1st significant ruling in the entire world to be based on the Paris weather agreement and might have an impression both equally in the British isles and all over the globe by inspiring worries versus other high-carbon tasks.

Lord Justice Lindblom claimed: “The Paris agreement should to have been taken into account by the secretary of state. The nationwide planning assertion was not manufactured as the legislation needs.”

“It’s now clear that our governments can not continue to keep proclaiming determination to the Paris agreement, while simultaneously using steps that blatantly contradict it” mentioned Tim Crosland, at legal charity Prepare B, which introduced the challenge. “The bell is tolling on the carbon economic climate loud and obvious.”

Plan B’s intervention was one particular of a range of legal troubles against the government’s nationwide policy statement, which gave the go-forward for the new runway in 2018 following MPs backed it by a significant majority. Other folks were brought by area people, councils, the mayor of London, and environmental groups which includes Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

The issues had been dismissed in the high court docket in Could 2019 but the complainants took their instances to the court of charm, which delivered its verdicts on Thursday.

Approach B argued that the Paris arrangement concentrate on, which the governing administration had ratified, was an crucial portion of governing administration local weather coverage and that ministers experienced unsuccessful to evaluate how a 3rd runway could be consistent with the Paris target of keeping international temperature rise as near to 1.5C as achievable.

“This is an chance for Boris Johnson to put Heathrow expansion to mattress and aim on the most significant diplomatic celebration of his premiership, the UN climate summit in Glasgow in November,” stated Lord Randall, a former Conservative MP and local weather adviser to the previous key minister Theresa May possibly. “It’s his possibility to glow on the globe stage.”

The court docket of charm did not overturn the superior court’s dismissal of the other worries, which connected to air and sounds air pollution, targeted traffic, and the multibillion pound cost of the runway.

But the Paris agreement ruling is much-achieving, in accordance to Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, an global general public law specialist at Leiden University, in the Netherlands. “Its implications are world wide,” she said.

“For the 1st time, a courtroom has confirmed that the Paris settlement temperature aim has binding result. This aim was based mostly on frustrating evidence about the catastrophic hazard of exceeding 1.5C of warming. Nevertheless some have argued that the aim is aspirational only, leaving governments cost-free to overlook it in practice.”

Prof Corinne Le Quéré, at the University of East Anglia, mentioned: “Government requires to place weather targets at the heart all major choices, or chance lacking their own net zero aims with devastating effects for local climate and steadiness. I am relieved this is at last recognised in legislation.”

Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg mentioned: “Imagine when we all start getting the Paris agreement into account.”

Heathrow and proponents of the third runway say it would provide an economic increase and is essential for worldwide business, particularly right after Brexit. “The court docket of attractiveness dismissed all appeals towards the government – together with on ‘noise’ and ‘air quality’ – apart from one particular, [i.e. climate change] which is eminently fixable,” said a spokeswoman for Heathrow.

“We will attraction [as an interested party] to the supreme court docket on this a person challenge and are assured that we will be productive. Expanding Heathrow, Britain’s biggest port and only hub, is vital to achieving the primary minister’s eyesight of world Britain. We will get it completed the appropriate way.”

Mike Cherry, at the Federation of Compact Enterprises, explained: “The verdict is a blow to little companies who have to have greater regional and worldwide connectivity, as effectively as much more opportunities to export.”

On the other hand, most flights are taken for satisfaction and just 20% of the United kingdom populace just take far more than two-thirds of intercontinental flights. Critics say the financial rewards are illusory supplied, for illustration, the believed £10bn of taxpayers’ funds desired to change street and rail inbound links to the airport, and would attract investment to the south-east.

“No amount of spin from Heathrow’s PR machine can obscure the carbon logic of a new runway,” explained John Sauven, at Greenpeace United kingdom. “Their options would pollute as significantly as a small region.”

Geraldine Nicholson, from local campaign team Halt Heathrow Expansion, explained: “This is the final nail in the coffin for Heathrow expansion. We now will need to make positive the threat of a third runway does not arrive back again.”

At a independent occasion on Thursday, Ashok Sharma, the company secretary and president of November’s UN COP26 local weather summit, claimed: “The only overall economy which can keep away from the worst results of local weather change, and as a result proceed to produce expansion, is a decarbonised financial state. Our selections will make or split the zero-carbon economic climate.”

