Recipefiesta

European leaders visiting the Moldovan capital for a political summit will see a city rich in cultural influences and wine-making history

Whenever I brought friends from the UK home to Moldova, I always wanted to show them the countryside and its traditions, its beautiful hills, the stone-age settlements at Duruitoarea Veche in the north, and Lake Beleu in the south. I would rather show these off than my home city. But, I have now come to love Chișinău (pronounced Ki-shi-naw).

This is partly because I have learned more about the architecture of socialist modernism that dominates the city, and partly by seeing it through the eyes of visitors who experience the great food and wine, the charm of the low-rise buildings, and the abundant greenery.

If the guests aren’t complaining, they’re wandering around naked

I have worked in my family’s hotel for almost all of my life. It’s seasonal, as in any coastal town. I started out washing up and prepping in the kitchens on Friday nights and in the school holidays, moved into the restaurant as a waiter, then on to front of house and finally into management. As with any smaller business, there is really no such thing as “I’m a chef” or “I’m a housekeeper”; everyone mucks in.

We once had a team of senior cricket players who came back a little worse for wear after hitting the local cider. I don’t know if they had lost or won, but one guy locked himself out of his room naked and made his way down to the bar looking for the toilet. That has happened multiple times with people who come home drunk from weddings – my mum once had to climb through a window to help a lady who had got stuck, naked, in the bath for about five hours. We have also found a female guest wearing a long skirt pleasuring herself on the patio, fully embracing her audience.

From family-friendly jamborees to tall ships races: as festival season kicks off, we highlight great events that don’t cost anything

In 1843, Robert Lowes (Ian McKellen’s great-great-grandfather) persuaded Greater Manchester businessmen to give their workers a half-day holiday on Saturdays – paving the way for the modern weekend. This new festival of free time at MediaCity and Salford Quays is a celebration of everything people love about weekends, with 200-plus activities covering live music, sport, gardening, exercising, eating and more. There is a “charity supermarket” in the piazza with curated fashion from 10 charity shops; a family-friendly rave; and talks and debates hosted by the University of Salford.
3-4 June, weinventedtheweekend.com

People used to be grateful for our efforts to keep them safe. Now they accuse us of ‘sitting around staring at the water’

I became a lifeguard at a holiday park nine years ago. At first, the responsibility was scary, but over time my confidence grew. It definitely comes with challenges, especially when you see people doing silly and dangerous things. I always joke that when people go on holiday, they leave their brains at home.

Before the pandemic, there was more respect and gratitude for our services. On one occasion, I saw a woman fall and injure her spine, so I held her head still for hours until the ambulance arrived. People were putting suncream on my back and helping me to sip water because I couldn’t move. She made a full recovery and her family came to thank me the next day.

Tell us about your favourite spot to revisit in Europe – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Many of us often develop an affinity with a place that we have visited on holiday, a place that for some reason draws us back time and again. The reasons can be straightforward – a particularly memorable meal, nights on the town, walks on the beach, the friendliness of the locals in a neighbourhood bar, buying supplies from the local market, the most idyllic campsite. Whatever it is that makes you want to revisit your favourite place in Europe, we’d like to hear about it.

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.

A new crop of farming co-ops are finding ways to safely open up untouched landscapes and exotic wildlife to visitors – and grow superb coffee

At the beginning I thought we were in a Bob Dylan song, one of his epic Latino ballads. We drove down gravel roads where the only other traffic was cowboys on horseback, across iron girder bridges covered in rust and the webs of giant spiders. A caracara falcon stood in the centre of the road pulling a dead iguana apart. But then we left cattle country and crossed a desert made of pineapples. Darkness fell. After the shop where a mule was tied up, there were no more lights and the track clambered into the jungled hills. Eventually we pulled up at a gateway marked by a weird metal sculpture. Jovino, the driver, shrugged: “This must be it.”

“You never brought anyone here before?”

The latest capital-to-capital sleeper is one of Europe’s most eagerly awaited new routes – and connects London to Berlin in 16 hours

In the beer gardens of Berlin, night trains are a conversation topic almost as hot as how to get the Berghain bouncers to let you into their nightclub. (“Be a single man, be ‘alright’-looking, don’t smile,” I’m told.)

