I haven’t posted in a while. Wedded to the new job and all that.
What has spurred me to get back to writing? I suppose you could say altitude has!
I’m writing this to you from seat 8A on SAS flight SK526, heading to Stockholm where I will change planes and continue on to Hong Kong and Japan.
Having never visited these mighty destinations before, I’m excited for what the next 18 days have in store.
Daytime flights in the sunshine are without doubt the best way to fly, and I could be forgiven for wanting only to spend the flight gazing out of the window.
However, like everyone else with a smart phone (that would be 1.91 billion of us), I’m on it far too much and it would be inconceivable on a flight to let it run out of battery and not use it for music, browsing apps or even writing lists to pass the time (it’s a great time waster if you haven’t tried it!)
Is that a bad thing? Should I spend more time looking away from my screen?
Perhaps.
With on board WiFi (and a window seat) I’m finding it doesn’t have to be one or the other.
So far we’ve flown over a patchwork pattern of Greater London towns, yachts frolicking in the sunny sea, wind farms, mere specks in the distance, and perhaps even orderly oil rigs. And now a glut of coastlines, sandy beaches and puzzle piece archipelago islands. Glorious!
Not only am I enjoying seeing it all with my own eyes, I get to share the view with others too. The best of both worlds, you could say.
So wherever you are and whatever device you’re reading this on, happy travels from up high!
Have you heard of Primera Air? No? Neither had I, until I looked up flights to New York on Black Friday last year.
Lured by the £325 price tag but unsure of their pedigree, I found an article written by Simon Calder about their air fares being cheaper than WOW Air, despite claims by the latter of £99 flights each way. If they were recommended by an esteemed travel writer, that was validation enough – I booked flights for a May trip to New York, my first time in the city.
Let me say first, it was a good experience. Plenty to work on to truly compete with Norwegian and the heavyweight carriers, but for what I paid, I was happy.
One thing that stood out was that the flight out to Newark wasn’t actually really Primera at all. The flight was in a slightly noisy old Boeing 757 plane and run by National Airlines – whose crew was one of the friendliest I’ve ever met it must be said!
It was obvious that Primera Air’s new planes hadn’t materialised yet, but they had made the crossing work. If I’d been stuck in the UK without a flight, that would have been a different experience altogether.
The reason? A ‘delay of aircraft delivery from the manufacturer’. It would seem, then, that the only plane or planes they do have are sustaining the New York route.
If you’re tempted to try out the great value London – New York route, here’s my super quick low down:
Who are Primera Air?
As they say on their website:
‘Ever since starting out in 2003 as a charter provider, we’ve strived towards one thing – excellent air travel services. Our constant attention to detail, innovative spirit and lookout for improvement’ etc etc.
What they don’t say is that they’re owned by an Icelandic company and started out as JetX. They operate out of Scandinavia mostly, as well as Latvia, where they have an operating licence. Toronto appears to be on ice at the moment, but they’ve also launched routes to Boston and Washington DC, competing with Norwegian, and WOW.
The price You can’t really fault it – I paid £334. That’s with all fees included and a £50 upgrade each way to choose my seat, have a hot meal and throw my luggage in the hold. If I’d chosen to bring my own food and brought only a cabin bag, it would have cost me £234.
Booking and online communications The actual booking of the flights was pretty standard, albeit I couldn’t choose a meal apart from beef so I had to sort that out with a chat bot before I flew (modern life, eh).
Online communications were pretty spartan, in my first email confirmation for example it didn’t tell me which terminal I’d be flying into, only where I’d fly out from. I googled it, fine, but the whole point of a confirmation is to confirm all the details. Emailing out an FAQ might have been handy.
As I neared 27th April, emails increased, so I’m assuming they hired some more people!
Customer service The credit here for the great customer service doesn’t really go to Primera Air but to Swiss Air who pretty much ran their check in desk (helping hyperventilating passengers who hadn’t got their ESTAs) and to the National Airlines crew on the way out.
The crew are normally based in Florida and you could tell by their effervescent, faultless, sunny dispositions. Anyone who has ever been served by Tom from National Airlines will know how great Tom is. Case in point: I asked for a herbal tea with my meal which they didn’t have, so he got me a freebie he’d picked up at a hotel!
Coming back we were in an actual Primera Air plane with a Primera Air crew. They were nice, though dinner was served crazy late. With plenty of people asleep, I could have had almost the whole bread basket if I’d wanted.
