If had to pick a weekend getaway it would be Seville again and again.   I have been travelling to Seville for almost 15 years now and everytime I come I find something new.  However its the kind of place that everytime you go you need to do the same things and see the same places and eat the same food like a ritual. 

In 2015 I travelled to Tulum which is on the south coast of the Yucatan on the Caribbean Sea about 2 hours from Cancun.  Unfortunately beaches were piled high with meters of rotting Sargasso Seaweed that had washed in blocking access to the water.   This unfortunate event would lead me on an adventure into the interior of the Yucatan that lead me to discover the city and region around Merida, a place most people have never heard of let alone been to.  Yet it is one of the most fascinating and culturally rich places I have ever been.

Buenos Aires is one of the most interesting and complex places I have ever been.  Usually When I arrive in cities, particularly ones I have never been to I usually go for a long run or a long walk to try and get the lay of the land.  When I arrived in Buenos Aires and started to explore the city I simply started off going the wrong way.  My first impression was terrible,  a city that seemed to be a concrete jungle of cars and poverty, pollution and decay.   

Gilbert & Sullivan was my gateway "drug" to classical music and Opera.  If it was not for my fateful wandering into an audition for a production of H.M.S. Pinafore at the University of Western Ontario in 1993 I would never have found my way into the classical music world or even of met my wife, who was in the chorus of that production.   The Carl Rosa Opera which in my early career was my biggest employer having done around 750 performances for them,in 2004 asked if I wanted to do a production of H.M.S. Pinafore directed by the great British actor Timothy West, he was also to star as Sir Joseph Porter, well who wouldn't?   Hitting all the major cities of Oz and NZ it was an easy answer.  We spent two months travelling around both countries and it was an eye opening experience

Denmark is wonder of a country, fantastic cities and spectacularly beautiful country side,  and surprisingly warm and blue seas.  To me it is one of THE culinary destinations.  In some countries children aspire to be doctors or lawyers or in Greece ship owners, but in Denmark you almost get the feeling that they aspire to be chefs.  The Danish and Copenhagen specifically has gone through a food revolution in recent years and it seems everywhere you turn there is someone in chef whites walking down the street.  So many windows at street level with the smell of bread, pastry or food wafting out filled with busy chefs or bakers toiling, it really is a wonder.   Its was no surprise to me that Noma was named the worlds best restaurant 2010, 2011 and 2012 and was 2nd or 3rd '09, '13 and '15. 

IN THE BEGINNING

Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford' - for you, Samuel Johnson, 1777
 
London is where it all began.