I’m in Prater Biergarten – the German capital’s oldest beer garden – reconnecting with a friend over pilsner and pretzels with butter injected into them. When I tell him I’m here to take the first European Sleeper to Brussels, perhaps the most hyped new route in the night train resurgence, he says he’s riding the same train next month. He tells me he feels guilty about taking loads of flights recently, so wants a less climate-crippling option. Plus, he says, “On a night train you can chill and just start drinking.”

An eight-day trek high in the Alps of France, Italy and Switzerland proves a stern test amid bad weather, snoring hikers and hangovers. But the views …

It was the penultimate day of my Tour du Mont Blanc and, as I scrambled up the side of the Aiguilles de l’Argentière, I was feeling smug. I’d ticked off more than 90 of the 105 miles, almost all in dazzling spring sunshine. Such luck with the weather was encouraging complacency. But up high, any hubris is ripe for a humbling. And the mountain gods were beginning to conspire.

The first hint of trouble came when I recognised the two fellow hikers coming the other way. In Tré-le-Champ, way below, we had drunk coffee at neighbouring tables and, realising we were on the same route, resolved to move on to beer when we saw each other again at the next refuge, La Flégère. So when I saw them marching back to the village, I stopped, assumed a quizzical face and asked: Est-ce la bonne direction?

Caroline Raphael, who has died of Parkinson’s disease aged 85, was for 20 years editor-in-chief of The Good Hotel Guide. She had worked on every edition from the first, in 1978, until her retirement in 2021, when the 2022 edition had gone to press.

The Guide was launched by the literary agent Hilary Rubinstein, on the model of Raymond Postgate’s Good Food Guide. When Rubinstein invited Caroline, a neighbour, to become involved, she could not have guessed that it would become a consuming interest for the next 45 years.

Croatia’s miles of isles are easy hops from Split by ferry – and next year those ferries are going electric. Eva Wiseman and family explore the country’s little pockets of paradise

Croatia’s coast is made up of 1,200 islands – some are glamorous and hotelled, some are grand rocks enveloped by gulls. Some are for naturists, some are for fishermen, some have lagoons so blue they appear Photoshopped. The most sensible and affordable way to travel between these islands is by ferry and, next year, the journeys will become more sensible still. Croatian national ferry company Jadrolinija is going electric. Designed to transport up to 1,000 passengers and 156 cars each, the new ferries will operate between Split and its nearby islands. And as well as emitting fewer harmful gases, they promise to cut down journey times by up to half an hour. It’s time to start planning your trip.

I started in Split, for a week of island hopping. My family and I had a day to kill there before our afternoon ferry – we immediately cursed ourselves for not adding another two or three. We walked through the Old Town’s white limestone streets, and took a tour of Diocletian’s Palace, a Unesco World Heritage site dating back to AD 295 (and a recent film location for Game of Thrones). With more than 200 buildings within an eight-acre enclosed space, the “palace” is a mini-city of its own, a fabulous tangle of streets and bars and homes which lean drunkenly against ancient walls.

From classical opera in Kraków to outdoor sculpture in San Sebastián, here’s where to find great art, music and film without breaking the bank

Across the Øresund strait from Copenhagen, Sweden’s most southerly and culturally diverse city has developed into the region’s art and music hub with an opera house, concert hall, its own symphony orchestra, a museum complex and a contemporary art scene. It’s also close to sandy beaches, has a dockland which is still gritty, and pleasant canals.

Roman ruins, art nouveau and industrial heritage add a patina of reality to underrated Turin, which feels more worn in than worn out

The Porta Palazzo, Europe’s biggest open market, sits on the Piazza della Repubblica, Turin’s biggest square. The market is open six days a week and its hundreds of stalls attract thousands of visitors.

