M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R A V E LA RT • A R C H I T E C T U R E • G A S T R O N O M Y • A R C H A E O L O G Y • H I S T O R Y • M U S I C • L I T E R AT U R E

Spring Update 2014News, views and newly launched tours

Dear Traveller,Across a range of publications, the trend is to supplant writers with celebrities.

Deplorable of course, but a tendency we have half fallen in line with. The articles in the issue are not written by professional writers but by MRT staff. I hope you feel as I do that they succeed in conveying something of the excitement and joy of exploration and discovery and of the benefits of tutored travelling. The newsletter also introduces the tours we have planned for Christmas and highlights some of the other tours and activities scheduled for the coming months. Please feel free to be tempted.

Martin Randall

NewsNews from Lecturers & Staff ................. 2Martin Randall Travel is 25 years old ..... 4Antipodean News by Stephanie Bourgeois .............................. 5Martin Randall Travel music festivals in 2015 ............................ 5Reviving Latin America by Sophie Wright ...................................... 6Lands of the Maya ........................ 6

Moving into China by Samantha Walls .................................... 8Discovering Karnataka by James Palmer ...................................... 10Prospecting Assam with Dad by Ollie Randall ...................................... 11New closed group tours department ..... 13Unexpected Encounter in an Algerian Bathhouse by Edward Lewis .................. 14Roman Algeria ............................. 14

London Days: Spring 2014Great Railway Termini ............... 16

Newly launched: Christmas 2014 & New YearVienna at Christmas .................. 17Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur at Christmas ........ 18Upper Egypt: Luxor & Aswan .... 20Munich at Christmas ................ 21Music in Berlin at New Year .................................. 22Bengal by River at Christmas ................................. 23Palermo at Christmas ............... 25Florence at Christmas ............ 27

Newly launched for 2015Mozart in Salzburg ................... 28The Age of Bede ............................ 29Literature & Walking in the Lake District ................... 30The Cathedrals of England ... 32Great Houses of the South West ...................... 34

Summer music 2014Verona Opera .............................. 35Drottningholm & Confidencen ............................. 37Santa Fe Opera .............................. 38Historic Dutch Organs ........... 40East Neuk Festival ....................... 41

UK SymposiaNineteen-Fourteen ..................... 42

Last spaces remainingMediaeval Middle England..... 44German Gothic............................ 45

See page 48 for all tours with availability in May, June and July 2014.

Tours to the USA in 2015Register your interest now .............. 46–47

Below: Oxford, after a drawing by Joseph Pennell.

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News from our lecturersPrizes, publications, exhibitions

Helena Attlee published The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and its Citrus Fruit (Penguin) in April which will be ‘Book of the Week’ on BBC Radio 4 from 21 April. She has also set up ‘Open Ground’, a new venture holding writing workshops in outdoor spaces. Helena will be leading Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana in May and September this year.

Monica Bohm-Duchen published Art & the Second World War (Lund Humphries) in 2013. Monica will be talking on this subject at Art Historians in Newcastle (4–6 April 2014) and is also leading Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur in September and at Christmas.

Dr Katie Campbell ’s new book A Garden in Time (Frances Lincoln), published in February, focuses on British gardens. The book ties in with a four-part series of the same name on BBC4 in April 2014.

Jon Cannon published The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces: Decoding Churches, Temples, Mosques & other Places of Worship Around the World in October. Jon is leading The Cathedrals of England in October 2014 and April 2015.

In January 2014 Dr Harry Charrington took up a new post as Principal Lecturer in Architecture and Course Leader, Master of Architecture, at the University of Westminster. This year Harry is leading Berlin: New Architecture and West Coast Architecture, and in 2015, Finland: Aalto & Others and New England Modern.

Dr Frances Fowle was appointed Reader in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and is Senior Curator at the Scottish National Gallery. Frances is co-curating an exhibition American Impressionism, opening at the Scottish National Gallery in July and also in

Paris and Madrid. She leads Impressionism in Paris in May.Gijs van Hensbergen has been made a Research Fellow at the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the London School of Economics. Gijs leads six tours to Spain this year plus two to the USA (Art in Texas and Connoisseur’s New York).John Keay’s book, Midnight’s Descendants: South Asia from Partition to the Present Day was published in January (William Collins). John will be speaking at the Asia House Literary Festival in London on 16 May and at the Edinburgh, Henley and Cheltenham Book Festivals this year. John is leading Sailing the Ganges in November this year.Congratulations to Amanda Patton who won the Society of Garden Designers’ ‘Medium Residential Garden’ award for a Somerset garden, plus the Society’s Judges Award.

18th-century capriccio of ancient ruins, designed by Machy and engraved by Basan.

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Dr Helen Langdon published Vision & Ecstasy: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s St Francis (Matthiessen Gallery) in 2013. Helen will be speaking about Caravaggio and Claude Lorrain at Art Historians in Newcastle, 4–6 April, and leads our Caravaggio & Rembrandt London Days.

Professor Richard Langham-Smith. Jonathan Miller’s November 2014 production of Bizet’s Carmen by Mid Wales Opera marks the British professional première of the critical edition, edited by Richard (Peters Edition). On 18 June, he participates in a live discussion on the revival of Les Pêcheurs de Perles at the Coliseum and on 27 July a live ‘Proms Plus’ event of French music. He leads a tour to The Bergen Festival in May.

John McNeill has established a biennial series of international Romanesque conferences for the British Archaeological Association. The third conference, ‘Romanesque: Patrons and Processes’, will be held in Barcelona in April. John leads several tours for MRT focusing on mediaeval architecture in 2014.

Dr Jeffrey Miller was named a Core Lecturer at Columbia University in January 2014. Jeffrey leads Charlemagne to Charles V in June and German Gothic in July.

Christopher Newall is curating the exhibition John Ruskin: Artist & Observer currently in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada, and moving to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in July. The accompanying catalogue was published in collaboration with Paul Holbeton Books and the National Gallery of Canada. In 2014 he leads Northumbria, Sicily and Puglia.

Professor David Phillipson’s book Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum & the Northern Horn 1000 bc–ad 1300 is published in April. David led our Ethiopia tour earlier this year.

Jane Pritchard MBE. Congratulations to Jane who was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to the arts. Jane is

Curator of Dance, Theatre and Performance Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum and curated the Diaghilev & Ballets Russes exhibition. She led our Rite of Spring anniversary tour in 2013.

Congratulations to Juliet Rix whose article ‘A Weekend in Valletta’, published in The Times, won a prize at the International Malta Tourism Press Awards. Juliet leads the Malta tour in October.

Barnaby Rogerson’s articles on Algeria have been published in The Oldie, Minerva magazine and The Telegraph. His latest book, Rogerson’s Book of Numbers, was published (Profile) in November. Barnaby leads Roman Algeria in October.

Professor Ian Campbell Ross is now Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. The fourth edition of his book Umbria: a Cultural Guide was published in September. Ian leads The Via Flaminia in May this year.

Anthony Sattin will have a new book published in October this year entitled Young Lawrence (John Murray), a biography of Lawrence of Arabia, tracing his development from student to archaeologist to spy. He leads Roman Algeria departing October this year.

Professor Jan Smaczny published a jointly edited volume Exploring Bach’s B-minor Mass (Cambridge University Press) in October.

Lars Tharp is writing and presenting Hogarth’s Pug for the BBC this spring. Lars leads our London Day, The Complete London Hogarth in July, and was on the winning team of University Challenge (Distinguished Alumni) in January, representing Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

Professor Stephen Walsh’s book Musorgsky and his Circle was published in November (Faber). Stephen is lecturer for The Lucerne Festival in August.

...and from our staffIn summer 2013, Martin Randall was appointed to the board of ABTA–The Travel Association. ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer commented: ‘On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome Martin to the ABTA board. He brings with him more than thirty years’ industry experience and knowledge and his expertise in the specialist tour operator area will be a real asset to the Association’.

Congratulations to Tara Latimer, who has been accepted by King’s College, London to study medicine. Tara worked at Martin Randall Travel 2000–2011 and has tour managed many tours since then.

Liz Brown, Marketing Manager and Walking Tours Supervisor, is to marry Carlo Taczalski in July 2015.

Left to right: Helen Attlee, Jon Cannon, Dr Harry Charrington and Dr Frances Fowle.

Left to right: Gijs van Hensbergen, Dr Helen Langdon, Dr Jeffrey Miller, Professor David Phillipson, Juliet Rix and Lars Tharp.

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Left: I Fagiolini. Below left to right: Martin Randall; Steven Desmond; Robert Hollingworth conducting. Photos by Bill Knight, www.knightsight.co.uk.

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ROUND ONE (in four parts) fi (next entry)Roderick WilliamsBridget Swithinbank

Martin Randall 25 Year Anniversary Round

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Martin Randall Travel is 25 years old

On 8 November 2013 Martin Randall Travel turned 25. Celebrations included two parties at Fishmongers’ Hall in London bringing together 500 clients, lecturers, tour managers, staff, musicians and many of our long-standing partners in the travel industry. I Fagiolini gave magnificent performances on both evenings, as did all guests in their enthusiastic singing of Itinero ergo sum, a round composed for the occasion by Roderick Williams. There were four courses, five musical interludes and eleven brief speeches, but MRT planning and execution ensured that each evening finished promptly, as scheduled, at 10.10pm precisely.  

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Antipodean newsStephanie Bourgeois, Client Manager for Martin Randall Australasia, reminisces on her first MRT experiences last year – Art in Madrid and Seville: A Festival of Spanish Music.

‘Art in Madrid’; there certainly is! As a graduate in Art History but living and working in Brisbane, I was delighted to be told I would be joining this tour last May. You could easily spend a week in Madrid returning to its three main galleries alone, the Prado, Reina Sofia Museum and Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection.

Our knowledgeable and ever entertaining tour lecturer, Gijs van Hensbergen, was the perfect guide for these visits. His insights brought to life the dark passions of Goya and the dynamic immediacy of Picasso’s dramatic Guernica. We also enjoyed a morning visit to the surprisingly uplifting Goya frescoes in the chapel of San Antonio de la Florida and an afternoon in Impressionist Joaquin Sorolla’s beautiful house and garden.

This trip was my first visit to vibrant Spain. In Seville, I enjoyed accompanying festival participants from our hotel to concerts, dinners and morning lectures. I admit to spending a spare hour or two during the festival navigating Seville’s streets to ensure I’d be up to the task – winding through narrow streets, looking up to balconies with window boxes of flowers and a bright sun above, searching for a glimpse of the Cathedral’s giralda to direct me toward the city centre.

The layered cultural history of Seville is beautifully expressed in the visual texture of light, colour and pattern that greets you at every turn. Our destinations were always glorious. An evening concert of mediaeval Andalucían music in The Alcázar was a

personal highlight. The hauntingly beautiful sounds of the El Arabi Ensemble energized that magnificent space.

Beside the thrill of seeing new places, this trip was also a wonderful opportunity for me to meet the Australian and New Zealand clients who joined me in Madrid and Seville,

Seville, Alcázar, engraving c. 1890.

and the lovely MRT team. This year I am privileged to accompany another tour, Great Houses of the East (4–12 June 2014). Glorious country houses, gardens, towns and villages in East Anglia and the East Midlands – lucky me!

Martin Randall Travel music festivals in 2015There surely can be few greater musical pleasures than listening to music in the places most closely associated with the composer or the first performance. Linking the music to the places so central to the composers’ lives and providing the historical context is at the heart of all our planning, as is ensuring that the music itself is performed by artists of the highest international standing.The following festivals are planned for 2015 – please contact us now to register your interest.

The Rhine Valley Music Festival20–27 June 2015 Details available in July 2014

The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey4–11 July 2015 Details available in July 2014

The Danube Music Festival20–27 August 2015 Details available in September 2014

The Divine Office:Choral Music in Oxford28 September–2 October 2015 Details available in October 2014

A Festival of Music in Venice2–8 November 2015 Details available in December 2014

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Reviving Latin AmericaAn exciting new range of tours – book now on Lands of the Maya, the first to be launched.

Operations Supervisor Sophie Wright recently travelled to Mexico and Guatemala to research these two new destinations.

I am delighted to present to you MRT’s first Latin American itinerary in 14 years: Lands of the Maya. It is the first of several new tours to this archaeologically exciting region.

Perched on top of the 212 foot high Temple IV at the Maya city of Tikal in northern Guatemala, gazing out over the Petén jungle canopy, I began fully to understand the scale of this magnificent civilisation. It was with great interest that I learned of their skills as astronomers and mathematicians and observed the curious mix of pre-colonial and Catholic worship that is still practiced by the Maya population today.

The stunning scenery was another highlight of my trip and I will never forget the glorious hotel on the shores of Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands, with its volcano views.

Next stop... Peru. Please register your interest now.

Lands of the MayaMaya civilization ancient & modern in Mexico & Guatemala

26 January–11 February 2015 (mb 233) 17 days • £5,440Lecturer: Professor Norman Hammond

Magnificent Maya cities including Chichén Itzá, Palenque and Tikal, with time also for less visited sites.

An insight into modern Maya life: customs, religion and colourful handicrafts.

Splendid colonial architecture.

Spectacular scenery: jungle, lakeside, coastal, volcanic.

Led by a leading authority on Maya civilization, Professor Norman Hammond.

Ever since explorers revealed the existence of their jungle-clad ruins in the 1840s, the ‘lost’ civilization of the Maya has been a cause of astonishment and speculation. For while Europe was struggling through the ‘Dark Ages’, Maya peoples were enjoying the apogée of their civilization in seemingly the most unlikely of places – the rainforests of Central America.

With organisational skills that can only be the product of a highly sophisticated society, the Maya created magnificent cities replete

with elegant palaces, mighty temples and broad plazas studded with carved stelae and altars. They were great mathematicians and astronomers who conceived one of the most complex and accurate calendars the world has known. They also devised an elaborate and beautiful system of hieroglyphic writing, the only fully-developed written language in the pre-Columbian Americas. Maya art was complex and loaded with arcane symbolism, yet to our sensibilities it appears remarkably naturalistic and accessible.

All this was achieved by a people still technically in the Stone Age and who, despite many colourful theories to the contrary, developed in complete isolation from the civilizations of the ‘Old World’, of Europe and Asia.

Until some forty years ago a powerful mystique had grown up about the Maya. They were thought to have been a peaceable society of independent cities governed by priest-kings who devoted their days to astronomy and divination on behalf of their people. Today, however, this image has been dramatically changed by the continuing discoveries of archaeologists and by one of the great investigative triumphs of the century, the decipherment of Maya writing.

Hieroglyphs in Palenque, after a drawing by Frederick Catherwood, published in 1840.

The USA 2015East Coast Galleries29 April–12 May 2015

Frank Lloyd Wright30 May–10 June 2015

Cliff Dwellings & Canyons in the American South-West10–21 October 2015

New England Modern8–17 October 2015

Art in Texas4–15 November 2015

For more information about these tours see pages 46–47.

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Today visitors to the great Maya cities can learn of their changing fortunes over almost a thousand years in extraordinary detail. We now know the history of the royal families and can also understand the essentials of Maya religious beliefs and how Maya rulers saw themselves, like Egyptian pharaohs, as god-kings on earth whose elaborate rituals of blood-letting and sacrifice sustained the Maya world.

In the tenth century ad the heartland of Maya civilization in the tropical forests collapsed. Construction in the great cities ceased, temples and palaces were invaded by the jungle. It now seems that environmental disaster – land clearance under population pressure exacerbated by severe droughts – was a major factor.

But this was not quite the end, as new cities emerged in other areas, such as Uxmal and Chichén Itzá in the north of the Yucatán peninsula, which continued in much reduced form until extirpation by Conquistadors and missionaries in the sixteenth century.

Today there are some six million speakers of Maya languages, the largest group of native Americans north of Panama. They reveal a distinctive living culture, an intriguing mixture of both ancient beliefs and practices adopted since the Spanish conquest.

LecturerProfessor Norman Hammond. A leading expert on Maya civilization and archaeology. Senior Fellow at Cambridge, where he also studied, Associate in Maya Archaeology at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, and Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Boston University. His many books include Ancient Maya Civilization, Nohmul: a Prehistoric Maya Community in Belize and Cuello: an early Maya community in Belize. He was Archaeology Editor of the Times Literary Supplement and is Archaeology Correspondent for The Times.

ItineraryDay 1: Cancún. Fly at c. 10.45am from London Gatwick direct to Cancún with British Airways. Overnight Cancún.

Day 2: Chichén Itzá, Izamal. Situated in the Northern Lowlands, Chichén Itzá was the New Rome of the Maya world, where Maya culture was reborn in a different guise that was to last until the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century. Prominent among the constructions here is El Castillo pyramid, simple in appearance but functioning as a complex Maya calendar.

See also the great ball court, El Caracól observatory and the sacred well. Izamal is the location of the monastery of Diego de Landa, ardent extirpator of idolatries in the 1560s; the church is built symbolically on a partially razed pyramid. First of two nights in Mérida.

Day 3: Mérida. Morning walk through the colonial centre including the cathedral and main square. The 19th cent. Palacio del Gobierno houses impressive murals by local artist Fernando Castro Pacheco depicting the violent struggle of the Maya against the Spanish. The new Museum of the Maya World contains c. 500 artefacts, including sculpture, jewellery and ceramics. Free afternoon.

Day 4: Uxmal, Campeche. Uxmal arose towards the end of lowland Maya civilization but was abandoned around ad 900. Here are to be found some of the most beautiful of Maya buildings, distinguished by their long and low proportions and characterised by elaborate stone mosaics on the façades. Continue to Kabah, with its eccentric Palace of the Masks. The night is spent in the charming colonial city of Campeche, with historic defences.

Day 5: Edzná, Palenque. Little visited Edzná is famous for its complex irrigation system and an impressive five-story pyramid. Drive south to Palenque (c. 8 hours including stops) for the first of three nights.

Day 6: Palenque. Enjoying a magnificent location in the jungle of the foothills of Chiapas, Palenque rose to a dominant position through war and marriage alliances in the Late Classic period, ad 600 to 800. The sculpture found here is particularly outstanding. The largest structure, the Temple of the Inscriptions, housed the spectacular tomb of the great ruler Pacal. Complex imagery and texts on the walls make it possible to trace the history of those who commissioned some of the most beautiful of Maya architecture.

Day 7: Bonampak. The small site of Bonampak has remarkably well-preserved murals with graphic scenes of royal rituals, a savage battle and sacrifice of the captives.

Day 8: San Cristóbal de las Casas. Drive during the morning to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a colonial town in a temperate, pine-clad mountain valley and a centre of modern Maya highland life. Spanish churches, colonial mansions, traditional market with gorgeous textiles. Overnight San Cristóbal.

Day 9: Panajachel. Most of the day is occupied with driving from Mexico into Guatemala, the destination being the small town of Panajachel, splendidly situated on the shores of Lake Atitlán. First of three nights in Panajachel.

Day 10: Santiago de Atitlán. Early morning boat trip across this spectacular lake (which is surrounded by volcanoes) to the traditional Maya town of Santiago de Atitlán. Here the curious wooden effigy of Maximón is still worshipped and can be visited in his ‘house’.

Day 11: Chichicastenango. Optional morning excursion to Chichicastenango with its centuries-old, colourful market. The wide range of wares reflect the local traditions of weaving and woodcarving. An interesting mix of Maya and Catholic worship takes place in the church of Santo Tomás.

Day 12: Iximché, Guatemala City, El Remate. Iximché is an excellent example of a Late Postclassic site, established c. 1470 with three plazas, temples, palaces and ball courts, and with defences which were stormed by the Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado in 1524. Drive to Guatemala City to visit the Archaeological Museum, a major collection of Maya art and artefacts. From here fly north to Flores and continue to El Remate, a small village of the shore of Lake Petén Itzá, for the first of three nights.

Day 13: Yaxhá. In the Petén jungle of the Guatemalan lowlands the huge city of Yaxhá is surrounded by lakes and teeming with wildlife. Its forty stelae and nine pyramids date from the Preclassic and Classic era.

Day 14: Tikal. Even bigger than Yaxhá, Tikal was a thriving metropolis of maybe 100,000 at its height. Its massive pyramid-temples still pierce the forest canopy making it architecturally the grandest of all Maya cities. One of the great powers of the Maya world, its changing fortunes over almost a thousand years can be followed in the hieroglyphs. Progressive clearance and excavation have revealed an intricate pattern of urban planning.

Day 15: Antigua Guatemala. Early morning flight back to Guatemala City, then drive to the splendid, colonial capital of Guatemala. Though shattered by earthquakes in 1773, much of its old fabric survives. See colonial architecture of great charm and impressive Baroque churches, some of which still remain in picturesque ruin. Overnight in Antigua Guatemala.

Continued overleaf.

Newly launched

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Day 16: Antigua Guatemala. Free morning, perhaps to visit the Colonial Art Museum. Drive to Guatemala City for a mid-afternoon flight, via Miami.

Day 17: arrive at London Heathrow at c. 12.00 midday.

Please note this tour departs from London Gatwick and returns to Heathrow.

PracticalitiesPrice: £5,440 (deposit £500). This includes: flights (economy class) from London to Cancún with British Airways (Boeing 777), from Guatemala City to Miami with American Airlines (Boeing 737-800) and Miami to London with British Airways (Boeing 777); internal flights within Guatamala with Aviateca (ATR 42-600); transport by private coach; accommodation as described below; 14 dinners and 10 lunches (including 1 picnic); beer, water, soft drinks and coffee at lunch plus wine at dinner; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer, tour manager and local guides. Single supplement £520. Price without international flights £4,720.

Hotels: Cancún (1 night): the JW Marriott is a modern, comfortable, resort hotel. Mérida (2 nights): the Hotel Gran Real Yucatán is a converted 19th cent. house, centrally located. Campeche (1 night): the Hotel Plaza Campeche is functional and comfortable. Palenque (3 nights): the Hotel Villa Mercedes is a well-maintained hotel near the site. San Cristóbal (1 night): the Hotel Casa Mexicana is a Colonial style hotel. Panajachel (3 nights): the Hotel Atitlán is located on the shores of the lake with beautiful gardens and views. El Remate (3 nights): the Hotel Camino Real Tikal is situated on Lake Petén Itzá and surrounded by jungle, with modern, comfortable rooms. Antigua (1 night): the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo is a beautifully restored, colonial hotel.

All hotels are locally rated as 4 or 5 star.

How strenuous? Though the itinerary has been planned to be less strenuous than most tours to the region, it must be stressed that the tour is nevertheless quite taxing, with some long drives, some early starts and frequent changes of hotel. Many of the archaeological sites are vast and on rough ground. The tour should not be undertaken by anyone who has the slightest problem with everyday walking and stair-climbing, or who is not sure-footed. Average distance by coach per day: 93 miles.

Small group: between 14 and 22 participants.

Lands of the Mayacontinued Moving into China

News on the further expansion of our Asia programme

Samantha Walls, Senior Operations Executive, has spent the last six months in China carrying out research for a new range of tours.

