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By David, March 1, 2010

As you may know, I’m a bit of a Formula One fan and one of the benefits of being a McLaren team member (apart from the free earplugs) is you get the chance to go on things like pit visits at Grands Prix.

Last week was the final pre-season test for the 2010 Formula One season at the Circuit de Catalunya just outside Barcelona and McLaren had given me a couple of tickets which included a pit visit. So Andrew and I and Cathy and Ethan headed to Barcelona for a couple of days.

Despite a two hour delay at Heathrow and a Spanishly challenged sat-nav we made it to the circuit minutes before our scheduled pit tour. It was great! We stood in the McLaren garage while a stream of F1 cars entered and exited the pits and when Jenson Button rolled into the garage we got a really close look at the awesome new McLaren.

After the tour we spent a couple of hours walking around the circuit taking pictures. You can see the results in the gallery.

The next day was spent in Barcelona, mostly visting crazy Gaudi stuff like La Pedrera, Parc Güell and La Sagrada Familia. There are pictures of them, too.

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By David, December 31, 2009

This year we spent Christmas in New York and, yeah, it was just like Shane and Kirsty sang:  there were cars big as bars and the day we left the wind really did go right through you (a maximum of 0° and gusts up to 64 km/h), but apart from one day of constant rain the weather was actually pretty good.

Christmas Day was spent ice skating in Central Park before going to Radio City Music Hall to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes(!) This was first class Christmas cheese and also completely awesome.

The show is a spectacular 90 minute review with dancing santas, finely choreographed toy soldiers, a nativity scene with live camels and donkeys, a 3D sleigh ride and of course the fantastically long-legged Rockettes. Formed at the Roxy Theatre originally as the Roxyettes, when they moved to Radio City in 1932 they were renamed the Rockettes and have been singing, tapping and high-kicking at Radio City for over seven decades.

I think this quote from an audience member on the website sums it up best:

The show my wife and I sat through was the best show we had ever seen and provided the ultimate Christmas memory, I was loving the show and turned to my wife during the show to ask if she was enjoying it, as I turned, I did not need to ask the question, as the tears of joy welled up in her eyes told me more than words could.

I’m only partly taking the piss; it really was a great thing to do in New York on Christmas day. After the show we had Christmas dinner at a diner near Times Square.

On Boxing Day we kept the Christmas traditions going with George Ballanchine’s The Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet. It was Ballanchine’s production in 1954 (the first show by the NYCB) that started the tradition in Europe and America of performing The Nutcracker at Christmas time.

The show was fantastic; the dancing was stunningly good and and the set was incredible. At one point a 40 foot Christmas tree rises up out of the stage and at another 50 pounds of paper confetti fall from the rafters onto the ballerinas to create a magical snowstorm.

After Saturday’s downpour, Sunday was bright and clear so we took the opportunity to get outside as much as possible with a trip to the South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park.

The night before we were due to leave we headed to Broadway to see the first revival of West Side Story in thirty years. By now I’m starting to run out of superlatives but this was a thrilling, jazzy, cool, moving and simply great show. The combination of Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins adds up to something more than the already astronomical sum of their parts. We had seats in the fourth row and the breathtaking choreography just blew me away.

This revival is new in that all of the Puerto Rican characters are native Spanish speakers and some of the text has been changed from English to Spanish. I think it works well although the changes are less than what was originally planned.

I’m still thinking about it days afterwards and not even the girl spilling her ice over herself next to me or the loud woman who wouldn’t stop talking behind me could spoil it. Quite simply it’s worth a trip to New York just to see it.

On the morning we flew back, we took shelter from the sub-zero temperatures and arctic winds in the Frick Collection. This is a wonderful little gallery of the artwork collected by Henry Clay Frick, a 19th-century steel baron, housed in his mansion on the Upper East Side. Like the Wallace Collection in London every room is stuffed with astoundingly significant works of art. Wherever you turn there are paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Renoir, Turner, Bronzino, El Greco, Gainsborough Holbein, and the list goes on. It is far less crowded than the Met or MOMA (my God that place gets busy!) and the works are hung as if they were in Frick’s private house. Thoroughly recommended.

Unlike London, which turns into a bit of a ghost town at Christmas, New York really is the city that never sleeps and while the crowds of people taking pictures of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center (?) can be a bit trying New York is still a fantastically cultured, beautiful and exciting city to be in — especially at Christmas time.

Photos in the gallery.

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By David, June 18, 2009

Tomorrow the British Grand Prix kicks off at Silverstone but last month we went to the most glamorous Grand Prix of them all; Monaco.

