In the old days they were smartly build wooden fishing installations battling with the fierce sea along the coast of Abruzzo. Nowadays these trabocchi are the most charming seafood restaurants in Italy. They look a bit alien with the silhouette of a giant crab walking on its thin, fragile stilts along the shores of the Adriatic coast. Most tourists in a hurry will barely notice them. Others travel from far away just to come and eat here. Tell any Italian that you plan to have some frutti di mare on a trabocco, and you are guaranteed to get many wide smiles. Read more »

London likes to keep fit, well rested and in shape these days. In anticipation of the 2012 Olympics, new hotels and spas are popping up all over the UK capital. 2011 saw the opening of the Corinthia hotel in Whitehall and it’s impressive four-floor Espa Life spa and gym. This grand old building was previously the Ministry of Defence HQ and has now been revamped by GA Design. The spa is sumptuously kitted out with calacatta and black marble, tiled hammam-style steam rooms and a curious swimming pool – the lighting around it works so that movement in the water is reflected on the ceiling. Read more »

For extreme close encounters with impressive silverback gorillas, you have to travel to the magnificent Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Sissies better stay home, because gorillas now and then like close. Very close. Sometimes you can almost feel their breath when they are standing right in front of you, looking inquisitively into your face. Read more »

The most promising chef in Europe might have Viking blood and long hair but he is nothing but a sheep in wolf’s clothing. To demonstrate, the 28-year old Magnus Nilsson of restaurant Faviken puts on his furry wolf’s coat before he heads out in the freezing cold of North-Sweden. Temperatures of minus 30C won’t stop this young chef or his kitchen team to go out foraging. Underneath meters of thick snow they look for fresh juniper branches, still green and aromatic and burried under the icy landscape of Jamtland. We’re talking mid-winter when the sun barely is seen above the horizon and subzero temperatures that make you quickly head for a warm place, preferably next to a roaring fire. Read more »