The firecracker smoke is settling on the Chinese New Year celebrations in Beijing. The streets are littered with red wrappers, the smell of gunpowder lingers in the air and the city is unusually quiet. The silence is pierced every now and then by the whistle and crackle of fireworks as the locals get their pyrotechnic fix before a ban comes into force again until the next festival. Rather than the usual gridlock, there is just a steady trickle of traffic on the roads, an unremarkable sight anywhere else I’m sure, but a first for me here. A thick layer of snow soon settles over the city and the transformation is complete.

Beijing has been my home for the last six months and the base from which I have travelled to all corners of the country to

research and develop itineraries. China has an incredible diversity of people, landscape, climate, cuisine and the list goes on, yet it is Beijing that continues to excite and surprise me.

In a city of five-lane highways, swanky hotels and designer malls, architectural wonders such as the National Centre for Performing Arts (designed by architect Paul Andreu and nicknamed the ‘egg’) and the CCTV building (otherwise known as the ‘big pants’), you would be forgiven for thinking modernity had swallowed up this ancient city. On closer inspection, however, the city’s history is all around. The guards, security cameras and body scanners that surround Tian’anmen Square are a daily reminder of the protest and tragedy this site has played host to. I escape the competing megaphoned voices of dozens of flag-waving guides leading groups around the main halls of the Forbidden City and disappear down the smaller passageways and am at once transported back to the days of ambitious eunuchs and conniving empresses. I meet a local guide who recalls his childhood in the city and admits to throwing stones at

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‘Henry’ Puyi, the last emperor of China who ended his days tending the flowerbeds of the capital’s parks. From the top of Jingshan Hill I scan the imperial yellow rooftops of the Forbidden City as I imagine the last Ming emperor would have done before hanging himself at this spot as the Manchus marched on Beijing. I wander down the narrow alleyways of the city’s old hútòng, passing tightly huddled groups of men all talking and gesticulating and advising. The clacking of Mahjong tiles gives away the focus of their attention at the centre of the huddle.

North of the city are numerous accessible sections of the Great Wall (as well as hundreds of kilometres of wall that are officially off-limits, but for a nominal charge locals permit access to the wall through their premises). The state of the wall varies from dilapidated and treacherous to almost entirely rebuilt and those sections closest to the city have suffered most from overdevelopment. Car parks, vast concrete concourses, hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops line the route and once you are on the wall you are shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other tourists. Thankfully there

Left: Beijing, Summer Palace, engraving c. 1840.

Tours in ChinaPlanned for 2015:

Essential China

Ceramics of China & Taiwan

The Northern Route: Silk Road Cities

Ming & Qing Dynasties

Planned for 2016:

The Emperor’s River: The Grand Canal

Buddhist China

The Arts of China

Details for the first few tours will be available in July 2014. Please contact us to register your interest.

Martin Randall joined Sam in China in March – read the blog he kept of this trip at www.martinrandall.com/news.

are quieter and better preserved stretches. Particularly pleasant is Jinshanling, two kilometres of which I walked a few weeks ago with Martin Randall. The smog would have provided excellent cover for Mongol forces approaching from the north, but it did not detract from the beguiling and iconic sight of the ancient brickwork snaking over the landscape.

Beijing is a city of contradictions. I’d hazard a guess that there are more high-end shopping malls in the capital city of this Communist/Capitalist anomaly than in London or New York. Students, businessmen and housewives talking on their Samsung mobiles or carrying iPads pass street vendors selling corn on the cob and sweet potatoes out of dirty drums for about five pence. The Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum, maintains very low admission prices on the principle of the site being accessible to all and yet it is now neighbour to a sort of modern day ‘Forbidden City’; the lakes of Zhōnghăi and Nánhăi, once part of the emperor’s sovereign domain, are now inaccessible to all bar Communist Party VIPs.

My sojourn in China could not have been timelier. This historically ethnocentric and self-sufficient country now has the attention and interest of the whole world – as well as its own increasingly affluent and politically engaged proletariat – as its economy enters uncharted territory and it faces the major challenges of pollution, corruption, wealth disparity, an aging population and lack of social care. So what do the Chinese make of it all? A middle-aged guide tells me ‘China needs time, don’t rush us’. This isn’t Mao Zedong’s ‘new China’, or the even newer China that began to emerge following Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the late seventies. For a country that boasts five thousand years of continuous civilisation, China’s current situation is unprecedented. Among the younger generation, however, there is less patience and more frustration. But now I’m digressing. My mission in China has been to research and develop itineraries for MRT. Whether you are a first-time traveller to the country or you are considering a repeat visit, I am convinced you will be enchanted and frustrated, sometimes in equal measure, but you will not be disappointed.

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Discovering Karnataka: a day in Mudabidri

James Palmer, Operations Assistant, recently travelled to the South of the Indian Subcontinent – he writes here of his experiences.

With the dusty, iron-ore plains of the Deccan disappearing behind us, we began our descent down the western ghats of the state of Karnataka. Fields of cotton and green chilli became forests of coconut palm, banana and sandal trees. The long straight highway that had brought us across the plateau became ever more snake-like as it made its way towards the sea that was appearing on the horizon. My sense of excitement at exploring more of what Karnataka had to offer was growing. I had spent the past two days at the ruined mediaeval site of Hampi, home to the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. As the hazy sky of the Deccan plateau gave way to the sapphire blue of the coast, the landscape in front of me was in stark contrast to the granite boulders that bordered the Tungabhadra River.

It wasn’t only the landscape that had changed. I felt the way I was received by town inhabitants was significantly different too. In the space of a few days I had gone through the transition of being completely ignored in Delhi, to being the object of absolute fascination among the school children of Hospet, to being acknowledged with a passing smile and curious head tilt in Mangalore. Although I had always felt comfortable, it was never more so than when I arrived in the Jain town of Mudabidri. As soon as I got out of the car, I felt we had found the essence of what Karnataka had to offer.

We arrived just after midday, after a fascinating drive through tended paddy fields, banana plantations and untouched woodland. The importance of Mudabidri as a Jain centre of influence in the South of India is evident by the quantity of bastis (temples) and mathas (monasteries) throughout the town. As the last devotees were collecting their shoes after attending puja (Hindu mass), we made our way up the steps to the main entrance of the Chandranatha Basti. Built in 1429, it is the largest and most elaborate of the monuments of Mudabidri. I began to see a pattern emerging in the architecture of temples since we had left the Deccan plateau. Each of the four mandapas (pillared halls) featured the style of sloping and gabled roof characteristic of temples from western coastal Karnataka. Once inside, we were treated to even more delights.

Having visited several temples since arriving in India, three stages of daily temple life were becoming more and more apparent. The first was a sense of anticipation: a priest busy preparing for the day ahead early in the morning. He would go about blessing lingams with rice with such dedication he was oblivious to any other presence. The second stage, later in the morning, was the arrival of bustling crowds, eager to show their devotion at the daily puja. The third stage was the peace and serenity that returned after the crowds had left by noon. For me, this was the ideal time to take in the structural details of the temple.

We experienced the magnificent Chandranatha Basti at this latter stage. A calm tranquillity had descended over the site. With warm granite beneath our bare feet, it was ours to explore and absorb. The

three Martin Randall Travel rules of looking up, looking down and looking left and right never seemed so relevant. At my feet were two carved elephant guardian figures, protecting the entrance to the main hall. Once inside, a forest of elaborately carved granite columns surrounded me. These columns give this temple its colloquial name: the temple of a thousand pillars. This is admittedly an exaggeration, but certainly each was different, creating individual stone stories and demonstrating immense craftsmanship. Looking up in an Indian temple never disappoints, and this was definitely the case here. Surrounded by geometric coving, an ornate lotus medallion adorned the ceiling, keeping me fixated beneath.

Lunch became an opportunity to digest the beauty of the temple. However, the culinary delights presented to me were as enthralling

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as the architectural mastery I had witnessed. There was no need for a menu here. I was presented with the stainless steel platter of a thali, and being in a sacred town, it was vegetarian. As a meat-eater, I was dubious, but I was neither disappointed nor dissatisfied. On the contrary, each small dish perfectly complemented the other, providing the ideal sensation of savoury, spice and sweetness, delectably brought together by fried puri breads and steamed rice. With the variety of textures and tastes, I did not miss meat at all. Each mouthful of complex sour and spicy rasam, lentil sambar and smooth curd yoghurt only left me wanting more. We finished our meal with a cup of chai, the perfect finale to any Indian meal.

Before making our way to the port town of Mangalore we stopped off at the Samadhi shrines situated on the edge of Mudabidri, the afternoon sun bathing these curious laterite memorial pyramids in a beautiful light; a fascinating ending to the day.

Left: Mysore, late-18th-century copper engraving after a painting attributed to Sir Alexander Allen (1764–1820)

The Indian Mutiny28 October–10 November 2014 (mb 185) with Patrick Mercer mp

Sailing the Ganges3–16 November 2014 (mb 194) with John Keay

Painted Palaces of Rajasthan24 November–7 December 2014 (mb 201) with Dr Giles Tillotson

Assam by River1–11 December 2014 (mb 207)with Lesley Pullen

Bengal by River at Christmas14–27 December 2014 (mb 215)with Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

Temples of Tamil Nadu26 January–8 February 2015 (mb 232) with Asoka Pugal

Kingdoms of the Deccan6–19 February 2015 (mb 238) with John M. Fritz

Essential India14–28 November 2014 (mb 198)with Dr Anna-Maria Misra

20 February–6 March 2015 (mb 245)with Dr Giles Tillotson

Sacred India2–15 March 2015 (mb 250)with Charles Allen

Indian Summer30 March–11 April 2015 (mb 272)with Raaja Bhasin

Contact us for full details, or visit www.martinrandall.com

Prospecting Assam with DadBy Ollie Randall

In December, Ollie accompanied his father on a trip along the Brahmaputra River, prospecting our tour ‘Assam by River’.

A few years ago, I wrote an article about my prospecting trip with my dad to Attica. My relationship with Martin Randall Travel has developed since then: I am now twenty, in my second year of Ancient and Modern History at Oxford, and I have worked in the MRT office for a total of ten weeks, as well as serving as a tour manager on a music festival in Oxford and two tours to Italy. I also accompanied my dad, and his colleague Ed Lewis, on an inspiring prospecting trip from which the Western Balkans tour was born.

Only that experience – watching my dad conjure up something remarkable, apparently out of thin air – kept my scepticism at bay when he asked me to go with him to prospect Assam By River, a planned addition to MRT’s third season of India tours. Assam, I now learned, is tucked away on the far side of Bangladesh, and on a map its Indian identity looks implausible: hemmed in by the likes of Tibet and Myanmar, it is chiefly characterised by famous tea plantations, a collection of proudly distinct tribes, and the mighty Brahmaputra River.

Of course I was thrilled to get such a chance, not least because I found MRT’s India project exciting and fascinating, but I just wasn’t sure there was enough of cultural interest there to sustain a whole tour – and nor, it seemed, was my dad. But of course the whole point of prospecting is to obtain

detailed, first-hand knowledge to ensure that itineraries are the best they can be, rather than taking the easy route and relying on what the local agents say. So on Boxing Day we set off into the unknown, with an itinerary devised by my dad and the India supervisor, Hubert, to check that the planned tour was of a high enough standard.

The problem was, it quickly became clear that it wasn’t. Personally, I was having a wonderful time, dazzled by my first experience of India – everything seemed more vivacious here: perhaps it was largely the way that the forest seemed to be encroaching on all sides around the ramshackle buildings, and that everywhere there were ducks, cows, dogs, goats, which – as one driver cheerily put it – frequently functioned as speed-breaks. India and its people felt so much more alive than

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The RV Charaidew.

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England, which seemed soulless and sterile by comparison. Most of the stereotypes I had been warned about were not fulfilled: we saw no ‘heartbreaking poverty,’ and encountered not a single beggar in Assam; nothing was dirty, there were almost no mosquitoes and neither of us caught a stomach bug while we were there. Instead, we were in a lush land which had mostly been left behind by the modern world, where bamboo was indispensable for fences, furniture, scaffolding, buildings and walkways, and where tourists were extremely few and far between.

Unfortunately, as we visited a string of disappointing sites in and around Guwahati, Assam’s main city, it began to be clear why there were no tourists. Guwahati itself had little to offer except the hotel, and the points of cultural interest in its vicinity – which were meant to occupy two days of the tour – were minor, at best. As my dad said afterwards, ‘We were trying to squeeze the tour into a mould it didn’t fit into. To make it like a traditional MRT itinerary, we had forced in cultural aspects that weren’t really worth the visit.’

We reached the ship, Charaidew, on our third evening, by which time my dad was pretty downhearted. A major problem was one of time: the new India brochure was due to go to print the day after we returned to England, and in the meantime contacting Hubert was nearly impossible. Assam has no international mobile phone coverage, and the only way to use the internet was to borrow the laptop of the captain of the Charaidew and try to use its temperamental connection. My dad said that MRT needed more time, that the tour could not go ahead if we knew the itinerary was not first-rate. He sent an email to Hubert telling him to cut Assam By River out of the brochure, not knowing whether it had even got through.

Then something changed.From this moment on, there was an

immeasurable rise in the quality of what we saw. The hours spent on the deck were supremely peaceful. I had been concerned that days of sailing on a wide river through a flat landscape would soon become monotonous, but instead they became ever-more mesmerising. From nightfall until dawn,

everything was wreathed in mist; during the day, it burned off, revealing the vast expanses of the cloudless sky and the imperiously calm river, with a thin line of sandbanks or trees in between. The view was stark and invigorating: after a few days I felt renewed, as if my soul had been scrubbed clean. I could tell that my dad felt it too. We both became convinced that we were on to something exceptional, and, if it could be made to work, a tour here could be very special indeed.

Unusually, the ship had only four other passengers, a French couple and an American couple, who were the only other Westerners we saw for a week. (At first my dad didn’t tell them what we were doing onboard, and my favourite moment was when they asked him if he had ever been on a cruise along the Rhine.)

By contrast, there were about two dozen members of crew. Hired from Assamese villages to support the local communities, they made up for their lack of metropolitan training with enthusiasm and eagerness to please. I’m sure it’s not healthy for a twenty-year-old to be deferentially waited upon by such a large

Banyan and Baobob trees, steel engraving c. 1850.

Prospecting Assam with Dadcontinued

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staff – there was one man whose sole job seemed to be to make sure that we were all supplied with tea whenever we wanted it – but I was certainly enjoying it. Charaidew was not luxurious, but it was comfortable, with its interiors atmospherically dressed with bamboo and teak, and it supplied the best week’s food I have ever had, although I hadn’t before even known that I liked Indian food.

We rode elephants to within a few metres of wild rhinos; we watched monks, exuding tranquillity, perform a remarkable dance with drums and cymbals; we explored remote villages of captivating charm and full of character and friendly locals. We celebrated New Year’s Day with a barbecue on the beach after dark, where my dad gravely dispensed wisdom while looking faintly ridiculous in a pale floppy hat and using a locally-woven cloth as a scarf against the cold. One day we had lunch in the middle of a tea plantation, as the guests of the charming family which had owned it since 1905; separately from the others, because it wasn’t part of the ship’s regular itinerary, my dad and I made the steep climb up to the ruins of the Deo Pahar temple and were entranced by the carvings we found up there.

My dad saw that the tour’s focus had to be on the landscape: the wildlife, the tribes, the tea, the river. It would be unlike any other MRT tour in this regard, and it would be allowed to be true to itself. He had meetings with the captain; he cut the sites of minor interest and worked through the remaining possibilities by experimenting with the itinerary; he worked, hour after hour, day after day, on his laptop as I occasionally read over his shoulder. Then, finally, right at the end of the trip, on the third draft, it came together. The new itinerary, in outline, was complete: a huge improvement on the original plan, it managed to combine all the elements that made Assam such an extraordinary experience by river.

That evening, as we were having supper in a lodge separated by a very small river from Kaziranga National Park, there was a terrific, magnificent roar from a hundred metres away. Everybody was convinced it was a tiger, and perhaps it was partly exuberance from finally cracking the itinerary that made my dad run out of the building and into the night in hope of spotting the beast. I followed, and he and I stood breathlessly on the riverbank, peering into the blackness as the roaring continued and I fervently hoped that we would see the tiger if it swam towards us. We were utterly crestfallen when the kindly proprietor later told us that the roaring was, in fact, a distressed elephant.

New Year’s Eve was probably the highlight for me: having followed a particularly beautiful riverbank upriver, dotted with cows and traditionally-dressed tribespeople, we went ashore to the most peaceful place I have ever been. Everywhere were chicks, lambs and piglets; the houses of the village each stood on stilts, grandly set apart from the others and built mostly from bamboo and thatch; and the gentle yet warm winter-afternoon sun softened everything, increasing the pervading sense of stillness and other-worldliness which was somehow enhanced rather than undermined by the sights and sounds of everyday life – the animals, the villagers, the children. The apparent sense of contentment was infectious, and soothing on some profound level.

The villagers waved our boat off, and from the deck of the ship we watched, enraptured, as dusk descended. A thin blanket of mist, starting about five feet off the ground, spread across the land, as the colours between the darkening trees became more muted and subtle. We moored only a few kilometres further upriver from the village – ‘It’s paradise,’ said my dad, as we gazed at the children trotting through the vegetation to get a look at us, on a backdrop of understated yet inestimable beauty.

Everyone seemed slightly taken aback when we did what seemed to both of us to be the obvious thing: we went for a walk in the last of the dusk. Nearby was another village, where people were ambling home for the night and bringing their cows with them. This time there was no stir at our unheralded arrival, because we were cloaked in the darkness. Villagers talked in low voices, two teenagers fed a small fire with straw, and the homely noises of the domestic animals gave the scene a pastoral warmth which seemed to belong to a fading age of civilisation. My dad and I stood side by side, soaking it up, before wrenching ourselves away and walking back to the ship, rejuvenated under the rising moon.

There are two river cruises in our 2014–15 season of tours to India:Assam by River, 1–11 December 2014. Lecturer: Lesley Pullen.Bengal by River at Christmas, 14–27 December 2014. Lecturer: Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones.Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

New closed group tours department

We are pleased to announce that Martin Randall Travel is to provide a select number of tours exclusively for Cambridge University alumni. Details of the tours will be available in the July edition of Cambridge Alumni Magazine (CAM) and on our website in due course.    

Contact her for information at hannah.wrigley@martinrandall.co.uk 

Most of what we produce is available for anyone to book. A small proportion is provided solely for members and patrons of museums, societies and institutions – also known as ‘closed groups’. Closed group events bring supporters together in a shared social and educational experience, reinforcing a sense of belonging, and help to raise money directly or prepare the ground for other fundraising efforts. We have considerable experience tailoring events to such like-minded groups and we now intend to increase this aspect of our activities. Hannah Wrigley, who first started working for MRT eleven years ago, has been appointed to create new partnerships in the UK and overseas.

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Unexpected encounter in an Algerian bathhouse

Roman ruins are rarely boisterous places, full of noise, laughter and life. But Edward Lewis, Operations Supervisor, stumbled

across one that is – a place to have a daily wash, and to enjoy the companionship of friends, just as it was for the Romans who built it.Observing middle-aged men swathed in white foamy soapsuds is not something I would normally write home about and it certainly wasn’t why I was in north-east Algeria.

I had come to look at the Roman baths in Khenchela and had overlooked the fact that for many of the local population the attraction was not the ancient architecture or remarkable state of preservation but the fact there was a free and plentiful supply of hot water – still feeding into two open air baths.

Fully clothed and with no towel in sight, the stares and hush that followed me as I walked around the water’s edge began to make me wonder if my visit was entirely appropriate.

As with many such situations, I needn’t have worried. Algeria is no exception to the humbling levels of warmth and generosity that strangers are afforded in this part of the world and within minutes of trying to talk in my best French – or, even less comprehensible there – my best Egyptian Arabic, I was surrounded by a group of men in swimming shorts eager to answer my queries about the baths and their history.

We were standing next to the smaller bath, its circular rim beautifully shaped by large white blocks of stone worn smooth over centuries of use. Complete with a ledge on which to sit, it resembled a sort of ancient hot tub.

‘The Romans built them, before Jesus,’ shouted one man, shampoo bottle in hand. Another piped up: ‘But they were damaged in an earthquake and that’s when the Ottomans came and repaired it.’

Indeed there had been an earthquake in the 14th century. Even if their dates were a little out, you couldn’t fault their enthusiasm and glowing pride.

The daily ritual of public bathing is still clearly alive and well in Khenchela. In fact, as I stepped over the stretched legs and passed reclined bodies dangling their legs in the sea-green water, I got the impression nothing had really changed since the baths were constructed in the first century ad. Only the

more recent Ottoman brickwork, the newly constructed changing room doors and the numerous brightly coloured plastic buckets gave the game away.

The important social function of a bathhouse has also been retained – family issues are discussed and resolved and jokes and stories are told to echoing laughter and the sound of a slapped thigh, back, or hand.

Sport is heatedly debated, politics perhaps less so in this country – suspicion of who is hearing what remains a hangover from the civil war when careless talk cost lives. Few have the stomach or wish to risk more conflict, one of many plausible explanations as to why the Arab Spring went largely unnoticed in Algeria.

Aside from this striking continuity, what makes Khenchela stand out from many other historical sites in Algeria is the fact that despite being amongst the smallest, and certainly lesser known, it is one of the few places where you can easily interact with the local people.

In the days preceding my visit I had wandered some of the country’s most prominent Roman ruins: Tipasa, a beautiful seaside town on the shores of the Mediterranean once famous for its fish paste; Timgad, a perfect example of Roman town planning that was once home to 15,000 people. And then my personal favourite, Djemela (meaning ‘beautiful’ in Arabic), nestled in a lush valley with a market square that looks as if it ceased to be used only last century.

Yet in all of these places I didn’t get the chance to speak to anyone – indeed in the Roman Army garrison of Lambesis my only other companion was a Jaribu stork that had made its impressive nest on top of the triumphal arch.

In Khenchela I said my goodbyes and had a few last knowing laughs with my semi-naked hosts, the younger ones by now reeling off every English footballer they could think of in a bid to impress.

‘Have you been to Khemissa?’ One of the older men asked. ‘No,’ I replied, genuinely not knowing where he meant or what was there. ‘Oh, but you must. The best preserved Roman amphitheatre in the country – Djemela, beautiful!’

I checked my guidebook. There was no mention of Khemissa. My towelled friend placed his damp finger on the map where three dots indicated a site of historic interest, one of dozens scattered all over the country. I got in the car and prepared myself for another solitary visit, already grateful for my bath encounter.

Roman Algeria13–21 October 2014 (mb 152)This tour is currently full

29 October–6 November 2014 (mb 186)9 days • £3,270Lecturer: Anthony Sattin

Tipasa, Djemela & Timgad: three of North Africa’s most exceptional Roman sites, often void of tourists, let alone groups.

Charming city of Algiers, Alger La Blanche, with its 19th- and early 10th-century European architecture and authentic Casbah.

Outstanding selection of mosaics in museums.

Three nights in Constantine, Algeria’s most alluring city.