The enormous octagonal piazza is criss-crossed by tram lines and usually clogged by delivery vans, empty pallets, full boxes of fruit and vegetables, and tourists taking photos. It’s a cacophonous, intoxicating place full of vibrant colours and smells, shoppers jostling, and the dissonant sounds of city traffic, competing hawkers and many languages. It makes a great introduction to Turin because historically it has been where many of the city’s new arrivals – in previous centuries from the south of the country and more recently from Africa and Asia – have begun their new lives in this one-time capital of Italy.

Fancy, memorable and beautiful, with very Marie Antoinette’s boudoir vibes

The Midland Grand might be one of the most useful recent restaurant openings in the entire UK. Of course, no restaurant wants to be called useful; they’d much prefer flowery prose such as “gastronomically enlightening” or “a shattering orgasm for the tastebuds” or some other stuff they’d be able to regurgitate on the promotional material.

The Midland Grand, however, is both very grand and mere metres from both King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, should you be passing through and not want to go much farther. It’s in a side wing of the reliably fabulous St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, which I often tell visitors to London is the “big, gothic, Harry Potter-esque one that you really can’t help but notice because it’s so fantastic”. The Renaissance is a paean to what can happen when we treat beautiful old things such as 19th-century, neo-gothic, 300-room hotels nicely, rather than rip them down to build new retail experiences.

More than 3,000 planes scheduled to take off on Friday, with road traffic peaking as leisure trips coincide with commuting

The start of the May half-term holiday for many schools will result in “hectic” roads and the most flights departing the UK since before the pandemic, according to industry estimates.

About 19m car journeys for leisure are expected on Britain’s roads over the next four days, and more than 3,000 planes are scheduled to take off on Friday.

The secrets to ancient Greek innovations, art in its rightful place, and gorgeous statues and views from Dublin to Albania

Commissioned in the early 1600s by the Order of St John in Malta, Caravaggio’s masterpiece, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, has been hung in St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, ever since. It is rare to view a painting in the space intended by the artist, in this case the Oratory, a place of prayer, rather than the modern exhibition hall. And so it felt an enormous privilege to experience this masterpiece, which is immense – 520 x 370cm – along with Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome Writing in the silence of the Oratory, and all for €15.
Sara Godfrey

The beauty of the Mourne mountains has led to an award that local artisans hope will also benefit sustainable tourism

It is said the Mourne mountains of Northern Ireland were “born of fire and shaped by ice”, moulded from 400 million years of geological history into a landscape of dark peaks, drowned glacial lakes and lush green farmland, patchworked by stone walls.

Now, that jaw-dropping beauty, as well as sustainable tourism projects and 25 years of peace, is being celebrated. Unesco has named the Mourne Gullion Strangford region in the south-east corner of the country as the UK’s newest Global Geopark in tribute to its geological past and culturally rich present.

After a Korean TV series and pop videos were shot at the Costa Brava town, Asian daytrippers have been flocking there to take photos – but it’s not the first time celebrities have boosted its tourist figures

The 9 o’clock bus from Barcelona to the Costa Brava resort of Tossa de Mar is packed, mostly with young Asian women.

Seventy-five minutes later they make straight for the Forat del Dimoni (Devil’s Hole), a small gap in the old city wall, where they queue to take each other’s pictures in a variety of poses. After that they post their pictures, take a stroll around town, eat lunch, then take the bus back to the city.

With the Amsterdam blockbuster all sold out, our writer picks 10 alternative arty must-sees in Europe – all reachable by train

For a top-notch art fix without leaving the country hop on a train to increasingly creative Margate. There’s a colourful exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Brazilian Beatriz Milhazes, one of the leading abstract artists working today, and a major installation in the Sunley Gallery Window, from 27 May until 10 September. Always to be seen is Antony Gormley’s Another Time, one of his cast-iron figures standing all at sea alongside the gallery.
Free entry, turnercontemporary.org
Getting there: London to Margate takes about 1.5 hours by train.

Share details of a retreat you’ve visited in the UK or Europe – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

Whether it means going to a peaceful place, walking for wellbeing or heading to a retreat, it is important to have some time out. So whether you like to pamper yourself at yoga classes in Spain or have meditated in the Cornish countryside, we would like to hear about how you get your wellness fix.

We are particular interested in any tips on wellness retreats that welcome men too – the value of global wellness has grown rapidly yet few breaks are targeted at men.

