La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux, France, Opens Its Doors To the Wine Lovers of the World

It's Official! 

The World's First Wine Playground 

Opens to the Public 

June 1, 

in Bordeaux, France

 

 

 

La Cité du Vin is a brilliant new facility, opened officially by French President Hollande on May 31, and opened to the public on June 1. It is a museum, a wine bar, a wine-rich restaurant, a multi-sensory wine experience, and a totally immersive journey into the culture and history of wine, from Man's first sip of fermented liquid to the latest trends in winemaking, from all areas of the globe. It's ambitious in reach and completely and delightfully entertaining. whether you are a wine connoiseur or an infrequent sipper.

Situated on the left side of the Garonne River, in the Bacalan district of Bordeaux, this architecturally dramatic building is more than a shrine to wine. It is designed to be an immersive journey, an entertaining 'degustation' of wine history and its place in our culture. There are twenty two different modules, all interactive and controlled by hand held devices that give the visitor the ability to activate the many layers of sound, sight and even smell that each module can present.

 Open headsets, with output available in eight different languages, allow attention to the presentation, as well as permitting the wearer to still hear ambient conversation.

When I toured the facility, the workers were in countdown mode, almost done but finishing the last jobs to prepare for the French president's visit and the grand opening. And while all the details were not completely finished, it was obvious that this museum would not be a solemn or solely academic place of meditation on wine. Rather it is a living and energetic exploration, with opportunities to engage, to experiment, to taste and enjoy and, in the best way possible, to learn.

The restaurant on the seventh floor is a soothing and calm place to dine, with a rotating array of wine choices, and with one of the best views of the city of Bordeaux.

 The Belvedere, on the top floor, will be the place where visitors can choose a glass, from twenty different wines, that is included in their ticket price, and enjoy the wine while drinking in the 360 degree view of the city, the river  and the surrounding area.

There is also a wine bar and more casual eating area on the main floor, as well as a 60,000 bottle wine store and a centre where visitors can plan and book a tour of wine country. The terraces outside lead down to the river, and boats will take visitors on tours of wine chateaus that are close to the river.

The state of the art tasting rooms can be booked by groups, or individuals can join scheduled group tastings in one of the three tasting rooms. A library and reading room, the Thomas Jefferson Auditorium and an exhibition gallery are also part of the experience and will present wine culture from many angles.
If you love wine, are interested in the history of wine in world culture, or if you just enjoy a an entertaining culinary experience, La Cité du Vin is your kind of venue.

Entrance fees for La Cite du Vin are 20 euros pp, and include the hand helds and headsets, as well as one glass of wine in the Belvedere. Tickets can be booked in advance online. http://www.laciteduvin.com/en

Walk Through The Gardens With Royalty In Brussels, starting April 24.

The Royal Greenhouses at Laeken:

A Regal Spring Tonic in Brussels

Frank Lloyd Wright had a clear concept of how visitors should enter the spaces he had designed. He liked to keep the entrance hall low and dark and confined so that when you stepped out into the main room, the high ceiling space would come as a powerful perceptual shock, an enlargement that would cause the observer to stop and truly absorb the new space.
This has only tangentially to do with the travel experience I am going to tell you about, but it illustrates the way I came to it, and how it came to me.
I entered Brussels through a Frank Lloyd Wright hallway.
Arriving on the Eurostar after midnight, I walked through dark streets in a chilly rain. My hotel was a mere four blocks from the station, and I have an aversion to taxis - something about sitting in the back of a car being driven by a stranger has always creeped me out. So I was one of the only people on the rain slicked narrow street that led to the small square and my hotel, The Dominican. The lobby was dimly lit, the staff spoke in hushed tones and just on the periphery of sound was the somnolent chanting of monks. I was too preoccupied to take note.
The next morning I fussed about catching the right bus, changing to the correct line, and getting off at the designated stop. I shouldn't have worried. The driver remembered my fractured French request to notify me when to get off and most of the passengers were going to the same place. I grabbed my  camera, hugged my notebook to my chest and hurried after the crowd, intensely aware that my time was limited.
I stopped at the gilded gates to the Royal Gardens and that was the FLW moment. The surrounding neighbourhood fell away, and the rest of the crowd continued on through the gates, but I was halted in my tracks.