Algeria is at the heart of any understanding of North Africa, or indeed of our modern world. The fearsome eight-year long battle for itsIndependence stands beside the Vietnam War and Suez as one of the watersheds of late 20th-century realpolitik, while the decade-long Algerian emergency of the 1990’s increasingly reads like a preface to what is now happening in Egypt and Syria. Fascinating though this recent history is, especially when viewed through a largely intact if crumbling backdrop of French colonial architecture, it is the aesthetic lodestone of the ruins built by the armies of Rome that lures the traveller into the Algerian hinterland.

The magnificently complete city ruins of Djemela and Timgad are very different in mood, though not in culture. One was built on the edge of the Kabyle mountains, the other on the margin of the arid steppe, though both were established as colonies for discharged veterans of the III Augusta Legion planted into the Berber landscape. They stand together as incontrovertible tactile proof of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. For these are not Imperial capitals designed to dazzle the world but provincial cities built solely for the use of their citizens.

That these are the two best preserved out of the six hundred that once stood proudly throughout the breadth of Roman North Africa is a matter of chance, though nurtured by their romantic isolation. But this allows their nearly intact libraries, fountains, their painterly profusion of triumphal arches, choice of market squares, their theatres, baths, mosaics, processional ways and squares to speak to us in a very direct and moving way. Nothing can quite match this tangible eloquence of carved stone, though the little Roman mountain hamlet of Tiddis, the ruins of Hippo that were watched over by St

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Lambessa, Algeria, wood engraving 1865.

Augustine and the coastal ruins of Tipasa, so beloved by Camus, all have their own haunting and beguiling charm.

To give variety to our antique palette we have added walks through the vibrant, ever fascinating cities of Algiers, Constantine and Annaba. And evening talks and discussions will open up windows into Carthage and Berbers, French Orientalist artists and writers, Islam and Arabs, Barbary Corsairs and travellers ancient and modern.

ItineraryDay 1: London to Algiers. Fly at c. 9.20am from London Gatwick for the 21/2 hour flight to Algiers. Lunch at the hotel before a walking tour of Algiers revealing the city’s beautiful architecture including the Grande Poste and the whitewashed Rue Didouche Mourad with brilliant blue balconies and intricate stucco work, a testament to the city’s colonial history. We then visit the city’s most prominent landmark, Martyrs’ Monument, commemorating Algerian resistance fighters. First of three nights in Algiers.

Day 2: Tipasa, Cherchell. Drive west to the picturesque Roman site of Tipasa. Stop en route at the immense circular Numidian Tomb with spectacular views of the surrounding

countryside and coast. Visit the recently renovated Cherchell archaeological museum before lunch in Tipasa followed by a full afternoon exploring one of North Africa’s most picturesque Roman sites. Founded by the Phoenicians and located on the shores of the Mediterranean, the town was once a flourishing commercial centre.

Day 3: Algiers. Morning walk through the narrow and colourful alleys of the city’s Casbah, surely the most authentic in North Africa. After lunch in the old port visit the National Museum of Antiquities and the Bardo Museum before a reception in the British Embassy, itself a 19th century French villa (subject to last-minute cancellation).

Day 4: Djemela. Early start through the Tel-Atlas Mountains and fertile plains to the town of Setif. Visit the museum at Djemela (Curculum) with its exceptional display of Roman mosaics and artefacts from the surrounding area. Lunch on-site before an afternoon spent at the unesco World Heritage site of Djemela, a remarkably well preserved Roman town originally established as a colony of soldiers. Continue to Constantine for the first of three nights.

Day 5: Constantine, Tiddis. The picturesque City of Bridges (Constantine) sits high above the Rhumel Gorge and makes for a fascinating walking tour (some bridges may not be suitable for vertigo suffers) which includes impressive colonial architecture, the Palace of Ahmed Bey and the Constantine Museum. The afternoon is spent visiting the concentrated site of Tiddis (Castellum Tiditanorum) and the curious tomb of Quintus Lollius Urbicus, the Governor of Britain under the emperor Antoninus Pius. Return to Constantine for dinner in the infamous Cirta Hotel. Overnight Constantine.Day 6: Timgad, Lambaesis. An early start to the immense site of Timgad (Colonia Marciana Trajana Thamugas), its scale and state of preservation making it one of the most impressive Roman sites to be found anywhere. A short drive away are the interesting and rare ruins of the headquarters of the 3rd August Legion, Lambaesis. Lunch in Batna. Visit also the Numidian Tomb, similar to that in Tipasa but earlier. Final night in Constantine. Day 7: Guelma, Annaba. Visit the Roman theatre of Guelma, wonderfully restored by the French in 1908. A feature is the selection of fine original statues. After lunch drive to ancient city of Annaba, formerly Hippo Regius. Founded by the Phoenicians and developed by the Romans, Annaba became an important centre for Christianity. St Augustine, the most important theologian of the western Church was bishop here ad c. 395–430. First of two nights in Annaba. Day 8: Annaba. Morning walk along the Cours de la Révolution observing the city’s colonial architecture and sea-side atmosphere. Visit the Basilica of St Augustine, Annaba’s most prominent landmark, completed in 1881. After lunch continue to the ruins of Hippo Regius and the archaeological museum, home to some impressive mosaics. Day 9: Fly from Annaba to Algiers with Air Algerie to connect with the British Airways flight to London, arriving Gatwick c. 2.00pm.

LecturerAnthony Sattin. Author of several acclaimed books including Lifting the Veil, The Pharaoh’s Shadow and The Gates of Africa. His journalism and travel writing have appeared in the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Independent, Guardian and Conde Nast Traveller. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and sits on the editorial board of Geographical Magazine. Anthony wrote the section on Northern Algeria for Lonely Planet.

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PracticalitiesPrice: £3,270 (deposit £300). This includes: air travel (standard class) on scheduled British Airways flights (Boeing 737) for international flights and Air Algerie for the one internal flight; comfortable air-conditioned coach for all other journeys; accommodation as described below; all breakfasts, lunches and dinners with wine (drinks included); the services of the lecturer, tour manager and local guides; admissions to museums and sites; tips for restaurant staff, guides, drivers; all airport and local taxes. Single supplement £320. Price without flights £3,010.

Hotels: Algiers (3 nights): the Djazair Hotel (formerly the St George), established in 1889 and located in a quiet district not far from the city centre with excellent views of the Mediterranean. Facilities include a garden, swimming pool, restaurant and bar. Constantine (3 nights): a Novotel, a modern business style hotel in the city centre. What it lacks in charm is made up for in comfort and convenience. Annaba (2 nights): Hotel Majestic, a simple but clean establishment within walking distance of the Cours de la Révolution.

Visas. British citizens and most other foreign nationals require a tourist visa. The current cost for UK nationals is around £85. This is not included in the price of the tour because you have to obtain it yourself. We will advise on the procedure but you will need to submit your passport to the Algerian Consulate in your country of residence prior to departure. Processing times vary from country to country but UK residents should expect to be without their passport for up to 10 working days.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some long coach journeys on uneven terrain during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Many of the sites are exposed and the Algerian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. Average distance by coach per day: 90 miles.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

Roman Algeriacontinued London Days

Non-residential events to inform and inspire

London Days explore the art, architecture and history of the most varied and exciting city in the world.

They are led by carefully chosen experts who provide informative and enlightening commentary, and they are microcosms of our longer small group tours.

Our usual meticulous planning is applied, with special arrangements and privileged access a feature.

You can book with a credit or debit card over the telephone, or online at www.martinrandall.com.

London’s Great Railway TerminiPaddington, King’s Cross & St Pancras Stations

Tuesday 6th May 2014 (la 902)Lecturer: Professor Gavin StampPrice: £175Two eyebrow-raising assertions: the railways were a Georgian invention, and the twenty-first century is witnessing a golden age of rail travel. The first is indisputable fact, if surprising to contemplate; the second is likely to provoke an unprintable retort from many a daily commuter.

However, few would quibble with a statement that the greatest achievements of railway architecture and engineering are Victorian. But seeing and appreciating great stations such as those studied today is to a large extent possible because of enlightened intervention in the last ten or twenty years. The adaptation and upgrading of ageing infrastructure to meet modern requirements has been a major achievement, but so has the restoration and cleaning of historic fabric. And the sensitive addition of new structures of the highest quality of design has been a triumph.

Largely the creation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Paddington is well preserved and in some ways the most appealing of London’s termini. King’s Cross has always been admired for the majesty of its unadorned functionality, but recent removal of twentieth-century clutter enables it to be better appreciated than for a century. And in 2012 the station acquired a magnificent new lattice steel foyer, the widest span in Europe apparently.

The 240 ft span of the St Pancras train shed far surpassed any previous structure in the world, and the contiguous Midland Grand Hotel by Sir George Gilbert Scott is perhaps the best-known of all Victorian buildings. Its conversion for use as the Eurostar terminus, completed 2007, created one of the most exciting sets of public spaces in Europe.

Start: 9.30am at Paddington Station. Finish: c. 4.45pm at St Pancras Station. Price includes refreshments, lunch, travel by underground and special arrangements. Group size: maximum 18 participants.

London Days taking place soon in 2014 include London’s Great Railway Termini (below), Sculpture in London (8 May), The London Backstreet Walk (1 and 20 May; 11, 17 and 18 June – all full), Arts & Crafts (4 June – now full) and Stained Glass (16 June).

Soon to be launched: China in London (19 June), India in London (19 June), John Nash (August).

More will take place in the autumn with details released on an ongoing basis, as and when they are launched. Please contact us to register your interest.

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Vienna at ChristmasArt, architecture & music in the Habsburg Capital

20–27 December 2014 (mb 222)8 days • £2,620Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Comprehensive overview of Vienna’s art and architecture, including a day dedicated to the Secession movement.

Led by Dr Jarl Kremeier, an art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts.

Two excursions outside the city to Klosterneuburg Abbey and Kirche am Steinhof.

Perfectly located 5-star heritage hotel.

We will also offer a selection of optional performances at the Staatsoper, Volksoper and Wiener Konzerthaus.

Vienna was once the seat of the Habsburgs, the centre of the Holy Roman Empire and capital of a multinational agglomeration of territories which encompassed much of Central and Eastern Europe. Today she is an imperial city without an empire. She is a relic, but a glorious relic, and one of the world’s foremost centres of art, architecture and music.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum ranks with the best of Europe’s art collections, and the Court Treasury is without peer for its display of historic regalia and objets d’art. The great Gothic cathedral bears witness to the city’s status in the Middle Ages as the most important city in Danubian Europe; the Church of St Charles and numerous Baroque palaces demonstrate that by the beginning of the eighteenth century Austria had become one of the great powers.

During the nineteenth century, when the Empire reached a peak of extent and prestige, a splendid range of historicist buildings was added, notably on the Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard which encircles the mediaeval core. Around the turn of the century there was an explosion of artistic and intellectual activity which placed Vienna in the forefront of Art Nouveau – here known as Secession – and the development of modernism.

Not all is on a grand scale. Tucked behind the imposing palaces and public buildings are narrow alleys and ancient courtyards which survive from the mediaeval and Renaissance city. In Vienna the magnificent mixes with the unpretentiously charming, imperial display with the Gemütlichkeit of the coffee houses.

As home for Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and countless other composers, Vienna is pre-eminent in

the history of music. Musical activity of the highest order continues and we will offer a selection of optional performances once programmes for the new season have been published.

As with all our tours, careful planning to take account of seasonal closures enables us to provide a full programme of visits. There will be some special arrangements to see places not generally accessible.

ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna. Drive (25 minutes) to the city centre and check-in to the hotel. After lunch the lecturer leads an afternoon walk in and around the Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace, a vast agglomeration from six centuries of building activity. Within the complex are the Great Hall of the library, one of the greatest of Baroque secular interiors, and the collection of precious regalia in the Treasury. Adjacent is the court church of St Augustine.

Day 2. Drive to the outskirts to see buildings by Otto Wagner, the richly decorated apartment blocks in the Linke Wienzeile, the emperor’s personal railway station at Schönbrunn and the hospital church ‘Am Steinhof ’, the most beautiful example of Secessionist art and architecture. After a break for lunch visit the decommissioned railway station pavilions by Wagner and Olbrich and the Secession building, built in 1898 as an exhibition hall for avant-garde artists, with Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze.

Day 3. Morning visit to the recently reopened winter palace of Prince Eugene, begun in 1969 by Fischer von Erlach and expanded into one of the finest Baroque aristocratic palaces in Vienna by Lukas von Hildebrandt. The Museum of Applied Art has international and Viennese collections, strikingly displayed, and the Baroque Jesuit church has outstanding illusionistic ceiling paintings.

Day 4. Morning coach excursion to Klosterneuburg Abbey, once the seat of the Babenbergs. Largely Romanesque and Gothic, the church contains an altarpiece by Nicholas of Verdun, one of the greatest surviving metalworks of the middle ages. Return to the centre of Vienna for a free afternoon.

Day 5, Christmas Eve. Spend the morning in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s most important art collections, particularly rich in Italian, Flemish and Dutch pictures. An afternoon walk through some of the loveliest of Vienna’s streets and squares passes various imposing palaces and, on the Ringstrasse, the Gothic Revival Town Hall and the Neo-Classical Parliament. Christmas dinner. There are several musically embellished midnight masses.

Day 6, Christmas Day. The morning is free, though Mass at St Augustine’s is recommended, and some museums are open. Spend the afternoon in the Museumsquartier, a recently developed arts centre in the former imperial stables, whose most interesting museum is the Leopold Collection of Secessionist art.

Vienna, Kohlmarkt, aquatint 1786.

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Vienna at Christmascontinued Modern Art on the

Côte d’Azur at Christmas

We have also launched two departures of Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur in 2015: 17–24 March 2015 with Mary Lynn Riley and 22–29 September 2015 with Lydia Bauman. Please contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com.

20–27 December 2014 (mb 219)8 days • £3,110Lecturer: Monica Bohm Duchen

Europe’s greatest concentration of classic modern art in the idyllic Mediterranean setting where it was created.

Old and new collections, with outstanding work by Renoir, Bonnard, Braque, Léger, Miró, Giacometti, Cocteau, Chagall, Matisse and Picasso.

Lecturer Monica Bohm-Duchen is an expert on 19th- and 20th-century art.

Visits to the coastal towns and villages which inspired the artists.

Stay in Nice throughout.

Natural resources and climate have drawn invaders and visitors to Nice and its surroundings from the Greek colonists of classical times to the jet-set of today. But from the late nineteenth century a special category of visitor – and settler – has transformed the Côte d’Azur into the greatest concentration of modern art in Europe.

Monet first visited Antibes in 1883; Signac bought a house in the fishing village of St-Tropez in 1892. Matisse’s first visit to the Midi in 1904 transformed his art, and from 1918 he spent more time on the Côte d’Azur than in Paris.

Matisse, Chagall and Picasso are merely among the most illustrious of the artists who chose to live in the South of France. Many of their fellow modernisers followed suit: Braque, Bonnard, Dufy, Picabia.

This tour is an extraordinary opportunity to see how modernity relates to the past as well as the present, and how gallery displays can be centred on the art, the location or the patron/collector. In Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire at Vence, traditional arts and crafts have been revived by a modern genius, as in the monumental mosaic and glass designs of Léger which can be seen at Biot.

There are also echoes of collecting habits of earlier eras in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. The mixture of past and present and the juxtaposition of the Goût Rothschild with the beauty of its location are breathtaking. (Graham Sutherland drew exotic flowers and plants in the extraordinary gardens.)

At Antibes the Picasso Museum is housed in the Château Grimaldi, lent to Picasso as studio space in 1946 where he produced life-affirming paintings.

Old and new galleries abound, such as the

Day 7. Visit the Church of St Charles, the Baroque masterpiece of Fischer von Erlach. See the palace and garden of Schloss Belvedere, built on sloping ground overlooking Vienna for Prince Eugen of Savoy, which constitutes one of the finest residential complexes of the 18th century. It now houses the Museum of Austrian Art with paintings by Klimt and Schiele. Visit the Stephansdom, the magnificent Gothic cathedral adorned with fine paintings and sculpture.

Day 8. Private visit to the magnificent Liechtenstein Palace, built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries by the richest family in the Habsburg Empire and which houses the princely art collection. Time for lunch, then fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.45pm.

LecturerDr Jarl Kremeier. An art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts. Jarl teaches Art History at the Berlin College of Acting and the Senior Student’s Department of Berlin’s Freie Universität. He studied at the Universities of Würzburg, Berlin and the Courtauld, is a contributor to Macmillan’s Dictionary of Art, author of a book on the Würzburg Residenz, and of articles on Continental Baroque architecture and architectural theory.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,620 (deposit £250). This includes: flights (economy class) with Austrian Airways (Airbus 321) ; travel by private coach and some by metro and tram; accommodation; breakfasts, 3 lunches and 5 dinners; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £330. Price without flights £2,450.

Hotel: a 5-star hotel located next to the Staatsoper. All rooms are well equipped; most have baths. The hotel has two restaurants.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking and standing around in museums, and navigation of metro and tram systems.

Music tickets: before the tour we shall send participants details of any concerts and opera, and endeavour to obtain tickets as requested.

Weather: temperatures may be below freezing (especially mornings) and there may be snow.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

Fondation Maeght, St-Paul-de-Vence, whose building (designed by José Luis Sert, 1963) makes it a work of outstanding sympathy to its natural surroundings, in gardens enlivened by Miró’s Labyrinthe and other sculptures.

ItineraryDay 1: Nice. Fly at c. 12.00 midday from London Heathrow to Nice. There is an afternoon visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Cheret, concentrating on their 19th- and early 20th-century holdings.

Day 2: Nice, Vence. The Marc Chagall Museum has the largest collection of the artist’s works, notably the seventeen canvases of the Biblical Message, set in a peaceful garden in a salubrious Nice suburb. At Vence see the Chapel of the Rosary, designed and decorated by Matisse. Renoir’s house at Cagnes-sur-Mer is set amidst olive groves, a memorial to the only major Impressionist to settle in the south.

Day 3: Antibes, Vallauris. Most of the paintings Picasso produced in his studio in the Château Grimaldi in 1946 have been donated to the town of Antibes. Vallauris is a centre of contemporary pottery revived by Picasso, whose masterpiece War and Peace is here.

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Day 4: St-Tropez, Biot. Drive west to St-Tropez, which has been popular with artists since Paul Signac settled here in 1892. The Musée de l’Annonciade is one of France’s finest collections of modern art (Signac, Maillol, Matisse, Bonnard, Vlaminck, Braque). Continue to Biot and visit the Musée National Fernand Léger, built to house the artist’s works bequeathed to his wife.

Day 5: Le Cannet, Nice. The first museum dedicated to the works of Bonnard opened in Le Cannet in 2011. The afternoon is free in Nice or there is an optional visit to the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain with its excellent collection of post-war art.

Day 6: Cap Ferrat, St-Paul-de-Vence. Drive east to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to see the paintings, sculpture and furniture of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a mansion set in attractive gardens. The Maeght Foundation at St-Paul-de-Vence is renowned for its collections (Picasso, Hepworth, Miró, Arp, Giacometti, but not all works are shown at once) and for its architecture and setting.

Day 7: Villefranche, Menton. In Villefranche is the small Chapelle St-Pierre, decorated by Cocteau. Along the coast to Menton, the last

French town before Italy, is a new Cocteau museum (opened in 2011) and the Salle des Mariages, also painted by Cocteau.

Day 8: Nice. The Musée Matisse unites a wide range of the artist’s work; sculpture, ceramics, stained glass as well as painting. Fly from Nice arriving at London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

In recent years, renovation work has led to museum closures. At the moment all visits listed are possible but we cannot rule out the possibility of changes.

LecturerMonica Bohm-Duchen. Lecturer, writer and curator specialising in 20th-century art. She studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before graduating in English Literature and History of Art from UCL, and with an MA in Art History from the Courtauld. She has lectured for the National Gallery, Tate, Royal Academy, Courtauld, Sotheby’s and Birkbeck College. Her latest book, Art and the Second World War (2013), is published by Lund Humphries in association with Princeton University Press.

PracticalitiesPrice: £3,110 (deposit £300). This includes: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus 319); private coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts and 5 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer; hire of radio guides for better audibility of the lecturer. Single supplement £390. Price without flights £2,820.

Hotel: Hotel La Pérouse is a stylish four-star hotel partially built into the cliff and overlooking the Promenade des Anglais. Rooms are furnished in modern Provençal style and all have a sea view.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking and standing around in museums. Average distance by coach per day: 51 miles.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

Nice, etching c. 1925 by Frederick Farrell.

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Upper EgyptLuxor & Aswan: New Year in the Nile Valley

Luxor, wood engraving c. 1880.

29 Dec. 2014–4 Jan. 2015 (mb 225)7 days • £3,170Lecturer: Lucia Gahlin

Six days spent in two of Egypt’s most beautiful cities at a relaxed and comfortable pace.

Some of the most extraordinary sites in antiquity, many free from the usual crowds.

Led by Lucia Gahlin, an expert in Egyptian archaeology.

Exceptional hotels in both destinations; in Luxor stay on the tranquil West Bank, in Aswan at The Old Cataract.

Upper Egypt, the green fertile strip that splits the desert from the base of the Delta to the First Cataract was considered one half of the Two Lands that comprised Ancient Egypt. Represented by the White Crown, the inhabitants were dependent on the River Nile, their lives determined by its annual flooding and the enrichment it brought the land. The surrounding deserts or Red Lands, despite being influenced by the god of chaos and destruction Seth, also provided mineral wealth and it was in Upper Egypt that exotic goods from tropical Africa would have passed.

The town of Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset but renamed by the Greeks, was an important Upper Egyptian city, reflected in the abundance of monuments and royal construction projects that continued

throughout Egypt’s dynasties. On the East Bank the immense pylons and courtyards of the temples of Karnak and Luxor dominate the modern town, their scale and level of preservation unrivalled.

Across the river is the West Bank; home to some of the most striking monuments in antiquity: the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the mortuary temple of Ramses III and, as if standing guard to them all, the immense Colossi of Memnon.

South of Luxor is the strategically important city of Aswan, a frontier town that lies between Egypt and Nubia. An important source of granite for the Pharaohs, the majority of the monuments that remain are testament to the later Ptolemaic and Roman periods. With fewer monuments than Luxor, Aswan’s charm lies in its location, the warmth and colour of its people, and the pace of life.

This tour explores two cities on the edge of a river that gave rise to one of the most fascinating and enduring civilizations of all. It aims to do so at a leisurely pace, using just two hotels – both of which are of exceptional quality and benefit from a calm and tranquillity not often easy to find.

Egypt’s monuments remain, in spite of the political upheaval witnessed in the last three years: they have seen far greater threats in the millenniums since they were built; civil wars, natural disasters, religious fanaticism (not a new concept). The Arab Spring is the latest of a long list and it is unlikely to be the last.

ItineraryDay 1: Luxor. Fly at c. 3.00pm directly from London Heathrow to Luxor, arriving c. 10.15pm (time in the air: c. 4 hours 45 minutes). First of three nights in Luxor.

Day 2: Luxor. Free morning. Afternoon visits include the vast temple complex of Karnak including the spectacular temple of Amun and the open-air museum. Luxor temple, another great temple to Amun intimately connected to Karnak through a national festival. Overnight Luxor.

