New and improved: Kensington Palace reopens

Kensington Palace used to hide behind hedges and trees, tucking itself away as if embarrassed to be hogging so much valuable central-London parkland. But not any more. As of today (March 26,2012) the palace reopens to the public after a £12 million renovation, proudly announcing itself with a grand new entrance. There’s no missing this royal home now, its 17th-century, red-brick frontage is clearly visible across sharply cut lawns and wide expanses of welcoming pathway.

And it’s all change inside too. The palace is now divided into four separate “routes”, each one focused on a different part of the building’s royal history.
Take the King’s route and you’ll find yourself climbing the magnificent Kings staircase to enter the state apartments. Many of the rooms seen here were used for entertaining, and performance company Coney – who have been integral to the palace’s redevelopment – have designed a game for visitors to see if they can make their way through court and reach the King. This taps into the social climbing scene of Georgian London and is designed to help visitors to understand the stories the Palace has been the backdrop to over the years – although it is rendered somewhat unnecessary by the sheer grandeur of the rooms themselves, which had me goggle-eyed as I craned by neck to view the intricate ceilings.

The Queen’s route features even more of Coney’s interactive, installation-style interpretation and at times this feels a little laboured. Again the rooms themselves have much of interest to offer, and the interactive approach can become a little tiresome. There are whispering columns all over the place and visitors simply seeking a seat can find themselves jumping up again in surprise as disembodied voices take their ear.

Some of the additions are poignant though, with the dining room a particularly emotive spot. Here Coney have introduced 18 little wooden chairs, each one representing one of Queen Anne’s lost children. It is difficult to see this forest of tiny seats and not feel the impact of this one family’s neverending loss and it is this personal approach to the royal family that is sure to have visitors enthralled.

Each of the four routes leads back to the Hub, where you’ll find a luminous lace sculpture by Loop.pH, which for me was reminiscent of the redesigned Kings Cross. This does not detract from its beauty though and it’s easy to see how this web of light has improved this incredibly dark central space.

From here the Victoria route leads into the Victoria Revealed exhibition which continues the palace’s new personal theme by attempting to uncover the life of Victoria and show her as being more than the large, scowling woman so many people think of her as. Each room has a theme and the one dedicated to her relationship with Albert is particularly moving, with quotes from love letters they wrote emblazoned on everything from the walls to the carpet. Her stunning ivory wedding dress is on display here too – the first time it has been for over a decade.

Further rooms show her childhood toys, her attitude to her work and the impact of her grief when her mother and Albert died in quick succession. Artefacts on display include a teething ring from the royal nursery, sketches Victoria and Albert made of each other during their first year of marriage and Victoria’s set of watercolours, all of which add up to create a picture of the monarch’s daily life.

Perhaps the most striking room however remains the Red Saloon, where the 18-year-old Queen held her very first Privy Council. The room has been painstakingly and beautifully restored and evocative details such as moving shadows on the walls and yet more quotes scrawled on the (reproduction) table bring the gravity of this location home.

The final route is, inevitably, Diana, and leads into a display of five of her dresses, three of which have never been displayed in the UK before. It is a small collection but anyone interested in fashion will appreciate the importance and elegance of these dresses, and fans of the Princess are sure to flock here for a close-up look at some of her most well-known outfits. The fact that this area is self-contained also means that there’s no need to wait until the end of the tour if this is really what you’ve come to see.

And that is the beauty of the Palace’s new design. Not only is the whole place more immediately welcoming thanks to its new entrance, it is also much more visitor friendly as you explore. Whoever you are interested in and whichever period in history you most want to explore there is something for you here. Just be careful where you sit!

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VITAL STATS
Adult tickets cost £14.50 or £13.50 when booked in advance online. Children under 16 can visit for free. The gift shop and café can be visited without paying the entrance fee.

Real wizardry: the new Harry Potter London attraction

“You may never look at Quidditch the same way again.” This is Daniel Radcliffe’s (aka Harry Potter’s) parting shot as he and his on-screen classmates Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) introduce visitors to the Making of Harry Potter studio tour.

This brand-new attraction in the outer reaches of London’s northwest claims to uncover the secrets of the most commercially successful film series ever produced. Nothing on display here has been specially created for the tour – a Universal theme park this is not.