In front of me perfectly groomed lawns unrolled downhill, bordered by flowering trees. Under an immense blue sky, the glass cupolas of the greenhouses winked in the sun. Smells of damp earth, cut grass and camellias saturated the air. The transition from cramped and tight and dark, to large and open and light forced me to be totally present.
"Look,smell, touch, take this all in," a voice told me, " Be fully present in this moment." Maybe it was FLW, the engineer of such experiences whispering in my ear, or maybe it was Alphonse Balat, the architect who designed the greenhouses.

So perhaps the connection to FLW isn't so far off after all. The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, in the north section of Brussels, which I was about to experience, were designed by the architect Balat, the mentor of Victor Horta, the Belgian architect who is considered the father of European Art Nouveau design.
The greenhouses were commissioned by Leopold 11- evidence that even bad men can do good things- in 1873 and were to be "palaces of glass." The eleven structures that Balat created are to this day the finest example of glass and iron architecture in the world. And these are not your garden variety greenhouses- the cupola of the Winter Garden greenhouse soars high enough to allow a jungle of fully grown palm trees to exist comfortably beneath its glass curves.  There are colonnaded walkways, shaded arcades, graceful staircases, sculptural figures and miles of flower-filled glass rooms.

Picture a mass of jungle ferns, densely packed and toned in more shades of green than one can count, walls of camellias so perfect that only their scent reveals their reality, ceilings hung with fuchsia, glass-ceilinged rooms lined from floor to ceiling with geraniums, cyclamen and lilies.

One surprise is the perfectly preserved studio where the Belgian Queen Elisabeth painted , with her easel, painting supplies, and a carefully placed chair next to a window with views of the exterior gardens.

These garden houses are royal delights, usually reserved only for the pleasure of Belgian royalty, but for about three weeks a year, the public is permitted to tour the fabulous flower- filled rooms. It's a sensual experience that is well worth a special trip, all the more precious because the window for experiencing it is open for such a short time.

A walk through the Laeken greenhouses is a garden experience that feeds something in the soul, and is particularly welcome after the winter most Canadians have just endured. Do this if you possibly can.
It's the real Spring tonic.


If You Go:

The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken are open to the public this year from April 24 To May 14. Admission is $3.40 CAD (€2.50). I would advise visiting early. I began my tour just as the gates opened at 9:30 in the morning, and the crowds were still light. By midday the place was very busy. Also consider a night visit, when the greenhouses are lighted and there's a whole different feel to the gardens. Tours are self guided, although there are some French language guided tours. There's no restaurant, but some small food outlets and a very limited gift shop. This is not a commercialized attraction, but rather a valuable but short-lived chance to see these fabulous greenhouses and gardens at their best. Directions of how to get to the Royal Greenhouses can be found on the website: Closed Mondays.
http://www.belgiumtheplaceto.be/the_royal_greenhouses_of_laeken.php

Where To Stay

The Dominican
Rue Léopold / Leopoldstraat 9
1000 Brussels, Belgium

www.thedominican.be
This elegantly understated hotel, located in a former monastery, is a short walk from the main train station and within easy reach of buses that will take you anywhere you want to go in the city, including out to the Greenhouses. Rooms from $190 CAD ( €140)

Abu Dhabi – The Pearl Of The World

    

            The desert has always been the perfect backdrop for romance-  think Lawrence of Arabia, The English Patient, all the way back to Valentino’s 1921 movie, The Sheik, in which “a charming Arabian sheik becomes infatuated with an adventurous, modern-thinking Englishwoman and abducts her to his home in the Saharan desert”. 

So it is not surprising that Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte should run away to Abu Dhabi and the deserts of the United Arab Emirates when their New York lives threaten to become mundane, in 2010’s Sex in The City 2.  Its nickname is ‘the pearl of the world’.

While Dubai is the emirate that you hear most about, it is Abu Dhabi, with its more subdued profile, which became the nominative setting for the adventures of the Sex and the City girls. The capital of the emirate, also called Abu Dhabi, has wide boulevards, larger than life architecture and immense wealth.  And right on the doorstep of the city is the immensity of the desert. Perfect backdrop for a blockbuster movie. 

