Globetrotter

10 reasons to travel right now

Words by Johanna Derry & Sophy Grimshaw

Italian alps

#1.High times at the pragelato resort & spa
A midweek blast of snow and sunshine is the perfect antidote to post-Christmas blues, so duck out of work and head to the Pragelato for some five-star treatment. Built for the 2006 Winter Olympics, this 1,534m-high resort in Piedmonte is one for those with a taste for the finer things: think white truffles and wine tastings, not plonk and pizza. If you’re not too busy getting steamed, salted and rubbed down with volcanic clay at the spa, a new cable car can whisk you to the Via Lattea’s 400km of ski runs in just eight minutes. Midweek packages offer the best value: a four-day spa package from 10 February to 23 March costs €1,450 for a one-bedroom suite half-board. It includes a Daniela Steiner spa massage and 20% off your lift pass. Children under 12 can share the suite at no extra charge.

Fly Sterling to Milan Via Rohrbach, Frazione Plan, near Turin, +39 0122 740 011, www.pragelatoresort.com

Europe

#2. a teaste of bollywood
The colourful show Bharati features songs from Bollywood films and more traditional Indian music and dance, performed by a variety of artists including dancers, actors, singers and acrobats. It tells the story of Siddarth, a cynical American-born Indian on a journey to his roots in India. During his travels he falls in love with the gorgeous Bharati and through her, with the country itself.

Fly Sterling to Berlin, Dortmund, Paris or Brussels Berlin 2-7 January; Cologne (near Dortmund) 23-25 January; Paris 17 January – 2 February; Brussels 5 February.

Tickets start at €27.50, www.bharatitheshow.com

Salzburg

#3. the snow golf championship
We’ve seen the rise of off-piste Urban Golf, but it looks like the sport is heading into wackier territory, on piste. The World Snow Golf Championship, where every shot is like trying to hit the ball out of the bunker, takes place in January. The competition is proving immensely popular with amateur golfers from all over the world, including entrants from as far afield as the Philippines.

Fly Sterling to Salzburg 24-26 January, resort of Obertauern, near Salzburg www.snowgolf-worldchampionship.com.

nottingham

#4. to catch up with a thief
Nottingham in England’s East Midlands is a lively university city and business centre, but it is perhaps best known for the legend of Robin Hood. The myths surrounding the medieval outlaw, said to have robbed the rich to give to the poor and lived in hiding in Sherwood Forest with his gang of merry men, have inspired countless TV series and films. Remember Hollywood’s Robin Hood Prince of Thieves? (hands up, secret Kevin Costner fans). Or perhaps you’ve been watching the new BBC dramatisation of Hood’s life on TV. Now visitors can get closer to the real Robin Hood by downloading a podcast audio tour of his Nottingham haunts. You’ll start in Sherwood Forest, see his secret cave at Creswell Cregs and visit his local villages – our advice is to press pause on your iPod and savour a few pints of real ale at the traditional pubs. Surely what Robin would have wanted. Finish your audio trail at Hood’s statue at Nottingham Castle, conveniently close to the city centre.

Fly Sterling to East Midlands The podcast is available to download at www.visitnottingham.com.

French alps

#5. tis the season to snowscoot
This extreme winter sport involves speeding down the slopes on a board with scooter handles – a high octane cross between skiing, snowboarding and BMX-style biking. The French ski resort of Pra Loup, where the sport originiated, is still the place to get in on the action. This year’s Snowscoot World Championships (7-9 March) will see adrenaline junkies from 12 nations compete on a tricky course that culminates in 15m-high jumps. It makes for a great spectator sport, and braver fans can learn to scoot any time during the winter season. The resort offers a three-hour introductory lesson from €40.

Fly Sterling to Nice or Chambéry Pra Loup is less than 2 hours’ drive from Nice airport / 3.5 hours from Chambéry www.snowscootpraloup.com.

Paris

#6. one night in heaven
Competing for Europe’s most unusual hotel room is this pea-green 70s-style prefab. Created by Swiss artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, it sits high atop Paris’ Palais de Tokyo art museum. Hotel Everland was created for Expo 2002 and was originally on show at the Gallery for Contemporary Art in Leipzig. Those with a head for heights can book this retro room with its knockout view of the Eiffel Tower for ¤333 a night on weekdays or €444 at weekends – one night only. Or why not take a peek inside during the day while the museum is open?

Fly Sterling to Paris www.everland.ch

Gran canaria

#7. see the almond blossom
Now’s the time to work on your tan in Gran Canaria’s El Nublo national park, while drinking in the heady scent of almond flowers. During the first two weeks of February, Tejeda, a quiet village high on the slopes of Pico de las Nieves, holds an annual almond blossom festival. The Fiesta del Almendro en Flor celebrates flower power with almond wines and sweets, folk dances and song.

Fly Sterling to Gran Canaria www.tejeda.es

Amsterdam

#8. if it’s your dog’s birthday
Amsterdam has one of the highest numbers of dogs of any European city, and soon it could have some of the best-looking too. Rita’s Place, an eccentric new doggie grooming salon and accessories shop has opened on the corner of Westingraat and Lijnbaansgracht. Named after owner Tara Gilligan’s basset hound (above), Rita’s Place offers top end luxury for pooches – “but not in a tacky Paris Hilton way,” says Tara. All the beauty products are human-grade quality and organic, and collars and leads are made using saddle leather from Buckingham Palace, no less. They even do paw massages.