Day 3: Luxor. Full day visiting the Theban West Bank. Visit the Tombs of the Nobles containing exquisite reliefs and painted festival and funeral scenes. The temple of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s most intriguing rulers, with the reliefs depicting her expeditions to Punt, and the exquisite mortuary temple of Ramses III, Madinet Habu. Final night in Luxor.

Day 4: Luxor & Aswan. The morning is free to visit further sites on the West Bank or enjoy the serene hotel gardens. After lunch transfer to Aswan by coach in time for a sunset felucca ride on the Nile. First of three nights in Aswan.

Day 5: Aswan. Full day visiting Aswan including Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis, reconstructed on a landscaped island following the flooding of the original island. Visit the ancient granite quarries where a flawed obelisk dating to the 18th Dynasty lies unfinished. The Nubian Museum, one of the best in Egypt, recounts the city’s ancient past as well as the story of the High Dam and the relocation of monuments. Overnight Aswan.

Day 6: Aswan. After a free morning, see one of the city’s least visited sites, Kalabsha Temple. Although first settled during the reign of Amenhotep II, the temple today, on the shores of Lake Nassar, was dedicated to the local Nubian god Mandulis dating to the Roman period. Final night in Aswan.

Day 7: An early morning start. Fly from Aswan, arriving London Heathrow, via Cairo, at c. 1.30pm.

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LecturerLucia Gahlin. Lucia has been leading tours to Egypt for twenty years. She teaches Egyptology for the Universities of Exeter and Bristol and is a Research Associate at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. She is closely involved with the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and has worked on excavations at Amarna in Egypt. Her publications include Egypt: Gods, Myths & Religion.

PracticalitiesPrice: £3,170 (deposit £300). This includes: air travel (economy class) on scheduled Egyptair flights London to Luxor (aircraft: Airbus A320-100), Aswan-Cairo (aircraft: Airbus 320) and Cairo to London (aircraft: Boeing 777-300). Hotel accommodation as described below. Breakfasts, 4 lunches and 5 dinners, including wine, water and coffee. All admission to museums, sites, etc., visited with the group. All gratuities for restaurant staff, drivers, local guides. All state and airport taxes. The cost of the Egyptian visa (if flying with the group). The services of the lecturer and a local guide. Single supplement £420. Price without international flights £2,590.

Hotels: Luxor (3 nights) Al Moudira: tranquil 5-star retreat on the West Bank of the Nile with individually designed rooms. Aswan (3 nights): The Old Cataract, perched on the banks of the Nile with fine views this is one of the finest hotels in Egypt, recently refurbished.

How strenuous? Although this tour is designed to be at a comfortable pace, visits to the archaeological sites involve walking over rough and uneven ground. There are some early starts,especially on the last day, and the heat during the day can be tiring. Average distance by coach per day: 40 miles.

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. If you are flying with the group we will arrange for it to be issued on arrival (the cost is included in the tour price); if you are flying independently we can arrange a visa on arrival, with a transfer, for a charge. Passports must be valid for 6 months from entry into Egypt.

Small group: between 12 and 22 participants.

Munich at Christmas

Bavaria’s magnificent capital & its environs

Munich, Marienplatz and cathedral towers, lithograph after Samuel Prout, 1839.

20–27 December 2014 (mb 220)8 days • £2,590Lecturer: Tom Abbott

A wide range of art and architecture in the magnificent Bavarian capital.

Two full-day excursions to some of the most special sights in Bavaria – the beautifully preserved mediaeval town of Regensburg, and the outstanding Baroque church at Wies.

Very centrally located five-star hotel.

Led by Tom Abbott, cultural historian resident in Germany who has led many tours there.

Munich is everyone’s favourite German city. Not only is it the most prosperous in the country, but the attractiveness of the cityscape, the abundance of cultural activity, the relatively relaxed lifestyle and generally amenable ambience make it the most sought-after place to live and work in Germany.

The seat of the Wittelsbachs, who ruled Bavaria from 1255 until 1918 as Counts, Dukes, Electors and, from 1806, as Kings, Munich was a city which grew up around a court, not one spawned by trade or industry.

Consequently, artistically and architecturally it is still one of the best-endowed centres in Europe.

There are fine buildings of every period, and it is also a city of museums. The Alte Pinakothek has one of the finest collections of Old Masters in the world, and the Treasury in the Residenz and the classical sculpture in the Glyptothek are among the best collections of their kind. There are two full-day excursions through beautiful countryside to some of the greatest sights in Bavaria – Regensburg, Linderhof Palace and the Wieskirche.

The accompanying lecturer, Tom Abbott, is a cultural historian with a wide range of knowledge and a deep understanding of contemporary Germany.

ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 12.40pm from London Heathrow to Munich. After settling in to the hotel, an introductory lecture is followed by dinner.

Day 2. Begin with a visit to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the world’s greatest collections of Old Masters. After lunch

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Munich, wood engraving after Samuel Reed from The Illustrated London News 1865.

Music in Berlin at new year

29 December 2014–4 January 2015Full details available in May. Please contact us to register your interest.

Pending the publication of music programmes, we hope to secure tickets for several performances, including the New Year’s Eve concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Numerous excellent collections of fine and decorative arts and first-rate architecture.

A day excursion to Potsdam to see Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci.

continue to the Neue Pinakothek, which houses paintings from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Some free time; you may choose to also visit the Brandhorst Museum, which opened in 2009, the Pinakothek der Moderne or join a guided tour of the Art Nouveau Villa Stuck, a museum and historic house dedicated to the works of the Bavarian painter, Franz Stuck.

Day 3. The Residenz in the centre of the city was the principal Wittelsbach palace and seat of government, a magnificent sprawl of buildings, courtyards, state apartments and museums of every period from Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. There are fine works of art and sumptuous interiors of the highest importance, especially the Rococo interiors and the Cuvilliés Theatre (subject to confirmation as the theatre can close for rehearsals at short notice). An afternoon walk includes the vast Gothic cathedral and the pioneering Renaissance church of St Michael. There will also be the opportunity to visit the Christmas markets.

Day 4. By coach to see the architecture and monuments on the fringes of the old city, including the monumental Ludwigsstraße, Jugendstil houses and the English Garden. Disembark at Königsplatz, a noble assembly of Neo-Classical museums, and visit the Glyptothek, an outstanding collection of Greek and Roman sculpture. After lunch visit the excellent collections of sculpture and decorative arts at the Bavarian National Museum.

Day 5, Christmas Eve: Regensburg. Travel by coach to Regensburg, one of Germany’s finest mediaeval cities, with a Gothic cathedral and parliament of the Holy Roman Empire. Return to Munich in plenty of time for Christmas dinner. There are several musically embellished midnight masses.

Day 6, Christmas Day. The morning is free (a couple of museums are open, and, of course, there are many church services to choose from). In the afternoon visit the Church of St Peter and the Asamkirche, built and decorated by Egid Quinn Asam. The recently reopened Lenbachhaus has an outstanding collection of German Expressionist painting.

Day 7. Linderhof Palace, Wies. Travel by coach towards the Bavarian Alps to Ettal, site of Linderhof Palace, commissioned by the legendary ‘Swan King’ Ludwig II. The lavish interiors are in Renaissance and Baroque styles and gardens include grottos and Oriental adornments. Continue to the 1740s church at Wies by Dominikus Zimmerman, one of the

finest of all Rococo churches.

Day 8. Morning excursion to Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Wittelsbachs, and see the exquisite Amalienburg Pavilion, an apogee of secular Rococo interiors. Fly from Munich, returning to London Heathrow at c. 5.20pm.

LecturerTom Abbott. Specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a wide knowledge of the performing arts. He graduated in Psychology and Art History from Carleton College, Minnesota and studied at the Louvre School of Art History in Paris. Since 1987 he has lived in Berlin and has organised and led many academic tours in Germany.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,590 (deposit £250). This includes: air travel (Euro Traveller) on scheduled British Airways flights (Airbus 319) ; travel by private coach for the excursions, with some use of public transport in Munich; accommodation as described; breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners with wine; all admissions; all tips for waiters, drivers and guides; all taxes; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £420 (double room for sole occupancy). Price without flights £2,380.

Hotel: The Four Seasons/Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich is a 5-star hotel located on Maximilianstraße, one of the city’s four royal avenues. The hotel has a fine dining restaurant, two bars, a swimming pool and spa. The décor is classical in style and rooms face the inner courtyard. Bathrooms have showers only.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking and standing around in museums, and navigation of metro and tram systems. Average distance by coach per day: 47 miles.

Weather: temperatures may be below freezing (especially mornings). Snow is quite likely.

Music: we will send participants details of any concerts and opera in advance, and endeavour to obtain tickets as requested.

Small group: 10–22 participants.

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Bengal by River at ChristmasCalcutta & a week’s cruise along the Hooghly

Map of Bengal by Thomas Kitchin c. 1800.

14–27 December 2014 (mb 215)14 days • £5,220Lecturer: Dr Rosie Llewellyn-JonesFour days in Calcutta, Bengal’s capital, and a week visiting places along the River Hooghly on an exclusively chartered cruiser.

Bengal, an outpost of the Mughal Empire and the first region to come under the control of the East India Company.

Islamic architecture in Murshidabad and Gaur, Hindu temples in Baranagar and Kalna, Georgian and Victorian buildings of the Raj.

Sailing along the banks of the Hooghly gives a unique insight into unspoilt village life.

Led by Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, an authority on colonial India.

When George V announced in 1911 that the capital of British India was to be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi, there was disbelief and horror in Bengal. It seemed to overturn the natural order of things. Founded by Job Charnock in 1690 on the banks of the mighty Hooghly River, Calcutta (now Kolkata) had been the headquarters of British rule in India ever since. Today the city is home to over fifteen million, but the central district remains largely as it was during the Raj.

Buildings of all sorts – political, economic, educational, religious, residential – formed the British city. Their styles, Classical and Gothic, are bizarrely familiar, and their size is startling, often exceeding their equivalents in Britain. A walk through the South Park Street Cemetery shows the high price that many Britons paid for coming to Calcutta in search of wealth. ‘Power on silt!’ wrote Kipling of the city. ‘Death in my hands, but Gold!’

West Bengal is the land of lost capitals and fading grandeur. Calcutta was only the latest city whose power was snatched away by changing political events. Hindus, Muslims, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and French all founded settlements on the dreamy, fertile banks of the Hooghly.

For a time Bengal was the richest province in India, not only because everything seemed to grow in its lush soil but from the industry of its people too. Indigo, opium and rice were cash crops, but textiles first attracted European traders in the seventeenth century. Beautiful silk and muslin fabrics were known as ‘woven wind’ because they were so fine. The river was a natural highway. Apart from the Grand Trunk Road of the Mughals, there was no other way to travel.

Steeped in history but still very much

off the conventional tourist route, this tour adds a new dimension to India for those who already know it, and for those who are yet to encounter it.

Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Christianity are all practised in Bengal and each faith has built buildings to its gods and goddesses. The town of Kalna is named after a manifestation of the dreaded goddess Kali, the destroyer who lives in cremation grounds and wears a necklace of skulls. By contrast the Jain temples in the village of Baranagar are a peaceful anthem in carved brick to non-violence and harmony. Bengal contains the largest imambaras in India, buildings associated with the Shi’a strand of Islam, not quite mausolea, although burials are frequently found in them, more gathering places for the devout. Serampore, the Danish settlement, is known for its eighteenth-century church.

Had the British under Clive not defeated the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the history of India would have been very different. The French, established at Chandernagore and allies of the Nawab, would have seized their opportunity, supported by Francophone rulers elsewhere in India who wanted to counterbalance the pervasive British presence. But it was from their base in Bengal that the British steadily extended their rule through the subcontinent.

The cruiser chartered for this tour is new (built in Calcutta in 2013), but on board it feels closer to the India of the Raj than the India of today. By the standards of vessels on

European rivers it is not luxurious, but it is comfortable, has great charm and the crew are welcoming and efficient. Lounging on the top deck after a fulfilling day of sightseeing with a gin & tonic (of which a quota is included in the price), watching rural life on the banks as dusk falls, comes pretty close to a perfect Indian experience.

LecturerDr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. An authority on colonial India from the 18th to the 20th century. She has published books on Lucknow including Engaging Scoundrels: True Tales of Old Lucknow and Lucknow, City of Illusion. Her book Mutiny, The Great Uprising in India: Untold stories, Indian and British won critical praise. She lectures for the Asian Arts course at the V&A. She is currently Secretary of BACSA (British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia) and works as part-time archivist at the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

ItineraryDays 1 & 2: London to Calcutta (Kolkata), via Dubai. Fly at c. 1.30pm from London Heathrow to Calcutta via Dubai where there is a 2-hour stop. Reach the hotel c. 9.00am (time difference from UK is 51/2 hours.) The rest of the morning is free. In the afternoon visit the South Park Street Cemetery, where tombs of the early British settlers are of a

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monumental classicism without parallel in Britain. First of four nights in Calcutta.

Day 3: Calcutta. The Anglican cathedral of St Paul, completed in 1847 in Gothic style, has many fine memorials and a window by Burne-Jones, one of his best. Completed in 1921, the Victoria Memorial is the most imposing building in Calcutta. It houses a collection of European paintings and a display on the history of the city. The Indian Museum, built by Granville to house the collection from the Asiatic Society, is India’s most important collection of sculpture. Overnight Calcutta.

Day 4: Calcutta. This morning’s walk provides a survey of the civic buildings from the late 18th-century. St John’s Church, which dates back to 1784, is loosely modelled on St Martin-in-the-Fields in London (like hundreds throughout the globe). In the grounds, the mausoleum of Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, is the earliest British building in India. Overnight Calcutta.

Day 5: Calcutta. The Maghen David Synagogue (1884) and the Armenian Church

(1707) are reminders of the variety of religions which thrived in Calcutta prior to Independence. The Home of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and philosopher who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, provides an insight into the Bengali Intellectual Renaissance which in turn led to the Independentist movement. Overnight Calcutta.

Day 6: Barrackpore, Serampore. Board the RV Rajmahal in Calcutta. Sail to the former British garrison town of Barrackpore. Many 19th-cent. buildings remain, including the riverside Government House (1813) with its Semaphore Tower, part of a river signalling system, and the elegant neo-Greek Temple of Fame. The gardens of Flagstaff House now serve as repository for colonial statuary removed from Calcutta. The Danish colony of Serampore is across the river. First of seven nights on board the RV Rajmahal.

Day 7: Chandernagore, Chinsura, Hooghly. In the morning, sail upstream to the former French colony of Chandernagore, established in 1673. Visit the remaining churches and cemeteries as well as Governor Joseph François Dupleix’s House. Sail to Chinsura to visit the 17th-cent. Dutch cemetery before continuing by cycle-rickshaw to Hooghly where the 19th-cent. Shi’a Imambara of Hazi Mohammed Mohasin contains fine marble inlay. Overnight RV Rajmahal.

Day 8: Kalna, Nabadwip, Mayapur. At Kalna, visit the series of fine 18th-cent. terracotta temples and the unique Shiva temple with concentric rings comprising 108 double-vaulted shrines. Sail to the pilgrimage centre of Nabadwip, where the river ghats are lined with active temples for a leisurely walk in the bazaar. The skyline of Mayapur on the opposite bank is dominated by a vast new temple. Overnight RV Rajmahal.

Day 9: Matiari, Plassey. Visit the village of Matiari where brass is worked using traditional methods. After sailing further, there is an excursion to the site of the battle of Plassey, where Robert Clive’s 1757 victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah was the prelude to consolidation and extension of the East India Company’s power in Bengal and beyond. Overnight RV Rajmahal at Murshidabad.

Day 10: Murshidabad. The Mughal Khushbagh is a peaceful walled pleasure-garden containing the Tomb of Siraj-ud-Daulah and family. A magnificent example of Greek Revival architecture, the Hazarduari Palace was built by Duncan McLeod in 1837

as a guest house for the Nawab. The museum holds a respectable collection of European paintings, sculpture and arms. The imposing Katra Mosque (1724) is modelled on the great mosque at Mecca. Visit the Nashipara and Katgola palaces, 18th-cent. homes of rich Jain merchants in classical Georgian style. Overnight RV Rajmahal.

Day 11: Baranagar. Sail to the village of Baranagar and walk through fields to visit three miniature carved-brick Jain temples. Sail in the afternoon through a stretch of charming waterway that weaves past banks lush with mango groves and mustard crops. Overnight RV Rajmahal at Jangipur.

Day 12: Gaur, Farakka. Drive from Jangipur to the quiet city of Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal. Situated within easy reach of the black basalt Rajmahal hills, Gaur is filled with elegant Muslim ruins. The many mosques, palaces and gateways stand as testament to a prosperous past and gifted stonemasons. Overnight RV Rajmahal .

Day 13: Disembark Farakka. Calcutta. At Farakka, disembark the RV Rajmahal in the morning and transfer to the station to board a train for Calcutta (a journey of c. 4 hours). The rest of the day is at leisure. One more night in Calcutta.

Day 14: Calcutta. After a 2-hour stopover in Dubai, the flight arrives Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

PracticalitiesPrice: £5,220 (deposit £500). This includes: air travel (economy class) on flights with Emirates: return London to Dubai (Airbus 380–800), Dubai to Calcutta (Airbus 330–200); travel by private air-conditioned coach; accommodation in the hotel and aboard the river cruiser as described below, breakfasts, 11 lunches (including 1 packed lunch) and 12 dinners with wine or beer, water and coffee; all admissions to museums and sites; all tips for drivers, restaurant staff, and local guides; airport taxes; the service of a lecturer. Single supplement £890. Price without international flights £4,590.

Hotels: Calcutta (4 nights, 1 night): the Oberoi Grand is a long-established luxury hotel conveniently located in the city centre. An oasis of colonial charm, defined by impeccable service. There is a pool in the central courtyard garden.

River cruiser: RV Rajmahal (7 nights): built in 2013, it is not luxurious but it is adequately comfortable and has great charm. The decor

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is simple, floors and walls being of wood. Cabins are fairly spacious with excellent showers. There is a spacious dining room with full-length windows, which are generally open during the day, a saloon with a bar at the bow and an open deck half covered with a tarpaulin and well stocked with wickerwork chairs and loungers. There is a massage and health treatment room, appropriately staffed. Shore is reached by a small launch. Service is excellent.

Changes to the itinerary: circumstances might arise which prevent us operating the tour as advertised. On the river, circumstances such as the ebb and flow of the tide and shifting silt levels might necessitate omission of one or more ports of call. We would try and devise a satisfactory alternative.

Visas: British citizens and most other foreign nationals require a tourist visa. The current cost for UK nationals is around £95 including service fees. This is not included in the price of the tour because you have to obtain it yourself. We will advise on the procedure but you will need to submit your passport to the India Visa Application Centre in your country of residence prior to departure. Processing times vary from country to country but UK residents should expect to be without their passport for up to 10 days.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty, this tour is not for you. Sure-footedness is essential to get on and off the ship; the riverbanks may be slippery. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. Unruly traffic and busy streets also require vigilance. There are a few fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples. There is a 4-hour train journey during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. We very much regret that bookings will not be accepted from those who would be 81 or over at the time of the tour.

Small group: between 10 and 24 participants.

Left: The Great Mosque, on the Hooghly near Calcutta, from India & its Native Princes, 1876.

Palermo at Christmas

Art, archaeology & architecture

20–27 December 2014 (mb 223)8 days • £2,750Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

One of the most fascinating cities in Italy, much improved recently.

Includes access to private palaces and to places outside public opening hours.

Excursions to several other towns and sites in western Sicily: Cefalù, Bagheria, Monreale, Segesta.

Sicily’s heritage of art, architecture and archaeological remains is exceptionally rich and varied, and Palermo is by far the most interesting of the island’s cities. Staying here for all seven nights, the tour also has excursions to some of the best of the island’s patrimony outside the city.

Ancient classical remains are prominent, with some of the finest standing Doric temples to be seen anywhere at Segesta and Agrigento. In the ninth century AD, when Byzantine rule was supplanted by that of Muslim Arabs, Palermo became the leading city on the island

Palermo Cathedral, wood engraving from Italy: its Rivers, its Cities, its Arts, 1903.

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and famous throughout Europe for the beauty of its position, its tradition of craftsmanship and its enlightened administration.

In the eleventh century, Arab rule was swept aside by conquering Normans. By succumbing to the luxuriant sophistication of their predecessors they distanced themselves as far as is imaginable from their rugged northern roots. From a Palermo-based cosmopolitan court they ruled with efficiency and tolerance an affluent and cultured nation.

The unique artistic blend of this golden age survives in the Romanesque churches with details of Norman, Saracenic, Levantine and classical origin. Byzantine mosaicists were extensively employed, and more wall and vault mosaics survive here than in all of Byzantium. The tour includes not only the Norman buildings in Palermo but also the cathedrals at Cefalù and Monreale.

The prosperity and power of Sicily began to wane from the later Middle Ages, but pockets of wealth and creativity remained, as Gothic and Renaissance creations demonstrate. Artistically, however, a final flourish was reached in the Age of Baroque when churches and palaces were erected in Palermo and throughout the island which are as splendid and exuberant as anywhere in Europe.

Always a seething, vibrant city, enlightened local government has made Palermo cleaner, safer, and altogether more enjoyable than even a few years ago.

The tour includes a number of special arrangements to gain access to private palaces or visit buildings outside opening hours.

ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 10.30am from London City to Palermo, via Rome. Overnight in Palermo where all seven nights are spent.

Segesta, engraving c. 1840.

Day 2: Palermo. A morning walk through the old centre includes visits to several oratories and an excellent collection of pictures in the 15th-century Palazzo Abatellis. Visit a private palace and dinner here by special arrangement.

Day 3: Agrigento. A full day excursion to Agrigento to see the ‘Valley of the Temples’, one of the finest of all ancient Greek sites, with two virtually complete Doric temples, other ruins, and superb archaeological museum.

Day 4: Palermo. Visit the cathedral this morning, a building of many periods, with royal and imperial tombs, followed by the Teatro Massimo. A free afternoon is followed by a reception in a private palazzo, with astonishing Rococo interiors and original furnishings (used by Visconti for ‘The Leopard’).

Day 5: Monreale. Monreale dominates a verdant valley southwest of Palermo, and its cathedral is one of the finest Norman churches with the largest scheme of mosaic decoration that survives from the Middle Ages. Visit the Castello di Zisa in the afternoon, an Arab-Norman Palace.

Day 6, Christmas Day: Segesta, Mondello. In the morning drive to Segesta, one of the most evocative of ancient Greek sites, with magnificently sited temple and theatre. Christmas lunch is in an excellent restaurant in Mondello, a seaside town to the north-west of Palermo.

Day 7: Cefalù, Bagheria. Cefalù, a charming coastal town, has a massive Norman cathedral with outstanding mosaics. Bagheria on the fringes of Palermo is a district of aristocratic Baroque and Neo-Classical villas. The remarkable if faded Villa Palagonia has a

fine external staircase and is adorned with grotesque statuary.

Day 8: Palermo. Before leaving Palermo, see the extraordinary 12th-century Palace of the Normans, containing the Palatine Chapel and Hall of King Roger, both with outstanding mosaics. The Norman church of S. Giovanni degli Eremiti has five cupolas and a garden. Fly from Palermo to London Heathrow, via Milan, arriving c. 6.00pm.

