A sun-soaked coastal holiday on the Turkish Riviera

March 31, 2010 by admin
Filed under Beaches, Europe, Guest post, Leisure, Misc, Sightseeing, Turkey

My sponsored post today from Travelsupermarket.com takes us to the Turkish Riviera, encompassing a picturesque coastline, popular holiday resorts and ancient historical sites, for a relaxing holiday in the sun with something to please everyone.

The Turkish Riviera is a popular tourist destination in south-western Turkey. The region enjoys a temperate climate all through the summer, and has a number of popular tourist resorts, including Dalaman, Turgetreis and Antalya, as well as more traditional market towns such as Bodrum.

Coastline near Bodrum, Turkey

The Turkish Riviera has a vast and varied landscape – from miles of picturesque coastline to lush forests further inland. The area is served by three main airports at Dalaman, Bodrum-Milas and Antalya, which can be reached from a number of UK airports.

Indeed, many who visit the region choose to explore the region as part of their holidays in Turkey by boat, giving you the opportunity to visit a number of beautiful beaches, picturesque islands and ancient ruins along the way.

The famous Blue Cruise is one of the best ways to see some of the main sights along what is known as the Turquoise Coast, thanks largely to the clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea. There are also day trips available by boat over to the island of Rhodes, where you can shop and explore in this ancient city.

Bodrum castle in Turkey

The city of Antalya is one of the most popular destinations in the region, described by many as the ‘gateway to the Turkish Riviera’ and has a number beach resorts and one of the largest concentrations of five-star hotels anywhere in the world.

The port town of Bodrum is famous for its ancient architecture – including the ruins of the Mausoleum of Mausolos and Bodrum Castle, which overlooks the main marina – and as being base for a wide variety of excursions and water sports, including yachting and coastal cruises.

Indeed, taking a boat tour during your visit can be one of the best ways to view many of the main sights and relax on white sandy beaches along the way. Further inland there are opportunities to take tours of ancient ruins, as well as indulging in a relaxing massage at many of the Turkish baths around the region.

Marmaris in Turkey

Bodrum is a popular draw for those who are looking to experience a bustling marketplace and pick up a bargain. The town plays host to weekly markets, which range from clothing markets to food markets which allow you to sample the local produce – including freshly picked olives and a wide range of spices.

The coastal city of Marmaris has grown as a resort in recent years, with travelsupermarket.com describing it as having “evolved from the sleepy fishing village of decades ago, into a bustling cosmopolitan resort”, and remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkish Riviera.

With picturesque beaches and mountainous regions surrounding the town, giving those who like outdoor pursuits such as mountain biking and scuba diving the opportunity to explore and enjoy all that the resort has to offer.

Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia

The varied terrain means there is plenty to suit all kinds of visitors – whether you’re looking to take a walk around ancient areas such as Cappadocia or simply relax on the beach, there’s something for everyone in this vast and varied region of Turkey.

Thanks to travelsupermarket.com for their tips to help get the most from your holiday in Turkey - it must be time to start planning your summer holiday!

Photo credits: Coastline near Bodrum Turkey by bazylek100, Bodrum castle in Turkey by bazylek100, Marmaris in Turkey by Eladesor’s, Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia by Alaskan Dude on flickr.

Dark and delicious at the Malmaison Brasserie in Manchester

March 31, 2010 by admin
Filed under Eating and drinking, Leisure, Manchester, North of England, United Kingdom

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If you’re looking for a place to eat that’s chic and sophisticated with a darker side, then look no further than the Malmaison Brasserie where we ate on the Saturday night of our recent weekend in Manchester.

Malmaison Brasserie in Manchester

If our Friday night choice of the Grill on the Alley was a great place to eat with friends to start your night on the town, the Malmaison Brasserie was more of a place to linger in the sultry art deco interior before retiring for a nightcap to the cocktail bar next door.

Malmaison Bar, Manchester

In the daytime the restaurant is light and airy but in the evening the red glowing side lamps are turned low and the candles flicker on the table. It was way too dark for me to take any decent pictures of the dining area when we were there, which is why I’m showing you the press shots from the Malmaison website.

The Malmaison is also a boutique hotel set in a former cotton-spinners’ warehouse and the dusky black and red theme extends through the rooms as well as the restaurant and bar on the ground floor. The red velvet and black leather seating, displays of wine bottles on the dresser and window sills, with sinuous wrought iron screens made it an elegant and cosy setting with upmarket nightclub overtones.

The food was impressive too with a menu that was familiar enough to please most tastes yet inventive enough to bring out the foodie in you with all the plus points of using seasonal produce from local sources. I was pleased to see a reasonably priced set menu flagged as ‘homegrown and local’ with 2 courses for £15.50 and 3 courses for £17.50

Smoked Chicken salad at Malmaison Brasserie in Manchester

Bouillabaise at Malmaison Brasseire in Manchester

It’s always a good sign when the chefs are trying that little bit harder to tempt their customers back in these recessionary times. But whenever I see that ‘local produce’ label it always brings out the sneaky in me and I like to test the staff to see if they’re just paying lipservice to the buzz words - but our waitress was able to quote to me where most of the ingredients came from around the area.

