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Special Interest

Special Interest

1000 year-old flour

With stay-at-home orders in effect across the United Kingdom, bulk buyers and consumers alike have been purchasing much more flour than normal, according to the National Association of British & Irish Millers (NABIM). To help meet this spike in demand, a 1,000-year-old English flour mill has resumed commercial production for the first time in decades, reports Jason Lewis…

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Hang out in Japanese neighbourhoods

Did you know that Japan’s shrines and temples welcome regular tourists to stay for a night or more? Experience authentic Zen meditation, the traditional, vegetarian cuisine called shojin ryori, and explore a fascinating world so different from anything you know. Staying at a shrine or temple is an experience that even a lot of Japanese people don’t get to have that easily, a…

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You can be Hadrian, virtually

This long distance footpath is unique because it follows a World Heritage Site. Hadrian built the Wall to separate the Roman Empire from the barbarians. It is a complex structure with curtain wall, milecastles, turrets, ditches and forts. Walking the Path is logistically easier if the east-west route is followed. The Path that mainly follows…

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Modest mosque

Centrally located in the Iranian capital Tehran, the Vali-e-Asr Mosque’s most distinguishing aspect is the fact that it does not look like a mosque. Designed by Iranian architects Reza Daneshmir and Catherine Spiridonoff of Fluid Motion Architects, the building eschews the stereotypical typology of large domes and tall minarets in favour of a modest horizontality…

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Brasilia!

Few places in the world offer such an expansive, extraordinary composition of Modernist architecture as the Brazilian capital. Part of a handful of Modernist clusters around the world – such as, for example, Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in India – Brasilia combines the gravitas, drama and scale of the International Style with the glamour and power…

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Stay at a traditional Japanese house

It had been a packed afternoon of exploring the charming city of Tamba Sasayama, where the vibrant energy of young businesses ran hot through the city. But it was also a relentlessly cold and rainy day. so I was already fantasizing about hot baths and steaming hot pots when we arrived at the 100-year-old traditional Japanese house.…

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A self-isolation silver lining?

Behind the unprecedented disruption of routine life by the recent Coronavirus could lie one of the most profound transformations of our lives: closer connections, greater happiness, and a healthier relationship to work. Despite the anxiety, fear, and illness that is likely to touch each of our lives, there may be a silver lining once we’re…

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Chateau bravo!

With their lofty towers, glittering ballrooms, geometric gardens and all that gilded finery, no one does castles better than France. From the Dordogne’s renaissance piles flanked by dusty olive groves and pretty hilltop villages to the turret-studded landscape of the Loire Valley, French châteaux are a brilliant display of the country’s rich architectural and cultural…

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Let’s rock!

Rock art, that is paintings and carvings on natural rock formations, is one of the earliest forms of creative expression and a universal phenomenon among prehistoric societies, in this case, Indian. An instrument of communication rather than simply art, it is an assemblage of material culture which provides a glimpse into the lives of people…

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