            It is a city that confounds categorization.  On one hand there are gleaming shopping centres, exclusive luxury hotels and expensive yachts anchored in the harbours.  This is a very wealthy city and it celebrates its abundance in daring architecture, like the Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) Building with its gigantic golf ball at the top or the pointy topped National Bank of Abu Dhabi building.  I saw cars parked casually in front of hotels that would make a car lover’s heart sing – and that you seldom see in the real world.  Shops team with gold jewellery, and perfumeries prepare personal blends of signature aromas for their customers.

            Abu Dhabi is also home to the seven star Emirates Palace Hotel, the most expensive hotel ever built.  It is a fairy tale hotel, with marble halls, gilded domes, and splashing fountains.  Suites open to balconies that look out on the Persian Gulf.  A private butler greets you with chilled champagne and hands over his card with his cell phone number, to be used “whenever there is a need.” Later in the evening, the bath has been drawn, with fresh rose petals sprinkled on the towels, and more petals beside the bed.  There are 114 domes, 1002 chandeliers, 13 restaurants, and a vending machine that dispenses gold. The ATM-style kiosk monitors the daily gold price and offers small bars up to 10 grams or coins with customized designs. It’s an experience tailor made for a Carrie Bradshaw.

            This is a hotel that is a destination in itself, outrageously luxurious, and imbued throughout with the romantic style of the Arabic world.

            But the ancient world lives on in Abu Dhabi.  There is much reverence for the Bedouin life style that existed in these parts up until oil became the driving force of the economy in the early sixties.  So you can see ancient dhows still plying the waterways.  In the souks, piles of dates, heaps of carpets, handicrafts and spices are offered in shops along narrow ally ways and at makeshift stalls and tables.  The Iranian Souk is one of the most authentic souks in Abu Dhabi, while the Al Meena Souk is the place to bargain for carpets. Go to the Madinat Zayed Gold Souk for good buys on jewellery.    In the fish market, local fishermen display their catch like artwork.

If you leave your window open, you’ll hear the muezzin echo through the city, calling its citizens to prayer, five times during the day.  In my hotel room, inside one of the drawers is a prayer rug and a compass.

There is a concerted effort to preserve the Arabic style in architecture, furnishings, and cuisine.  While almost any international cuisine is available, every corner has cafes and restaurants that offer the special foods of the Middle East.  A traditional meal will usually start with mezzeh, a selection of tasty appetizers, often including tabbouleh, hummus and falafel. Main courses include lamb infused with cardamom, saffron, turmeric and thyme, and the meal will end with desserts made from dates, pistachios, and honey, or muhalabiya, a milk pudding served with rose water and pistachios.   Before the meal, diners are welcomed with dates and small cups of ghawah, the fragrant and sweet Arabic coffee .And after the meal, there’s usually  a hookah or ‘shisha’ to help you relax.  This exotic water pipe bubbles smoke through water, and can be spiced up with flavours like lavender, vanilla, cherry, cinnamon, or orange.

The Anar Restaurant in the Emirates Palace Hotel does elegant Persian food, while the Abdel Wahab, near the Grand Mosque serves a simpler take on Emirati and Lebanese dishes.

While most restaurants, particularly those in the large hotels, serve alcohol, many will not serve alcoholic drinks before sundown during Ramadan, the month long Islamic holiday that requires fasting from sun-up to sun down.   This year Ramadan runs from early August to early September

            One of the surprising facts about Abu Dhabi is that less than 20 percent of the population are UAE.  The bulk of the population is made up of expatriates.  That means that the atmosphere of the city is more cosmopolitan and more liberal than one would expect in a predominantly Muslim country.  While it is good manners to respect the conservative mode of dress of the city, most forms of dress are seen on the streets with no problem.  Within hotels and resorts, there are no dress restrictions. 

One of the startling contrasts I witnesses was on the beach in front of the Rotana Hotel.  On a lounge chair, a woman relaxed in the shade, dressed in a black abaya that covered her completely from head to toe.  On the adjacent lounge, another woman sunned in a tiny bikini.  Neither one seemed to be bothered by the other.

