1066 And All That
Re-live history in the United Kingdom, see what Santa gets up to in Finland, motorcycle race through Europe; enjoy Vodka on the rocks in Sweden. Many alternative tours for alternative minds.

Every schoolchild that goes through the British education system knows or ought to know about the year 1066. It is a date etched on their memory, a date ingrained in their culture. (The book “1066 and All That” helped – it is a humorous, history book by W.C.Sellar and R.J. Yeatman that has itself become part of British history.) The Duke of Normandy aka William the Conquerer believed he was the rightful King of England, so he invaded and defeated the then Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14th October 1066. It has such significance that the famous battle is still re-enacted annually in a field at the East Sussex village of Battle (the original site), near the larger town of Hastings. History runs deep in the United Kingdom, which is why it is so fascinating a place to visit. Unearthing it is perhaps a little more difficult because of modern encroachment, but it is there, carefully preserved. A trend emerging among visitors to the country is experiencing life as it was in the past, yet with the advantage of having today’s modern creature comforts close to hand. Many historical events are re-enacted by enthusiasts, the re-enactment in Battle in July/August being just one of many. The nearest five star accommodation is at the De Vere Grand Hotel in Brighton and The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. Four-star comfortable accommodation is more readily available nearer these attractions.

In the same county as Battle is Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, one of King Henry VIII’s wives, where another history lesson unfolds. Lance wielding horsemen in full gear gallop across the massive lawns of the castle and smash into each other in jousting competitions held during the summer months. This thirteenth century romantic castle is set in magnificent gardens and holds a yew maze that challenges the best of us. This year on 22, 29, 30 July and most weekends in August is a jousting tournament open to the public. Foot soldiers using medieval style weapons set the scene. On 23 July and on 12, 27, 28 August, Tudor archer defend themselves against a band of heavily armed foot soldiers. Tudor archers had to be swift and true with the longbow –at least 12 arrows a minute.

Pride of Place
Groombridge Place near to Hever Castle and Tunbridge Wells dates back to the late 1600, and is a private home although the gardens are open to the public during the summer. It illustrates perfectly how you cannot beat an English summer. It was uses recently for the film Pride and Prejudice, for which the production crew transformed the house into ‘Longbourn’, the Bennet family home of late 18th Century shabby chic. Dame Judi Dench was sometimes seen talking to locals in the nearby village between breaks. “Up North” in Lincolnshire, the Peak District and Derbyshire re-live the movie and famous Jane Austen book. See www.visitprideandprejudice.com

A discreet, conveniently situated, hotel and restaurant tucked away in the Sussex countryside about half an hour from Gatwick airport is Gravetye Manor, a beautiful sixteenth century Elizabethan manor. Within thirty acres of historical gardens, the hotel offers eighteen ensuite bedrooms and holds a Michelin Star for its restaurant. Ideal for a special family occasion or important event, you can take over the entire hotel from October to April. Check it out at  www.gravetyemanor.co.uk

For those serious about wanting to step back in time and feel, breath, eat and sleep history you can stay in an apartment in Hampton Court, Henry VIII’s palace on the banks of the Thames, or spend a night in the Garden House of Powis Castle, a spectacular medieval castle that was home to Welsh princes. There’s also Traquair Castle, Scotland's oldest inhabited house,  and in county Durham Lumley Castle offers accommodation plus medieval banquets, murder mystery parties and is an ideal venue for a fairytale wedding. See www.noordinaryhotels.co.uk  At Lumley Castle the accommodation is in keeping with the time, quirky, with no two rooms the same -  a  four poster bed or a bathroom could be concealed behind a wardrobe door or a bookcase. The castle also holds medieval banquets; here, the year is 1591. Guests are expected to dress in costumes according to the period. Wine, mead, fine food, feasting using the tools of the time (that is, your hands) is all part of the fun. Serving wenches and court jesters add to a truly authentic atmosphere. Elizabethan Banquets here are held most weekends and can also be booked exclusively for private parties, weddings or corporate events.

Jumping forward in time to a 20th-century building: BoveyCastle, set within 368 square miles of the DartmoorNational Park in South West England, is an Edwardian mansion built in 1906, which has been transformed into a holiday retreat with the ambience of a permanent house-party of the 1920s and 30s - straight out of an Agatha Christie novel.  Wales has more than a fair share of castles. At PenhowCastle in the south, the oldest lived-in castle in Wales dating from the 17th century, it is stark but authentic. If castle watching is your passion it is worthwhile buying a GreatBritishHeritagePass, especially if you plan to visit several different places. This pass gives access to more than 600 castles, houses and gardens, including the royal residences. A useful website is www.castles-of-britain.com

ne such castle worth visiting is Arundel Castle in West Sussex, where the Duke and Dutchess of Norfolk still live – it has been open to visitors seasonally for nearly 200 years. It is one of the Treasure Houses of England, where priceless works of art, paintings, furniture, tapestries, stained glass, china and clocks, sculptures, heraldry and armour are available to view in stunning room settings. From the Castle’s Keep, the views of the River Arun, the sea, the town and the Downs are spectacular, provided you can climb the 131 steps to the top. Exclusive guided tours for corporate or conference groups are also available, see http://www.arundelcastle.org