But just because you won’t find thrill rides here doesn’t mean that there’s nothing thrilling to see – and the start of the tour has that air of theatricality we have all come to expect from the theme parks. After the short introductory film the cinema screen disappears to reveal the door to Hogwarts’ Great Hall and passing through these famous doors is genuinely dramatic. The set was one of the first to be completed, as well as one of the largest, and the actors hadn’t seen it until they began filming – meaning that Radcliffe’s jaw-drop expression in the Philosopher’s Stone is as real the solid York stone on the floor beneath your feet.

Around the hall you’ll find robes belonging to characters from each of the four houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin) and Harry Potter’s first ever set of robes are pointed out by staff and duly photographed by excitable fans. You can spend as much time in here as you like and any ardent fan is sure to find it hard to move on, imagining not only the scenes played out in here from the films but also the parties the cast and crew have held in here over the years.

It has to be said that the Great Hall is the high point of the tour, but that is not to suggest that the rest is not engaging – or, dare I say it, even magical. The sets on display include the Wesley’s “Burrow”, Dumbledore’s office, the Potions classroom and Hagrid’s hut, and you can see everything from the sorting hat to the door of Gringott’s vault. A display of wands shows clearly how each character was waving around an entirely different (and character-specific) wand and highlights the level of detail which runs throughout all of the films.

And that is what is most enthralling here. Seeing the sets and props of a much-loved film can often be something of a disappointment, as you discover unpainted plywood hiding in the corners and unfinished props meant to be seen only from one angle. But Harry Potter is different – everything created for these films was lovingly produced as if at any moment the whole place would come to life and a bunch of actual witches and wizards would require it all to be pressed into service. Some 17,000 wand boxes were individually crafted and handpainted for the scenes filmed in Ollivanders wand shop, yet only a couple were seen and even then only for a few seconds. They were then blown up by the special effects department (so can’t be seen here). In Dumbledore’s office there are 48 portraits on the walls, each one of which was painted twice, once with the character awake and once with them asleep, and switched over for night scenes accordingly.

Seeing the sets and props here means seeing them for longer than you will have done on-screen and this is one of the joys of a visit. In the Creature Shop you can see the Monster Book of Monsters snapping its fang-like teeth and wonder at the lifelike appearance of models of characters including Hagrid and Dobby the House Elf, while outside you can climb aboard the Knight Bus and sit in the flying Ford Anglia. In Diagon Alley you can gaze into the windows of Ollivanders and Wesleys Wizard Wheezes and through the magic of interactive touchscreens the interior sets area offers the chance to explore the Marauder’s Map.

Although at times the tour feels very museum-like, with displays featuring quotes from crew and information about production issues (such as the challenge of making the films before the books were even finished), this is also a family attraction and there is plenty for the kids to enjoy. At the Burrow a series of mounted wands can be used to control props inside the set so visitors can chop carrots or knit a scarf (although one of these was already broken when I visited), and there are passport stamps to collect and hidden snitches to find.

The tour’s most theme park-like component is the Disneyesque “Quidditch Photo Experience”, an opportunity to sit on a moving broomstick in Hogwarts robes and have your picture taken against a computer-generated backdrop. This is sure to attract those eager for a souvenir but at £12 a photo it smacks of money-making and, to me, felt like an unnecessary intrusion – especially when everything else here is marketed as “authentic”.

The tour ends on a high note though, with the final room being home to one of the film’s most impressive props – a model of Hogwarts castle. There is little that can prepare you for the truly stunning craftsmanship and the sheer amount of hard graft that has gone into creating this striking model and emotive piped-in music makes this an emotional experience for many a fan.

This is all the better to prepare you for the inevitable, the exit through the gift shop. But ignore the sweets that give little change from a tenner and Dumbledore’s £500 robes (yes, really) and spend your time in the wand room instead. Here you’ll find wand boxes printed with the names of every person involved in the films, from JK Rowling to the runner; a sight which really brings home just how much was involved in creating these much-loved films. And that’s the real magic.

