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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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Luxury in Cartagena

Colombia’s most famous writer, the inimitable Gabriel García Márquez, once said in a press interview that he could never have written his books if he had not been a journalist – because all of his material was extracted from reality. Wandering between the pastel-coloured colonial structures of Cartagena’s labyrinthine cobbled streets, one could be forgiven…

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The Blonde Hedgehog

You’ll almost certainly be familiar with the Channel Island’s main settlements, Jersey and Guernsey, part of the UK. They’re famous for their handsome cattle and the unctuous, buttercup coloured milk they produce. But there are three others – Sark, Herm, and Alderney. While the first two are trickier for tourists, Alderney is a precious, hidden…

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‘Leave No Trace’

The seven “Leave No Trace” (LNT) principles were formed by the Leave No Trace organization as a set of guidelines meant to educate campers and protect the environment. One of the tenets of outdoor recreation—camping, specifically—is the idea of enjoying the natural world while minimizing impact as much as possible. For future generations to be able to…

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If you’re close to Osaka . . .

....Okayama is a must-see sightseeing area tourists often miss. Okayama is lies on the Shinkansen route connecting the two iconic tourist centers of Osaka and Hiroshima that are popular among many tourists to Japan. Its accessibility is yet another part of its appeal. For travelers wanting to explore historic spots, experience cultural activities, soak up…

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Lake Como? Affordable?

Italy’s most famous lake has appealed to second-home owners for hundreds of years, reports Liz Rowlinson. But where can you bag a bargain? Its deep, mirror-like waters beneath dramatic mountains, the tropical gardens flourishing in the balmy microclimate, have beguiled artists, writers and royals for centuries and, in recent years, Arab princes, wealthy footballers, Hollywood…

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Unencumbered Umbria

The gentler, less gilded neighbour of Tuscany, Umbria enjoys a lower profile and seems less troubled by tourism. The “green heart of Italy” doesn’t have an endless stream of visitors plying between their checklist of big-drawer Tuscan Renaissance cities, just miles of undulating hills carpeted in sunflowers, tobacco or untamed bosco (woodland). Read more courtesy…

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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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