            This is a city of beaches.  Abu Dhabi is actually a T-shaped island, connected by bridges to other islands and to the mainland.  There are over 400 kilometres of coastline.  The Corniche, the elegant walking path in the centre of the city, is a favourite place for walking, jogging or biking, and is lined with cafes and shops.  A white sand beach stretches for 2 kilometres along its length, and there are landscaped parks and picnic grounds.

            Day trips from the city into the desert give visitors the chance to experience the nomadic life of the Bedouins.  You can visit the large camel market at Al Ain, where white robed locals barter for the best camels, and you can see every size, from babies to full grown, of this ancient ‘ship of the desert’.  You can ride a camel through the dunes, sleep in a Bedouin tent and dine under the stars in an encampment. A popular activity is dune bashing, or wadi bashing, where practised drivers take you on hair-raising races through the desert, sliding down the sides of one dune and skidding up the next.  You can even surf the sand dunes, or play golf on sand links, with a portable circle of grass that you tee off from.

            If you tire of the sand, Al Ain, 150 kilometres from Abu Dhabi, is the ‘garden city of the Gulf’, an oasis in the sand and the home of the Royal family.  It is a much more rural city, with a National Museum, the Hili Archaeological Park and surprisingly, an Olympic sized ice skating rink.  me of the best scuba diving in the world is to be found in the clear waters of the Persian Gulf.

            This is one of the safest and most cosmopolitan cities in the UAE, and I felt very

comfortable here.  Most people speak English and there is a casual acceptance of western ways, while the life style and history of the desert region has been both preserved and celebrated. 

            Abu Dhabi is the perfect city to begin an exploration of the Middle East.

Travel Information

 The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven Arab emirates, with Abu Dhabi being the largest, and the capital.  It also has the largest oil reserves.

Canadians do not require a visa to visit Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Airways has three direct flights a week from Toronto to Abu Dhabi.

www.etihadairways.com

Where to Stay:

www.emiratespalace.com

www.rotana.com

General Information:

www.visitabudhabi.ae

www.abudhabitourism.ae

© Barbara Ramsay Orr

The Hague: The Widow of Indonesia

The Dutch Royal City

 The Hague is often called The Widow of Indonesia as many of the 

plantation owners and employees of the Dutch East India Company 

came from here and returned to here.  The exotic flavours they brought back 

show up in almost evey corner of this elegant Dutch city.

Morning sun streams in through large windows, bouncing off white linen and silver, and making the red velvet chairs glow. In one corner, men in conservative business suits and crisp white shirts sit drinking their morning coffee and consulting their iPhones. 

It’s eight am on Monday morning in the Hotel des Indes, the favoured headquarters for lawyers, politicians and diplomats who conduct business in The Hague.  And since this is the Royal City, home of the World Court and the Dutch parliament, there is much serious business to be done.

There’s a problem, though.

Step outside the revolving brass doors of Hotel des Indes, and you face the seductive charms of the Lange Voorhout.  A corridor of green linden trees, a famous bi-weekly outdoor antique market, little secret gardens, and casual sidewalk cafes make thinking about business difficult.

Welcome to the vibrant dichotomy that is The Hague, a city that has been labelled the greenest city in Northern Europe as well as the world centre for peace and justice.   Its decisions affect the whole world, and its Indonesian rijstaffel is world famous.

Somehow these competing elements manage to strike a balance – the serious business of world issues and governance finds a comfortable fit with the not so serious business of enjoying the simpler pleasures of life – dining, shopping, lounging in the sun and people watching, in this, one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities.

First you have the unexpected juxtaposition of buildings in the old city.  The elegant town houses and embassies that line the Lange Voorhout as it parades up to the 13^th century Binnenhof, the buildings that house the Dutch parliament, could be illustrations in a textbook of classical architecture. 

But raise your eyes above the Binnenhof and you’ll see the modern skyline, where tall skyscrapers are multiplying.  It doesn’t feel like a disconnect, however.  There are traditional canal house design elements suggested in several shapes.  In typical Dutch fashion, the locals have given each building a nickname – the pristine white city hall designed by Richard Meier is called “The Candy Box”, the green domed one is labelled “The Citron Press” and  Michael Graves’ Castalia, the new Ministry of Health building, is deemed “The Tits of Den Haag”  because of its two distinctive pointed towers.