Drink with Tony Soprano, Vilnius

Inside Vilnius’s unassuming 19th-century socialist-realist station itself is shabby-chic Bar Peronas. It serves excellent local beer (€2.50) alongside solid cocktails; if you’re feeling adventurous, try Herba Devynia, a Lithuanian take on a bitter Italian amaro made from bark, roots, herbs, fruit, blossom and leaves. Seating spills out on to the railway platform, where you can sit alongside a five-metre tall statue of Tony Soprano clad in a dressing gown as you watch trains shuttle off towards Minsk and on to Saint Petersburg. Once the sun goes down, talented local DJs play anything from hip-hop and techno to Balkan beats and afrojazz.
Rob

Perfectly positioned pub, Dublin

“Bongo” Ryan’s of Parkgate Street is three minutes’ walk across the Liffey from Heuston station, and within a short stroll of Guinness’s St James’s Gate Brewery. It’s one of Dublin’s finest Victorian pubs, housing a cosy snug and sturdy mahogany bar. If you can tear yourself away, it is a short walk to historic Kilmainham Gaol and the immense grandeur of Phoenix Park. The National Museum of Decorative Arts & History is a block away. If I had 24 hours in Dublin, I’d spend a few of them here.
Tim

Books and coffee, Copenhagen

Paludan Bogcafe, Denmark’s oldest book cafe, is a short walk from Nørreport Station and a 15-minute stroll from central station. In the city’s old Jewish quarter, the cafe is busy from 9am-10pm with students, shoppers, tourists and old friends. It’s a perfect escape from the chain stores on Strøget. It’s tucked away behind the old university library, and almost every wall is lined with new and antique books. Stop for coffee and cake, a cold beer, or even a glass of wine – you probably won’t find large glasses for £5 anywhere else. The food may well be Copenhagen’s best kept secret.
Rhiannon Jackson

Amazing beer, Brussels

Between the Eurostar terminal at Brussels Midi and Brussels Centraal station (10-15 minutes’ walk from either) is Moeder Lambic at Place Fontainas. The beer selection is fantastic, with some of the best beers I’ve ever tasted. The food is good value, particularly for Belgium, with sandwiches, soup and sharing boards.
Chloe

Wine and pinxtos, San Sebastián

After arriving at San Sebastián-Donostia station, don’t follow the crowds towards the tourist-packed Parta Vieja. Instead, stick to the east side of the Uremea, and walk for eight minutes along the riverbank to Bodega Donostiarra in the Gros neighbouhood. This lively wine and pintxo bar has been serving the local community since 1928, when this was a working-class area of shanties and workshops. The potted plants and sun terrace may be new, but the house speciality , a bocadillo, or small baguette, of fresh tuna, salty anchovy and local green pickled peppers (€3.10), is timeless. And lovely wines by the glass cost from €1.30.
Joanna

Straight to the strudel, Leipzig

On the vast concourse of Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, the city’s monumental station, is the Ludwig bookshop and cafe bar. If the station is the cathedral, Ludwig is its library or cloister. It’s a calm, airy and refined space, with dark wood, high ceilings, stained-glass skylights and cosy club chairs. It serves reasonably priced drinks, sandwiches and snacks, though I had a coffee and a giant slab of apfelstrudel. Browse the books and magazines, listen to the train announcements, or watch the trams in the square outside through tall, elegant windows. It makes a marvellous waiting room, though frankly I suggest visiting even if you have no train to catch.
Kevin Sullivan

A litre, just metres from the station, Munich

Augustiner is said to be Munich’s oldest independent brewery, dating back to medieval times, and it has a beer garden (established in 1812 by Büchl brewery) under chestnut trees beside the central station, making it the perfect place to have your first, or last, beer in the city. Musicians wander and traditional Bavarian dress is much in evidence. It has a wide range of typical Bavarian cuisine, plus light snacks and veggie dishes. A half-litre of lovely Augustiner Edelstoff is a reasonable €3.95.
Lorcan

Style and substance, Turin

Exit Porta Nuova train station and within a few hundred metres you come to the baroque grandeur of Piazza San Carlo, and two of Turin’s most famous cafes. Café San Carlo (1882) has the ambience of a palace, but I prefer the art nouveau Caffè Torino (1903). Italian style, grandeur, history, architecture, and coffee at normal prices. Try a traditional bicerin, a mix of espresso, chocolate and milk. I found it while changing trains, fell in love with the cafe and the city, and went to live there for a year. I return as often as I can.
Neil Pearce