We went with Jonathan and Louise who had managed to arrange for us to use a friend’s flat in Monaco-Ville for the week.

Also known as La Rocher or ‘The Rock’, the old fortified town sits high above the harbour of Monte Carlo and is where the Prince’s palace is located.

Although it is only a short climb up the hill, La Rocher couldn’t be more different from the glitzy Monte Carlo.  While Ferraris and Lamborghinis roll past the high-rise buildings and massive yachts down at the harbour, La Rocher is a quiet medieval town with narrow cobbled streets and pretty buildings.  The flat we were staying in was in a little square, not far from the Palais Princier with plenty of cafes and restaurants nearby.

We arrived on Thursday night and went to Ingrid’s flat for a few drinks.  This is where we got our first view of Monaco Harbour and it was amazing.  The yachts were all lit up and there was clearly a party going on down there.  We could see all the way across the harbour up to Monaco-Ville on the other side.

Later that night, as we walked home along the race track, we found the party.  It was being held on the Force India team owner’s yacht and it looked amazing.  It had lasers and everything!

I had grandstand tickets for qualifying but we were planning to watch the race on Sunday from Ingrid’s flat.  However, when we walked past the ticket office on Friday and saw there were race tickets still available, it didn’t take much discussion before we had tickets for Sunday, too.

These tickets, we discovered, also gave us access to the pit lane that day and as we walked past the garages, we could see the engineers working on cars in various stages of disassembly.  It was cool.

On Saturday I went to watch qualifying while everyone else went to Nice.  I had a great seat in grandstand K and could see all the way from the exit of the tunnel, through Tabac, past the harbour and swimming pool and down to Rascasse.  It was my first experience of how close to the cars you get in Monaco.

That night we went to a party high, high up in the hills surrounding Monaco.  It was in an old estate with an incredible view all the way down to the sea and the lights of Nice airport up the coast.

Sunday was race day. We all wore the McLaren team kit and even bought a Union Jack to wave at Lewis and Jenson as they screamed by.  It was hot in the sun but I didn’t care.  Our seats on Sunday were even better than I had for qualifying.  The track ran right around us and we could see the cars fly from the tunnel into Tabac corner just metres away before hearing them thunder down the straight behind us and up the hill toward Casino Square.

Lewis didn’t do too well but, of course, Jenson won so we had the chance to wave our flag.  I had such a great time.

On Monday we chilled out in Nice before hitting Monte Carlo casino late that night.  The casino is quite different from what we had experienced in Las Vegas; a bit more classy and a lot less busy.  We did well on the blackjack table though and everyone came out with more money than they went in with.

Monaco is a crazy place.  Supposedly it wasn’t as busy as it usually is during the Grand Prix but it still had an amazing atmosphere.

But Monaco is also a city of two halves.  Monte Carlo is all yachts, Ferraris and parties but up on La Rocher it’s another world altogether; one of cobbled streets and little squares to have coffee and crepes.

Check out the pictures in the gallery.

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By David, April 6, 2009

I’m waiting for my flight to Australia after spending the last couple of days in Singapore.  First impressions of Singapore are good.  I like it.  The city is nice and the people are friendly.  It rains a lot here.  In fact it has rained every day since we arrived.  And not the London drizzly kind of rain.  It’s more like the biblical forty days and forty nights kind, accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightning.  The kind where (even if you have an umbrella) you are soaked within a minute.  Awesome.  I love thunderstorms.

We stayed at Raffles Hotel which was really fantastic.  Yes, it was super expensive but it was also super excellent!  All the rooms are suites but we were upgraded on check-in to one of the Palm Court Suites and it was amazing.  Very big, very quiet.  The suites are built around a lawn covered courtyard and each one has a little table out the front where we drank cocktails in the warm evening and ate breakfast in the morning.

We had Singapore Slings in the Long Bar, where supposedly the last tiger in Singapore was shot and we had the curry buffet in the Tiffin Room although didn’t really do it justice.  I would love to have gone back for more but reached my curry intake limit disappointingly quickly.  Today we ended our stay with high tea in the Tiffin Room again.  It was nice but pretty touristy.  Not quite the same as the Savoy.

We only really had one full day in Singapore and most of that was spent in the shops on Orchard Road (great dumplings at Din Tai Fung in the Paragon shopping centre!) but when you stay in a place like Raffles you don’t want to leave the hotel.  I highly recommend at least one night there.  From the fabulously moustachioed Sikh doorman to your personal butler, the staff are excellent.  And the building itself is beautiful; all dark wood floorboards and whitewashed walls stretching up to high, high ceilings.

Unfortunately we won’t be staying there on the way back but luckily they have a shop so we have the souvenirs!

