Author Profile: Sarah Wilkie

On a sunny morning on our recent visit to Paris we decided to revisit an area of which we both had happy memories. Chris had lived there for some time during a post-university stint in France, and we had both enjoyed evenings out in the area when in Paris for our honeymoon. Both those events were very many years ago. Would the Rue Mouffetard have changed beyond all recognition, or would we like it just as much as...   view more

After a day with lots of rain in Paris, followed by one with none at all, today’s forecast was for sunshine and showers. We decided on another walk, with the possibility of a couple of small museums for shelter if the rain became too much. So we headed to Pigalle to follow a route recommended on the official tourist website, Paris Je T’Aime, in the district known as Nouvelle Athenes or SoPi (‘South of Pigalle’) Unlike yesterday’s walk, this was a new area for both of...   view more

Growing up in 1960s London suburbia my imagination was fired by all I saw and heard about hippies. Their lifestyle, their messages of peace, their long flowing skirts and yes, flowers in their hair. So much more appealing than my bottle green school uniform with its regulation skirts just above the knee! I was too young of course to run away to San Francisco and live in a commune there. I didn’t get the chance to visit the city until 1991 when Chris and I included a day there in our first...   view more

The colonial city of Vigan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for good reason. It is one of the few Spanish colonial towns in the Philippines to remain relatively intact. Its unique architecture fuses native Filipino and Oriental building styles with more typical colonial Spanish...   view more

Today London is a huge metropolis, but it wasn’t always so, of course. It started as a small Roman settlement on the north bank of the River Thames, Londinium. In 200 AD a wall was built, surrounding and protecting the city. Over the centuries it grew and grew, but that Roman town remained at its heart, the original City of...   view more

This beautiful hilltop town on the east coast of Sicily is understandably a magnet for tourists. Sitting high above the coast in the shadow of (very) active Mount Etna, it has everything you might hope for in such a town. Vistas of both sea and mountains; ancient ochre-coloured buildings glowing in the Sicilian sun; great restaurants and quality shopping; narrow lanes and bustling squares lined with cafés for people-watching; a small but beautiful cathedral; and to top it all an ancient Greek...   view more

The Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto in south-eastern Sicily provide outstanding testimony to the exuberant genius of late Baroque art and architecture. [They] represent the culmination and final flowering of Baroque art in Europe. The exceptional quality of the late Baroque art and architecture in the Val di Noto lies in its geographical and chronological homogeneity, and is the result of the 1693 earthquake in this...   view more

According to Cicero, the greatest of Greek cities wasn’t in Greece itself but in Sicily. He described Ortigia, the original heart of modern-day Syracuse, as ‘the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of all’. Situated on a small island, the city was founded by the Greek settlers from Corinth in 743 B.C. Today UNESCO listed Ortigia has everything you hope to find in an Italian city. There are ancient ruins from both Greek and Roman times, a Baroque cathedral, and winding lanes that...   view more

The most prominent building in town was the three-story John S. Cook and Co. Bank on Golden Street. Finished in 1908, it cost more than $90,000 to build. Much of the cost went for Italian marble stairs, imported stained-glass windows, and other luxuries. The building housed brokerage offices, and a post office, as well as the bank. Today you can just make out traces of the once grand ornamentation on its...   view more

Randazzo is the nearest town to the summit of Mount Etna, lying on its northern slopes. Its architecture reflects its location. Many of the older buildings here are constructed from the black lava stone from Etna, giving them a very distinct...   view more

I found Sofia fascinating for that reason when I visited a few years ago, and Split held the same appeal for me. Founded by the ancient Greeks, it rose to prominence in AD293 when the Roman Emperor Diocletian (who had been born in Dalmatia) chose it as the perfect spot for his opulent villa / military base. Its coastal location near the then-capital, Salona, made it a perfect imperial ‘holiday home’! Just ten years later he abdicated and retired to his palace by the sea. The ruins of that...   view more

Cagliari is an ancient city, a city of hills and winding alleyways, of churches and old walls and stunning vistas. It is traditionally divided into four districts, of which Castello is the most historically significant. So where better to start our explorations on our first morning in the...   view more