Ober and out in Interlaken, Switzerland

The Hüsi Bierhaus, a six-minute walk from Interlaken West Station, is a must for craft beer lovers when visiting the Bernese Oberland. This timber-framed, green-shuttereds chalet has more than 70 bottled beers and about 20 on tap. Since 2018 it has been brewing its own, including the top selling Wingover IPA, a hoppy, blonde ale dedicated to the town’s paragliding community. Beer has even found its way into the kitchen, with bread made from the brewery’s spent malts, a bier-bratwurst, and nachos smothered in a rich, tomato, jalapeño and beer salsa.
Alex

Ice-cream heaven, Florence

I stumbled on Gelati del Bondi when I got off the train in Florence last summer. It’s a five-minute walk from Florence Station up Via Nazionale as you head into town. Unlike some Italian ice-cream bars, it has places to sit both inside and outside. It’s not fancy but has 40 delicious flavours. The fresh caramel, made with French butter, or the Medici Special, with a secret ingredient, are among its signature offerings. Cones from €2.
Gonca

Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips

^{This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.}

Darkness on the Edge of Town … That Bruce Springsteen song always comes to mind when, on visits to my mother, I drive through Freehold, the town I grew up in, and hit the intersection of East Main Street and Jackson Terrace. This is actually the meeting point of two Freeholds: Freehold Township, once farmland and now McMansions and other unchecked suburban horrors; and Freehold Borough, the old colonial town, dating from the 1600s. Long before that, the area was steeped in the traditions of the displaced Leni Lenape people.

The junction of Jackson and Main still feels like where farmland meets town, a stretch of dark country road, marked by a lonely gas station and a dilapidated barn before the asphalt corridor redefines itself with late-Victorian and early-20th-century buildings often draped in red, white and blue bunting. One Queen Anne-style house is so striking it was used as the family home in 1990s TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Several blocks away is Freehold High School, a 1920s colonial revival structure mimicking Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. That’s where Springsteen went to school. I did too, though many years later. When I was young, a popular story told of Springsteen playing guitar in the school’s courtyard while teachers rained insults, insisting he’d never make anything of himself. Springsteen may be most closely associated with nearby Asbury Park, where he first sang to acclaim, but Freehold is the place the Boss called his hometown.

How the musician’s fame stretched from this little town about an hour from Manhattan to the rest of the world is the theme of a new exhibition at Monmouth County Historical Association (70 Court Street) entitled Springsteen: His Hometown.

More than 150 objects are on display at the exhibition, which runs until the end of September 2020. Some are the MCHA’s own, others come from the Springsteen Archives of Monmouth University in Long Branch (his town of birth), with more from private collectors and the Boss himself. There are unreturned keys from hotels Springsteen stayed at early in his career, and a letter to his landlady where he admits to practising his autograph. Clothes, including boots and a leather bomber from the 1980s, sit alongsde a Bruce Springsteen board game created and marketed in Europe by a French fan. Parked in the museum’s garden is an antique truck the musician and his manager used to travel from gig to gig – and to Woodstock.

The exhibition’s genealogical section, tracing the life of Joost Springsteen, the Boss’s earliest New Amsterdam ancestor, offers ways to explore beyond the town’s famous son.

In the museum’s permanent exhibition, the 1778 Battle of Monmouth is commemorated by two valuable objects: a Dennis Carter painting of revolutionary folk heroine Molly Pitcher with George Washington; and another of the battle itself by Emanuel Leutze, better known for his Washington Crossing the Delaware (in New York’s Met).

Borough historian Kevin Coyne, who is also a Columbia University journalism professor and features in a mini-documentary about the town, said: “A little piece of everything that has happened in America has happened here: colonial settlers, the revolution, the civil war, agricultural prosperity, the rise and fall of manufacturing, racial tensions, creeping suburbanisation. It all played out here, and Springsteen and his ancestors have been part of every stage.”

So while Springsteen is Freehold’s main lure, it holds centuries of American lore, too. The exhibition blends recent musical history with revolutionary heritage of this town, which was once called Monmouth Courthouse, an important early stagecoach link between New York and Philadelphia.

Just across the street from the MCHA, the Battle of Monmouth monument has a dramatic bronze of Molly Pitcher, hair fiercely windswept as she loads a cannon. The 1950s Monmouth Courthouse, with its mix of period enamelled turquoise panels and classical columns, was the site of another battle with international implications: the 1980s Baby M court case, one of the earliest to rule on surrogate parenting. (Mary Beth Whitehead had contracted with a family called the Sterns to carry a child for them, but changed her mind after giving birth. The court ruled surrogacy contracts invalid, but the Sterns won a protracted custody battle.)