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VITAL STATS
The Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – the Making of Harry Potter opens on March 31. Adult tickets cost £28, children’s tickets are £21 and under 5s go free. Audio guides cost £4.95 and are available in English and eight other languages. The nearest station is Watford Junction, from which shuttle buses depart every 30 minutes. Tickets cost £2 per person return.

Rain stops play

When travelling in the UK you expect to change course due to the weather. You pack umbrellas, waterproof trousers, endless coats. You plan for having to retreat indoors at short notice. And you simply assume that at some point it will rain.
Not so in Australia. Travelling here generally requires just a few casual outfits, a decent line in swimwear and lashings of sun cream. You expect to be warm, if not mind-bendingly hot, for the entirety of your trip, and my god, do you expect sunshine.

Yesterday at Uluru it was (at best) 20 degrees and raining. I left Sydney first thing on a flight that should have taken a little under three hours. Six and a half hours later, and after an aborted landing at Uluru and a brief diversion to Alice Springs where we sat on the tarmac and gazed glumly out of the windows, we finally landed at Ayers Rock airport.

I had missed my afternoon’s tour to Mount Connor, a place I will in all likelihood now never see. I had been basically in transit for three days. And I had a hangover. It is fair to say that my mood was not a sunny one.

But then I realised something. I was going to see Uluru in a light that people rarely do. Every picture I’ve ever seen of the sandstone monolith has shown it bathed in sunlight, and emanating the beautiful red glow we all think is a constant feature of the outback. But every so often – and just for a day or two – the rock is clad in swirling grey clouds. Yesterday Uluru appeared and disappeared on the horizon like a mysterious spaceship. I would look out of my hotel room window to see it brooding under a blanket of swirling mist, turn my attention away for a minute or two, and turn back to see just a corner of the rock peering out moodily from behind a darkening fug. I also saw rain like I’ve never experienced anywhere else, pouring out of the sky like marbles and thundering onto every surface with a noise I kept thinking must surely be thunder. I felt marooned in my hotel room and went to bed so early it was practically still light.

But I am lucky – I can come back. My itinerary has been changed and today I fly up to Darwin. Yes, it means I’ll take 12 flights in as many days and yes, I’m exhausted and just a little fed up. But so many of the people who will share my flight out of here today have missed what they thought they came to see. They may appreciate having seen an iconic place in a different light, but they are more likely desperately disappointed that the sunset was obscured by apocalyptic rain, the usually dazzling night sky blotted out by endless cloud cover.

We have seen, yet again, that mother nature is always and unfailingly in control. Travel plans will shift thanks to unexpected rain, an ill wind or sudden changes in temperature, the weather will unpick the very best laid plans – and even in Australia you might just need an umbrella.

Bistro du Vin comes to the West End

Is there anything in life better than a well-cooked steak? For me it is the pinnacle of foodie achievement and I make it my business to check out the choice cuts on each and every menu I find myself in possession of.

Which brings me to Bistro du Vin, Soho. The latest outpost from the popular Hotel du Vin group is only the second to open in London (the first was in Clerkenwell) and is a welcome addition to the West End’s food scene for anyone who enjoys fine but unfussy food washed down with something grape.

The atmosphere here is buzzy and unpretentious with the sort of décor I like to think of as stylish-rustic: plenty of wood paneling, neutral coffee-palette tones and simple modern lighting. Service is informal; you won’t find hushed tones and nose-in-the-air waiters here, instead you’ll get attentive, friendly staff and help with the book-length wine list.

Having visited the du Vins numerous times I knew I wanted steak and built my dinner around this, asking sommelier Romain for something to match the fillet. He suggested the Domaine de Fondrèche Fayard 2009, a meaty blend of Grenache, syrah, Mourvèdre and Carignan, which went tooth-smackingly well with the beef and is something I would almost certainly not have chosen myself (I’m a new world aficionado, it has to be said).

I started with the artisan cheese and charcuterie plate which was almost impossible to resist after a quick nose around the Cave au Fromage: a climate-controlled cheese room stacked with more varieties of artisan cheese than your average delicatessen. Served on a wooden board this was the perfect, light choice for pre-steak sustenance, leaving me ready for the hunk of beef to follow.

As ever, the steak was cooked to perfection and as juicy and melt-in-the-mouth as rare fillet should be. The chips were just the right side of salty and the sides I ordered rendered unnecessary by the sheer size of the portions.