Inflight entertainment – make your own I was one of those people who didn’t organise myself well enough on the way out, and I hadn’t downloaded anything to watch. Why would you need to? Well, unlike Norwegian, Primera doesn’t offer inflight entertainment. Coming back I was much better prepared. I highly recommend Bobby Kennedy for President on Netflix.
The £50 upgrade – is it worth it? I love plane food, I make no apologies for it, so that was enough to tempt me to upgrade. And the small matter of a giant four wheeled chambray purple hold case I wanted to try out…and choosing my own seat felt like a real luxury. I’m sick of Ryanair’s terrible ‘random middle seat for any single passenger’ routine, and it was nice to have an aisle seat for once.
In terms of whether to upgrade, I would say let it be dictated by whether you need extra luggage. Paying for more luggage at the airport is eyewateringly expensive, as I overheard in Newark.
Flight route and flight times
I don’t know what all the fuss is about Heathrow, I actually rank Stansted as my favourite, followed by Gatwick. Great, then, that Primera fly from Stansted and land at New York’s Newark airport. It’s comparable to Stansted as you can get a train to Penn Station which only takes around 35 mins including the initial shuttle train.
How long in the air? Outward it was about 8 hours, longer than expected because of headwinds. But coming back it was 5 hours 55, which more than made up for the outward time.
You leave Stansted at 5.55pm (arrive 9.20pm all being well) and you depart Newark at 10.50pm (arrive 10.55am if you’re lucky!)
Overall verdict?
Unlike the Stansted – Toronto route, the Stansted to Newark route seems guaranteed to fly, so don’t be put off by the slightly rocky start! If you love Norwegian, you’ll get along just fine with Primera and save yourself plenty of spending money.
Let me know what you think if you choose Primera Air, and don’t forget to say hi to Tom if you meet him…
Update: on 1st October 2018 Primera Air ceased trading and Norwegian and others had to step in to help stranded passengers. The course of air travel never did run smooth…
I am travelling to New York for the very first time next week. The prospect of hopping across the pond on a 7 hour flight to visit friends and explore a whole new city is very exciting.
In addition to my transatlantic travels this year, I will be flying to Vienna and Stockholm for long weekends. And there’s the small matter of a big trip to Hong Kong and Japan, via Stockholm, alone racking up eight separate flights. I’m also travelling to Amsterdam (but with less carbon guilt – more on that later).
FACT: By the end of the year I’ll have travelled at least 25,126 miles by plane. To put that into perspective, the Earth’s circumference clocks in at 24,901 miles. 2018 will be the furthest I’ve ever travelled in one year of my life.
Meeting this landmark comes at a carbon cost. If you think about it, given that the fossil fuels we use are the chemicals from hundreds of millions of years’ worth of carbon-rich animal and plant remains, that’s a lot of carbon that humans are releasing into the atmosphere in a short space of time!
We have a long way to go to combat climate change and the growing impact humans have on the planet. So, where to start on a personal level? How can we do our bit and still enjoy world travel?
To find out how big your footprint actually is, there are plenty of calculators out there, but I recommend taking the WWF Environmental Footprint Questionnaire. How I compare to the UK average and to the world average is pictured above.
Knowing that mine is only going to grow in the next few months makes me even more determined to reduce the impact I have on the planet while I’m trying to explore it.
Think about your route, is that internal flight really much cheaper than a train, could you mix up what transport you use? I’m looking forward to taking the recently launched Eurostar to Amsterdam in May – we will enjoy seeing some of the countryside as we roll through, and 80% less carbon is produced compared to the alternative flight.
Japan’s train services are legendary and I’d be mad not to get a rail pass while I’m out there. Money and time always comes into it though. A bullet train now links Tokyo with Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido. However, I’m using airmiles to fly me speedily between the two regions. The return flights are costing me £3.60!
If Eurostar has made my trip to Amsterdam with them in May carbon neutral, how much would it take/ cost for me to do the same? First thing’s first though – how much CO2 would the flights be responsible for?
FACT: The CO2 emissions from all my 2018 flights weighs in at a whopping 6.26 tonnes. That’s 447kg on average per flight that I take this year*. Yikes.
This is the first time I’ve ever put a number to the amount of carbon produced to get me from A-Z on my travels. If someone dropped 447kg of plain flour all over my garden every time I flew somewhere, I’d see it and I’d want it cleaned it up!