There’s more about the revolution at Monmouth Battlefield state park, in neighbouring Manalapan Township, behind the Freehold Raceway Mall. The preserved land here is all that is left undeveloped from the massive battle nearly 250 years ago, at which the British had to abandon hope of a military victory. The bucolic setting is now better-known for summer weddings and autumn apple picking.

The shopping mall takes its name from Freehold Raceway, America’s oldest harness horse racing track, dating from the 1830s. The old track is a remnant of Monmouth County’s long history of racehorse breeding, before Kentucky became pre-eminent.

Equestrian stables such as Burlington Farm, on a colonial road laid over an ancient Native American path to the Atlantic, continue this tradition. My school was across the street, and the horses running through the fields and poking their heads through the mossy split-log fencing mesmerised me as a child. Springsteen’s daughter, Jessica, was just as taken by horses, though her parents had the means to actually own them. She learned on her father’s estate in neighbouring Colts Neck and is now a champion rider.

Dedicated Springsteen fans can a take tour of the area. Stan Goldstein and Jean Mikle, members of the Spring-Nuts fan club, runs Springsteen tours (from $20pp, book through NJ Rock Map). As well as Asbury Park, their four-hour tour also includes Freehold, taking in Springsteen’s Catholic elementary school, St Rose of Lima, and the Karagheusian rug mill, where his father worked and which made carpets for Radio City Music Hall and the US Supreme Court.

If exploring on your own, check out Federici’s Family Restaurant on 14 East Main Street. Owned for nearly 100 years by relatives of late founding E Street Band member Danny Federici, it is steeped in Italian-American and Springsteen history. Outside, in good weather, it’s one of the busiest downtown venues, with sidewalk seating near where bands play in summer. Much of the inside space is dark, cavernous and cosy, with booth seating and a menu heavy with Italian choices.

Nearby St Peter’s Episcopal is one of America’s last colonial churches and oldest continuous congregations. The current clapboard structure was begun in 1771. Construction halted in the Revolution, though it served as a storehouse and hospital during the Battle of Monmouth. As children, we were told the pews had patriots’ blood stains and there was a mass unmarked grave out front.

Freehold isn’t a big town: most places are within walking distance of the bus station, from which half-hourly buses run to Manhattan. He mentions the bus stop in My Hometown (on the Born in the USA album) as the place his eight-year-old self would buy his father a newspaper.

If staying overnight, try the American Hotel (doubles from $135 B&B), which dates from 1827 and the stagecoach era. The facade is a more New Orleans than Mid-Atlantic, with its ornate wrought iron balconies overlooking outdoor tables on East Main Street. The rebuilt interior maintains the large Federal-style wooden fireplace, but the 20 spacious rooms have a neutral modern feel. The hotel’s lobby and bar have long made the American Hotel an important social centre in the middle of town – a perfect place to raise a glass to the Boss’s hometown.

Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips

Sweet treats

More unwanted “stuff” at Christmas? No thanks – try giving something edible instead. Chocolate workshops at the National Trust’s medieval Powis Castle and Garden near Welshpool, include handmade chocolate robins and stars, and sparkly chocolate shards (19 December, £27.50). In York – original home of Rowntree’s and Terry’s factories – chocolate workshops at York Cocoa House range from drop-in lollipop-making (£3.75), to masterclasses on specialities, such as ganaches and caramels (various dates, £55 adult, £28 child).

In the Gloucestershire Hills, Harts Barn Cookery School in the Forest of Dean is running Christmas cookery classes throughout December, including children’s edible decorations and edible gifts classes (gingerbread men, marshmallow penguins, chocolate lollies and reindeer pretzels, 15 December, from £25), and Christmas chocolate-making for adults (1 December, £50), with truffles and more to take away.

For something savoury, learn the secrets of creating quick pickles at the Salt Box sustainably minded cookery school’s Pickle like a Pro workshop (11 December, £45) near Redhill in Surrey, which also includes a festive drink and a two-course meal. Classes take place in a private woodland glen and cosy barn.

Unusual ornaments

Piece Hall in Halifax – a recently restored 18th-century cloth hall that now has independent shops and eateries around its vast courtyard – is running a series of Christmas events and workshops, including making felt decorations with heritage cloth (17 December, £5.50) and felted snowman sessions for children (ages 6 and over, 21 December, £7.50).