Sample a wee dram
And for a taste of Scottish history, try a whisky tasting tour. Famous distilleries like Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, Glenfiddich and the like can be explored and obviously, sampled. No need to say more. http://www.celticlegend.co.uk For the more energetic, Scotland’s offers traditional sports such as shooting for grouse, pheasant, partridge and deer. Mansfield Estate covering nearly 30,000 acres of Perthshire from the River Tay at Scone to the grouse moor of North Logiealmond, is a fine example. Estates in England, Scotland and Wales have access to shoots at certain times of the year, some of which offer transport by helicopter. The Roxburghe Hotel & Golf Course near the village of Heiton http://www.roxburghe.net has a season from August to December each year for experienced guns, and for parties of eight. The two grouse moors, Rawburn and Byrecluegh, are the most exclusive in Scotland and have an abundance of game.

Drag hunting which came about in 1863 is an exciting traditional sport, which should not be confused with fox hunting. The debate on the latter sport being banned in the UK continues furiously. In drag hunting, a pack of hounds follows a scent trail laid by a human over a pre-determined route rather than pursuing a live quarry. Hounds are the same as those used for fox hunting, and many packs throughout the UK gather on Sunday mornings, the black or red jackets of the riders present a scene so typically English. www.bloodhoundhunting.co.uk or www.bb-draghounds.co.uk
It is only a tiny glimpse of a different view of the United Kingdom that can be offered in this supplement; there is so much more out there to suits every conceivable taste. For information on visiting the UK visit www.visitbritain.com . At any time of the year the United Kingdom is a fascinating place to be.

Hot Property in Montenegro
The little country of Montenegro tucked among the Balkan states and touching the Mediterranean, surrounded by Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania and close to Italy, has been called “the pearl of the Mediterranean”. Unique in many ways, it offers natural beauty, clean air, clear lakes, unspoilt beaches, craggy coastline and picturesque mountain scenery, plus of course the spectacular blue of the Adriatic Sea. Despite its turbulent history Montenegro is reconstructing its tourism industry, and recently the World Travel and Tourism Council identified Montenegro as the “fastest growing travel and tourism economy in the world". Confirmed by the kilometres of construction work going on along its 300km of coastline, it is attracting investment from all corners of the world. Property there is hot news and, according to property agents Dream Property Montenegro based there, UK, Ireland and in Germany, there are some risks but also huge gains to be made. www.visit-montenegro.com

Finish the Year with a Finnish Christmas
A fascinating tradition and a great experience for children of any culture is to pile into a jet and head towards the North Pole to visit Lapland – home of the fabulous “Santa Claus”. Lapland is on the Arctic Circle in Finland, and many tour operators organise a complete Finnish Christmas extravaganza. Even residents of this small country await the arrival of Christmas with great excitement and many preparations. You can join in with the festivities which could include the initial hunt for a Christmas tree, sleigh rides pulled by reindeers or dogs, snowmobile rides, skiing, skating, bob-sledging, traditional Christmas food, the "tiernapojat" tradition of wandering musicians, Christmas markets and other and traditional Christmas festivities. The idea is to celebrate Christmas as a time to promote peace on earth and good will towards all people.

While there you may be lucky enough to see the curious natural phenomenon known as Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. On clear nights the northern skies magically transform into unearthly swirling displays of coloured light, eerie yet beautiful. The scientific explanation is that these lights are caused by matter from solar storms colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere. In northern Finland these may be visible on clear nights up to 200 times a year, and in the south about 20 times a year. http://www.visitfinland.com

Vodka on the Rocks
Much of the last James Bond movie Die Another Day saw Pierce Brosman shooting his way through a supposed ice hotel, which was possibly where many people first thought about the concept. While the film’s hotel was made of plastic, there are bonafide, made-from-frozen-water hotels in Sweden, Quebec, Alaska and now Greenland – in fact these are fast becoming trendy winter holiday destinations. Giant igloos? A bit more sophisticated that than that – ice hotels have come a long way since the first was built in 1989 in a village called Jukkasjärvi north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden (see www.icehotel.com for more details). In Kangerlussuaq, Greenland there is the more modest Hotel Igloo Village, and in the United States is the Aurora Ice Hotel at the Chena Hot Springs Resort in Fairbanks, Alaska. This season’s Ice Hotel Quebec www.icehotel-canada.com, which was modelled on the original Swedish Ice Hotel, was made from 15,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice, covered 3,000 m², it had 21 rooms and 13 theme suites able to accommodate more than 84 people a night. Construction here and in ice hotels around the globe generally begins each year in October, and the hotel is open for guests from December through to April. By summer the hotel is not longer – it has melted away. The structure is made from ice blocks and hard-packed snow, which remain firm all winter as outside temperatures often reach – 40 deg C. “Furniture” is created from sheer ice and this year an ice chandelier hung from its 18 foot (5.4 metres) ceiling. The guest rooms contain beds made of a block of ice and topped with a foam mattress. You sleep in high-tech type sleeping bags and although room temperature is below freezing, your body remains warm. Next to the bedrooms are ablutions in a heated and lit building with conventional facilities. Most guests stay only one night in an ice room; ordinary heated hotel rooms are available nearby for longer stays.