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By David, January 19, 2009

Mum and Dad are over here at the moment and we wanted to go abroad for a few days. So where did we decide to go, you know, it being winter and all? Spain? Morocco? No. We went to Germany. Turns out Berlin is rather fracking cold in January.

But that didn’t really matter because the city is so stuffed with culture and things to see that we didn’t spend a lot of time outside. And besides, the snow on the ground made everything look prettier and the sub-zero temperatures made you glad you brought the long underwear.

We got started as soon as we arrived with an extra-special behind the scenes tour of the Reichstag. Foster+Partners were responsible for the transformation of the German Parliament building so Kathryn managed to arrange for one of the chief architects to show us around this amazing building. We started by bypassing the huge and ever-present queue of people (even in sub-zero tempartures) to enter at the side of the building. Once inside we saw the Russian graffiti that has been preserved on the walls from when Red Army soldiers took the building in 1945. Even though I had no idea what it said it was amazing to see the scrawls of charcoal made by many different young soldiers’ hands more than sixty years ago. The reconstruction has been done in a way that turns the Reichstag into a kind of living museum of German history. Much of the insensitive reconstruction work that was done in the sixties has been stripped away and the original grand proportions have been restored. Everything inside is on a massive scale; doors are over two metres high, window panes are the size of terrace houses and the couches make normal chairs look like doll’s furniture. But within the context of the building it all fits perfectly.

We got to see many other areas of the Reichstag that are normally off-limits to visitors and as we were accompanied by one of the architects responsible for the building he could provide insights into why things had been done a certain way and how the building is used. Of course we finished with a visit to the huge glass dome that provides views from east to west as you circle higher and higher up the walkway that traces the inside of the glass.

That evening we went to the Philharmonie to see the Berlin Philharmonic. Yes, they were great, although they seemed to get better as the night progressed. The first piece, Three Illusions by Elliot Carter, was quite a challenging work (both to listen to and to play) and there were a few hesitant entries when the firsts weren’t together. But when Murray Perahia joined them to play Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto they were back in familiar territory and played with such sensitivity from the first note. I particularly loved the way Perahia played the Rondo. So did everyone else it seemed as they demanded he come back for an encore. I don’t know what it was but it was simply stunning. Then in the second half the orchestra doubled in size and let rip with the Strauss Sinfonia Domestica. I didn’t know this piece but it was typical Strauss; huge orchestra (8 horns!, 4 saxophones!), and big lush melodies that seem to go on forever. In fact the whole piece does go on forever as there are no breaks between movements but I really liked it. It was my favorite, actually. The piece supposedly represents the goings on in the Strauss household:

My next tone poem will represent a day in my family life. It will be partly lyrical, partly humorous – a triple fugue will bring together Papa, Mama and Baby.

The next day we saw Checkpoint Charlie which, although there isn’t much there now, remains a distillation of pure Cold War. There are reconstructions of the iconic wooden guard house and the signs informing that you are “leaving the American sector”. You can also pose for a photograph with US and Russian ‘MPs’ and get historic stamps in your passport, which of course we did. In one of the buildings next to the guard house is a private museum called Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. This is a really interesting museum packed with stories of escapes and Wall memoribilia including the original American sector sign.

On our last day we visited the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island or Museumsinsel which contains such monumental antiquities as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate. While it might not have as much loot as the British Museum what it does have is of great interest so it’s worth a visit.

Looking out the window of the plane as we swept over the snow covered fields on approach to Tegel I was a little worried whether Berlin in mid-winter was such a great idea. But as it turned out it’s a great time to go. Everyone else is either skiing or waiting for the warmer weather so the streets are quiet and when the sun shines on the snow-covered rooftops Berlin can be quite beautiful.

More pictures in the gallery.

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By David, November 2, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, on Miguel’s recommendation, we visited Granada. Granada was the last Moorish kingdom to hold out against the Christian monarchs (los Reyes Católicos) and this Moorish heritage permeates the city. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the Alhambra, a massive fortress built on a hill above the city.

We stayed in the great Migueletes Hotel which is located in the old Moorish Albaicín quarter. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a maze of tiny winding cobbled streets on the north side of the Alhambra. The church of San Nicolás is located here and its square provides a stunning view of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada in the background. It’s fun to wander around these atmospheric streets where places like the lovely Plaza de San Miguel Bajo even have nice Coca-Cola signs.

It was in the Albaicín that we first noticed some interesting graffiti. Apparently Granada is quite well known for its graffiti murals with the artist known as el niño de las pinturas being the most famous. I guess he’s kind of like a Spanish Banksy. Someone has even written a fifteen thousand word dissertation on him.