But there are more layers to the architectural landscape of the city. The Hague is the Art Nouveau capital of the Netherlands. Remember to look up often as you walk through the streets of Den Haag to see the architectural details that have been preserved above shops and cafes.

 

Walk away from the Binnenhof and find the Denneweg, then turn right along Jagerstraat and left onto Smidwater.  Here you’ll find #26, a faithful example of Art Nouveau architecture that is privately owned and in the process of being restored to its former glory.  The mail slot is a very cool stylized cat.

In contrast, just across the canal is #16 Nieuwe Uitleg, where the exotic dancer and suspected spy Mata Hari lived.

The Bijenkorf Department Store in the Grote Markt area is a fine example of The Amsterdam School of architecture. 

Radiating out from this sedate city heart are streets that bend and twist, opening onto ‘pleins’, or squares, offering seductive shopping and cafes that lure you to linger for a coffee and a stroopwaffel, the thin waffle cookie with a thick syrup in the middle that the Dutch make so well.  

The shopping is good. Along Hoogestraat you’ll find Ogen, Eduard Pelger, Dunklemens (famous for its croquettes), all up market Dutch shops.  If remarkable undergarments interest you, be sure to visit Marlies Dekkers’ shop on the Denneweg to pick up a unique and provocative ‘little nothing’. Amble by the interesting shops in the grand glass roofed Passage, or swan around in the cafes and sops in the new Haagshe Bluf (The Hague Boast!).

The Nooreinde is acknowledged to be the most fashionable shopping street. The Maison de Bonneterie is an upscale department store that is frequented by Queen Beatrix.  Pauw, Purdey and Hoogeweegen Rouwers are rumoured to be favourite shops of the young Dutch royals.  Gallery Arte Fortunata features artist Bas Meeuws whose photographs of floral still life, epoxy-sealed on metal, are an homage to the golden age masterpieces of Bosschart and  van Aelst.

And further along, on the Paleis promenade, cheek by jowl with the shops and galleries, is the Paleis Noordeinde, Queen Beatrix’s working palace.  It is not open to the public, but you can walk through the restful palace gardens on the opposite side. 

Farther out from the centre in the well treed neighbourhoods that are home to many ambassadors, there’s the imposing bulk of the Peace Palace, home of the International Court of Justice.

If it wasn’t already difficult to concentrate on work in this lively metropolis, there is the added allure of the beach. A fifteen minute tram ride brings you to a whole new face of The Hague.  The beach culture at Scheveningen lures city dwellers out to swim in the North Sea, walk the miles of white beaches and gentle dunes or to lounge in the sun on plump sofas with a glass of cold beer in one of the many clubs along the boardwalk.  The candy-confection Kurhaus Hotel sits like a Victorian lady in the middle of the boardwalk busyness.  There are evening fireworks shows over the pier all summer.

 

 

Another compelling distraction is the museums of The Hague, the city’s real treasures.  The Mauritshaus, labelled the most beautiful museum in the world by the New York Times, is hands down my favourite museum.  The building has just re-opened after extensive renovations.  It is a small museum, but its collection, displayed in high ceilinged rooms painted in jewelbox colours, is spectacular. It contains some of the most famous works from the old Dutch Masters, including Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft, Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp  and Carel Fabritius’ Goldfinch. 

The Escher Museum, housed in a former palace on the Lange Voorhout, the Museum Het Paleis, displays the convoluted works of the famous Dutch Graphic artist.

The Gemeentemuseum (Municipal Museum) specializes in classical modern art, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Monet, Sisley, Degas, Bacon and a large collection of Mondrians. The building was designed by Hendrik Berlage, a Dutch architect who pioneered modern archtiecure.

A visit to Panorama Mesdag, the oldest 19th-century panorama in the world that's still in its original site, is like a journey to the past.  It is a cylindrical painting from 1881, created by Hendrik Willem Mesdag of The Hague School.  It shows a vista of the sea and the dunes at Scheveningen.

These are all special museums, beguiling to any art lover, and they add a cultured edge to the city.