Fly Sterling to Amsterdam Rita’s Place, Weteringstraat 45, Amsterdam, +31 (0)20 420 5171, www.ritasplace.com

Stockholm

#9. get your skates on
Every year individuals and teams pull on their skates to race between Uppsala and Stockholm. The main event is the Vikingarännet, a testing 80km route, but there are also two shorter runs: the Vikingaturen at 50km and the tourist race Vikingarännet kortis, around 25km. You can register to race right up to the day for a fee of around 600 SEK (€65). Or just watch, cheer and keep warm at the sidelines.

Fly Sterling to Stockholm Arlanda 10-17 February (on the first day that the ice is thick enough) www.vikingarannet.com

London

#10. adventures in eroticism.
Piccadilly Circus may boast one of the world’s most famous statues of the love god Eros, but the bustling London intersection and its vast Trocadero shopping mall hardly strike one as sensual. Beneath street level, however, you’ll find the cavernous Amora, a new “forum celebrating love, sex and relationships” for the post-Sex and The City generation. New last year and the only attraction of its kind in London, Amora is designed to set visitors at ease with a soft colour scheme of pale pinks and baby blues and a gift shop full of innocent-looking rubber ducky vibrators. Interactive video features teach guests how to recognise flirtatious body language in a stranger or perform a striptease for a partner. And there are even mannequins on hand for you to practice your spanking technique, as judged against a no doubt rigorously scientific ‘spankometer’. The message emphasised throughout is that good sex is safe sex with a partner you trust. There’s not too much here to raise eyebrows and if you find anything offensive, it’s likely to be the steep £12 (€17) entry price.

Fly Sterling to London Gatwick Amora – The Academy of Sex and Relationships, 13 Coventry Street, London, www.amoralondon.com

Natasja Crone and son in Barcelona

My nine-year-old son Samuel is football mad, and as a former sports reporter I’m a fan too. So we jetted off to Barcelona with Sterling for a mother-son bonding trip. The main goal? To catch a match at the hallowed grouds of Camp Nou. Here’s how match day panned out…
11am Enjoyed a lie in before Samuel and I headed out towards Plaça de Catalunya, where we found a table outside the well-known Café Zurich. Kick-off at Camp Nou is not for another six hours, so we took our time over sandwiches and croissants. Wondered what Ronaldinho might be doing, and watched people at the neighbouring tables. Everyone’s drinking café con leche and reading El Pais with great concentration.

1pm Passed by the San Antoni Market on Comte d’Urgell where there’s also a second market selling books, stamps, posters and old records. Any collector would go mad here. It’s huge. Inside the San Antoni Market is even more impressive: hundreds of food stands with Catalan specialities including fruit, fish, ham, cheeses and pastries – and you can also buy all kinds of jewellery, shoes and clothes.
3pm Samuel didn’t find anything of interest at the market. But that’s not the case now that we’re shopping for football souvenirs in the FCBotiga, outside Camp Nou. This is the place to go if you want official merchandise from the famous club. It’s packed with FC Barcelona shirts, shorts, socks, even slippers and pencil cases – everything a fan’s heart could desire. If you buy the official shirt they will print the name and number of your choice on the back while you wait.

4pm The moment Samuel’s been waiting for: we headed into Camp Nou. It’s Europe’s biggest stadium, seating 98,000 people. It’s the first time there for us both. Up and down, to the left and right, fans in Barca’s bordeaux and blue shirts are waving flags and blowing horns, and before long the players are on the field, warming up. There’s Ronaldinho, Messi and Henry. For me, being here was almost as special as the ABBA concert my father took me to in 1980, and I know Samuel will remember this moment when he’s in his 30s! On this particular Sunday the team reminded us that they are one of the best in the world as they beat Atletico Madrid 3-0. The game was played with a flare that only players like Messi, Puyol, Valdés and Henry can pull off.

7pm Back in the centre of town, the metro was packed with football fans from all over the world discussing the match. We got off at Passeig de Gràcia and had dinner at tapas restaurant Tapa Tapa – their gambas al ajillo is particularly good. On our way back to the hotel I went window shopping on Passeig de Gràcia, where you can find expensive brands like Chanel and Max Mara as well as Diesel and H&M.
10pm Watched a replay of the match on TV in bed – we’re missing Camp Nou already. The TV coverage doesn’t do the stadium justice, but at least we got to see the three goals in slow motion. Spectacular!

Natasja Crone is a broadcast journalist for TV2 in Denmark

Natasja’s barcelona address book

Café Zurich ·
Plaça de Catalunya 1
+34 93 317 91 53
San Antoni Market
Carrer Comte d’Urgell
FCBotiga
Carrer d’Arístedes Maillol
www.shop.fcbarcelona.com
Camp Nou
Carrer d’Arístedes Maillol
www.fcbarcelona.com
Tapa Tapa
Passeig de Gràcia 44
+34 93 488 33 69