LecturerDr Luca Leoncini. Art historian specialising in 15th-century Italian painting. His first degree and PhD were from Rome University followed by research at the Warburg Institute in London. He has published articles on the classical tradition in Italian art of the 15th century and contributed to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art. He has also written on Mantegna and Renaissance drawings.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,750 (deposit £250). This includes: air travel (economy class) on scheduled Alitalia flights (Airbus 319); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners (including one in a private palace), all with wine, water and coffee; all admissions to museums, sites, etc.; all tips for restaurant staff, drivers, guides; all taxes; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £330 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,520.

Hotel. A 16th-century church and convent converted into a charming 4-star hotel in the centre of Palermo. Rooms combine classical furnishings with modern comforts.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour, some of it over rough ground at archaeological sites and in the historic centres. It is not suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking or stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 50 miles

Weather. Winter weather in Palermo can be balmy and dry, but visitors should allow for the possibility of low temperatures and some rain.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

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Florence at Christmas

20–27 December 2014 (mb 221)8 days • £2,780Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

The best place for an art-history tour – highly influential art, wonderful architecture.

The Renaissance occupies centre stage; mediaeval and other periods are not ignored.

A first visit to Florence can be an overwhelming experience, and it seems that no amount of revisiting can exhaust her riches, or stem the growth of affection and awe which the city inspires in regular visitors.

For hundreds of years the city nurtured an unceasing succession of great artists. No other place can rival Florence for the quantity of first-rate, locally produced works of art, many still in the sites for which they were created or in museums a few hundred yards away. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo – these are some of the artists and architects whose works will be studied on the tour, fully justifying Florence’s epithet as the cradle of the Renaissance.

Florence is moreover one of the loveliest cities in the world, ringed by the foothills of the Apennines and sliced in two by the River Arno. Narrow alleys lead between the expansive piazze, supremely graceful Renaissance arcades abound while the massive scale of the buildings impressively demonstrates the wealth once generated by its precocious economy.

It is now a substantial, vibrant city, yet the past is omnipresent, and from sections of the mediaeval city walls one can still look out over olive groves.

Though the number of visitors to Florence has swelled hugely in recent years, it is still possible during winter to explore the city and enjoy its art in relative tranquillity.

Itinerary Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am from Heathrow to Pisa, then travel by coach to Florence. In the late afternoon, study the buildings and sculpture in the Piazza della Signoria.

Day 2. Visit the Bargello, a mediaeval palazzo housing Florence’s finest sculpture collection. The granary-cum-church of Orsanmichele has sculpture by Donatello, Ghiberti and Verrocchio. See the Byzantine mosaics and Renaissance sculpture in the baptistry in the afternoon, as well as the polychromatic marble cathedral capped by Brunelleschi’s dome. There is also a private visit to a palazzo.

Day 3. See Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital (1419), the first building wholly in Renaissance style. The Early Renaissance is wonderfully represented by the enchanting paintings by Fra Angelico in the Friary of San Marco. See Michelangelo’s David and the ‘Slaves’ sculpture in the Accademia. Visit the Uffizi, one of the world’s greatest art galleries.

Day 4. A Michelangelo morning: visit the Laurentian Library, his most substantial building in Florence, and the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo, burial chapel of the Medici family and Michelangelo’s largest sculptural ensemble. See exquisite frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli in the chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Later, visit Santa Maria Novella, a Dominican church with many works of art.

Day 5: a day trip to Siena. Walk through exquisite streets to Il Campo, the scallop-shaped ‘square’; visit the Palazzo Pubblico, the elegant 14th-century town hall, with frescoes by Martini and Lorenzetti. Visit the splendid cathedral of white and green marble and the baptistry. In the cathedral museum see Duccio’s Maestà, the finest mediaeval painted altarpiece to be found anywhere. Visit the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, which has a rich collection of 15th-century frescoes.

Day 6, Christmas Day. Free morning, with a range of options for a church service, followed by Christmas lunch.

Day 7. In Santa Trìnita there are fine frescoes by Ghirlandaio. See the Masaccio fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel, which constitutes the most important work of painting of the Early Renaissance. Visit Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi’s last great church, and the extensive Boboli Gardens, at the top of which is an 18th-century ballroom and garden overlooking olive groves. In the afternoon visit the redoubtable Palazzo Pitti, which houses several museums including the Galleria Palatina, outstanding particularly for High Renaissance and Baroque paintings.

Day 8. Visit the vast Franciscan church of Santa Croce, favoured burial place for leading Florentines. Travel to Bologna and fly to Heathrow, arriving at c. 8.00pm.

LecturerDr Michael Douglas-Scott. Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck, London, specialising in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and Birkbeck and has written for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,780 (deposit £250). This includes: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus A319); private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, Christmas lunch, 5 dinners with wine, water, coffee; admissions; all taxes; tips; services of the lecturer and tour manager. Single supplement £290 (double for sole occupancy). Price without flights £2,630.

Hotel: Santa Maria Novella, a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location. Rooms are stylishly decorated.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone who has walking difficulties. Average distance by coach per day: 25 miles

Weather. Fairly cold but often clear at this time of year. Rain should not be ruled out.

Small group: between 10 and 19 participants.

Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, aquatint c. 1830.

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Mozart in SalzburgThe annual winter festival

24–29 January 2015 (mb 230)6 days • £2,990(includes 8 concert tickets)Lecturer: Richard Wigmore

Daily attendance at the Mozartwoche, the annual festival celebrating the composer’s work in the town of his birth.

An outstanding programme, primarily Mozart, performed by leading orchestras, chamber groups and soloists.

The best-preserved Baroque city in northern Europe in a wonderful alpine setting.

Five-star hotel close to the Mozarteum.

Led by Richard Wigmore, music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3.

Salzburg is that rare thing, a tiny city with world-class standards in nearly everything the discerning visitor – and resident – would want. It is miraculous that such charm, and such grandeur, and, above all, such unparalleled weight of musical achievement should be concentrated in so small a place.

A virtually independent city-state from its origins in the early Middle Ages until its absorption into the Habsburg Empire in the nineteenth century, Salzburg’s days of glory had all but slipped into the past by the time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born there. He became the unwitting instigator, post-mortem, of Salzburg’s transformation from minor ecclesiastical seat to the world’s foremost city of music festivals. There are five of them. The Mozartwoche (Mozart Week) held in January every year celebrates Salzburg’s most famous son with musicians famed worldwide for their Mozart interpretations.

Our tour allows the concerts to be interspersed with a gentle programme of walks and an excursion to some of the finest art and architecture and scenic beauty in the region. But there is also plenty of free time to relax and gather energies for the performances, and for individual exploration of the city.

The city has several museums – a recent addition is a Museum of Contemporary Art in a cliff-top location overlooking the city, and the city’s principal museum has been re-established in a part of the Archbishop’s palace known as the Neue Residenz.

ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 9.45am from London Gatwick to Salzburg. Afternoon visit to Mozart’s birthplace and an early dinner before an evening concert at the Großes Festspielhaus

with the Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel (conductor): Mozart, Symphony No.29 in A, K.201; Schubert, Symphony No.7 in B minor ‘The Unfinished’, D759; Mozart, Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550.

Day 2. As on most mornings the day starts with a lecture in the hotel. Morning concert at the Mozarteum with Cappella Andrea Barca, András Schiff (pianist and conductor): Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.1 in C, Op.15; Schubert, Symphony No.5 in B, D485; Mozart, Piano Concerto No.22 in E flat, K.482. In the afternoon, walk through the heart of the old city with a local guide and visit the museum in the Mozart family home.

Day 3. Morning recital at the Mozarteum with Mitsuko Uchida (piano): Mozart Piano Sonata in F, K.280; in C, K.330; in D, K.576; Schubert, Four Impromptus, D935. In the afternoon there is the option to participate in a private guided tour of the Mozarteum’s Autograph Vault, containing original letters and manuscripts.

Dinner before an evening concert at the Mozarteum with Camerata Salzburg, Juraj Valcuha (conductor), Piotr Anderszewski (piano): Schubert, Symphony No.3 in D, D200; Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K.453; Symphony No.36 in C, ‘Linz’ K.425.

Day 4. Bad Ischl, Salzburg. After a lecture depart for an excursion through the ravishing landscapes of the Salzkammergut to Bad Ischl, with lunch here. Return to Salzburg for a free afternoon. Evening concert at the Mozarteum with Les Musisiens du Louvre Grenoble, Marc Minkowski (conductor), Thibault Noally (violin), Francesco Corti, (piano): Mozart, Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K.488; Violin Concerto No.5 in A, K.219; Schubert, Symphony No.8 in C, D944.

Day 5. Morning Lieder recital at the Mozarteum with Christine Schäfer (soprano), Daniel Sepec (violin), Eric Schneider (piano): Mozart, Rondo ‘Non temer, amato bene’, K.490; ‘Als Luise die Briefe ihres ungetreuten Liebhabers verbrannte’,

Salzburg, etching by Luigi Kasimiesz c. 1940.

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K.520; ‘Abendempfindung an Laura’, K.523; ‘Der Zauberer’, K.472; ‘Die Verschweigung’, K.518; ‘Das Traumbild’, K.530; ‘Die Alte’, K.517; ‘Die betrogene Welt’, K.474; Schubert, ‘Auf dem Strom’ D943; Am See’, D746; ‘Auf dem Wasser zu singen’, D774; ‘Meeres Stille’, D216; ‘Die Stadt’ D 957/11; ‘Auflösung’, D807. Afternoon visit to the Alte Residenz, a complex dating back to the 16th century, housing a sequence of a dozen impressive state rooms, of which several were redesigned in the Baroque style by Erlach and Hildebrandt. The adjoining Residenzgalerie contains a collection of 16th–19th-century European painting, including works by Rembrandt and Rubens. Evening concert at the Mozarteum with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada (conductor), Gautier Capuçon, (cello); Schubert, Symphony No.1 in D, D82; Sonata in A minor, D821; Mozart, Symphony No.1 in E flat, K.16; Elliott Carter, Symphony No.1.

Day 6. The flight from Salzburg arrives at London Gatwick c. 12.45pm.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,990 (deposit £300); this includes: 7 tickets costing c. £860; air travel (economy class) with British Airways (Boeing 737 jet); accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water and coffee; private coach for the excursion and airport transfers; all admissions to museums; all tips for waiters and drivers; all state and airport taxes; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £270 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,840.

Music tickets will not be confirmed until August 2014.

Hotel: The Hotel Bristol is excellently located two minutes walk from the Mozarteum and just across the river from the Festspielhaus (600 metres). It is a 5-star family-run hotel occupying an old building which has been impeccably converted. Luxurious but not lavish. Included meals are in the hotel and in carefully selected restaurants elsewhere.

How strenuous? A fair amount of walking is unavoidable, and the tour is planned on the expectation that participants walk to and from the concert venues; average distance by coach per day: c. 16 miles.

Small group: this tour will operate with between 12 and 22 participants.

The Age of BedeAnglo-Saxon Northumbria

4–7 July 2015 (mb 388)4 days • £910Lecturer: Imogen Corrigan

Examines the remarkable efflorescence of culture and learning in Anglo-Saxon northern England.

Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, Holy Island, Hexham and other Anglo-Saxon sites.

Studies also Durham Cathedral, perhaps the greatest Romanesque building in Europe, with special arrangements.

Imogen Corrigan, a specialist in Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval history, leads the tour.

For a few decades around ad 700, a handful of monasteries in Northumbria became beacons of culture and learning in a Britain that was largely tribal, warlike and unstable. Within a century Viking raiders extinguished these fragile flickers of civilization, and destruction and division again ruled the land. England – as it can now be called – steadily recovered, and on the eve of the Norman Conquest had become one of the best-governed and most prosperous territories in Europe. But in the two decades after 1066 the ever-troublesome north was again laid waste.

The tour visits some of the most significant Anglo-Saxon remains in the area – Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, the two-campus monastery to which the Venerable Bede was attached; church architecture at Escomb and Hexham; and sites of powerful resonance, of the royal

court at Yeavering and Lindisfarne, now known as Holy Island.

The tour introduces a cast of remarkable men – Benedict Biscop, Aiden, Cuthbert, Bede, characters of extraordinary tenacity, learning, piety and courage. One of the great intellectuals of the Middle Ages, the Venerable Bede (673–735) wrote on science and the measurement of time and on languages and literature as well as compiling a work of inestimable value, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Durham Cathedral is the last resting place of Cuthbert and Bede. In the opinion of some the finest Romanesque church in Europe, its massiveness and defensibility express the often tenuous hold on the region by institutions representing southern-based royal government.

ItineraryDay 1: Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. The coach leaves the hotel in Durham at 1.30pm. The monasteries at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, ten miles apart but one institution, were founded in 674 and 681 by Benedict Biscop, whose five journeys to Rome resulted in a unique network of international contacts and awareness of European artistry. Parts of the original chapels survive, with stained glass and stone carvings. ‘Bede’s World’ is an excellent museum, with a living Anglo-Saxon farm adjacent.

Day 2: Durham. All day is spent in and around Durham Cathedral, one of the greatest Romanesque churches in Europe and one of the most impressive of English cathedrals. Mighty towers rise above the encircling river Wear, while the interior cannot but move with its power and piety. The bulk of the building is little altered since the forty-year building campaign begun in 1093. There is the opportunity to attend Evensong here.

Day 3: Yeavering, Holy Island. On the journey to Lindisfarne visit Yeavering, evocative site of a royal settlement. The monastery on the little island of Lindisfarne (later ‘Holy Island’) was founded in ad 635 by an Irish monk from Iona, St. Aidan, and became an important centre for scholarship and missionary activity. A place of remarkable charm and tranquillity, there are Anglo-Saxon fragments, ruins of the Norman priory, and a castle, turned into a home by Edwin Lutyens.

Day 4: Escomb, Hexham. The tiny Saxon church at Escomb was built c. ad 675, a rare survival. A lovely market town on a bluff above the Tyne, Hexham grew

Anglo-Saxon illuminated letter, engraving c. 1860.

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around a monastery founded by in 671 by St Wilfrid. The magnificent mediaeval church is post-Conquest except for the crypt, the largest surviving expanse of Anglo-Saxon architecture in England. The coach sets down at Newcastle Central Railway station before 3.00pm and returns to Durham before 3.30pm.

LecturerImogen Corrigan. Specialist in Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval history. She spent twenty years in the army, retiring in the rank of Major, then obtained a first-class degree in Mediaeval History and has been studying and lecturing ever since. Currently researching a PhD at the University of Birmingham and has just published her first book, The Race for the Sky: the Building of our Medieval Cathedrals.

PracticalitiesPrice: £910 (deposit £100). This includes: hotel accommodation as described below; private coach throughout; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 2 dinners with wine, water, soft drinks and coffee; admission to the cathedral and churches and sites; all tips for waiters, drivers, guides; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £100.

Hotel: the Radisson Blu Hotel is a modern hotel situated on the river and is about 15 minutes on foot to the town centre.

How Strenuous? This tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and who cannot stand for long periods of time. Average distance by coach per day: 76 miles.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

The Age of Bedecontinued Literature & Walking

in the Lake District

29 June–2 July 2015 (mb 380)4 days • £1,190Lecturer: Dr Charles Nicholl

Wordsworth, Ruskin and Potter, their lakeside homes and surrounding countryside, combined with four country walks.

Led by acclaimed writer and biographer Charles Nicholl.

Stay all three nights in a country house hotel overlooking Lake Windermere.

There is no single supplement.

For over two hundred years, tourism, agriculture and industry have enjoyed a synergy in the English Lakes thanks in part to its rich and diverse geology. The striking contrasts between fell and dale are apparent to all visitors, the result of glacial action during the last few thousand years, when the snow and ice melting around very hard rocks formed lakes in the valleys left below.

This sheer natural splendour caught the attention of the wider world by two revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th

centuries; firstly artistic, as learned English gentlemen travelled to the Lake District to see the ‘picturesque’ landscapes of European masters like Poussin, Lorraine and Rosa, and secondly industrial. A network of roads was built to improve communications, and by 1768 a road north through Westmorland and Cumberland had been built, providing open road to privately-owned carriages. The idea of touring the Lakes for artistic purposes took hold – the poet Thomas Gray travelled between Keswick and Lancaster in late 1769, observing and commenting on the scenery. His account, published in 1775, was received to great acclaim and the region soon became a popular destination for the ‘touring’ classes, particularly as travelling to continental Europe was impossible.

William and Dorothy Wordsworth returned to their childhood roots (he was born in Cockermouth and educated at Hawkshead) when they moved to Dove Cottage in Grasmere in 1799. From this modest two-storey house he spent many hours walking: to and from Rydal, to Ambleside and to Keswick, the home of Coleridge and Robert Southey. Dorothy recorded his many walks in

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Following Wordsworth & Ruskin in spectacular countryside

her Journal; indeed the day that Wordsworth first saw those daffodils on the shores of Ullswater Lake in April 1802 is immortalised with her diary entry: ‘I never saw daffodils so beautiful’.

Wordsworth’s poetry and essays had a deep impact on other artists, notably John Ruskin. His long poem The Excursion, an essay on the virtues of mankind and in particular Wordsworth’s social concern and eagerness to promote respect between humans and the rural landscape chimed with Ruskin’s conservationist views. Ruskin had visited the Lakes many times before making his home at Brantwood on Coniston Water, from where he would observe the colour of the sky and bemoan changes to the rural idyll that he attributed to human intervention through the local quarrying industry.

The arrival of the steam engine and the first railway into the Lakes in 1847 vexed both men, and as the tourist numbers accumulated year on year, they became increasingly vocal about man-made structures damaging and destroying what they considered the delicate balance between man and nature that defined the Lake District. Beatrix Potter also

championed traditional artisanship, and after settling in Hawkshead in the 1900s, used the proceeds from her books to buy properties and land to save them from development. A large part of her estate was left to the National Trust, which was co-founded by her friend H.D. Rawnsley in the 1880s.

The Lake District became one of the UK’s first National Parks in 1951, after nearly a century of campaigning. Today its enduring beauty and rich history continue to attract many visitors, but the vast landscapes ensure there is space for reflection and rejuvenation for everyone. This short tour picks the region’s literary highlights and intersperses them with moderate walks, no more than four miles in distance, and with limited ascents, so that it can be enjoyed by everyone who is used to country walks of up to three hours.

ItineraryDay 1. The coach leaves Oxenholme Lake District Railway Station at 2.20pm (c. 2 hours 40 minutes from London on the West Coast line). Set in 17 acres above Windermere, Holehird Gardens are some of the finest gardens in England and home to the national collections of Astilbe, Hydrangea and Polystichum Ferns. Walk a total of 2 miles along grassy paths through fields, with steep ascents in places up to Orrest Head, at 784 feet above sea level, with magnificent views of Lake Windermere. Drive to Merewood Country House hotel where all three nights are spent.

Day 2. Drive to the pier at Coniston for the passenger ferry across Lake Coniston, the setting for Arthur Ransome’s novel Swallows and Amazons, and the best way to arrive at John Ruskin’s home from 1872 to 1900. The house has an extensive literary history and a major collection of Ruskin’s drawings, paintings, and scientific collections; it also contains his original furniture and his boat and Brougham carriage are displayed in outhouses. An afternoon walk of 4 miles mostly level on footpaths and country tracks, easy underfoot, with a short ascent from Brantwood through Monks Coniston and the restored walled garden to Coniston.

Day 3. A full day in the footsteps of Wordsworth. Beginning at Rydal Mount, the Wordsworth family home from 1813–50, this elegant house and fine gardens welcomed many literary visitors. Walk along the ‘Coffin Route’: coffin bearers used this path from Grasmere to St Mary’s Church in Rydal before the main road was built and heavy flattened

stone slabs still intermittently line the path. Visit Dove Cottage, the Wordsworths’ first Lakes home which subsequently belonged to Thomas de Quincey. Walk to the thriving town of Grasmere for independent exploration, rich with literary connections. Return to Rydal Mount along Loughrigg Terrace, a raised footpath which traverses the slope of Loughrigg Fell above Rydal Water. Total for both walks along footpaths and country lanes of 5½ miles, moderate–strenuous in places with some uneven ground and two short climbs.

Day 4. Visit Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s 17th-century farmhouse before driving to Hawkshead to see Wordsworth’s grammar school. There is also the opportunity to visit the Beatrix Potter gallery. Return to Oxenholme train station by 3.00pm.

LecturerDr Charles Nicholl. Honorary Professor of English at Sussex University and the acclaimed author of several books of biography, history and travel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and recipient of the Hawthornden prize, the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers’ Association ‘Gold Dagger’ award for non-fiction.

PracticalitiesPrice: £1,190 (deposit £150). This includes: private coach travel; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch, 3 dinners with wine, water, coffee and soft drinks; all admissions; all tips; the services of the lecturer and tour manager. No single supplement.

Hotel: The Merewood Country House Hotel, is an early 19th-century manor house, located just to the east of Windermere lake and set in 20 acres of woodland, meadow and landscaped gardens. Bedrooms have a traditional décor and vary in size and outlook due to the historic nature of the building; some have a lake view. There is a restaurant. Single rooms are doubles for single occupancy.

How strenuous? This is a walking tour: it is essential for participants to be in good physical condition and to be used to country walking. There are some short but steep uphill sections and terrain can be uneven and slippery in wet weather. There are four walks (two on one day) of no more than 4 miles or 2½ hours in length. Average distance by coach per day: 21 miles.

Small group: between 10 and 18 participants.

Left: John Ruskin’s house at Brantwood, after a drawing by L. J. Hilliard.

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The Cathedrals of EnglandTen of the greatest buildings in the country

22–30 April 2015 (mb 300)9 days • £2,580Lecturer: Jon Cannon

A study of ten of Britain’s greatest buildings – their history, architecture, sculpture, stained glass and current life.

Built between the Norman Conquest and Henry VIII’s Reformation, with Coventry Cathedral a moving exception.

Organ recitals exclusively for us and many other special arrangements.

Five hotels and quite a lot of driving, but the itinerary is uncrowded with time for rest and independent exploration.

Led by Jon Cannon, writer, lecturer and broadcaster.

This is an architectural journey that would be hard to equal for intensity of aesthetic delight. As a way into the minds and lives of the people of the Middle Ages, likewise it would be difficult to surpass. Personalities of extraordinary capability and vision will be revealed, and the thought processes and techniques used by craftsmen of genius revealed and decoded.

The tour ranges across England – north, south, east and west – to see some of the most glorious mediaeval architecture to be found anywhere. Connoisseurs may carp at the omissions, but logistics exclude only a couple of cathedrals of comparable beauty, magnificence and interest. With an average of little over one cathedral a day, there is plenty of time at each to really get to know them, to assimilate, appreciate and contemplate.

All but one are mediaeval, Norman (as

Romanesque is generally called in Britain) and Gothic. It is easy to underestimate the length of time the Middle Ages encompasses: the span from the earliest work we see on the tour to the latest, from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation, equals that from the Reformation to the present day. There was huge variety in the building arts and historical circumstances during those 460 years. The one non-mediaeval cathedral on the itinerary is Coventry. Rebuilt after the Second World War, not only is it a treasure house of mid-twentieth-century art but it is a moving monument to rebirth and reconciliation.