Monkfish with Chorizo at Malmaison Brasserie in Manchester

White Chocolate desert at Malmaison Brasserie in Manchester

I decided to eat from this ‘Homegrown and Local’ menu to see if it was as good as it sounded and it was – I had a great salad with smoked chicken and little cubes of salty feta cheese (that well known Lancashire speciality), then a bouillabaise which never has great plate appeal but tasted deliciously garlicky with large chunks of halibut and mussels. To complete the set meal I had a white chocolate mousse which was very moreish and beautifully presented. The monkfish with chorizo, butterbeans and melting red peppers that my dearly beloved ate was also delicious, and the sort of dish you make a mental note to try and recreate next time you’re having friends round for dinner. All in all we left feeling relaxed and well-satisfied and if we lived in Manchester, this is the place we’d be returning for many more candle-lit dinners.

This article is posted as part of Wanderlust Wednesday hosted over at Wanderlust and Lipstick - head over to taste some Guava and Soursop juice and other foodie delights

Malmaison Brasserie
Piccadilly
Manchester, M1 1LZ
Tel: 0161 278 1000

We received a complimentary meal at the Malmaison Brasserie as part of our visit to Manchester sponsored by Creativetourist.com where you can find all the latest creative happenings in art, exhibitions and museums for your weekend in Manchester.

Getting to know LS Lowry at The Lowry in Manchester

March 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under Art and design, Leisure, Manchester, Museums, North of England, Sightseeing, United Kingdom

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If you take the new Metro-line tram from central Manchester out to the Salford Quays, you’ll find a regenerated waterway with smart apartment and office blocks standing where once there were factories and back-to-back housing. This was where the artist LS Lowry grew up and where we visited the latest exhibition of ‘Lowry Favourites’ , a collection of 400 Lowry pictures and drawings, at the The Lowry Arts Centre, named after Salford’s favourite son.

LS Lowry, Going to Work, 1959, The Lowry Collection, Salford

LS Lowry sketching, The Lowry Collection, Salford

Lawrence Lowry set himself apart by painting not pretty pictures but the industrial landscape that he found around him in Salford. He moved to the area as a young man after the unexpected death of his father, and the financial hardship that followed. At first he hated the area, but gradually it grew on him and he earned his living there as a clerk and rent collector, an occupation that enabled him to connect with the industrial landscape and the people who lived there.

Knowing little about LS Lowry other than his well known scenes of ‘matchstick men’ against a backdrop of factories and chimneys belching smoke, I left with a better feel of the artist who was at once a simple, unassuming man who painted what he saw before him, but also a complex character whose loneliness and frustrations come through in his art.

Portrait of Ann, 1957, LS Lowry, The Lowry Collection, Salford

This was the artist who lovingly nursed his mother until her death but could not match up to her ideal of what an artist should be. This was the man, who never married yet painted many pictures of a mysterious unidentified dark-haired girl called ‘Anne’ and who kept pictures of the pre-Raphaelite Rossetti heroines around his bedroom.

Lowry lived alone and saw himself as an observer, just recording what he saw, without judgement. And yet there must be something of the artist captured in those unemotional faces and figures, in small groups yet each individual set somewhat apart from the other. And then there are the featureless sea studies of the North Sea at that Lowry painted in later life, the tones of white and grey of an empty seascape. The exhibition showed us that his work over the years was about far more then the typical industrial scenes of the 30s and 40s, a Manchester of the past.

Lowry exhibition at the Lowry Centre, Manchester

There are the early portraits drawn from his years of part-time study and life drawing classes. The striking man with red eyes started out as a normal portrait but in a fit of frustration, Lowry transformed it into an angry red-eyed figure. After watching the short film in the exhibition, I came away with the sense of Lowry as a complex man, whose continual drawing and painting covered the working people, the factory workers of Salford and the down and outs that he saw on the street with an unflinching eye, whose life was isolated by choice, but who had no pity for himself. And yet by all accounts he had a sense of mischief, enjoying a good story, and keeping a suitcase by the front door, so he could pretend he was just going away, if any unwanted fans knocked on the door.

At Salford Quays, Manchester

The Lowry Centre, Manchester

The Lowry arts centre was built as a Millenium project on the Salford Quays area, designed by architect Michael Wilford and being made of different shapes that come together to resemble a ship when seen from a distance across the Salford Canal. When you approach it from the canalside walk from the Salford Quays metro-line stop, it is all cold steel and glass but when you enter the building it becomes full of colour. I especially loved the warm shades of red and orange and yellow in the lower corridors, which seemed a cosy contrast from the stark landscape outside.

The Lowry centre, Manchester

Interior of the Lowry, Manchester

The Lowry is a vibrant arts centre with regularly changing exhibitions, two main theatres, a studio theatre , a restaurant and terrace bar overlooking the canal and a coffee shop on the ground floor. The Lowry arts centre is family friendly, with rucksacks to borrow full of children’s activities, art trail leaflets and family talks at the weekends, and a family corner designed as an area where under 5s can play and try their hand at some drawing. The Lowry is also the guardian of the Lowry achive collection of letters, photographs and other Lowry memorabilia which can be viewed by scholars by appointment.

Once the Lowry Favourites exhibition finishes in June 2010, there will be an exhibition of Spencer Tunick, an artist best known for his installations of large groups of naked people in public settings – if you fancy standing naked on the Salford Quays as part of this project, then the gallery would love to hear from you.

The Lowry Favourites exhibition is free although a donation for the maintenance of the collection is appreciated.

The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ.

I travelled to Manchester as a guest of Creativetourist.com who are an Online Arts Magazine celebrating the cultural scene, museums and exhibitions of Manchester and provide free downloadable visitor guides on the latest creative happenings in Manchester.

Photo Credits: Photos of LS Lowry and his paintings are by permission of The Lowry, are copyright and may not be reproduced without their permission. Other photos are from Heather on her travels on Flickr