It’s still ski season, so we still have ski articles…but travel writers are clearly looking for more satisfaction on the slopes as this week we have three writers discovering skiing for foodies.  And if that’s not enough snow for you we’ve got an intermediate skiier attempting a speed run, Adrian Mourby on snowshoes and why his son is called the Flying Scarecrow, and waiting for the Northern Lights…in the snow.   Also this week extremism hits travel writing – extreme swimming? Well, that’s one way to see the Greek Islands.  Even the city articles have gone a little bizarre – sumo wrestling in Tokyo, vintage shopping in Melbourne, and something small and funny in Marrakech.   This week’s categories are City, Escape, Outdoor/Adventure, Food & Ski, Going to Extremes.

CITY

• “Culture is a flexible conception, but if one interprets it to mean the whole range of human experience and achievement, then nowhere is better qualified to be the Cultural Capital of Europe than Istanbul, née Constantinople,” writes Jan Morris in The Guardian. Morris introduces us to Istanbul: culture club.
• In Oh, beehive: retro shopping in Melbourne in The Guardian, Nicole Wright enlists the help of Betty and Miss Shirley, “two 50s- obsessed sirens who run the Hidden Secrets Vintage Outing tour to introduce style-conscious tourists and out-of-the‑loop locals to the best boutiques.” Whilst Sydney may always be the star of Australia, “Melbourne has always had the reputation for being its coolest: it’s diverse and bohemian with a vibrant underground scene and cutting-edge arts and culture.”
• “After two weeks of travel among the intently well-behaved, rigorously unflappable Japanese, were we about to have a peek behind that decorous facade?” writes Alida Becker from Tokyo, Where Giants Dance and Crash in Japan, in The New York Times. “Well, yes and no. Certainly the huge, nearly naked wrestlers had little to hide. But even in their diaper-like loincloths, they maintained a dignified swagger…Like so much we’d already encountered in Japan, sumo turned out to be a mix of the seemingly approachable and the utterly confounding.”
• Brooks Barnes in The New York Times reveals how to spend 36 Hours in Mexico City – a city recovering from bad press and swine flu. “The time to visit this megacity — about 20 million people live in the metropolitan area — has rarely been better. Eager to attract people again, luxury hotels are offering specials that slash room rates by up to 65 percent. More restaurants, hotels and art galleries have sprung up in chic neighborhoods like Condesa and Roma. And Mexico City has probably never been this clean: even the street vendors now cart around big bottles of hand sanitizer.”
• The Telegraph brings us Ronnie Corbett’s Marrakesh: “The thing I love about the city – and Morocco in general – is that it still has a magical, exotic air which you just don’t find in European destinations any more. I love to wander through the Old Town and the Moroccan souks and soak up the sights, sounds and smells of the “Red City”, as it is known. One of the must-see sights is the Koutoubia Mosque – the biggest in the city – with its wonderful minaret and tower. And I’m always impressed by the Bab Agnaou, one of the city’s historic gates, dating back hundreds of years.”

ESCAPE

• In The Times Libby Purves indulges in Luxury on the rails: India’s Orient Express – the new Deccan Odyssey which goes from Mumbai to Delhi. “the central reason that this journey shines is that in such a railway country, a train pitches you into daily reality. A station is not a secured hotel forecourt or tourist zone; it is the natural heart of a place. On the platforms all classes saunter, work, wait, chatter and in some cases sit around bivouac fires by night. People throng, getting on with their lives, decorating tractors or piling mangoes. Moving on, you see farms and homes in slow motion as the train hoots its warnings to ox carts and bright strolling figures. Cossetted though you are, you feel part of things, and resolve to learn more of this extraordinary country.”
• In The New York Times, Lionel Beehner discovers “a new wave of visitors is rediscovering this ancient trading center, eager to take advantage of its low prices, spicy cuisine and maze-like bazaar,” as Tourists Return to an Ancient Crossroads in Syria. “What makes Aleppo unique is its blend of Ottoman, Armenian, Jewish and French influences, owing to its historic position at the crossroads of empires. Bright-green domed mosques rub shoulders with Armenian cathedrals, Maronite churches and even a synagogue. Its setting amid rolling plains dotted with olive groves and the ruins of dead cities calls to mind a scene out of “One Thousand and One Nights.””
• “Only 50 yards from the balcony of our lodge the siamangs are tuning up for the day, with the aid of pouches on their throats that expand to the size of their heads. We have front-row seats to these gibbons as we munch our breakfast croissants. Yes, I did say croissants, because we’re not in Africa, or in Asia, where the gibbons originate, but in northern France, at the Cerza Safari Park, near Lisieux.” In The Times Jane Knight takes A safari experience – in France, “What makes Cerza different from zoos is the size and open nature of the enclosures.”
• “The only way to get me back on a boat for another sailing holiday was to double its size, so I’d set my heart on a catamaran,” writes Clare Mann in The Telegraph. In Turkey: cool for catamarans on the Lycian Coast, Mann was converted to the catamaran way. “Chartering our own boat gave us unlimited freedom…The fat cat got the thumbs up from all of us, although a week was not enough.”
• “We are sitting atop a mountain outside the oasis town of Skoura, whose lights have begun to twinkle in the approaching dusk. Abdul has selected this scenic spot, scattered with the remains of a ruined 12th-century fortress, to teach me the serious business of tea, Bedouin-style, and to explain the simple way of life in this remote corner of southern Morocco,” writes Aoife O’Riordain in The Telegraph. Venturing out from an oasis of charm in southern Morocco leads to a breathtaking landscape of endless horizons, horizons which have “formed the backdrop of films from Gladiator to Cleopatra and given rise to a thriving movie industry.”