There are many special arrangements to enable you to see more than most visitors. Organ recitals are being organised for us at some cathedrals. There are also opportunities to hear some excellent choirs at Evensong. Cathedrals come with cities, and many of these were relatively little changed during the era of industrialisation and now rank among the loveliest in England. Much beautiful countryside is traversed as well.

For centuries, British scholars and critics laboured under an inferiority complex, believing English Gothic to be a defective derivative of the thoroughbred French version, inferior according to the degree to which it departed from the soaring, clean-limbed and impeccably rational paradigms across the Channel. That cultural cringe has all but evaporated in the last couple of generations, not least because evidence has been piling up that masons and architects in England had entire confidence in their inventiveness and deliberately chose to shun French conventions in favour of England’s own distinctive and fascinating imaginative universe.

ItineraryDay 1: Ely. The coach leaves King’s Cross, London at 9.30am for Ely, a surprisingly remote and rural location for one of England’s greatest cathedrals. The mighty Norman nave and transepts (c. 1110–30), with their thick walls, tiers of arches and clusters of shafts, leads to the crossing and its unique 14th-century octagonal lantern, a work of genius. The detatched Lady Chapel, also in the Decorated style, is the largest and perhaps the finest in the country; the Early English choir a ravishing setting for the lost shrine to St Etheldreda. Overnight Lincoln.

Day 2: Lincoln. Also largely by-passed by modern urban development, Lincoln’s hilltop site above the broad Witham valley renders this enormous cathedral even more imposing. Largely rebuilt from 1192, it has always

Gloucester C

athedral, drawing reproduced in Francis Bond, An Introduction to English Church Architecture, 1913.

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been revered as one of the finest of Gothic cathedrals, its fascinations enhanced by myriad minor inconsistencies and variations which reveal the struggle for solutions at the frontiers of artistic fashion and technological capability. The steep streets of the ancient town are a delight. First of three nights in York.

Day 3: Durham. By train to Durham (40 mins), where the topography and riverside walk provide the most exciting approach to any English cathedral. Massive towers rise above the trees which cling to the steep embankment, a defensible bulwark in the frequently hostile North. Largely completed in the decades from 1903 and little altered since, the nave and quire with their great cylindrical pillars, distinguished by their engraved patterns, constitute one of the world’s greatest Romanesque churches. Overnight York.

Day 4: York. York Minster is the largest of English mediaeval cathedrals. Above ground it is all Gothic, from Early English to Perpendicular but predominantly 14th-century, demonstrating an exceptional knowledge of the latest French Rayonnant ideas. It is a treasure trove of original stained glass, and the polygonal chapter house is without peer. The city retains its mediaeval walls and an exceptional quantity of historic buildings. Overnight York.

Day 5: Coventry. Coventry Cathedral is perhaps internationally Britain’s best-known 20th-cent. building. Built to designs by Sir Basil Spence beside the ruins of its predecessor destroyed in 1940, it is both a showcase for some of the best art of the time (Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Jacob Epstein) and a moving symbol of rebirth and reconciliation. In the evening, a walk through Stratford-upon-Avon, which has retained many buildings Shakespeare would have known. Overnight Stratford.

Day 6: Gloucester, Bristol. The procession of tall cylindrical pillars in Gloucester’s nave are unadulterated Norman, but, following the burial of Edward II in 1327, the eastern parts are exquisitely veiled in the first large-scale appearance of Perpendicular architecture. The east window, which retains its mediaeval stained glass, is one of the largest in Europe. The nave of Bristol Cathedral is by the greatest of Victorian ‘Goths’, G.E. Street, and the eastern parts are among the most innovative and beautiful of early-14th-cent. buildings. First of two nights in Wells.

Day 7: Wells. An exceptionally unspoilt little city, Wells has a fortified bishop’s palace,

14th-cent. houses of the vicar’s choral and much else of charm and interest. The cathedral was one of the first in England to be built entirely in Gothic style. Its screened west front, eastward march of the nave, sequence of experimental contrasted spaces of the Decorated east end, serene chapter house and Perpendicular cloisters all contribute to the cathedral’s exceptional allure. The strainer arches supporting the sagging tower are among the great creations of the Middle Ages. Overnight Wells.

Day 8: Salisbury. One of the most uplifting experiences in English architecture, Salisbury is unique among the Gothic cathedrals in England in that it was built on a virgin site and largely in a single campaign, 1220–58. To homogeneity are added lucidity of design and perfection of detail. Completed a century later, the spire at 404 feet is the tallest mediaeval structure in Britain. The close is the finest in the country, and the town beyond has an extensive expanse of historic fabric. Overnight Winchester.

Day 9: Winchester. Winchester Cathedral is one of Europe’s longest churches, reflecting the city’s status intermittently from the 9th to the 17th centuries as a seat of English government. The transepts are unembellished early Norman (1079), raw architecture of brute power, whereas the mighty nave was dressed 300 years later in suave Perpendicular garb. The profusion of chantry chapels constitutes an enchanting collection of Gothic micro-architecture. Wall paintings, floor tiles, the finest 12th-cent. Bible. Return to Tothill Street in central London by 4.00pm.

LecturerJon Cannon. Writer, lecturer and broadcaster whose research focuses on English cathedrals. He presented and co-wrote the BBC’s How to Build a Cathedral and published Cathedral: the Great English Cathedrals & the World that Made Them. He teaches at Bristol University and was previously Communications Manager for English Heritage, and the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,580 (deposit £250). This includes: hotel accommodation as described below; private coach throughout; rail travel between York and Durham (return); breakfasts, 1 lunch and 6 dinners with wine, water, soft drinks and coffee; admission and donations to all cathedrals visited; all tips for waiters, drivers, guides; the services of the lecturer and tour manager. Single supplement £310.

Hotels. Lincoln (1 night): a historic building close to the cathedral, the Castle Hotel has recently been thoroughly refurbished. Rooms are not large but are comfortable and well-designed, and the restaurant is excellent. York (3 nights): The Grange is also in a historic building with a new wing, bedrooms are individually and charmingly designed, the public spaces are lovely and the service and restaurant are good. Stratford-on-Avon (1 night): The Stratford (Q Hotels) is a modern hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of the town, contemporary style with neutral colour schemes, comfortable. Wells (2 nights): The Swan, in a building of 15th-cent. origin in a narrow street close to the cathedral. While retaining its historic atmosphere it has been well refurbished. Winchester (1 night): excellently located overlooking the cathedral, The Wessex (Mercure) is a 1960s building with both traditional and modern elements in the décor. Rooms at all the hotels, being city-centre historic properties, vary in size and outlook.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on the tour. You ought to be able to walk at about three miles an hour for up to half an hour. There are also a lot of steps and uneven surfaces. Roof and tower visits are optional of course, but at Salisbury there are 332 stairs to climb. Two of the hotels do not have lifts. There are three days without any coach travel, but there is an average on the remaining five days of 73 miles.

Small group. This tour will operate with between 12 and 22 participants.

Also in the United Kingdom in 2015: Walking Hadrian’s Wall (11–17 May and 6–12 September 2015 with Graeme Stobbs), Stonehenge (May 2015), Houses of the Heart of England (May 2015), Ardgowan (18–23 June 2015), Mediaeval Sussex (22–26 June 2015 with John McNeill), North Wales (6–10 July 2015), Constable & Gainsborough (July 2015), Edinburgh Festival (August 2015), Walking a Royal River (16–21 September 2015), Great Houses of the North (September 2015), In Churchill’s Footsteps (September 2015), Connoisseur’s London (September 2015), Opera in Cardiff (October 2015). Please contact us to register your interest.

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Great Houses of the South West

Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon

9–16 June 2015 (mb 359)8 days • £3,110Lecturer: Anthony Lambert

Great country houses, historic gardens and parks in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

Major examples of a huge range of styles from the twelfth century to the twentieth.

Many houses contain outstanding picture collections and exceptional furniture.

Special arrangements and out-of-hours visits.

Hotels in former country houses.

The landscapes seen on this tour are immensely varied and endlessly alluring – the noble chalk downs of Wiltshire, the evocative Levels of Somerset, the enchanting patchwork fields of Devon, the verdant hidden valleys of Exmoor, the little hills of Dorset.

The houses seen are equally varied. Lacock and Longleat and Montacute are among the finest of Henrician and Elizabethan mansions in England. The Stuart era is superbly represented by the incomparable Wilton House, star of the first phase of Palladian classicism in England, and by the Dutch classicism of Dyrham, while the eighteenth century is wonderfully exemplified at Stourhead and by the delicious Adam interiors at Saltram. Victoria’s reign has a magnificent ambassador in Tyntesfield, and the Edwardian continuation is beautifully if eccentrically demonstrated at Castle Drogo. Real castles are represented by the extraordinary Berkeley, still

a family home, and, if now more picturesque than defensive, at Dunster.

A first-rate country house is more than a house. Clustering around are gardens, auxiliary buildings and a park – at Stourhead, perhaps the most influential one in the world – and beyond lie working farms and enterprises of all sorts. And of course inside the house there are furnishings and works of art and gadgets and utensils and curios: in many of the houses on this tour these moveables are of a quality and a quantity which surpass the collections of all but a couple of dozen of Britain’s museums. Corsham and Kingston Lacy in particular are renowned for their picture collections.

Word must be added about the hotels on this tour, all three of which are excellent, and two of which are former country houses.

ItineraryDay 1: Stratfield Saye. Leave London at 11.00am and drive to Hampshire, arriving at Stratfield Saye in time for lunch. The prize for the Duke of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, it is still lived in by his descendents today. Built in the early 17th century by an early member of the Pitt dynasty, the house has a relatively modest exterior, belying splendid interiors and an excellent art collection. Spend the first of four nights in a country house hotel in the village of Bishopstrow, Wiltshire.

Day 2: Wilton, Kingston Lacy. Inigo Jones contributed to the design of Wilton House, the outstanding achievement of the first phase of Palladianism in England. The double-cube

room, with paintings by Van Dyck, is the most sumptuous English interior of the Stuart period. Also of the 17th century, Kingston Lacy is noted for its lavish interiors and outstanding art collection of Spanish, Italian and Flemish Old Masters. Both houses have important gardens and parkland.

Day 3: Longleat, Corsham. Longleat was one of the largest and architecturally most progressive of Elizabethan houses, and is set in a ‘Capability’ Brown park. Corsham (Wiltshire) is an Elizabethan mansion enlarged in the 18th century and again in the 19th to display a collection of Old Master paintings, still in situ.

Day 4: Stourhead, Montacute. Though built in two phases, 1720s and 1790s, Stourhead is the perfect classical villa. The landscaped park of the 1740s is the most important of its kind, with a lake, temples, careful planting and contrived, if seemingly natural, vistas. Montacute is a magnificent Elizabethan house with the longest long gallery in England. An outstation of the National Portrait Gallery, it is hung with 16th- and 17th-century pictures. Garden layout and architecture survive. First of two nights in Taunton.

Day 5: Saltram, Castle Drogo. Drive across Devon to Saltram, a largely 18th-century house with lavish Robert Adam interiors and fine pictures and furnishings. There are dramatic views of the Plym Estuary. A rugged Dartmoor setting overlooking the Teign Gorge matches Sir Edwin Lutyens’s imaginative exercise in mediaevalism at Castle Drogo, though inside there are all the latest in early 20th-century comforts. The castle is undergoing a 5-year restoration programme and whilst some rooms may be closed, the National Trust has opened rooms not normally available for public viewing. Fine Arts & Crafts garden.

Day 6: Dunster, Tyntesfield. Drive between the Quantocks and Exmoor to the famously picturesque village of Dunster. Atop a wooded hillock, the castle of Norman origin long ago domesticated its defensive features, notably in the Carolean age. The great Gothic Revival mansion of Tyntesfield has hardly changed since the nineteenth century, caught in a time warp and stuffed with the authentic bric-a-brac of a Victorian country house. First of two nights in Colerne, Wiltshire.

Day 7: Berkeley, Lacock. The keep of Berkeley Castle dates to 1117, the bulk of the rest to 1340–61. Little has been altered since, and yet it is still the private home of its builders, a family that served Edward the Confessor. The contents – tapestries, paintings, furniture – are

Longleat, engraving from ‘Historic Houses of the United Kingdom’ 1892.

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magnificent. In one of the loveliest villages in England, Lacock Abbey retains a cloister from the nunnery dissolved by Henry VIII and given to a courtier. There are Georgian modifications and being the home of William Fox Talbot, a window which was the subject of the first ever photograph. Overnight Colerne.

Day 8: Dyrham. Transformed from a Tudor mansion at the end of the 17th century, Dyrham Park externally is mild Baroque in golden Bath stone, and inside exquisitely Anglo-Dutch with pictures and furnishings to match. It has scarcely changed since. Return to central London at c. 4.30pm.

Some appointments cannot be confirmed until November 2014.

LecturerAnthony Lambert. Historian, journalist and travel writer. He has worked for the National Trust in various capacities for almost 30 years. His books include Victorian & Edwardian Country House Life and he writes regular profiles of country houses for the Historic Houses Association. He has written numerous travel and guide books, and contributes to a wide range of newspapers and magazines.

Practicalities Price: £3,110 (deposit £300). This includes: accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch, 5 dinners with wine, water, coffee; private coach travel; all admissions; all tips; services of the lecturer and tour manager. Single supplement £320.

Hotels. Bishopstrow House (3 nights) dates from the early 19th century and has been a hotel for 35 years. Public rooms maintain a country house décor, whilst bedrooms have been recently refurbished and have all mod cons. The Castle Hotel, Taunton (2 nights): an award-winning family-run hotel, pleasingly decorated and with excellent service. Lucknam Park Hotel, Colerne, Wiltshire (2 nights): this 5-star hotel is a fine example of a country house hotel, set in 500 acres of parkland and with a Michelin-starred restaurant. Bedrooms have a traditional décor.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive, the houses visited don’t have lifts (nor do all the hotels). Average distance by coach per day: c. 95 miles.

Memberships: National Trust members (with cards) will be refunded c. £85.

Small group: between 12 and 22 participants.

Verona Opera Lyric spectacle in the Veneto

17–21 July 2014 (ma 972)5 days • £2,280Carmen, Un Ballo in Maschera, AidaLecturer: Angus Haldane

21–25 August 2014 (ma 994)5 days • £2,280Madame Butterfly, Romeo & Juliet, AidaLecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

28 August–1 September 2014 (ma 999)5 days • £2,280Carmen, Madame Butterfly, AidaLecturer: Dr R. T. Cobianchi

In the setting of a Roman amphitheatre, the most famous of open-air festivals.

A luxurious 5-star hotel in the historic centre, with an optional shuttle service to the operas.

Each tour is accompanied by an expert art historian who lead walks and visits during the day, rather than by a musicologist.

and the enveloping dusk is pierced only by flickering candle flames as uncountable as the stars above. Magic again; for these special moments the Verona Festival remains without rival.

The list of unique assets continues. There is the inestimable advantage of the stage and auditorium, one of the largest of ancient amphitheatres which, though built for rather less refined spectacles (‘arena’ is Latin for sand, used in quantity after the slaughter of animals and gladiators) provides miraculously sympathetic acoustics. The elliptical form also seems to instil a sense which can best be described as resembling an embrace, bonding the audience however distant or disparate the individual members might be.

Then there is the benefit of being at the heart of one of the most beautiful of Italian cities. Verona is crammed with magnificent architecture and dazzlingly picturesque streets and squares. Surprisingly, the city seems scarcely deflected from a typically Italian dedication to living well and stylishly by the annual influx of festival visitors.

The first magic moment comes well before the conductor raises his baton. Unless you have led a team onto the pitch at Wembley, or won the New Hampshire primaries, you are unlikely to have experienced anything quite like the wall of heady high spirits which hits you as you emerge from the entrance tunnel into the arena.

Filling the vast ellipse of the almost two-thousand-year-old Roman amphitheatre are fourteen thousand happy people, bubbling with joyous expectation of the spectacle which is to follow. Even the most dour of dusty-hearted opera purists cannot help but be uplifted.

Then the floodlights go down, the chaotic chatter quietens to a reverential whisper,

Enough of the spectacle, what of the music? Most performances reach high standards, with patches of stunning singing. For the (largely Italian) casts, to perform at Verona is still a special event, and there remains as an incentive to excellence the typically Italian expression of audience disapproval, instant and merciless. Besides, the younger singers know that they will be judged by more agents, casting directors and peers in one performance than usually would see them in a season.

Opinions vary concerning the best place to sit. All the seats we have booked are numbered and reserved (no queuing for hours and elbowing to seize the best of what remains), and a proportion are poltronissime, cushioned

Verona from the Giardino Giusti, engraving c. 1880.

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stalls seats, which we offer for a supplement. The rest are on the lowest tiers, the gradinate numerate, with clear sight lines, while plastic seating is mercifully interposed between you and the marble.

ItineraryDay 1. Fly at c. 2.30pm from London Gatwick to Verona. Overnight Verona where all four nights are spent.

Day 2. Visit the church of Sant’Anastasia with its Pisanello frescoes, and the spectacular mediaeval tombs of the ruling della Scala family. Take an introductory walk in Verona, passing through the beautiful streets and squares at the heart of the city, and visit the Romanesque church of San Fermo. Some free time; evening opera in the Arena.

Day 3. A walk leads to the Romanesque cathedral, then across the River Adige to the well-preserved Roman theatre. Alternatively, there are bus and train services offering the opportunity to see more of the region, perhaps Lake Garda or Venice. The afternoon is free or take an optional visit to the church of S. Zeno, a major Romanesque church with sculpted portal and a Mantegna altarpiece; evening opera in the Arena.

Day 4. The morning walk includes the Castelvecchio, a graceful mediaeval castle and fortified bridge, now housing an art museum. Lunch is at a privately owned villa in the countryside (by special arrangement). There is some free time; evening opera in the Arena.

Day 5. Fly from Verona, arriving London Gatwick at c. 1.00pm.

LecturersAngus Haldane. Studied Classics at Oxford University with a particular emphasis on Roman history, literature and art. He subsequently studied for a post-graduate degree in Byzantine and Renaissance art at the Courtauld Institute, has taught Greek and Latin and has lectured on the ancient world in Italy and in Greece.

Dr Luca Leoncini. Art historian specialising in 15th-century Italian painting. His first degree and PhD were from Rome University followed by research at the Warburg Institute in London. He has published articles on the classical tradition in Italian art of the 15th century and contributed to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art. He has also written on Mantegna and Renaissance drawings.

Dr R. T. Cobianchi. Art historian and lecturer. He completed his PhD at Warwick

University, was a Rome Scholar at The British School in Rome and was fellow of both the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome, and Villa I Tatti, Florence . His research includes iconography and patronage of the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.

PracticalitiesPrice: £2,280 (deposit £200). This includes: 3 opera tickets costing c. £270; flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Boeing 737); accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer. Supplement for poltronissime seats £250. Single supplement £160 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,160 (July), £2,080 (August, September).

Hotels: All four nights are spent at the Hotel Due Torri, a luxurious 5-star situated c. 20 minutes walk from the Arena. A shuttle is provided to and from the operas. Rooms are opulent and all have baths and air-conditioning.

How strenuous? To participate fully in the itinerary, a fair amount of walking is involved. Average distance by coach per day: 18 miles

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants

The Arena, Verona, from The Illustrated London News 1866.

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Drottningholm & Confidencen6–9 August 2014 (ma 987)4 days • £1,980 (includes 2 opera tickets)Lecturer: Ian Page

Two operas in two historic theatres: Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto at Drottningholm’s Slottsteater and The Marriage of Figaro at the Confidencen Theatre.

Artists in Drottningholm include the Swedish soprano, Miah Persson.

Good hotel on Stockholm’s waterfront.

Led by Ian Page, conductor and artistic director of Classical Opera.

Plenty of free time to visit the numerous museums and collections.

Very few theatres survive unchanged from the eighteenth century. Only the Drottningholm Court Theatre survives without having needed modern restoration or refurbishment, with the original stage machinery and scenery intact, and as home of a living operatic tradition of international renown.

Built in 1766 for Queen Luisa Ulriki of Sweden as part of a marvellous ensemble of palace, park and lake outside Stockholm, the theatre enjoyed its heyday during the reign of her son Gustav III. But after his death in 1792 it ceased to be used and was virtually forgotten for over a century. Performances recommenced in 1922, and subsequently an annual festival developed which specialises, appropriately enough, in Baroque and Classical repertoire. The opera for 2014 is Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto.

Drottningholm is not the only eighteenth-century theatre in Stockholm’s watery environs. Confidencen, the theatre built in 1752 at Ulriksdal, is also part of a palace complex in a beautiful lakeside setting and, again like Drottningholm, a

long period of neglect preceded its revival. But the festival here is of much more recent origin and as yet is little known outside Sweden. Artistically, it has to be said, it sets its sights lower, but productions have become increasingly accomplished. The choice of composer and opera this year suggests, correctly, that cutting-edge adventurousness is not their mission, but it will be a marvellous setting for Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

The tour is based in the centre of Stockholm, a city with many architectural and artistic riches spread across the archipelago where the waters of Lake Mäleren meet the Baltic. There is quite a lot of free time to explore the city independently.

ItineraryDay 1: Stockholm. Fly at c. 10.15am from London Heathrow to Stockholm. Drive to the Ulriksdal Palace, built in the 17th century on the banks of the Edsviken in Solna as a country retreat. Settle into the hotel in time for an introductory talk and dinner.

Day 2: Stockholm. In the morning a guided tour of the old town centre. Free afternoon; among many possible visits are the museum of the Wasa, the royal flagship which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, the spectacular display of prehistoric gold artefacts at the Museum of Antiquities and the Museum of Modern Art. Evening opera at Confidencen Theatre: The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart).

Day 3: Drottningholm. After a morning lecture, travel by boat from the centre of Stockholm to Drottningholm Palace, summer residence of the Swedish royal family since the 17th century; splendid interiors, wonderful gardens, landscaped park, exquisite Chinoiserie pavilion and theatre museum. Evening opera at Drottningholm Slottsteater: Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mozart).

David Stern (conductor), Francisco Negrin (director), Peter Lodahl (Mitridate, King of Pontos), Miah Persson (Aspasia), Christophe Dumaux (Farnace), Raffaella Milanesi (Sifare), Ingela Bohlin (Ismene), Elisabeth Meyer (Arbate), Anders J Dahlin (Marzio).

Day 4: Stockholm. Free morning; fly to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 5.30pm.

LecturerIan Page. Conductor and Artistic Director of the Classical Opera Company, which specialises in the works of Mozart and his contemporaries and performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells. He recently embarked on a new project to record all the Mozart operas, and has been a professor at the Royal College of Music in London since 1993.

Practicalities Price: £1,980 (deposit £200). This includes: tickets for 2 operas; flights (Euro Traveller) with British Airways (Airbus A319 & A320); coach or boat for excursions as specified in the itinerary; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts and three dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; services of the lecturer. Single supplement £140. Price without flights £1,820.