A short ferry ride from Guernsey takes you to the tranquil beauty of an island where time moves slowly and nature is embraced

At 6.30am, I walk to the empty beach at Belvoir Bay. The sand is soft, the sky is pink, Normandy lines the horizon. The only sounds are the murmur of the waves and the piping of oystercatchers. I plunge into the sea. Immediately, the cove is filled with terrible swearwords: I force myself to stay in the water, spluttering and cursing but growing less cold with each swimming stroke. Hours later, sipping coffee while overlooking another deserted beach, my skin is still zinging and my mood is irritatingly smug.

A dunking in the bay is an apt way to start the day on Herm. The tiny, comma-shaped Channel Island – stretching just under 1.5 miles from top to bottom, and less than half a mile across – feels like a place cut adrift. This is emphatically a good thing. The island has a permanent population of 65 and a history that yawns back to the Neolithic era. Puffins breed on its southern cliffs; rabbits nibble in its flower meadows; migrant warblers cluster in its pine groves. You’ll find no cars, or even bikes, and the primary school has four pupils. The island’s name sounds like a hesitation, but its pretty hills, woods and beaches demand to be savoured in the here and now.

Kat Watkins, who requires a ventilator at night, said she is suffering from severe back pain after night at Travelodge in Hounslow

A disabled wheelchair user who requires a ventilator at night had to sleep on a sofa in a hotel dining room because the accessible room she booked was not available.

Kat Watkins, 36, a UN convention on the rights of disabled people development officer at Disability Wales, who has brittle bone disease and sleep apnoea, said she is suffering from severe back pain as a result of not being able to sleep in the bed she had booked and paid for at a Travelodge hotel in Hounslow.

From classic to cutting edge, from London to Sicily, these lavish hotels put creativity in the frame

This new hotel is housed in the reborn Battersea power station complex. There are works displayed in the Grand Café and throughout the communal areas, from striking pieces by the hotel’s signature artist Jaime Hayon, to butter-yellow statues in the marbled lobby. Bedrooms are sleek and contemporary with pops of colour and floor-to-ceiling windows, while higher rooms offer fantastic views across the city. There are daily tours of the collection at 4pm, with the spectacular rooftop bar, pool and restaurant the ideal place for some post-culture down time.
Doubles from £213, room only; artotellondonbattersea.com

From pet sitting and home swaps to planning ahead, be flexible and grab the best deals … fast

Your holiday dreams may have been put on hold as household bills soar but there are creative ways to book a break on a super-low budget if you are willing to think outside the box.

Workers for subcontractor Serco have spoken about a culture of ‘institutional abuse’ by management at five hotels in and around Liverpool

Asylum seekers staying at Home Office hotels in and around Liverpool are alleged to have been harassed, humiliated and subjected to verbal and emotional abuse from senior hotel staff, according to an investigation for the Observer.

Sources working for the Home Office subcontractor Serco have described what they believe is a culture of “institutional abuse” at five Merseyside hotels, including the Suites hotel in Knowsley, where violent far-right protests took place in February. Sources include current and former contractors recruited to work in Home Office hotels for Serco.

Discovering a great local place to eat is often the highlight of a trip and a way of understanding a culture
35 of Europe’s best restaurants

Though I have a photograph of me standing on the Great Wall of China, my sole memory of the visit is the noodles I had for lunch in a truckers’ cafe afterwards. Equally, while I know our student trip to Venice must have taken in St Mark’s Square, two decades on I can only conjure an image of cuttlefish in ink as dark as a Tintoretto devoured in a hidden trattoria (startling to callow youths expecting pizza and pasta). Exploring the city’s history through its cuisine – rice and spices from the east, salt cod from the frozen north and strudel from the years under Austrian rule – proved far more pleasurably educational than listening to my friend Rick read out endless pages of the guidebook.

While I don’t just travel to eat, it’s always a reliable shortcut to intimacy with a culture. It’s a universal language, especially when you have no shared vocabulary, as happened when we joined a table of Hong Kong pensioners for Sunday morning dim sum, and delighted them with our enthusiasm for fried duck’s tongues.