It takes approximately five weeks to erect this architectural masterpiece. Every year the general structure remains the same, but the design and décor is revitalized, and the hotel will contain 32 rooms and theme suites, an ice bar serving vodka-based drinks (beer would freeze), an ice chapel for “white” weddings, two exhibition areas, an immense lobby with a chandelier lit by fibre optics, two interior courtyards, a cinema, jacuzzis and functional fireplaces, and a reception room.

The sixth season of the Ice Hotel Québec-Canada ran from January 6th to April 2nd, 2006, so now is the time to book for next winter.  The hotel is located at Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier and accessible by car or shuttle from Quebec City. Guests can indulge in guided tours, special events, weddings ceremonies, and of course overnight stays. Winter activities on-site include dog sledding, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, ice-fishing and skating. For tourism information, visit Quebec tourism www.tourisme.gouv.qc.ca and the Quebec City Tourism Board www.quebecregion.com .

The Ice Hotel Quebec-Canada, in partnership with Ice Hotel Sweden, has plans for a future project -  a third Ice Hotel to be created in Western North America.

The Cannonball Run 2006
Some of us might remember Burt Reynolds in the Cannonball movies – they were fun capers based on US coast-to-coast road car races in the 1970s. The original 
Cannonball story actually started in the 1900s when Erwin G ‘Cannon Ball’ Baker bought an Indian motorcycle and became a die-hard motorcycle rider, setting multiple records for endurance and all-out coast-to-coast runs. He earned the name as he used to, rather unconventionally, race trains and he gathered followers from the biking fraternity. Bikes later made way for car drivers in defiance of the US 55 mph speed limit which was enforced at that time, and so various speed races were spawned. All went quiet until in 2002 and 2003 there was a European revival of the run, and various cars and various people took part in it – but this time it had simply developed into a bumper-to-bumper jam on some occasions and endless stretches of boring motorway on others.

So in 2005 the organisers of the original European Cannonball for cars - Wildside Adrenalin Sports Ltd - decided it was time to get back to the roots, and so The Cannonball Bike Run was born and on August 24th 2005. The format was simple: four days full-on riding, no motorways, just the very best mountain roads and no rules.

Setting off to widespread predictions of doom they confounded the critics and returned to party at the Eiffel Tower having conquered 26 mountain summits (including the highest road in Europe), 1500 miles and four countries. There were no accidents and just one speeding ticket.

For 2006 the organisers have announced a new National Team competition to run alongside the individual title. Entries have come from Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Australia, USA, Trinidad and Tobago. The route will take in seven countries over five days, with a maximum of 75 riders. The official start will take place from an undisclosed historic castle in central Europe. The 1600-mile route is a well-guarded secret because the unknown is part of the fun, but it is clear that Venice will host the Cannonballers for one night and the final night party will be staged on a tower twice as high as the 2005 venue in the Eiffel Tower.

The event includes first class treatment throughout with luggage being transferred directly between the luxury hotels plus technician back-up and support provided during the Run. The entry fee is £1599 per bike/rider and the price includes everything apart from fuel. The flag drops on August 22nd and it all ends Sunday 27th August 2006.

Chocolate Tours in Paris
In the Joanne Harris novel Chocolat there’s a piece that reads: “..I sell dreams, small comforts, sweet harmless temptations to bring down a multitude of saints....Is that so bad?” referring to the heroine’s profession as a maker of fine chocolates. There’s nothing wrong with that as far as millions of people are concerned, I mean anyone that makes chocolate IS a saint! So what about those that give Chocolate Tours – in Paris? What shall we call them? Call this one David Lebovitz, a pastry chef, culinary guide and author of The Great Book of Chocolate, who organises chocolate tours in Paris. Called the Paris Bakery & Chocolate Tour, you will scour the historic streets of Paris seeking out the best of these tempting small comforts in every nook and cranny, from the best contemporary chocolate boutiques to the city’s most famous rustic bakery which among other delicacies, offers “the flakiest tarts imaginable” baked in ancient wood-fired ovens. Mr Lebovitz and company will visit a former pharmacy, now a chocolate shop, which once prescribed chocolate as a remedy, and a professional baking shop where you can buy slabs of French chocolates, buttery Breton caramels, and aromatic vanilla beans.

Your tour can include a visit to an open-air market selling fresh garden produce, fragrant herbs and spices, fruity olive oils, and regional specialties. There’s also a culinary supermarket in Paris to peruse, featuring extraordinary foods from all over the world such as sparkling tropical sugars, luminous fruits and hand-harvested salts. Each one-day tour lasts 6 hours and is flexible as it is custom-made.

There are also longer chocolate exploration tours, which include tastings, hand-on cooking classes, wine and goat cheese sampling, and these run from 7-12 May and 5-8 November 2006. To reserve a date for a personalised tour, or for further information email david@davidlebovitz.com or see http://www.davidlebovitz.com

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