A few weeks ago I took you for a walk around the colourful Mexican city of Oaxaca. On that occasion I skipped over most of the major sights but promised to return to visit them later. Today is that...   view more

Some ten kilometres or so south of the centre of Mexico City lies historic Villa Coyoacán. Today it is a picturesque corner of the wider conurbation but was once a village in its own right. It was founded by the Tepecana people on the shores of Lake Texcoco, a huge lake now largely drained, its area occupied by Mexico...   view more

There is only one solution to the challenge of jet lag in my opinion. Not a cure, but a way to minimise its impact. And that is, to ignore it as much as possible, adopt the time of your destination as soon as possible and stay active. So after a brief nap on arrival in Mexico City (four in the morning and bleary-eyed after a twelve hour overnight flight from London) we roused ourselves, had breakfast at our hotel and set off on a guided tour of some of the city’s...   view more

Madagascar’s capital city actually has a very long name, Antananarivo, which is a bit of a tongue twister. Luckily, most people, including locals, abbreviate it to Tana. It was established in the early 17th century as the capital of the Merina kingdom which covered much of this part of the island. Their king, Andrianjaka, built a rova (fortified royal dwelling) on one of its hills which expanded to become the kingdom’s royal palace. It was that rova, or rather its very recent reconstruction,...   view more

Old Town is not, somewhat to my surprise, the old heart of Chicago, but rather one of its neighbourhoods. It takes its name from art fairs held in this area in the 1940s, ‘Old Town Holidays’. However, it is certainly home to many buildings older than most in the city. There are Victorian era houses and even one of just seven buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire of...   view more

When my friend Isa suggested that while in Chicago we might do a tour visiting a number of his buildings in the area, including his own home, I was quick to agree and sign up. And I was so glad I did. While not cheap, the tour, run by the Frank Lloyd Trust, took us to a lot of places that would have taken us days to cover under our own steam. And the guides were so informative. I learned loads not just about Frank Lloyd Wright but also other architects of his...   view more

Naper’s Settlement, later to be renamed Naperville, was one of the first communities to be established west of Fort Dearborn, in what is now Chicago. It lies on the banks of the DuPage river. My friend Isa and I were invited to visit by another Virtual Tourist friend Rich, host of our Chicago meet, as we’d arrived a couple of days ahead of the main group. We took the train from Union Street Station to Naperville, where Rich met us off the...   view more

This should make a pleasant Monday Walk for Jo. And as Paris is my favourite city, a gentle stroll here is the perfect way to recharge my batteries, on our now-annual visit. So I’m also sharing this with Egidio, guest host for this week’s Lens Artists challenge. We started our walk at the Chemin Vert Metro station and started to stroll towards the Place des...   view more

Today’s Albania is very different and in the heart of Tirana we found three striking places of worship. All lie in the immediate vicinity of Skanderbeg Square where Hoxha’s statue once stood. One, the mosque, is historic; prior to Hoxha’s time the country was the only predominantly Muslim one in Europe. The other two are modern, both Christian...   view more

It’s not enough to bring peace to a city, you also need prosperity. So while the transformation of Medellín from no-go drugs capital of Colombia to a safer and more visitable city started in its outlying comunas, the city centre has been vital to its continued development. I took you to a couple of those communas on a previous Monday Walk, so today I’m inviting you to explore downtown with me. We took a tour with the same guide, Jean, in fact on the morning before that...   view more

In 1902 Charles Jones, Ealing’s borough surveyor, published a book. In it he referred to Ealing as the ‘Queen of Suburbs’. His aim of course was to promote the area as a place to live. Ealing, he said, could claim to be the best of all worlds. It was near London and easily reached by excellent railway facilities, but it was also close to the...   view more

The Marais is one of the loveliest and most fashionable districts of Paris. The name means ‘marshland’ because the original village here was built on a marsh, but there are no signs of that these days! Instead there are elegant buildings, pretty squares and of course the Parisian staples of great little...   view more