Granada is a nice little city and well worth spending a couple of days in. Of course the Alhambra is the most obvious thing to see but there are plenty of other things to keep you occupied and Granada is one of the last places in Spain that still serves free tapas. I recommend the jamon y pimiento at Bodegas Castañeda on Almirecero!

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By David, October 18, 2008

2008 seems to be the Year of Weddings. There was Jonathan and Louise’s in July, Paul and Bonnie’s in August, Claire and Ed’s in October, Chloe and Kieran’s is in November and last month was Mark and Penny’s. That’s five weddings in as many months. Kathryn likes this because it means she has to buy five different wedding outfits. I, on the other hand, must suffer the shame of being photographed in the same suit at different weddings.

So last month we caught Olympic Airlines flight OA270 to Athens to spend the week leading up to Mark and Penny’s wedding in Greece. We had skilfully booked the worst flight times possible so after a brief but refreshing three hours sleep at the Holiday Inn, Athens we boarded another flight at 5:45am to the island of Santorini.

Also known as Thira, Santorini is a circular group of islands, part of the Cyclades in the Aegean sea. It is basically all that remains of one of the most cataclysmic volcanic eruptions in the history of the planet. In about 1650 BC a chain of eruptions shot thirty cubic kilometres of magma into the air causing the whole centre of the island to collapse and the sea to flood in and fill the caldera. It is believed the huge amounts of ash thrown into the air may have brought down the powerful Minoan civilisation in Crete one hundred kilometres away. People eventually moved back to the island but eruptions and earthquakes continued sporadically up until a major earthquake in 1956 destroyed most of the houses in the towns of Fira and Oia. Luckily for us, the locals rebuilt Oia into one of the most unique and beautiful villages on earth.

We arrived very early on a Sunday morning and as our room wasn’t ready we wandered into the centre of the village. A feature of Santorini, or at least Oia, is the large number of stray dogs. At first it was cute but by the time we were surrounded by about six barking dogs throwing themselves at the tyres of passing cars the novelty was starting to fade. We managed to lose the dogs and found ourselves at the ruined Kasteli (Castle) of Agios Nikolaos above the town. It was still only about 7am and we had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours as we watched the sun slowly creep up over the cliffs and light up the strange windmills pointing out to sea.

We were in Oia for three nights and it is truly a unique and beautiful place. The bright white houses are perched on the top of red volcanic cliffs and the tiny streets are paved with marble. The distinctive blue domed churches seem to be around every corner and, just like Venice, you find yourself stopping to marvel at the view every few steps.

We stayed in a little studio apartment called Strogili and it was fantastic. The view from our balcony where we had breakfast every morning looked straight out over the caldera. We quickly lost track of time as we drifted between breakfast, the pool, a stroll into town and dinner. Oia supposedly has the best sunset on Earth and every night people from all over the island fill the streets of the town to watch. I don’t know if it is the best but it certainly is beautiful as the sun sinks into the sea and the sky fades to orange.

One day we hired a quad bike and rode to the main town of Fira. Fira is still amazing and if we hadn’t come from Oia we would have thought it was spectacular but it’s just not as nice as Oia. It is much busier and generally more touristy as Fira is where all the big cruise ships dock so there is a constant stream of day-tripping tourists. It’s worth a visit but staying in Oia is definitely recommended. We took the long road back via the southern beaches.

Oia also has one of the most perfect bookshops in the world. Atlantis Books was started in the basement of one of Oia’s traditional houses by a couple of friends who found themselves on Santorini with not much to read. The bookshelves are all hand made and the staff rotates throughout the year, living in the bookshop itself. When we visited I had to go through into the kitchen to pay by card where I was offered a sample of the pancakes being cooked for dinner that night. The shelves are stocked with lots of interesting books but I wanted something suitably Hellenic so I bought a copy of Zorba the Greek.

After the serenity of Oia Athens came as a bit of a shock. We were there for two days which I think is about the right amount of time. Of course the Acropolis is the main thing to see there but I found it a bit overrated. Maybe it’s because it was crawling with thousands of tourists, or maybe it’s because we nicked the best bits off the Parthenon. Actually there are a some other really interesting things to see in Athens besides the Acropolis. I thought the Temple of Olympian Zeus was good (and far less crowded) and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a very good museum.