There’s plenty of inducements to linger over dinner. You can dine here very well.  The Hague is often called The Widow of Indonesia as many of the plantation owners and employees of the Dutch East India Company came from here and returned to here.

Garoeda is one of many Indonesian restaurants specializing in the Rijstaffel, or Rice Table, a dizzying collection of dishes served on a bed of rice.

“The rijstaffel is more Dutch than Indonesian in style,” says my guide Remco. “We don’t like to waste anything, so the ladies who ran households on plantations wouldn’t throw out the leftovers.  Instead they had them served in a collection, with rice, at the end of the week.”  Now it’s a culinary tour de force of Indonesian specialties, but it was originally the result of Dutch parsimony. 

Reflecting the multicultural nature of its people, The Hague has many international restaurants.  Wox is a new Japanese fusion restaurant near the Hojviver, the pond that surrounds the parliament.  You can watch Dutch parliamentarians coming and going from its windows.

Saur is one of the best fish restaurants in the city, while Taste is a wine bar with an outdoor patio that looks out to the hojviver and the Mauritsthaus. T’Ogenblik is a sweet café that was recently voted the restaurant with the best service in the Netherlands.

Cafes like It’s Raining Fishes and Pulchri have hidden garden patios for a quiet meal and there are quaint prooflocals like Djuiden on …  to enjoy a chilled jenever, the Dutch style gin, at the end of an evening.

Be sure to stop at the Pizza Hut at the Noordeinde 140, not for the pizza but to look at the interior.  The building dates from 1707, and the ceiling decoration and fireplace are original. 

And when work get too oppressive, locals can slip away to sit in one of the 100 or so hidden hofjes, enclosed garden residences originally built as almshouses to house the elderly poor, but now lovely secluded garden apartments.

It may be difficult to stay focused on work in The Hague, but it is very easy to enjoy the pleasures of this worldly city. 

Info:

Getting There: Air Transat, Air Canada, fly regularly to Schiphol Airport.  Catch the train out of the airport and you will be in The Hague in about forty minutes.  There are frequent trains each hour.

Getting Around:  This is an easily walkable city but there is also a convenient network of trams that will take you all through the city and out to the Dunes.

Where to Stay

Hotel Des Indes

Lange Voorhout 54-56

www.desindes.nl

River Cruising: A Room with a (Constantly Changing ) View

 A Room With a View:  River Cruising on Avalon’s Panorama

The world’s most expensive book, in the Gutenburg Museum in Mainz, an historic mustard factory in Cochem, an underground disco in an abandoned subway station in Frankfurt, and a mechanical monkey that plays the violin in the Mechanical Instrument Museum in Rüdesheim,  – all are intriguing discoveries to be made on a Rhine and Moselle River cruise.

But even more attractive than that is the discovery that you can open the curtains in your new stateroom on board the Panorama and watch the castles drift by at 6:30 in the morning, still in your PJ’s if you like.  That’s the kind of sybaritic extension to the day that I can’t resist. 

It’s not that I’m lazy – the rest of my day will be active and full, but the possibility of starting the day like this, with the window open to the fresh river air, and a cup of coffee from the cappuccino machine in the club lounge is so appealing.

I’m not alone.  River cruising on ships like the Panorama is part of a growing demand from seasoned, and beginner, cruisers.

When Lisa Wilkinson, popular Australian media and television star, christened the Panorama, she was naming a boat that was already a success story.  Even before the ship’s official touring season began with its first passengers coming on board in the spring of 2011, the first season of the Panorama was 98% booked 

According to CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) the cruise industry is the fastest growing travel segment in the world, and river cruising has had a compounded increase of 10% a year since 2004. 

  So popular are the river cruises that Avalon's sister ships the Vista and the Visionary, have been added to the fleet.

The growth in river cruising is partly the result of a general increase in the number of people cruising, but is also due to the advances in design and upgraded amenities on the newer ships.  Instead of the dark and small cabins of early river boats, as on the first river cruise I took in the early 90’s, new river boats have adopted many of the features of their larger ocean-going sisters. 

