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Viewing 1 - 3 out of 3 Blogs.
LOVING COLD MOUNTAIN; Alpine r
Byline: GAYLE RITCHIE Floating past the walkers from the elevated position of a horse-drawn carriage, I felt the urge to tip my hat, blow a kiss or wave in a regal fashion. As the solo passenger in this drive through the stunning Austrian Alps, you can be sure I was lapping up every second. This fantastic little jaunt was included in my five-day break to the Bad Gastein region, an area renowned for its restorative waters and peppered with spas, thermal pools and, of course, great skiing territory. With the promise of fine food, spectacular scenery and great hospitality, the place oozes appeal. I stayed at the family-run Gruner Baum Hotel, at the edge of Hohe Tauern National Park. As a member of the revered Small Luxury Hotels of the World, it offers a superb hideaway location and boasts a thermal indoor pool, sauna and steam bath, plus a Shiseido Spa with dozens of therapeutic and pampering treatments. It's a favourite with celebs, including Cold Mountain star Jude Law. The hunk has enjoyed many relaxing breaks with his kids, away from the glare of the paparazzi, and hotel staff even allocated his family a special drawer to fill with memoirs and Austrian souvenirs. The hotel, managed by the fourth generation of the Blumschein family, comprises five traditional Austrian houses on the edge of a protected national park, a hiker's paradise. Day one of our stay began with a champagne breakfast and boy, did it set us up for the day. The buffet was loaded with delicacies of all kinds...from hams, cheeses and heavenscented breads to cakes, croissants and even good old sausage, bacon and eggs. We filled our faces and then, to assuage the guilt, went for a sweaty hike up the nearest mountain, the Poserhohe. The views from the top are magnificent and the fresh alpine air guarantees a good night's sleep. We saw snow-capped peaks stretching as far as the eye could see, deep green forests and quaint wooden houses dotting the landscape. Massage was next on the menu and we were spoiled with a mind-bending array of treatments courtesy of the hotel, all of which were absolute bliss. Much of our break was spent submerging our peely wally bodies in thermal pools, steam baths and bubbling jacuzzis and stripping off in naked saunas. We spent several glorious hours at the Felsentherme in Bad Gastein, a centre almost solely dedicated to sweating out toxins. It boasts rocky grottos, adventure pools, a fitness zone, an open-air spa and a number of saunas. We also visited the amazing Gastein Healing Caves, reached only by a train which plunders its way 2.5km into the mountain. Not for the faint-hearted, or those with claustrophobia! There are five caves within, with varying levels of heat beating out from the rock that retains radon gas. The gas is renowned for its healing properties and tales abound of people who have been cured of all sorts of ailments. Several miles out of Bad Gastein is the fantastic ski and sports centre, Sportgastein. Served by a shiny, fast, gondola which peaks at 2,686ft, there's ample opportunity for hiking plus lots of off-piste skiing. Another highlight was a trip to Salzburg. It boasts style and grace aplenty and we lapped up the city's culture along with our many
Posted On 08/01/2010 23:19:00
Bronze stallion at Compton Ver
Neapolitan paintings, religious portraits and a Chinese bronze are among new items on display at Compton Verney country house. The mansion, which was restored as an art gallery, will be showing its most recent acquisitions when it opens for the 2007 season on March 9. The latest addition to its collection of Chinese bronzes is a statue of a stallion dating from the Han dynasty of 206BC to AD220. The bronze which would originally have been used on an aristocratic tombstone, symbolically pulling a carriage or chariot into the afterlife. The gallery has also enlarged its 'Naples' collection of paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Among new works are Vesuvius Erupting at Night by Lacroix de Marseille and Sir William and the First Lady Hamilton in their Apartment in Naples by David Allan. The collection of early German art has also been expanded with the 16th and 13th century pieces as we as an unusual 15th century statue made in Nottingham. The gallery has also bought a Sir William Beechley portrait of diplomat Mirza Abu'l Hassan Khan, an emissary sent by the Shah of Persia to the court of King George III in 1809. Admission to the gallery costs [pounds sterling]7. Booking opens on March 1. Call 645500. SEND US YOUR STORIES If you have a story for our newsdesk, please click on the following link: Click here to email your report
Posted On 07/28/2010 21:41:49
A close shave; Tomos Livingsto
AS A political journalist who spends his time in the murky world of Westminster, I like to think I know a fair bit about cut-throat characters. But one freezing spring morning I headed a couple of miles up the road to meet some people who can claim to be the real thing. I had an appointment for a full traditional open-razor barber's shave, but not in some stuffy oak-panelled establishment in Mayfair. No, it was off to the City of London, to the traditional-but-trendy Hoffi, which, if you hadn't already guessed, is run by a Welshman. The shop sticks out on Fenchurch Street like a sore, if well-groomed, thumb. At the end of the road is the East India Arms pub, and a few doors down is a Rolex shop where the prices start at pounds 3,000. That combination tells you all you need to know about this part of London. Hoffi is about something else entirely. Run by Steve Powell, originally from Llangollen, it offers the very best in male grooming - be it haircuts, shaves, facials or, as more and more chaps are going for these days, all three - in an atmosphere that feels more like the hipper kind of city-centre bar than a barber's. Traditional and modern come together easily here; there are leather sofas, table football and an X-box, but once you're in the chair the product range is old-school - St James of London. It really is the full traditional works, from the badger shaving brush (gives a more even spread of shaving foam) to the hot towels and the final slap of cologne. I work in a profession where drinking beer from a bottle is considered a bit effeminate, but I'm enjoying this rather a lot. And it seems I'm not the only one - the boom in male grooming has been one of the major trends in the fashion industry over the past few years. How did that happen? "You have to blame Beckham for everything," says Steve. "There was a time when every time he had a new haircut guys would come in and ask for that. When I first started barbering in Cardiff many years ago the idea of putting gel in your hair was frowned on. Now these guys come in and they want a full facial." And don't go thinking this is some phenomenon confined to moneyed types in the south of England, either. "We used to do five to six a day in Cardiff," says Steve. "People often think Wales is a bit behind, but that shows you how far ahead we were in a sense." So much so that he hopes to open his own place in the Welsh capital in the near future. "The average person who comes in here isn't a millionaire, we get people from the stinking rich to the office junior. I live in Brighton, and I did of lot of work in Shoreditch, and I want to bring that messy feel to the posh people. "I wanted to inject a little bit more of an independent feel to the community itself; we're one of only three independent shops in the community." You can't fault them on that front; Hoffi's an entirely different experience, in an entirely different area, from the oak-panelled establishments where a different generation would go for the same service. It's a curious experience, being shaved by someone else. I suppose it's som
Posted On 07/28/2010 04:25:56
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