Here’s how to master the art of holidaying, whoever you’re going away with

“All mammals get aggressive when crowded,” says clinical psychologist Linda Blair. “Save money on long-distance travel and invest instead in generously sized accommodation where you won’t be on top of each other. Everyone needs a place to retreat to – it’s how you keep stress levels down.”

Brilliant tortilla, amazing pasta, wonderful risotto and delectable vegan small plates feature among our tipsters’ tasty experiences on the continent

Set in an old merchants’ house built with Dutch bricks in the old town of Gdańsk, Goldwasser restaurant offers unique Jack Daniel’s-sauced steaks with superb four-course menus including lobster cream soup and mango surprise dessert for 340 złoty (£65). The dark-wooden panelled interior with cosy nooks and crannies is dimly lit with red velvet decor and views across the Motlawa river over to the Old Granary building. Some rooms in this historic building are available for overnight stays.
Rita

After visiting 17 countries for his latest book, our writer leaves his heart in Albania – ‘a country of knotty history, boundless hospitality and infinite surprises’

Over the past four years, I have travelled to 17 countries for my book Goodbye Eastern Europe. In it, I try to chart a vanished eastern Europe, one in which cultural multiplicity and religious tolerance were the rule, rather than the exception. Albania was one of only a few places in which that legacy was not a memory but a living reality. Seeing it in action gave me hope, not just for the Balkans, but for Europe as a whole.

I felt trepidation before my first visit there in 2019. You could chalk that up to what the Bulgarian scholar Maria Todorova called “nested Balkanisms”: the tendency of every eastern European country to regard itself as the golden mean, and look at its neighbours (especially to the south and east) with suspicion. I’m Polish, and I’ve been travelling through the region long enough to have experienced every kind of basic material discomfort. But I’m also old enough to remember images broadcast from Albania after the fall of communism and the civil war that swept over the country in 1997. Even though much time has passed since then, I wasn’t sure what I would find.

Sweden’s third city showcases independent artists and stylish restaurants reviving Scandinavia’s offbeat, sustainable design

If you want to see the full range of expression of which a Swede is capable, just mention Ikea. Annoyance, amusement, pride and resentment flit across Terese Alstin’s face as she forms a response. “It’s a love-hate relationship,” she says finally, laughing.

We’re tucking into an exquisite lunch of chicken and asparagus at the Mat- & Chokladstudion cafe in Malmö. Sweden’s third-largest city is renowned for its independent design scene – with boutiques and design-forward restaurants that are open year round – but right now, just before the third Southern Sweden Design Days (SSDD), there’s an almost audible crackle of creative energy in the air. Terese is strategic manager at the Form/Design Center, the organisation behind the event, which takes place on 25-28 May. More than 60 venues across Malmö will be involved, turning the city into a sprawling design museum. About 85% of participants are one-person companies.

The Lincolnshire Wolds are marking their 5oth anniversary as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with events from hedge-laying to star gazing

Lincolnshire, I am told, has a location problem. Despite being England’s second-biggest county, it remains somehow tucked away, hidden between the Humber and the Wash. “So there’s no reason to pass through,” Helen Gamble laments as she leads me from Bag Enderby’s church into freshly spring-sprung hills. As Lincolnshire Wolds Countryside Service project officer, one part of Helen’s role is raising awareness of this overlooked landscape. “It’s as good as Yorkshire,” she claims, “but without the tourists.”

When most people think of Lincolnshire, if they think of it at all, they think: flat. And true, the southern fenlands are steadfastly non-undulating. But the northerly Wolds are the highest ground in eastern England between Kent and Yorkshire itself. Here, farmland, woods, chalk streams, rock seams and pretty little villages fold, rise and ripple. Recognised as nationally important, the Lincolnshire Wolds were designated an area of outstanding natural beauty in 1973, so this year celebrates the 50th anniversary. Which is keeping Helen busy indeed.