I had just enough room to finish with more cheese, allowing me the chance to try even more varieties from the fabulous cave.

Enfield riots: the aftermath

Last night, Enfield was trending on Twitter.

As people across the globe wondered why and struggled to place us on a map, I sat in my living room, just metres away from hundreds of criminals smashing up my home town and attacking the police sent to protect it. I slept to the sound of helicopter rotors and riot van sirens.

This morning I woke to a sinking feeling and an itch to get out there and survey the damage as yet more sirens blared. This is what I saw.

Heavy traffic on Windmill Hill and Chase Side as Church Street remains closed to all vehicles

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At least seven riot vans remain in Enfield town and Church Street is closed to cars and pedestrians. One policeman said: "we can't let you through. There's broken glass and blood all along here."

This is as close as onlookers can get to the now infamous HMV store on Church Street, epicentre of last night's looting.

Most shops and businesses on Church Street are closed today. One onlooker said: "it's eerie. Like a film set."

But some businesses remain open, including local cafe Papadelli and KFC. Many are full of local people discussing the riots in disbelief. Most just want to go about their daily business, but can't.

Local residents congregate around the police lines and there's a palpable sense of shock. "Nothing like this ever happens here", said one long-time Enfield resident. Behind us a gate slammed shut. Everybody jumped.

The Post Office is closed, along with most businesses between Nationwide and Barclays bank on Church Street. Local people gather nearby with envelopes and paperwork. "I can't get to the bank" one elderly lady said to me in exasperation.

The burnt out car on Little Park Gardens is still attracting attention but is a lone testament to the destruction. No other non-police cars appear to have been damaged.

A burnt-out wheelie bin in the marketplace. No other fire damage is evident in town.

The shopping precinct will be closed all day. One angry would-be shopper said: "that's £1.20 in parking wasted then." Information is evidently still limited if people think they can shop here today.

Despite widely reported rumours Nando's was not damaged. One local teen said: "I knew they wouldn't have hit Nandos. Everybody needs Nandos, man."

Enfield is largely closed for business. One four-year-old said: "it's sad today, mummy, isn't it."

The jewellers which bore the brunt of the looting last night and the neighbouring betting shop are a sorry sight today.

Local department store Pearsons has one shattered window, but the displays inside are untouched. A damaged police car remains parked outside. Opposite, and to one local teen's relief: "Macdonald's is alright. They didn't get Macdonalds."

The job for Enfield's police is very different today from yesterday. This officer is being asked if the shops behind him are open. There's a real lack of understanding about the situation from some people.

The Kings Head in Enfield's marketplace is open for business, but was deserted apart from one lone drinker at the bar.

Meanwhile, across the street, people gather in the window seats of pub The George to keep an eye on what's going on in town. Nothing much is, but the sense of community is strong. People are keen to talk to one another today and I have numerous unprovoked conversations.

Trains from Enfield Town station are said to be running to a normal schedule, although earlier this morning no services were running, forcing local commuters to use Enfield Chase station (which is unaffected) instead.

Colman Parade was particularly badly hit last night and some businesses remain closed today. This chemist was particularly badly damaged, as the owner remained inside.

Bar Ten on Silver Street (which is currently closed to all vehicles) is optimistic that tomorrow will be a better day. But with no repairs to broken windows currently underway, will it be any different from today?

The car park on Church Lane was looted for bricks last night and the abandoned weapons now litter the street.

Walls around town were broken down for bricks to use as weapons. One local resident said, with audible lump in throat: "it's all smashed up."

At least seven riot vans remain in Enfield this lunchtime and, at my guess, at least 100 police. Mostly they are giving directions and information to confused residents and visitors. But what will they be doing later? As the day goes on, this is a question running through many minds. Is it over yet?

A real sea change

I've always been scared of the sea. Not of flying over it, dipping a sandy flip flop in it or looking wistfully at it from restaurant terraces you understand, but being in it. Specifically being in it and in among all those slippery sea creatures and terrifying dark shapes which always turn out to be clumps of seaweed and not the imagined jellyfish/shark/seasnake.