Hotel: the First Hotel Reisen is a 4-star hotel of character situated on the waterfront of the Gamla Stan, the heart of Stockholm’s Old Town. Rooms are spacious, some with a sea view, some with a balcony facing the town.

How strenuous? This is a short tour with a fair amount of free time. Nevertheless participants need to be fit enough to navigate the city centre and parks on foot and to cope easily with stair climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 12 miles.

Small group: 12–22 participants.

The Marriage of Figaro, from a synopsis published c. 1930.

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Santa Fe OperaSummer music in the mountains of New Mexico

3–11 August 2014 (ma 985)8 nights • £4,980 (including 4 opera tickets)Lecturer: Richard Wigmore

One of the world’s great summer opera festivals in the spectacular setting of the New Mexico mountains.

The line-up for 2014: Fidelio (Beethoven); Bizet’s Carmen with Anna Caterina Antonacci; Brenda Rae in Mozart’s The Impresario with Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Andrew Shore in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.

There is also the option of attending the American première of Dr Sun Yat-sen, by Huang Ruo.

Santa Fe is small, charming, colourful; our hotel comfortable; visits around the performances include some of the excellent museums, galleries and historic sites; we allow time to acclimatise before the first opera.

The lecturer is music writer and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster, Richard Wigmore.

Established in 1957, Santa Fe Opera was the brainchild of New York conductor John Crosby, who felt a home-grown opera

company would provide a fertile training ground for young American talent – as well as the ideal complement to Santa Fe’s celebrated arts scene.

From the start, the company attracted exceptional musicians – Stravinsky conducted and directed here in the 50s – and, over the years, has developed an international reputation for premiering new work and mounting innovative productions of the classic repertoire. Its ‘Apprentice Programme’ has now trained over 1,500 opera singers, including stars such as Joyce DiDonato and James Morris.

We see all the major productions of the 2014 season: Beethoven’s Fidelio, Bizet’s Carmen, a double bill of Mozart’s The Impresario and Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. Dr Sun Yat-sen, an exhilarating new work by Chinese composer, Huang Ruo, is an optional extra. Our lecturer introduces the performances through a series of talks. The evenings are further enhanced by the opera house itself. Now in its third incarnation, it is open to the sides linking the audience with the landscape beyond. Glimpsing the setting sun over the desert foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains is yet another highlight.

The small town of Santa Fe shares this backdrop of rolling hills and shadowed peaks, and its green and pleasant streets are celebrated for their sophisticated mix of galleries and boutiques, as well as for some of the oldest buildings in the United States. Colonised by the Spanish in the early seventeenth century, recaptured by the native Pueblo Indians in 1680, ruled by Mexico following their War of Independence and finally becoming part of the United States in 1846, the city’s museums tell a fascinating story.

We stay in a comfortable hotel in the centre of town, and a fifteen-minute drive to the opera house. From here there is a gentle programme of visits and excursions, including a journey deep into the surrounding countryside to see the cliff-dwellings at the Bandelier National Monument.

ItineraryDay 1: London to Santa Fe. Fly at c. 11.45am from Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth (time in air: c. 9 hours) and connect to a flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico (1 hour 30 minutes). Drive north from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, arriving c. 9.30pm. Supper is served

Santa Fe Opera House.

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in your room.

Day 2. A leisurely start to the tour with a 10.00am lecture to introduce the festival. Walk from the hotel to the main plaza, the historic and contemporary hub of Santa Fe. Visit the low-slung, adobe Palace of the Governors, from where Spain controlled the American south-west in the 17th century. Adjacent is the New Mexico Museum of History which gives an excellent overview from Spanish colonisation to the creation of the atom bomb. The afternoon is free for rest or further exploration.

Day 3. Morning lecture on tonight’s performance. Walk to the New Mexico Museum of Art, a wide-ranging collection but particularly good for landscapes of the region. There is the option of continuing to the museum of Santa Fe’s most celebrated artist, Georgia O’Keeffe. The afternoon is free until dinner at 5.00pm. Evening opera: Fidelio (Beethoven) with Harry Bicket (conductor), Stephen Wadsworth (director). Alex Penda (Leonore), Paul Groves (Florestan), Greer Grimsley (Don Pizarro), Manfred Hemm (Rocco), Devon Guthrie (Marzelline), Evan Hughes (Don Fernando).

Day 4. Morning lecture. Optional excursion to Museum Hill. Of the four museums here, we recommend visiting the collection dedicated to Indian arts and culture, and the Museum of International Folk Art (visits are not guided).Return to the hotel for some free time. Late afternoon, drive to the opera house for a backstage tour (this is a public tour) followed by buffet dinner. Evening opera: Carmen (Bizet) with Rory Macdonald (conductor), Stephen Lawless (director). Anna Caterina Antonacci (Carmen), Roberto De Biasio (Don Jose), Kostas Smoriginas (Escamillo), Joyce El-Khoury (Micaela), Evan Hughes (Zuniga), Noah Baetge (El Remendado).

Day 5. Walk to Canyon Road, an attractive avenue of commercial galleries, some of them renowned dealers in fine arts. Also here is the adobe San Miguel Mission church, built by Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico in the early 1600s. Lunch is included before returning to the hotel for some free time. Lecture on tonight’s performance before driving to the opera house. Evening opera, double bill: The Impresario (Mozart) and Le Rossignol (Stravinsky) with Evan Rogister (conductor), Michael Gieleta (director). Erin Morley (Mme. Tintement/The Nightingale), Brenda Rae (Mme. Popescu/The Cook), Bruce Sledge (Herr Puff/The Fisherman), Impresario and The Emperor to be announced, Meredith Arwady (Fraulein Krone/Death).

Day 6. Drive at 8.00am into the increasingly remote and beautiful landscape of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. In a wooded canyon at the Bandelier National Monument visit the cliff dwellings and village remains of the Ancestral Pueblo people – resident here until around 1550 (c. 1¼ mile trail on foot). The afternoon is free back in Santa Fe. Suggestions include the various commercial galleries and installation spaces in the recently revamped ‘Railyard District’. Optional evening opera: Dr Sun Yat-sen (Huang Ruo, American première) with Carolyn Kuan (conductor), James Robinson (director). Warren Mok (Sun Yat-sen), Corrine Winters (Soon Ching-ling), Mary Ann McCormick (Ni), Dong-Jian Gong (Charlie Soong), Chen-Ye Yuan (Mr Imeya).

Day 7. The day is free until the 3.30pm lecture. Dinner before leaving for the opera house. Evening opera: Don Pasquale (Donizetti) with Corrado Rovaris (conductor), Laurent Pelly (director & costume design). Laura Tatulescu (Norina), Alek Shrader (Ernesto), Dr Malatesta to be announced, Andrew Shore (Don Pasquale).

Day 8. Morning departure for Albuquerque Airport for the flight to Dallas. Connect to the flight to London Heathrow (departing Dallas Fort Worth c. 6.45pm; time in air c. 8 hours).

Day 9. Arrive London Heathrow c. 9.30am.

LecturerRichard Wigmore. Writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for The Daily Telegraph, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and gives classes in Lied history and interpretation at Birkbeck College, London. He read French and German at Cambridge and later studied Music at the Guildhall. His books include Schubert: the complete song texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

PracticalitiesPrice: £4,980 (deposit £400). This includes: good tickets for all four operas costing c. £550; air travel (World Traveller) on scheduled British Airways and American Airlines flights (Boeing 747; MCD Douglas MD80); travel by private coach; hotel accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 1 lunch, 1 light evening meal and 5 dinners with wine, water and coffee (1 is a buffet) (plus meals on flights); all admissions to museums and galleries as indicated in the itinerary; all tips for restaurant staff, drivers, guides; all state and airport taxes; the services of the lecturer

with some use of local guides. Price without flights £3,820.

Hotel room supplementsSuperior room for 2 people sharing £150 per room (original 1930s artist bungalow; more charm, with patio). Single supplements: £490 (double room for sole occupancy; modern and spacious) or £640 (as per the superior room above). We can also request a single room at a supplement of £290. These are known as ‘Artist Studios’ and are small, with limited (or even inadequate) storage and do not always have a desk and chair. Contact us if you would like to book one of these.

Visas: British citizens can enter the USA without a visa providing they apply for the visa waiver online and have a machine-readable passport. The current charge is $14. We will advise on this.

Hotel: La Posada de Santa Fe is a well presented and comfortable hotel in the centre of town. Public rooms are in the 19th-century house with all bedrooms in the surrounding adobe-style bungalows (a few have two storeys). Furnishings are generally south-western in design with a rustic feel: painted walls; colourful textiles; leather upholstery, but rooms differ in size – see ‘price’ section. There are patios and a garden, a bar, library-cum-sitting room, two restaurants, a small outdoor pool and spa. Service is willing, but not always as fast as one might expect of the USA.

How strenuous? The journey to Santa Fe (from the UK) is tiring and the high altitude (7,000ft) and summer heat can exacerbate this (although the heat is dry and it is much cooler at night). The daily programme of visits is not intended to be taxing but a good level of fitness is required to cope with the itinerary. Daytime temperatures average 28ºC (82 ºF); evening temperatures 12ºC (54ºF). Average distance by coach each day: 33 miles.

Opera tickets. These are confirmed in January 2014. The cost of a ticket for ‘Dr Sun Yat-sen’ is £130.

Upgrades: we can request flight upgrades; prices subject to availability.

Small group: between 12 and 22 participants.

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Historic Dutch OrgansThree centuries of outstanding instruments

This tour is an organ-lover’s paradise. Fifteen instruments (give or take: a chamber organ might be added, a funeral might take away another) are seen and heard and explained. A leading specialist in performance on early instruments, James Johnstsone, who studied in the Netherlands, leads the tour, and a number of Dutch organists contribute as well. Participants hear the styles and capabilities of three hundred years of musical enterprise and ambition, and are exposed to various regional and personal styles of organ building.

The instruments are located in mediaeval churches which are mostly voluminous, often architecturally very fine indeed and are all distinctly Dutch in a way that is familiar from the paintings of Saenredam and De Witte. The characteristic chasteness of decoration, however, ceases with the glorious burst of sculpture and architectonic joinery of the organ cases covering the west wall.

The little cities, towns and villages in which the churches are located are, at the very least, charming, and often much more. The tour deliberately omits Amsterdam, which is hectic and metropolitan by comparison. Dating in large part from the period of greatest prosperity, with characteristic gabled brick buildings alongside the ubiquitous canals, their descent into backwater status until relatively recently preserved them wonderfully. Striking is the absence of unsightly industrial or high-rise suburbs. Countryside is properly rural, despite the high density of population, and intensely alluring despite the lack of elevation.

ItineraryDay 1: Leiden. Fly at c. 11.00am from London Gatwick to Amsterdam Schipol. Drive to Leiden, one of the best preserved and most appealing old cities in Holland (and Rembrandt’s birthplace). The vast Gothic Pieterskerk has a Hagerbeer organ of 1643, enormous for its date and fulsome in sound. Spend the first of two nights in Haarlem.

Day 2: Alkmaar, Haarlem. Morning excursion to Alkmaar in North Holland. The Grote Kerk Sint Laurens has two important organs. That of 1511 is one of the oldest functioning organs in the world, the other is another by Hagerbeer (1637). Back in Haarlem, hear the instrument in the small, architecturally classical Nieuwe Kerk. The church of St Bavo is one of the grandest in the Netherlands and retains many pre-Reformation furnishings. For a while the organ by Christian Müller (1738) was the world’s largest.

Day 3: Oosthuizen, Edam, Bolsward. The organ in the village church of Oosthuizen is an exceptional survival from the beginning of the 16th century. The former port of nearby Edam, stunted by the silting of the Zuider See, has an outsize church in which there is a 1663 organ by Barent Smidt (known as ‘Father Smith’ when he emigrated to England). Cross the 1930s causeway between North Holland and Friesland. The two-manual organ of 1781 in the Martinikerk at Bolsward, built by the great Dutch master A.A. Hinsz, is the smallest of the instruments heard on this tour. First of two nights in Groningen.

Day 4: Leens, Uithuizen, Groningen. Towards the north coast of Groningen there are two fine organs. Leens is but a village but possesses a fully-vaulted Romanesque church with a well-preserved instrument by Hinsz of 1734. The slightly larger community

Alkmaar, Market Place, engraving c. 1880.

29 June–4 July 2014 (ma 956)6 days • £2,260Principal organist: James Johnstone

Private recitals and demonstrations on fifteen outstanding historic instruments of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Performances and explanations by James Johnstone in collaboration with local organists.

Most of the organs are in magnificent Gothic churches in attractive towns and villages.

Perhaps something is lost in translation, but ‘Land of Organs’ is not the most alluring of epithets. It’s what the Dutch (or a fairly specific segment of the Dutch population) call their own country. The fact is that there is probably a greater density of top quality historic organs here than anywhere else. Moreover, in the last few decades the Dutch have probably been world leaders in the restoration of historic instruments, as well as in the building of new ones. The consequence is that there is an impressive number of sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth-century instruments which are in good working order and whose sound is probably very close to the original.

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East Neuk Festival2–6 July 2014 (ma 967)5 days • £1,680 (includes 8 concert tickets)Lecturer: Dr Michael Downes

A full programme of concerts with world-class musicians in intimate venues. Artists include the Belcea Quartet, the Elias Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Allan Clayton, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Kristian Bezuidenhout, the Gould Piano Trio and Llyr Williams.

Stay throughout at the Fairmont St Andrews.

Daily talks by musicologist and local resident Dr Michael Downes.

Cross the Forth by one of the mighty bridges into the Kingdom of Fife and you immediately sense why this landscape has a strong local identity; almost surrounded by water on three sides, sea-faring trade flourished in the mediaeval period up until the eighteenth century, when fishing became a more reliable source of employment. The ports of the East Neuk prospered through trade links with the Netherlands and the Hanseatic Baltic ports. One of these harbour villages – Crail, home to our most frequented concert venue – was recognised as a royal burgh as early as the twelfth century, giving it a degree of political and economic autonomy.

Degrees of a different kind also mark Fife out from other Scottish counties: St Andrews is the seat of the third oldest university in the English-speaking world, which dates back to 1413. The handsome, Gothic-style college architecture is on a smaller scale than its English counterparts, but nonetheless ensures there is plenty to admire in the city. Mediaeval pilgrims flocked to the shrine of St Andrews, first housed in the eleventh-century St Rule’s church (of which the soaring tower and chancel remains) until it was replaced by the larger scale cathedral on an adjacent site. Only the east and west ends and the south wall remain of this magnificent building, but there is still much to enjoy, including a spectacular view of the city and St Andrew’s Bay from the top of St Rule’s tower.

And so to the music. The best music festivals know the value of combining special places with strong programmes, giving listeners a chance to recharge away from the big metropolitan centres. Yet few manage it with such originality as the East Neuk Festival. Since 2004 a handful of small, picturesque towns have hosted this week-long chamber music festival that combines a pithy sense of locale with international standards – giving East Neuk true festival status.

ItineraryDay 1. Edinburgh, St Andrews, Crail. The coach leaves Edinburgh Airport at 1.30pm and Edinburgh Waverley Station at 2.30pm. An early dinner in the hotel before the evening concert in the Parish Church of Crail. The aisles and tower date to the 13th century, with the spire a 16th-century addition and 16th- and 17th-century family vaults in the churchyard. The Belcea Quartet and Elias String Quartet: Brahms, Sextet No.2 in G, Op.36, Strauss, Metamorphosen.

Day 2. Kilrenny, Pittenweem, St Monans, Cupar. After a morning lecture, drive to Kilrenny Parish Church for a morning concert. The Elias String Quartet with Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola): programme to include Beethoven, String Quintet in C, Op.29. Spend some time in the pretty fishing village of Pittenweem before an afternoon concert in St Monans Parish Church, which sits on the clifftop overlooking the sea and retains many of its mediaeval features. Kristian Bezuidenhout & Ensemble: Mozart, Piano Quintet in E Flat, K.452. Return to the hotel for free time before dinner at Michelin-starred The Peat Inn. The restaurant offers superb food using local and seasonal ingredients.

Day 3. Crail, St Andrews, Cambo. A morning lecture followed by a return to the Parish Church of Crail. Quatuor Ébène: Mozart, Quartet in E Flat, No.16, Ravel, Quartet in F. Some free time in St Andrews before a short walking tour. Drive to Cambo Barn. Evening concert: Allan Clayton (tenor) Clemens Schuldt (conductor), Scottish Chamber Orchestra: James MacMillan, Í (A Meditation on Iona), John Luther Adams, ‘...and bells remembered....’, Britten, ‘Les Illuminations’, Sibelius, Symphony No.7 in C, Op.105.

of Uithuizen has an organ of 1700 by Arp Schnitger from Hamburg, one of the most influential and productive of organ builders. Free afternoon in Groningen. Evening recital in the Martinikerk on a magnificent Schnitger instrument of 1692, modified by his son Frans Casper and the young Hinsz forty years later.

Day 5: Kampen, Zutphen. Kampen is a delightful small town beside the River Ijssel. The very fine, and large, Gothic Bovenkerk has an outstanding organ by Hinsz of 1743. Break for lunch in the nearby Zwolle, equally historic and attractive. Zutphen has one of the loveliest and best preserved old city centres in the country. The Gothic church of St Walburga has one of the three remaining chained libraries in Europe and a organ by Heinrich Bader of 1639, famous for its brilliant sound. Overnight Utrecht.

Day 6: ’s-Hertogenbosch, Gouda. The Catholic Cathedral of St John in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Brabant, is one of the finest Gothic buildings in the country. The organ is in a monumental late Renaissance case dating to 1620, though the instrument is largely that by A.G.F. Heyneman of 1787. The pretty town of Gouda has the largest square in the country, a town hall of c. 1450 and outstanding 16th-cent. stained glass in Church of St John. The 1730s organ by Jacob François Moreau retains its essentially Baroque and somewhat Flemish and French sound. Fly from Schipohl, arriving London Gatwick at c. 7.00pm.

Please note: not all organ recitals are confirmed.

Lecturer & organistJames Johnstone has performed and recorded with many of the UK’s major period-instrument ensembles as well as groups in Germany, Canada, Italy and Holland. He has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink. He is Professor of Early Keyboards at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.

Practicalities – in briefPrice: £2,260 (deposit £250). Single supplement £270. Without flights: £2,150.Hotels: The Amarith Grand Hotel Frans Hals, Haarlem (2 nights). The Princenhof Hotel, Groningen (2 nights). Hotel Karel V, Utrecht (1 night).Group size: between 18 and 32 participants.For fuller practicalities, please contact us, or visit www.martinrandall.com.

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Day 4. Crail. Spend most of the day in Crail, returning to the hotel in the afternoon for a little free time. Morning concert: The Gould Piano Trio: Schubert, Trio in E Flat D929. Afternoon concert: Llyr Williams: Schubert, Impromptus D899. The Belcea Quartet: Schubert, Quartet in A Minor, D804, ‘Rosamunde’. Evening concert: Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola), Christian Zacharias (piano): Schubert, Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor, D821, Piano Sonata in B Flat, D960.

Day 5. Hopetoun, Edinburgh. A morning excursion to Hopetoun House near Edinburgh. Property of the Earl of Hopetoun, it was begun by Sir William Bruce in 1699 and added to by William Adam in 1721. It has a large collection of James Cullen furniture and an excellent art collection including works by Rubens, Raeburn and Canaletto. Lunch is included in the tearoom. The coach takes you to Edinburgh Airport by 2.10pm and Edinburgh Waverley Station by 3.15pm.

LecturerDr Michael Downes. Director of Music at the University of St Andrews and a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. He frequently lectures for organisations including the Royal Opera House. Michael is the author of a highly praised study of contemporary British composer Jonathan Harvey. He established St Andrews Opera and is musical director of the St Andrews Chorus.

PracticalitiesPrice: £1,680 (deposit £200). This includes: 8 concert tickets; accommodation; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, beer, water, coffee; private coach; admission to Hopetoun House; all tips; services of the lecturer and tour manager. Single supplement £280.

Hotel: the Fairmont St Andrews Bay is a large, American-style hotel on the edge of St Andrews. The furthest venues from the hotel are a c. 40 minute drive. Although lacking in character, it is very comfortable. There are two restaurants, a bar, gym and indoor pool.

How strenuous? The lack of hotels in the area means that there is a lot of coach travel on this tour. Most of the venues are churches so seating can be on pews and it is necessary to take an extra layer with you in case temperatures drop in the evenings. Average distance by coach per day: 53 miles.

Small group: between 12 and 22 participants.

East Neuk Festivalcontinued Nineteen-Fourteen

the origins of the First World War

14–16 November 2014 (mb 197)Prices from £360Contact us to book, or visit www.martinrandall.com.Speakers: Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Major Gordon Corrigan, Charles Emmerson, Dr Annika Mombauer, Dr Catriona Pennell, Professor Gary Sheffield. Chaired by Paul Lay.This is a residential weekend of lectures held in Canterbury Cathedral Lodge run in conjunction with the UK’s most authoritative history magazine, History Today, whose editor, Paul Lay, will chair the talks. Accommodation is offered in a range of three hotels to cater for different budgets.

Between 3.15pm on Friday and 3.15pm on Sunday, six outstanding scholars give between them twelve talks on the origins of the First World War. There are also discussion sessions and opportunities for informal interchange during refreshment breaks and lunches. Also included is a private drinks reception in the Beaney Museum followed by dinner in restaurants in the centre of the city.

Speakers, talk titlesProfessor Vernon Bogdanor CBE. Professor of Government at the Institute of Contemporary British History, King’s College, London. He has written widely on

the British Constitution and his latest title The Coalition & the Constitution was published in 2011. He is currently writing a book on British political history from 1895 to 1914. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford, an Honorary D. Litt. of the University of Kent, an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple and is a frequent contributor to television, radio and the press.

The titles of his talks will be Could and should Britain have stayed out of the War? and Did Britain draw the wrong lessons from 1914?

Major Gordon Corrigan MBE. Military historian and former officer of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. Books include studies of Wellington, the First, Second and Hundred Years Wars and Waterloo: A New History of the Battle & its Armies. He has presented a number of television documentaries and is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Universities of Birmingham and Kent.

His talks will be entitled: Myth and reality in the Great War and The Indian Army in 1914.

Charles Emmerson. London-based writer and historian. Born in Australia and growing up in London, he studied modern history in Freiburg University followed by Oxford. He then took up an Entente Cordiale scholarship to study international relations at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He has since worked in Brussels, Geneva and London, at the International Crisis Group, the World

Drawing by Muirhead Bone from The Western Front.

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Economic Forum and latterly as Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House. He has written two books, most recently 1913: The World before the Great War.

His subjects will be: From Buenos Aires to Winnipeg: the European World in 1913 and Constantinople – Jerusalem – Tehran: the cities of the Middle East on the brink.

Dr Annika Mombauer. Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at The Open University. Her research interests are in the First World War, and in particular its origins. Among her recent publications are Die Julikrise: Deutschlands Weg in den Ersten Weltkrieg, and The Origins of the First World War: diplomatic & military documents. She has traced the long debate on the causes of the war in her book The Origins of the First World War: Controversies & Consensus.