From Athens it was finally on to Xylokastro for the wedding. Xylokastro is a lovely little seaside town in the Peloponnesus about 40 km west of Corinth. The beach at Xylokastro is stunning with the most pristine, warm, clear water I have ever seen. Here we spent a fantastic few days with Mark and Penny, Jonathan and Louise and the Monkey. The wedding itself was unlike any wedding I’ve been to before. It started as the sun went down and the celebrations didn’t finish until much much later…

Before this trip Greece had never been very high on our list of places to visit but we had such a great time; relaxing on Santorini, exploring in Athens and spending time with friends and family in Xylocastro and of course eating fantastic Greek food everywhere!

Some holidays are over in a few days but others stay with you for a long time.

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By David, August 5, 2008

I’ve been rinsing my internet connection uploading loads of pictures to the gallery.

Back in June we had our yearly long weekend in the Lakes. Usually we go for a few moderately easy walks around the Fells but this year we decided to walk up a mountain. With its summit at 3,054 feet, Skiddaw is the fourth highest mountain in England. And it is one helluva climb. It was basically two hours of going up. When we stopped for lunch at Little Man the clouds suddenly descended on us and we found ourselves surrounded by mist. Despite the danger of plummeting 3000 feet to a stony death we pressed on grimly, occasionally passing fellow walkers as they loomed out of the whiteness. When we finally reached the summit, the clouds parted for a while giving us a muted but still impressive view over the fells. We couldn’t quite make out Ireland or the Isle of Man though…

Coming down was probably harder than going up; a winning combination of endless pounding on the knees and constant danger of slipping and falling on something sharp. It was fun. Really.

The next day we aimed for something much more relaxed. Starting in Keswick we wandered around the beautiful Derwent Water and up to Castlerigg Stone Circle finishing with one of the most amazing panoramas in the Lakes at Castlehead.

In July it was Jonathan & Louise’s wedding at the beautiful old Saxon church at Breamore. This was followed by a totally awesome reception at Lodge Farm which culminated in a huge fireworks display that destroyed a couple of tables. I love fireworks.

We left the day after the wedding to meet up with Carl and Jill in Venice, which by coincidence was the same place Jonathan and Louise were going on honeymoon! It was fun to catch up with them one night to see a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (natch).

Venice was the first place we visited abroad when we came to the UK and it’s just as wonderful now as it was then. It’s still the kind of place where you can pop into a random church in some quiet campo and find that it turns out to be San Zaccaria which contains the body of John the Baptist’s father, is stuffed with the most amazing works of art including Bellini’s Sacra Conversazione and sneak down some stairs and you come across an incredible permanently flooded crypt. This time we also had a bit more money, so we could afford two of the other kind of Bellini’s at Quadri’s this time instead of having to share one between us.

We stayed at a fantastic hotel in the Dorsoduro called La Calcina. From February 13 to May 23, 1877, John Ruskin stayed there and it is in a nice quiet area on the Giudecca Canal. They also have a roof terrace which you can book to have breakfast and gives an amazing view over the canal.

We visited the excellent Peggy Guggenheim Collection, we saw lace making on the colourful island of Burano , we saw glass making (and spent way too much money) at a glass factory on Murano, we visited the sublime cathedral of Torcello and took in the view from the tower of Palladio’s magnificent San Giorgio Maggiore.

Despite the tourists La Serenissima is still like nowhere else on Earth and what better way to leave than by speedboat with the wind in your hair and the sun setting across the lagoon.

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By David, May 12, 2008

Where’s the best place at SFO to kill an hour? Not the Northwest WorldClub where I’m typing this (although it is a fairly nice lounge – mmm, chocolate chip cookies). No, the best place is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library & Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. Who would have thought there is a whole museum in the airport?

The museum is just before security at Concourse A and is a lovely, quiet space with plenty of chairs and lots of interesting exhibits. The museum’s collection is housed in a two story room modelled on the Passenger Waiting Room of the 1937 San Francisco Airport Administration Building. The top floor is an aviation library with over 6,000 books and periodicals. The bottom floor houses different exhibits from the collection. At the moment they have an exhibition on Cathay Pacific on one side and aviation toys on the other. There are some marvellous steel planes and zeppelins.

The museum is open 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM Sunday through Friday, so if you happen to be waiting for a flight around then I thoroughly recommend taking a look.

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By David, May 11, 2008

After a very long week I could do little more than lay around in Huntington Park on Nob Hill today but tonight I caught the F Train to Davies Symphony Hall to see Michael Tilson Thomas conduct the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in an all Brahms concert. Lief Ove Andsnes played the Second Piano Concerto and the second half was Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.

It was a great concert, despite sitting next to a head nodder and occasional hummer (!) who had an odour that suggested he had just had the Forty Clove Garlic Chicken at the Stinking Rose. MTT conducted the symphony without the score which allowed him the freedom for some truly balletic gestures; sometimes it looked like he was fencing with the violas.