Lunch at the Wishing Arch, near Portrush

So it may surprise you to learn that I loved sea kayaking. For the past two days I've been bobbing about on the ever-cold Atlantic Oceans off the coast of Northern Ireland in a plastic boat and when asked that immortal question journalists always get asked by the people hosting them – namely "did you enjoy it?" – for once I didn't have to smile painfully and lie.

Of course I do a lot of things for work that I wouldn't elect to do on my own travels – ice climbing, cycling, surfing in February – and, being someone who hates getting cold, wet and unattractive, often find my positive journalist self struggling against my lily-livered would-rather-curl-up-with-a-book self. But today was different. Today I discovered a love of the sea.

This is largely because, as it turns out, travelling by kayak is without doubt the best way to see the coast. And what a coast it is. The UK should be scream-from-the-rooftops proud of its diverse, endlessly fascinating and stunningly beautiful coastline. We have glorious sweeps of white sandy beach which are devoid of all human life (except possibly a guy with a kagoule and a metal detector). We have craggy inlets, cathedral-like caves and interesting geological oddities. We have castles perched on clifftops, harbours which have barely changed in centuries and salty stories aplenty about all of them. And yet we don't spend much time looking at it.

I for one have spent far more time looking away from our coastline and out to sea than I have turned around and looking at the cliffs, caves and beaches themselves. A sea kayak lets you do just that: its low clearance means you can glide over submerged rocks and sand banks a regular boat would run aground on; its diminutive size means you can squeeze into caves and along channels no other vessel could; and its solidness allows you to explore dangerous areas swimmers could never safely venture.

And boy did we venture. Over the past two days I've seen the secret escape channel from 13th-century Dunluce Castle, discovered that a simple rock can be all the colours of the rainbow in Dunkerry Cave, watched gannets dive and cormorants nest from just feet away and played hide and seek with a seal. I've seen the postcard-famous Giants Causeway from an angle most people never do, drifted under Carrick A Rede rope bridge as people walked gingerly above and been carried towards the shore by the too-dangerous-to-surf waves at White Park Bay. I've discovered a new way to travel – and it's fabulous.

Yes, my muscles ache more than a pint of the black stuff could make me forget. Yes, I got soaked through to my underwear, sat in a puddle of seawater and am still finding sea salt crystals in everything. And yes, the rain eventually did roll in. But I enjoyed every sodden minute of it – and for the first time in my life, I'm actually keen to get out on the water again. Even if there are slippery sea creatures involved.

Living like a local in Amsterdam

There's something about staying in an apartment that trumps a hotel every time. Like staying with a friend, or even living for a short while in a foreign city, booking a short-stay apartment allows you to feel like you belong. You step out of your own front door and it's as if you live there. There may be no fancy lobby or on-site swimming pool but what you lose in facilities you more than make up for in personality. Because apartments, although sparsely decorated, are never as homogeneous as hotel rooms. There's a kitchen, not a minibar; neighbours instead of a concierge and, in the case of this Amsterdam apartment, a fascinatingly vertiginous spiral staircase instead of a featureless lift.
 
Booked through Short Stay Apartments Amsterdam, our apartment at 36 Brouwersstraat in Amsterdam's funky Jordaan district was perfect for a short stay in the city. Had we wanted to cook we could have (it had not only a stove and microwave but also a dishwasher and proper coffeemaker) and the lounge area was spacious enough to loll around in on lazy afternoons - and far enough from the separate bedroom to feel like a proper living room. We found ourselves discussing where our stuff would go if we moved in, entertaining furniture fantasies and visualising dinner parties, and revelled in having a place to retreat to when the sightseeing got too much.

The location was perfect for us - near enough to a selection of inviting restaurants and bars, but far enough from the crazed bustle of the old centre. We could walk everywhere and were right in the heart of the action without having to be kept awake by it come nightfall. The bells of Posthoornkerk
marked the hours (which only became annoying when those hours were the early morning ones) and our view over the Brouwers canal meant minutes were whiled away watching boats float by and bikes meander past.

My only complaint about the apartment would be that the bathroom was small and not well-designed (the cord from tap to shower snaking across the bathtub was pretty poor), but this seemed a small price to pay for a home away from home in the heart of Amsterdam. Next time we visit, we won't be booking a hotel.