Tell us about a great route in the UK or Europe – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

We all know walking is good for body, mind and soul. Add views of the sea into the mix and it’s even better. We want to hear about your favourite coastal hikes in the UK and Europe. Whether it’s a multi-day hike in a wild landscape or a saunter along the beach at sunset, tell us about what makes your chosen walk special and about any highlights en route.

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.

Near the Hwange national park, a reintroduction project protects animals, attracts tourists and ensures locals aren’t neglected

Inside a stockade of tall wooden stakes, cattle are waiting to be let out for the day. Golden sunlight stutters through the acacia trees and lights up the homestead beyond, a large, bare-earth courtyard containing five neatly thatched mud-walled buildings.

Hygiene Moyo, 75, and her teenage granddaughter Lucricia live here, just outside one of Zimbabwe’s largest and most important national parks, Hwange. They take me to greet their favourite animal, Booster the bull, who comes trotting across the enclosure when called, pushing his nose forward to be scratched. Ten new calves mill around in a separate inner stockade, eagerly waiting to be reunited with their mothers. Not all of the herd, however, are present. Since the start of the year three cows have been killed by hyenas.

Starting in Dickens’ Broadstairs, this walk takes in the spectacular bays of Thanet’s eastern tip

For nearly a year now, I’ve been ticking off stretches along the Kent coast. Dover to Folkestone brought dramatic scenery, but noisy traffic on a major road running along much of the route. Whitstable to Herne Bay was more tranquil, though the landscape was less impressive. This route – a nearly six-mile stretch from Broadstairs to Margate – is, I think, the best so far, with no traffic and impressive surroundings.

This walk should only be done at low tide as parts of the route aren’t accessible otherwise. There is also a danger of being cut off by the sea, so it’s important to check the tide times. (At high tide it can be done along the top of the cliffs instead, though it’s less dramatic.) Broadstairs is a 90-minute high-speed train ride from London St Pancras.

The ancient city in Umbria has captivated visitors for centuries with its lofty setting, medieval arches, breathtaking cathedral and network of Etruscan caves

Dinner at Labirinto di Adriano, a charming traditional trattoria in the backstreets of Orvieto, comes with something of an unusual coda. After delicious plates of handmade pasta – coated in the kind of silky, cheesy sauce that only the Italians know how to do – and succulent pork cheek, our host, Alessia, suggests we might like to explore what lies beneath the restaurant. Following her downstairs, we discover an extraordinary tangle of underground passageways, caves and staircases that date back more than 2,500 years, to when the Etruscans first began to dig a network of wells, cellars and tunnels into the soft volcanic rock.

Many of Italy’s hilltop towns have caverns and cellars beneath, but few can match the extraordinary honeycomb that lies under Orvieto. The old town (as opposed to the new, Orvieto Scalo, which sprawls across the valley below) is built on an isolated outcrop of tufa rock, with medieval palazzos, the 50m-high clock tower, Torre del Moro, and breathtaking 13th-century cathedral rising up like cut-outs, set above some fantastical, floating land.

Proposing artificial light, a concourse one floor away from the platforms and the partial demolition of a listed building, a £1.5bn plan to redevelop this historic London railway terminus seems ill-conceived, even with Herzog & de Meuron on board

Liverpool Street station in London, grand old Victorian terminus, one of the busiest in the country by footfall – honoured by a place on the Monopoly board – plus the adjoining former Great Eastern hotel, where the vampire-hunter Van Helsing stayed in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and now called the Andaz, are, depending on your point of view, soon most likely to be either transformed or wrecked. “A world-class gateway to our great capital,” says the consortium that wants to build nearly 1 million sq feet (93,000 sq metres) of commercial accommodation above the station concourse and the old hotel. “Crass and unsustainable,” says the Liverpool Street Station Campaign, a coalition of eight heritage organisations set up to oppose the plans. “It’s like putting a giant clown’s hat on top of St Paul’s Cathedral,” says Griff Rhys Jones, the group’s president.