Her talks will be: The July Crisis of 1914 and The hundred year debate on the origins of the First World War.

Dr Catriona Pennell. Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter. She is a historian of 19th and 20th century British and Irish history with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the First World War and its impact on the creation of the modern Middle East. She received her doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. She has contributed to a number of academic journals and edited volumes and is the author of A Kingdom

United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain & Ireland.

Talk titles: For King and country: volunteering for the British Army and responses to the outbreak of World War One, August to December 1914 and The contradictions of war and empire: 1916 in Ireland and the Hejaz.

Professor Gary Sheffield. Professor of War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. Educated at Leeds University (BA, MA) and King’s College London (PhD) he has taught at Sandhurst and held Chairs at King’s College London and Birmingham University. His publications include Forgotten Victory: the First World War – Myths & Realities (2001), Douglas Haig & the British Army (2011), and Command & Morale: The British Army on the Western Front (2013). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, President of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides, and a Vice-President of the Western Front Association.

His talks: The spirit of 1914 revisited: how the home fronts endured and From mobility to deadlock: The armies on the Western Front, 1914.’

Chair: Paul Lay. Editor of History Today and formerly a founder of BBC History Magazine, obituaries editor at the Guardian, desk editor at the Telegraph and editor of BBC classical music publications. He sits on the advisory boards of the Institute of Historical Research and the History and Policy unit at King’s College London and is principal host of the annual London History Festival. He is author of History Today & Tomorrow (2012).

Packages, pricesThere are three packages to choose from, with prices varying according to the hotel. All prices shown here are per person.

A. Economy. Premier Inn, Canterbury City Centre. Opened in December 2013, this low-cost hotel with restaurant and bar is a fifteen-minute walk along a busy main road to the conference centre. Bedrooms are unembellished but comfortable (twins are made of one double bed and a sofa bed) and all bathrooms have a bath with a shower. There is a lift to all floors, but no parking at the hotel.

Double or twin room (two sharing): £360

Double room for single occupancy: £420

Deposit to confirm booking £100. Includes: room and breakfast for two nights • admission to all talks and discussion sessions • refreshments at the conference and two

buffet lunches (Saturday and Sunday) • drinks reception and Saturday dinner.

B. Comfortable. Canterbury Cathedral Lodge. Located inside the Cathedral walls, the Lodge began life as a study centre in 1998 but has since been converted into 4-star conference facilities and is where all the lectures take place. A huddle of many-sided buildings around a courtyard, its interior is contemporary in design. The hotel is decorated simply, but comfortably. Rooms vary in size, and all have showers (none has a bath). Service is very friendly and helpful.

There is a small number of rooms in the Lodge’s ‘value’ accommodation – these rooms are only accessible via two flights of stairs, and do not have views of the Cathedral. All other rooms (including singles) do have Cathedral views, and are accessible by lift.

Standard double or twin (two sharing): £530

‘Value’ double room for single occupancy: £530

Single room (with single bed): £620

Double room for single occupancy: £640

Deposit to confirm booking £150. Includes: room and breakfast for two nights • admission to all talks and discussion sessions • refreshments at the conference and two buffet lunches (Saturday and Sunday) • drinks reception and Saturday dinner.

C. Superior. The Abode Canterbury. Part of a chain of luxury hotels, the Abode is located on the pedestrianised High Street, about a 5-minute walk from the Cathedral. Furnishings and décor are contemporary in style and of a high standard. The original building was constructed in the 12th century. Service is professional and friendly. The hotel has its own restaurant. There is a lift to all floors. Rooms facing onto the High Street, while they have better views, can suffer from noise at night.

Standard double or twin (two sharing): £570

Superior double or twin (two sharing): £610

Deluxe double (two sharing, twin not possible): £640

Junior suite (two sharing, no twins): £680

Double room for single occupancy: £690

Deposit to confirm booking £200. Includes: room and breakfast for two nights • admission to all talks and discussion sessions • refreshments at the conference and two buffet lunches (Saturday and Sunday) • drinks reception and Saturday dinner.

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Mediaeval Middle EnglandLeicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire

23–27 June 2014 (ma 950)5 days • £1,260Lecturer: John McNeill

A balanced survey of the outstanding mediaeval monuments of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough.

Beautiful drives through understated verdant landscapes.

Stay in one hotel throughout.

The East Midlands boasts some of the finest mediaeval ecclesiastical architecture in England. The region largely corresponds to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which converted to Christianity during the seventh century and had already established a widespread network of churches and monasteries by the eighth century.

Though the rich, agricultural territory remained disputed between the Saxons and the Danes until the Normans finally brought stability, those looking to explore its pre- and post-Conquest heritage will be delighted to find outstanding examples of Saxon, Norman and Gothic architecture.

Two of the most impressive buildings the tour visits are Peterborough Cathedral and Southwell Minster. Peterborough, one of the five great mediaeval abbey churches, is the

least altered of England’s Norman cathedrals, with a nave that retains the original 13th-century painted wooden roof – one of only four in Europe. Southwell Minster, with its distinctive pepper-pot spires, is another exceptional example of the Norman and Early English styles.

The area is notable, too, for its fine mediaeval parish churches and amongst the highlights of the visit are: All Saints’ Brixworth, England’s largest and best preserved Saxon church; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Northampton, built shortly after the First Crusade and inspired by the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; and the 14th-century St Mary Magdalen, Newark upon Trent, with its remarkable panel painting from the Dance of the Death.

ItineraryDay 1: Peterborough, Barnack. The coach leaves Peterborough Railway Station at 2.00pm for the short drive to Peterborough Cathedral, proud possessor of the most ambitious mediaeval painted ceiling to survive in England, as well as a majestic Romanesque nave, fan-vaulted east end and astonishingly inventive west front. A brief visit to the important early Gothic parish church of Barnack. First of four nights in Rutland.

Day 2: Southwell, Hawton, Newark, Holme. A day devoted to Nottinghamshire, beginning with Southwell Minster, the pre-eminent mediaeval church of the county and a building justly celebrated for the exquisite naturalistic foliage of its chapter-house. Thence to the breathtaking early-14th-century chancel at Hawton. Visit Newark-on-Trent, whose mid-12th-century castle and new river crossing sowed the seeds of prosperity for the town, which led to the rebuilding of St Mary Magdalen as one of the finest of all English late mediaeval parish churches. Cross the Trent to the tiny jewel-like church in Holme.

Day 3: Brixworth, Northampton, Earls Barton, Higham Ferrers, Geddington. A perfect opportunity to slip south into Northamptonshire. First to the great Anglo-Saxon minster church at Brixworth, and on to a wonderful pair of Romanesque churches: lavishly sculpted St Peter and the centrally-planned Holy Sepulchre, in Northampton. Drive to Earl’s Barton, the town beautifully punctuated by its late Anglo-Saxon tower, before continuing to Edmund Crouchback’s stunning church at Higham Ferrers and the most delicate of the surviving Eleanor Crosses at Geddington.

Day 4: Melton Mowbray, Gaddesby, Oakham, Castor, Fotheringhay. A day of local horizons, starting with the majestic late mediaeval town church at Melton Mowbray, and maturing via Decorated Gaddesby, late-12th-century Oakham Castle, Romanesque Castor and the sometime Yorkist mausoleum at Fotheringhay.

Day 5: Tickencote, Stamford. Drive along the northern shore of Rutland water to the enchanting Romanesque parish church at Tickencote. In Stamford visit the important late mediaeval chantry foundation known as Browne’s Hospital and the superb late mediaeval stained glass at St Martin. Return to Peterborough Railway Station by 2.30pm.

LecturerJohn McNeill. Specialist in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with degrees in art history from the University of East Anglia and the Courtauld. He lectures at Birkbeck College’s Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck College and Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education. He is Honorary Secretary of the British Archaeological Association and author of the Blue Guide: Normandy and Blue Guide: Loire Valley. Has edited collections of essays on mediaeval Anjou, King’s Lynn and the Fens and the mediaeval cloister.

PracticalitiesPrice: £1,260 (deposit £150). This includes: travel by private coach; accommodation; breakfasts and all dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; the services of the lecturer. Single supplement £110.

Hotel: Barnsdale Lodge Hotel is housed in an extended old farmhouse close to Rutland Water. Public rooms and bedrooms (which vary in size and outlook) are arranged around a courtyard and have a traditional, country décor. There is a restaurant and lounge; service is friendly. There is no lift.

How strenuous? This tour involves quite a lot of getting on and off coaches and standing around and should not be attempted by anyone who has walking difficulties. Average distance by coach per day: 61 miles.

Small group: between 12 and 22 participants.

Illustration: the tower of Earl’s Barton Church, engraving c. 1840.

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Urbino, engraving c. 1880.

The Duchy of UrbinoThe Renaissance in the Marches

7–13 June 2014 (ma 924)7 days • £2,110Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

Trawls through the little-visited hills, valleys and coast of the Marches.

There are a few masterpieces, but the attraction of the tour is more a matter of the rare, the unspoilt and the landscape.

By inheritance lord of a marginal patch of mountainous territory, by profession a mercenary soldier, by scale of expenditure the most important Maecenas of his day: Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, was one of the most fascinating and influential characters of Renaissance Italy.

His palace at Urbino is the finest Early Renaissance courtly residence in existence, a sequence of interiors of serene beauty. He was also the paymaster for many other buildings, civil and military, throughout the duchy. Even more important for the subsequent history of civilization than the architecture was what took place within these buildings, for his court attracted humanists, artists and young noblemen from all over Italy and beyond. Two examples: Raphael spent his first twelve years here (his father was court painter), and for centuries the manners and demeanour in the upper echelons of European society were under the influence of Urbino court life as described by Baldassare Castiglione in The Courtier.

The Duchy of Urbino is located in the north of Le Marche, the Italian Marches, the name deriving from its tenth-century status as the borderlands between the Ottonian empire to the north and the papal lands to the south. Remoteness from the centre led to the emergence of local warlords, territorial fragmentation and de facto independence. The Buonconte dynasty had controlled Montefeltro for two hundred years before Federico II succeeded in 1444 at the age of 22. During his 38-year tenure he expanded his domains at the expense of his Malatesta and Sforza neighbours, but the source of his fortune was his generalship of the armies of the great powers of Italy, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples, switching sides without scruple, and accepting tribute from lesser powers just to stay away. He was made a duke by the pope in 1474.

His son Guidobaldo and his Delle Rovere successors continued artistic patronage though on a much reduced scale. Stagnation set in after the duchy reverted to the Church in 1631.

One recurrent feature of this tour is military architecture, castles and city walls of huge variety and sometimes extraordinary beauty. There are also many fine paintings, in galleries and original settings. There are world-class items, but for the most part the pleasures of this tour arise from the lesser treasures in remote and unspoilt communities in a kaleidoscope of breathtaking scenery.

ItineraryDay 1: San Leo. Fly at c. 8.45am from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive along the Via Emilia and turn into the hills marking the northern border of the Duchy of Urbino and constituting the Montefeltro heart lands, guarded by the famously impregnable castle of San Leo. Introductory walk including the marvellously unspoilt Romanesque church and, atop a limestone cliff, one of the most dramatically sited castles in all Europe. Overnight San Leo.

Day 2: Sassocorvaro, Urbino. Mountain drives lead to the castle of Sassocorvaro and another staggeringly beautiful hill road climbs to Urbino, Duke Federigo’s principal residence. A walk takes in the outstanding International Gothic frescoes by the Salimbeni brothers, cathedral and Diocesan Museum. First of five nights in Urbino.

Day 3: Mondavio, Senigallia, Fano. Two of the most extraordinary and beautiful examples of Renaissance fortifications are seen today: the multi-faceted brick castle at Mondavio and, in the coastal town of Senigallia, the sedate quadrangular fort and palace within. Also in Senigallia are a Neo-classical market place and arcaded waterfront. In Fano see an altarpiece by Perugino.

Day 4: Sant’Angelo in Vado, Mercatello sul Metauro, Urbania. Drop down to the Metauro river and follow the valley to the foothills of the Apennines. The small towns of Mercatello sul Metauro and Sant’Angelo in Vado retain well preserved mediaeval and Renaissance centres. Urbania is a charming town with a fortified palace built for Federico and modified for the last Duke of Urbino.

Day 5: Urbino. Examine the interior of the finest Renaissance palace in Italy, built over half a century from the 1450s for the dukes of Urbino, with its arcaded courtyards, serene halls of state, beautifully carved ornament and exquisite study. The art collection includes paintings by Piero della Francesca, Raphael and Titian.

Day 6: Gubbio is one of the most beautiful

hill towns in Umbria, with a hillside piazza overlooking the lower town, formidable mediaeval palaces and the Ducal Palace, best-preserved of Federigo da Montefeltro’s residences outside Urbino.

Day 7: Pesaro. A prosperous port and centre of ceramic production, Pesaro was won successively by the Malatesta, Sforza and Delle Rovere dynasties before returning to papal rule in 1631. The art gallery contains Bellini’s great Coronation of the Virgin. Fly from Bologna, arriving Heathrow c. 8.00pm.

LecturerSee page 26 for Dr Luca Leoncini’s biography.

Practicalities – in briefPrice: £2,110 (deposit £200). Single supplement £230 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £1,940.

Hotels: San Leo (1 night): Hotel Castello. Urbino (5 nights): Hotel San Domenico.

Small group: between 10 and 20 participants.

For fuller practicalities, please contact us or visit www.martinrandall.com.

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Tours to the USA in 2015Please contact us to register your interest now

Cliff Dwellings & CanyonsArchaeology & anthropology in the American South West

Frank Lloyd Wright& The Chicago School

Art in TexasOutstanding collections in city & desert

4–15 November 2015 (mc 520)11 nightsLecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

World class collections of art and sculpture, public and private, housed in exceptional buildings.

Big names include the Kimbell in Fort Worth, Menil in Houston, Blanton in Austin, McNay in San Antonio, Fine Arts in Dallas and Houston, and Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation.

The range is considerable from Renaissance to contemporary, European and American, with emphasis on the modern.

The variety continues in city and landscape: big brother Houston, leafy and lush; to tiny Marfa, way out west in the desert; alongside the Rio Grande to prettified San Antonio; to end in Dallas, the home of hospitality and a terrific arts scene.

Led by art historian, Gijs van Hensbergen, an expert on American collections and collectors.

10–21 October 2015 (mc 480) 11 nightsLecturer: John Fritz

Track a civilization spanning hundreds of miles and over a thousand years in the Four Corners area where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet.

A highlight of the tour are the pueblos and cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans from c. 850 ad to the early 14th century, particularly at Mesa Verde National Park. Built remotely and high up in the cliffs, it defies belief that people were able to build their homes so high up and remotely and with no modern technology.

A secondary theme of this tour is the vast and incredible landscape. Gaping canyons, immense cliffs, buttes and mesas formed by ice, water and wind over millions of years. Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park provide spectacular lookouts.

Begin with the state of the art Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City. Built in the foothills of the Wasatch mountain range in 2011, it is clad in copper from nearby mines.

It provides an excellent context for the many periods and tribes that have populated the Four Corners area.

Visit the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Colorado to understand first hand how discoveries are still being made and processed.

A day is spent on the San Juan river to see the Butler Wash Panel – a large rock with many petroglyphs, only accessible by boat.

Stay in a lodge overlooking Monument Valley, famous for its distinctive red sandstone buttes featured in many Westerns. The park is owned and managed by the Navajo Nation.

The tour has six hotels, from the Arizona Biltmore, a hotel built under supervision of Frank Lloyd Wright, to Red Cliffs Lodge with views down the Colorado river. Straters Hotel in Durango is reminiscent of early 19th-century America in a charming, if slightly twee, way.

Led by John Fritz, archaeologist and anthropologist, specialising in the American South West.

30 May–10 June 2015 (mb 345)11 nightsLecturer: Tom Abbott

Includes Fallingwater, Jacobs, Robie and Taliesin houses, Johnson Wax Building and numerous other works by Frank Lloyd Wright – many of them visited by special arrangement.

Four nights in Chicago, with visits to the masterworks of the Chicago School and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House.

Magnificent art collections: Chicago Institute of Art, Carnegie Collection in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee Art Museum.

Drive through the countryside of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois.

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East Coast GalleriesFrom Boston to Washington DC

New England Modern8–17 October 2015 (mc 478) 9 nightsLecturer: Dr Harry Charrington

The making of modern America set against the colour of the New England Fall.

The tour tracks pioneering architecture from the early settlers to the present day with a focus on the extraordinary achievements of the mid- 20th century.

Spare timber elegance – from colonial towns and Shaker villages to Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond and Gropius’ family home – gives way to the refined brickwork of Federal Boston and the arcadia of Harvard and Yale, and, later, the sinuous form of Aalto’s Baker House and Kahn’s monumental Exeter library.

Private houses include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Zimmerman House in New Hampshire, Josep Lluís Sert’s Harvard home, Philip Johnson’s Glass House at New Canaan as well as other special arrangements.

Visit two of America’s defining public buildings, H.H. Richardson’s Trinity Church and McKim Mead & White’s Boston Public Library, as well as some of the country’s greatest art collections and buildings: Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery and Center for British Art; Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Fogg Museum (re-opening 2014) remodelled respectively by Foster and Piano.

Other highlights include Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center at Harvard, SOM’s Beinecke Library and Hopkins’ Kroon Hall at Yale, as well as the delightful 1930s Frelinghuysen studio in the russet hills of Lenox.

We stay in Boston, Stockbridge and New Haven, and travel through landscapes varying from the Atlantic coast and Long Island Sound to the great river valleys and the rolling Berkshire Hills.

Led by Dr Harry Charrington, an expert on Modernism and Principal Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Westminster.

29 April–12 May 2015 (mb 303)13 nightsLecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Every major art gallery from New England to Washington DC, providing an astonishingly rich artistic experience.

The whole range of western art is covered, classical antiquity to contemporary, and some eastern art.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are spectacularly well represented.

Includes the Barnes Foundation in its new home in central Philadelphia and the Mellon Center for British Art in New Haven.

Centrally located hotels in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

Any art lover who has not seen the great galleries of the USA is in for a big surprise. Not only are there so many art museums with so many masterpieces, splendidly displayed in buildings which are often great works of architecture, but usually they are also vital, welcoming institutions where the delight of the visitor is the main priority.

This tour includes every major art gallery from New England down to Washington DC. Many of the very good smaller ones are also featured. The whole range of mainstream western art is represented, from antiquity to the present day. If there is a particular emphasis, it is on the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists. The art of the Orient also makes several spectacular appearances, and of course there is a continual current of American art and frequent doses of modern and contemporary production.

However full and comprehensive the tour may be in terms of works of art, we have not omitted the opportunity to see something of America beyond the museum doors. There will be some general sightseeing, sometimes with a local expert, and free time for independent exploration. Most of the hotels we have selected are within walking distance of the main museums and historic centres. This tour undoubtedly provides one of the most varied and richly satisfying aesthetic experiences the world has to offer.

Full details of all our tours to the USA will be published in July. Please register your interest now in order to receive details as soon as they are ready.

Mid-town New York, after a watercolour 1929.

Left: Engraving 1891 after a painting by Frederick Remington (1861–1909).

Far left: Fallingwater, photograph courtesy of Western Pensylvania Conservancy.

M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R A V E L L A S T S P A C E S R E M A I N I N G

Australia: telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand: telephone 0800 877 622anz@martinrandall.com.au

Canada: telephone 647 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.caUSA: telephone 1 800 988 6168

Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London, UK, W4 4GFTelephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 7766info@martinrandall.co.uk

ABTA No.Y6050 5085

M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R A V E L

www.martinrandall.com

Last spaces remaining: May–July 2014

Please contact us for full details, or visit www.martinrandall.com

Eastern Andalucía: Caliphs to Kings, 2–11 May 2014 with Gijs van Hensbergen (ma 881). Two spaces remaining.

London’s Great Railway Termini, 6 May 2014 (la 902) with Professor Gavin Stamp (see page 16).

Sculpture in London, 8 May 2014 (la 889) with David Mitchinson.

Flanders Fields, 9–12 May 2014 (ma 887) with Andrew Spooner.

Eastern Turkey, 10–25 May 2014 (ma 890) with Rowena Loverance.

The Via Flaminia, 10–17 May 2014 (ma 891) with Professor Ian Campbell Ross.

Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana, 12–17 May 2014 (ma 892) with Helen Attlee. One space remaining.

Transoxiana, 13–23 May 2014 (ma 895) with Professor James Allan. One space remaining.

Impressionism in Paris, 13–15 May 2014 (ma 911) with Dr Frances Fowle.

El Greco 1614, 16–19 May 2014 (ma 900) with Dr Xavier Bray & Gijs van Hensbergen.

The House of Hanover, 21–27 May 2014 (ma 886) with Dr Jarl Kremeier.

Art in Madrid, 21–25 May 2014 (ma 906) with Gail Turner.

The Bergen Festival, 21–25 May 2014 (ma 908) with Professor Richard Langham Smith.

Walking the Rhine Valley, 28 May–4 June 2014 (ma 916) with Richard Wigmore. One space remaining.

The Duchy of Urbino, 7–13 June 2014 (ma 924) with Dr Luca Leoncini (see page 45).

Castile & León, 9–18 June 2014 (ma 925) with Gijs van Hensbergen.

Summer 1914, 9–14 June 2014 (ma 926) with Richard Bassett.

The Louvre at Lens, 12–15 June 2014 (ma 928) with Mary Lynn Riley.

The Veneto, 14–21 June 2014 (ma 935) with Dr Michael Douglas-Scott.

Northumbria, 18–26 June 2014 (ma 938) with Christopher Newall.

Habsburg Austria, 19–26 June 2014 (ma 939) with Dr Jarl Kremeier.

Armenia, 19–26 June 2014 (ma 937) with Alan Ogden.

Transylvania, 20–28 June 2014 (ma 940) with Bronwen Riley.

Operation Overlord, 21–25 June 2014 (ma 948) with Andrew Spooner.

Mediaeval Middle England, 23–27 June 2014 (ma 950) with John McNeill (see page 44).

Literature & Walking in the Lake District, 23–26 June 2014 (ma 953) with Dr Charles Nicholl.

Charlemagne to Charles V, 25 June–1 July 2014 (ma 955) with Jeffrey Miller. Two spaces remaining.

Historic Dutch Organs, 29 June–4 July 2014 (ma 956) with James Johnstone (see page 40).

East Neuk Festival, 2–6 July 2014 (ma 967) with Dr Michael Downes (see page 41).

French Gothic, 4–10 July 2014 (ma 963) with Dr Matthew Woodworth.

Availability correct as of 24 March 2014.

Trasimeno Music Festival, 4–12 July 2014 (ma 968) with Professor Geoffrey Norris. One space remaining.

Scotland: the Borders, 6–12 July 2014 (ma 965) with Amanda Herries.

German Gothic, 17–24 July 2014 (ma 980) with Jeffrey Miller.

Verona Opera, 17–21 July 2014 (ma 972) with Angus Haldane (see page 35).

Cold War Berlin, 27–30 July 2014 (ma 970) with Patrick Mercer mp.

Chartres Cathedral, engraving c. 1835.

The Alhambra, from The Magazine of Art 1894.