OUTDOOR/ADVENTURE

• Are you the right stuff for the white stuff? asks Adrian Mourby in The Independent. “We came here to learn winter skills, but at the moment what I’m working on is my how-not-to-write-off-a-$9,000-snowmobile technique.” After surviving the snowmobile, Mourby and his son learn the ways of the Huron in the Quebec Region. “We British believe winter is to be endured when, in fact, we should be like the bird. We should fly.”
• In The Observer Clover Stroud takes her family on an active break in Gudbrandsdalen, an area north of the lakeside town of Lillehammer. “…our holiday, at the Gala Hog fjellshotell duly promised a dawn-till-dusk activity programme of walking, fishing, cycling and even a moose safari.” This is what happens when One mum and two kids go wild in Norway.
• “The landscape and skies are vast, enhancing the feeling that Liuwa is one of Africa’s last great unspoilt wildernesses,” writes Geoffrey Dean in The Times, who bears witness to Zambia’s astounding wildebeest migration. “Africa has many magical corners, but this park is a gem in the continent’s crown, its shortage of trees counterbalanced by a plethora of lagoons and swathes of yellow conyza wildflowers.”
• In The Observer Paul Richardson discovers Secrets of Spain on a road less travelled. “The Camín Real, said Guillermo, was an ancient trail through the mountains of northern Spain, winding spectacularly among some of the grandest yet loneliest and least-known scenery in Europe. I had never heard of it, but if I was up for it, he said, he’d show me the secrets of this magical route.”
• Jini Reddy is on the Trail Of The Unexpected: The root masters of India in The Independent. “I’d come to trek to Cherrapunjee’s mysterious living-root bridges. These structures are as much works of art as examples of environmentally friendly bio-engineering…Getting to it takes dedication. It is 11 miles from Cherrapunjee town, high above the Khasi Hills which rise from the Bangladeshi plains to the south. The last leg of the journey is via a winding road overlooking magnificent ridges and gorges from which tumble frothy waterfalls.”
• In The Guardian, Grainne Mooney discovers The lost world of Venezuela – creating a bespoke tour of the country. From “a ranch in the vast grassy plains of Los Llanos” to “Canaima national park in the far south-east and magical mountain Roraima,” onto Angel Falls and ending up in “Puerto Colombia, a small port on the north coast in Henri Pittier national park – with its pretty colonial buildings and distinctly laid-back Caribbean feel.”

FOOD & SKI

• In The Guardian David Mossman is Skiing in Abruzzo. “It’s one of Italy’s poorest regions, a fact that’s helped to preserve its medieval hill towns and traditional way of life. This is Italy as it used to be…And then there’s the snow. By a quirk of nature, the Abruzzo gets a heavy and lasting snowfall, more than the Alps some years, it’s claimed.” And then there’s the food, “robust peasant fare, renowned throughout Italy…This was skiing for foodies. And thrifty foodies at that.”
• Sophy Roberts samples Haute cuisine in your chalet through a new premium chalet service from UK-based VIP Chalets. Roberts was blessed with chef Simon Van Der Voort, who created dishes that were “healthy, filling, bursting with flavour…” The Platinum service also provides “the valet parking services at Gatwick, private transfers to and from Geneva, and a wider selection of wines and champagnes at the resort. You get a Nespresso machine, an honesty bar (with soft drinks, chocolate bars and crisps), and fluffy white bathrobes.” Worth the extra money? Read on…
• “…for a heady combination of low-key glamour, accessibility and the ability to ski right into some of its best restaurants, perhaps nothing quite compares with the resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the jagged Dolomites of northern Italy,” says Evan Rail in The New York Times. Rail discovers the perfect marriage where Fresh Powder Meets Fine Dining at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

GOING TO EXTREMES

• In The Independent Robert Epstein is Extreme swimming: Who needs ferries to island-hop in Greece when you can jump in and swim between them instead? “It is day five of the week-long SwimTrek tour I have joined in the Greek Cyclades, a group of small islands…Travelling along the coastlines of Schinoussa, Koufonisi and Iraklia is spectacular…But it is the island crossings, swimming 3km-plus at a time, that gives the greatest sense of achievement.”
• In The FT Ed Holland (an intermediate skiier, as he calls himself) braves The fearsome runs of Lake Placid. “Those white chutes of death you see the World Cup racers negotiating at impossible speeds on the TV programme Ski Sunday – you could be careering suicidally down one of them yourself on Monday.”
• In The Independent, Hugh Montgomery experiences Extreme dark: In search of the northern lights – from a tiny Norwegian town that sees nothing but darkness and ice for two months. “In any case, Aurora or no Aurora, back in town there’s enough spectacle to be getting on with. A lunchtime cable-car ride reveals the full beauty of the few brief hours of grey-blue twilight that pass for day. Then, as blackness descends once more, I return to ground level for a stroll around the main streets which, with their heart-shaped lights and chocolate-box clapboard houses, exude the kind of understated festive warmth that this jaded, Oxford Street-afflicted soul had all but forgotten.”

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