The £1.5bn proposal, recently submitted for planning approval after a not very informative public information campaign, is designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, famous for Tate Modern, the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg. Their designs would replace the listed Victorian-style steel-and-glass structure over the main concourse with an opaque ceiling, artificially lit. Hope Square, a public space containing a memorial to the Kindertransport, would disappear and the sculpture be relocated. Above the concourse, the square and the eight-storey listed hotel building, blocks containing offices and hotel accommodation, rising up to 16 additional storeys, would be built – a roof extension, in other words, double the height of the building it surmounts, and several times the volume.

Buzzy cities offer museums of croissants or codebreaking, plus there are mountains, lakes and beaches – and piles of glorious food

I have a massive soft spot for Poznań, not least because I used to work in a fish and chip shop in the city. Poznań’s virtues include its vibrant old town; its lakes; its dancing goats (two mechanical billies make an appearance daily at noon atop the town hall, butting heads 12 times to mark the time); its Rogalowe (croissant) Museum (the city’s sweet treat is the St Martin’s croissant, filled with white poppy seeds); and the Enigma Cipher Centre (which sheds light on the vital role Polish codebreakers played in hampering the Nazis).

Working in a fish and chip shop, learning to drink vodka and buying underwear by the kilo … our writer found much to revel in during an impromptu year in Poland

In the winter of 2016, a few months before the Brexit referendum, I decided to move to Poland. I thought it best to get out there while I still could, before my liberty to earn the minimum wage in 20-odd countries was irrevocably lost.

I can’t say it was love at first sight. It was too cold for that. It’s not easy to fall head over heels at -4C. When I boarded the bus outside Poznań airport, I shared with the driver the only phrase I had mastered on my journey from Luton. Kocham cie. I love you. The driver’s reply was to raise an eyebrow, shake his head and usher me on board. It was an auspicious beginning.

The Portuguese capital wins top spot ahead of budget-friendly eastern European destinations, according to new poll

In an annual travel survey which analysed typical tourist costs in 35 European cities, Lisbon has emerged as the best-value location for a city break on the continent – beating traditional budget-friendly eastern European destinations.

The Post Office Travel Money City Costs Barometer found the Portuguese capital won the top spot ahead of runner-up Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. Two other past winners – Krakow (third) and Athens (fourth) – complete the top four cities.

Spectacular architecture, art and wilderness feature among our readers’ favourite encounters . Scroll down for the winning tip and to send us your own

The relative remoteness of Zamość, a south-eastern town (only a few buses and trains each day from Lublin), makes the surprise of emerging onto its extraordinary Rynek square even more delightful. Set on an important trading route, with ornate Armenian merchant houses painted yellow, red and blue, the square and surrounding streets were designed by Venetian Renaissance architect Bernardo Morando. Sip a beer on the square on a summer evening, or if you are there in December a nearby square is full of bathtubs containing carp for sale (the Polish Christmas delicacy of choice).
Edward

Just three years ago Fairburn Tower, near Inverness, was a roofless wreck. Now it has been restored to its former renaissance glory and is available as a holiday let

“The day will come when the Mackenzies of Fairburn shall lose their entire possessions … Their castle shall become uninhabited, desolate and forsaken, and a cow shall give birth to a calf in the uppermost chamber of Fairburn Tower.” So prophesied Coinneach Odhar Fiosaiche, Scotland’s own Nostradamus, back in the 17th century.

Located amid farmland a pleasant five-mile stroll from Muir of Ord station in the Scottish Highlands – just half an hour’s drive north-west of Inverness – Fairburn Tower has had a remarkable turnaround in its fortunes. Only three years ago, it was just as Fiosaiche predicted: a roofless, floorless wreck, the cracks running up its walls threatening to bring the whole edifice crashing down once and for all. That’s when the building conservation charity the Landmark Trust intervened. A phalanx of highly skilled craftspeople set to work, restoring the tower to the time of the Stewarts and the glories of the Scottish renaissance. The walls were repaired; the floors, roof, casement windows and spiral staircase reinstalled; and the bartizans (overhanging turrets) reconstructed. Finally, a pink limed-based harl was applied, giving the whole structure the look of a rosy sunset (or, if you prefer, sunrise), as if it had leapt straight out of a Sir Walter Scott novel. Now available as a holiday let for four, it’s occasionally open to the public to visit too – for the first time this Sunday (and it’s free).