Inside, the cocoon-like room was as stylish as any boutique hotel, only with a slight bounce in the floor — thankfully not gravity-defying. These classes give a clue to why the hotel was built here, surrounded by farmland 50 minutes south-east of Rennes.
They did not disappoint. To my mind, Sunderland is the best city in the north-east. Other gleaming features include the Penshaw Monument a whopping folly on a hill , the National Glass Centre a revealing experience by the river , and a local speciality called Pink Slice. As I ran along its spirit-lifting length, the beach appeared to go on forever. Oh that it did! Ben Aitken. When a friend invited me to Gran Canaria this summer, I thought I knew what to expect.
To an extent, I was right. We trekked around Pico de las Nieves, the summit in the centre of the island, and ventured out on to the vast Maspalomas dunes. Visitors can wander around the flower-filled streets and boardwalks, take a boat trip no gondolas, sadly and swim off the sandy beach under high cliffs.
We climbed to a lookout point above the fishing quarter, then headed down to one of the numerous waterside restaurants to eat garlicky lapas a la plancha grilled limpets washed down with Canarian white wine — at a fraction of Venetian prices.
The Museo Canario in Las Palmas, the capital, is a good place to learn more about the indigenous Guanches who built it — yet another aspect of the Canary Islands I had been in ignorance about. Rachel Dixon. From afar, you could mistake it for some sort of military installation.