In Surrey, the Royal Horticultural Society’s 97-hectare Wisley Garden – one of the UK’s most-visited gardens – has a workshop on “living baubles” – known in Japan as kokedama (£15, 4 December), alongside free children’s decoration-making sessions using woodland materials (14-15 December). Also for children, and inspired by a new exhibition, Flights of Fancy: the Wondrous World of Quentin Blake (running until April 2020), The National Trust’s Nymans house in West Sussex is running decoration workshops (various dates, £3).

In Glasgow, Locavore, an organic and sustainable food shop and cafe close to Queen’s Park, has a workshop (23 November, £10) on upcycling old books to become paper decorations, such as intricate snowflakes and folded trees.

Alternative wreaths

Choose from an array of textures and colours to make fabric wreaths at Water Lane Boathouse in Leeds’s Granary Wharf. The former 19-century shipment warehouse is now a laid-back waterside pub run by the team behind the city’s multi-arts venue, Belgrave Music Hall.

A few miles to the west in Saltaire, the preserved Victorian industrial village in Shipley, the Craft House will be running origami textile wreath workshops (£55, 14 December) and papercut light-up wreaths (£30, 24 Nov). Round the corner, Salts Mill, a former textile mill turned art centre, has shops, restaurants and Christmas events.

At the National Trust’s Gibside, an 18th-century estate in Tyne and Wear, there will be paper wreath-making sessions (£45, 7 December) in Garden Cottage in a restored walled garden. Also using paper, the NT’s Arlington Court near Barnstaple in Devon has festive paper flower wreaths sessions (£8, 23 December).

To go fully-zero waste, make decorations that can be eaten after use: on the edge of the Lake District, medieval Sizergh Castle and gardens near Kendal is running gingerbread decoration workshops (14-15 December, £3.50), for all ages.

Sustainable crackers

Brits pull an estimated 154m crackers every Christmas. Recent calls to ban them because of the amount of plastic waste they produce have seen a surge in eco-friendly alternatives. Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, in the centre of the historic Shropshire town, has eco cracker-making session (£20, 24 December), using recycled materials and filler choices including fair trade chocolate, handmade bath bombs and bee-friendly seed bombs.

As part of the Zero Waste Goods Christmas Market at the Boiler House, on Brick Lane in east London, fabric, plus natural and upcycled materials will be used to create reusable crackers (£24, including entry to the market, 7 December).

In Hull, UK City of Culture 2017, eco-cracker and wrapping paper workshops (4 December, £19.99), are on offer at cocktail bar and creative space the Brain Jar in the Old Town – named one of Britain’s “hippest neighbourhoods” last year. Run in association with nearby zero-waste store the Eco Shed, sessions will also include vegan mince pies and fizz.

Bristol – the UK’s first European Green Capital – is not to be outdone, of course. Craft company Hunter Gatherings is running eco-friendly cracker- and stocking-making workshops (from £28, various dates) at Convoy Espresso – a cafe in two Airstream trailers at the Paintwork creative quarter, and at Brockley Stores farm shop, 10 miles south-west of the city.

Upcycled wrapping

Shop-bought gift paper is often plastic-based and can’t be recycled. The National Botanic Gardens of Wales, in Llanarthney, is running a sustainable gift wrap and tag workshop (£11.50, 1 December, including entry into the gardens), using materials fully compostable or recyclable after use. In Dundee, zero-waste shop the Little Green Larder has an eco gift wrap workshop (30 November, £15), which includes paper, gift bags and cards, nibbles and a festive drink – all a 20-minute walk from the regenerated waterfront area and new V&A.

With the chance to create a linocut stamp to take away and use for printing your gift wrap every Christmas, Paper Moon Print Studio is running a workshop (11 December, £32) at Liverpool’s Static Gallery. This multi-arts venue is in a former warehouse close to the city’s creative Ropeworks district, which also made the “hippest neighbourhood” ranking last year. Also including a take-home stamp is a festive linocut workshop (27 November, £33), at Grade II-listed Didsbury Parsonage on the outskirts of Manchester.

In Coal Drops Yard, in London’s King’s Cross, independent printer Hato Press has festive gift wrap printing (£10 donation, all proceeds donated to Shelter, 28 November and 5 December), using FSC-certified and recycled paper . The workshops will be held at new indie magazine and clothing shop Kiosk N1C, part of a programme of charitable festive events in the shops and restaurants of this recently regenerated city space.

Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips

^{This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.}