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to...   view more

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge (often shortened to ‘Oxbridge’) are known the world over for the quality of the education they provide, their many illustrious alumni and their long history. They dominate the towns in which they are based, giving each a unique atmosphere. Both towns are within easy reach of London and make for an interesting day trip from the...   view more

Riga was a city in which I quickly felt very comfortable. It has a compact old town with plenty to see but not too ‘aspic-like’; by which I mean that it felt both touristy and homely at the same time, somewhere I could imagine that the locals don’t feel too overwhelmed by the history and the visiting population. It is also a city of...   view more

Newcastle is a spacious, extended, infinitely populous place. It is seated upon the River Tyne, which is here a noble, large and deep river, and ships of any reasonable size may come safely up to the very town. Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain...   view more

I really couldn’t go to the Faro area without meeting up with blogging friend Restless Jo, could I? Or maybe I could! We planned to meet, naturally, but on the day fate intervened and our coffee date with her had to be … not cancelled, I hope, but certainly indefinitely postponed. Nevertheless we still wanted to see Tavira, so we pressed ahead with our plan to catch a train and get there in time for...   view more

My visit to Ancona was something of a happy accident. My friend and I were propelled here by convenience, but found an atmospheric old city worthy of a visit in its own...   view more

The most intriguing gardens to explore often feel like a series of rooms, each with a distinctive style of decoration. We wander from area to area, never knowing what might be around the next corner. We get glimpses through trees and over hedges, and sometimes wider views that draw us on, ever eager to see more. Such are the gardens of the Real Alcázar of...   view more

On a chilly January day in London I am inevitably dreaming of warmer climes. A place where the sun is shining; where a stroll through city streets delivers colour, warmth, a bit of excitement and a lot of interest. Fort Kochi is the old part of Cochin in Kerala and has many of the city’s most interesting sights. We spent a day exploring with a local guide, Mary. I already described, in a previous post, the dhobi khana (public laundry facility) that we visited with her. Now I’d like to show...   view more

Just to the west of Seville’s city centre, across the Guadalquivir river, lies Triana. This former working class neighbourhood was once home to the Escuela de Mareantes (School of Navigation) which instructed many of the famous sailors of the 15th and 16th centuries. Both Columbus and Magellan studied there before their expeditions in search of new worlds. It is famous too for its tradition of ceramic tile work and its unique style of...   view more

Antigua, or Antigua Guatemala to give it its full name, is a city shaped by the movement of the earth on which it stands. It was founded in 1543 and despite the ravages of several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it was for over 200 years the capital and economic centre of the whole Kingdom of Guatemala. This was a significant country, covering what today we know as southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa...   view more

No, not THAT one! Did you know that there’s another Las Vegas, in New Mexico? But unlike its more famous glitzy namesake, this one is an appealing mix of slightly down-at-heel with trying-hard-to-revive itself. Let me take you for a stroll around the town for one of Jo’s Monday...   view more

What do Parisians do on a sunny Sunday? They do much as people do in any city. They meet friends in a favourite café or restaurant. They exercise in the local park or take the children there to play and for a picnic. They walk the dog, do a bit of food shopping perhaps, or browse a lively market. Certainly the people of Belleville do all those...   view more

Japanese gardens are not beautiful by accident. Every detail is carefully considered, every plant and rock precisely placed. And the result is often stunning. It was in Kyoto that I really came to appreciate the nuances of Japanese garden design. Gardens in Japan fall into two distinct categories: those that are to be experienced by walking around them, and those that are simply viewed from a building or...   view more

Rarely is a city defined so clearly by one single feature in the way that Newcastle-upon-Tyne is defined by its river. The city’s history has been shaped by the river, especially by shipbuilding; and now that the ship-yards are largely lost to history, the life of the city, especially its cultural and social life, continues to flow from the banks of the...   view more

Long before the Aztecs set foot in what is today Mexico, another people built their city there, creating one of the first urban societies in the Americas. But little is known about these people. When the Aztecs arrived the city was already abandoned. Yet the new arrivals were so impressed by what they found that they named it Teotihuacan, ‘the place where the gods were...   view more