I don't think I've ever got through an airport quicker. On Sunday, we returned from a week in Spain, apprehensive because, at the time of booking, we'd thought the Olympics started a week later. As it turned out, the Games had begun, and we feared we might be embroiled in the widely predicted travel mayhem. There was no sign of it. We could have chosen from one of four immigration officials, waiting queueless, to have our passports checked. I hope foreign visitors to the Games have the same experience.
Later this week, we'll withdraw to Ramsgate, where the television screen is as good as the one here. Trujillo, where we stayed in Spain, is a town of about the same population, and yet how different. I don't refer to the searing temperatures, the majestically scorched landscapes or the eagles circling overhead.
Nowhere in Britain is so redolent of the past. Shaken by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, the town patched itself up with iron clamps and went back to sleep, leaving the few modern motorists who venture here to squeeze along narrow, cobbled streets, as pedestrians flatten themselves in doorways. Hideous new-builds or garish shopfronts? There aren't any. Nor superstores. Can such a place exist? It already seems a dream.
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A Hampshire Manor for sale that dates back to the days of Alfred the Great, with the most beautiful staircase we've seen in yearsThe ten bedroom property features an indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi, spa complex and stables, and it was restored by the same architect who worked on Downing Street.
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'Champagne is not simply a place, it’s a symbol of excellence': How a quiet rural region shrugged off war, famine and pestilence to become the home of the ultimate luxury tippleTen years ago today the French region was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but what did it take for Champagne to be listed and what’s changed for the area since then?