The new Panorama boasts some of the largest cabins in the industry, at 200 square feet, with full length floor to ceiling windows that open to French balconies, marble clad bathrooms, L’Ocittaine amenities, wifi throughout the ship, a full fitness centre, larger viewing deck and elegant gourmet dining.  Wine and beer are included, as are excursions, guided walking tours and state-of-the-art digital earphones.  The Avalon fleet has some of the youngest ships in the industry.  Although the company only started in 2004, it has already retired two ships, and  expanded to eleven ships in 2012.

The charm of the river cruise, though, remains in its ability to give its passengers close and intimate connection with the countries they visit.  Shore excursions offer more time ashore, with a variety of excursions and an emphasis on the local culture. This all comes with the convenience of a cruise, one time unpacking, your own comfortable room, all inclusive meals and access to the ship-board amenities.

Avalon’s 2014 itineraries range from European river cruises to Yangtze and Nile sailings to Galapagos expeditions, and new itineraries on the Mekong River in Vietnam.

All good reasons to take to the river this cruising season.

For more information on Avalon Waterways Cruises, visit www.avalonecruiseline,com

© Barbara Ramsay Orr

    

A Royal Stay in Ireland

Play The Princess at An Irish Country Estate: Ballyfin

I think every old house has a ghost. 

The owners don’t always admit to having hangers-on from the other side, and perhaps they are only vestigially aware of sharing space with a spirit. But open your inner eye when you visit a much-lived-in space, and you may find that there’s a shadow in the room that isn’t yours.

I sensed another presence as I lay in a cloud of bubbles in the deep tub in the Butler Room’s rococo bathroom at Ballyfin.  The soap was handmade and redolent with roses and sandalwood, the water was warm and I had had a long day in chilly weather. But just as my lids lowered in bliss, the door to the bathroom whispered open and there he was, -James Butler, the Duke of Ormond. 

He was still wearing his armour and battle regalia from his successful leadership of the Irish Loyalists during the mid seventeenth century. His regard was regal, disdainful perhaps, but not unappreciative. He was not a frightening presence, just a tad supercilious.

It is true that the breeze from the open window in the sitting room could have opened the door, and that William Wissing’s portrait of James Butler above the fireplace was in direct sight line of my bathtub, but I know the Duke paid me a visit.

There isn’t a property in Ireland more deserving of interesting ghosts than Ballyfin. Nestled at the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains in County Laois, the house is today one of the world’s best country manor estate hotels.  The restored neo-Georgian estate, voted best new resort in the world for 2012 by the Robb Report, is an hour from Dublin and sits on 610 verdant acres with walled gardens, a large lake, grottoes and riding paths.

The house has been ranked as one of the finest homes in Ireland ever since it was first built, in 1823. It served as the country home of the Coote family until 1923, when it was no longer comfortable to be an Anglo-Protestant in Ireland. 

The family sold the property to a Catholic Brotherhood who ran it as a school until they were no longer able to afford the upkeep. It sat in deteriorating condition until 2002 when American Fred Krehbiel and his wife Kay bought the property and began a decade long renovation.

The result is a sumptuous fifteen room hotel, with public rooms decorated with authentic period antiques, gilded ceilings, Chippendale mirrors, significant Irish art and restored parquetry floors.  The library, with a large fireplace at either end, is stocked with 18^th century books, as well as today’s Irish Times.  Each bedroom is different, with massive bathrooms, modern amenities and king sized four poster beds. 

The Butler room where I slept is decorated in shades of soft rose and cream, with a venerable tapestry above the marble surrounded bath. The in-room bar is stocked with elderberry water and Riedel glasses, organic juices, mineral water, and locally made treats. Stacks of art book sit on the side table. And, I swear, spirits are lingering comfortably in the corners.

This is a house that has seen everything, - from death to deception, from love to betrayal, from wealth to hardship. There must be ghosts. If not ghosts, then some lingering fog of character that hangs in the air and gives a night spent here a haunting resonance.

Don’t be afraid. It’s just history, reaching out to tap you gently on the shoulder.

.

If You Go

Rates: 2013: from May to September, from CAD $815 – $2173, per room per night, includes full board, all amenities of the estate, drinks, laundry, unpacking service and wifi.

Contact

Ballyfin Demesne

Ballyfin, County Laois

Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)5787 55866

www.ballyfin.com