Amazon Rainforest tree canopy at Sacha Lodge near Yasuni National Park
With all of this in mind, what can we all do to get a little closer to being carbon neutral?
Pay your way
Climatecare has a simple to use calculator for assessing the CO2 impact of flights and other activities and the money you donate to offset your travel goes towards green projects around the world, from water purification in Kenya and providing solar energy in India to fuelling efficient cooking practices in countries such as Honduras, Vietnam and Uganda.
My flight to Stockholm cost 0.43 tonnes in CO2 and the amount Climatecare suggests paying towards offsetting that is £3.22*. I will be donating every time I fly to a new destination, in turn helping someone in need around the world gain better access to a way of living that is also sustainable.
Green searches
Make those hours spent searching stuff online do some good somewhere. Search engine Ecosia uses the profit made from searches on their site to plant trees. And to date that amounts to over 26 million across the world. On average it takes about 45 searches to plant a tree. I’m working on it!
Economise
Because first class and business class seats are roomier and less people take up that space, CO2 emissions go up considerably per person. Breathe a sigh of relief as you turn right.
#Plasticfree
While the act of travelling from one country to another is carbon costly, so too of course is simply doing your weekly shop. Blue Planet has reignited the debate around the shocking environmental impact our love of plastic is having on the environment. High levels of carbon go into the production of plastic, and so choosing to go plastic free whenever you can is only going to be good for your footprint. Why zero-waste supermarkets are the new, old way to shop.
Try before you buy
The atmosfair Airline Index 2017 compares and ranks the carbon efficiency of the world’s 200 largest airlines. The rankings on their website are only in PDF form (way to go) but ThePointsGuy.com has picked them apart.
So, I’m making a promise. I’m going to search green wherever I can, support green projects whenever I can and offset my carbon use by any means possible, including paying cold hard cash. I choose green, not greenhouse.
Will you do the same?
————
*Figures an estimate based on where I’m flying to and from in 2018, using the Climatecare calculator: London Stansted – Stockholm Skavsta 0.43 tonnes / £3.22 to offset. London Stansted – New York Newark 1.53 tonnes / £11.50 to offset. London Gatwick – Vienna 0.41 tonnes / £3.10 to offset. London Heathrow – Hong Kong Intl via Stockgolm Arlanda 2.73 tonnes / £20.50 to offset. Hong Kong – Tokyo Haneda one way 0.48 tonnes / £3.59 to offset. Tokyo – Asahikawa, returning from Sapporo 0.27 tonnes / £2.03 to offset. Osaka – Hong Kong 0.41 / £3.07. A total of 6.26 tonnes. Phew.
How do you get your travel kicks when you’re not travelling?
I’ve written before about travelling and music, but my heart lies somewhere else when I’m seeking adventure on my own doorstep – with cinema!
Documentaries, films based on books, films not based on books – as long as they take me away from where I am at that very moment, the feeling of exploration and understanding is hard to beat. I like nothing more than to peruse the back streets of a village I’d never heard of just 5 minutes before.
And, recently, that was Walemba, a remote village in the Lualaba region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, featuring in French filmmaker Emmanuel Gras’s documentary Makala. The film won the Grand Prix at the Semaine de la Critique at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, deservedly so.
Walemba is home to 28 year old Kabwita Kasongo and his young family. Kabwita wants more for his family and the incredible level of toil he endures to make, transport and sell charcoal (makala means charcoal in Swahili) in the nearest city Kolwezi, is the beginning, middle and end of this understated and touching documentary.
Setting it apart from many documentaries of a similar nature, there’s no narration and no direct interaction with the subject.
At the beginning of the film you’re with him as he hacks a big tree down, heaving all the logs into place and tilling mounds of earth on top before he creates a fire inside the mound, the product of days and days of hard graft.
You’re with him as he loads all the huge bags of charcoal onto a bike and you follow him along his 50km route to Kolwezi, avoiding cars as he inches closer to the city, sleeping outdoors by night. During a short break, disaster happens and his bike is knocked over by a lorry, contents splayed everywhere.
One of the few times Kabwita isn’t directly in your gaze is on the outskirts of sprawling Kolwezi; the camera moves to a distance as he negotiates with bullies chancing on traders to give up money or charcoal in order to pass. But that doesn’t stop you wanting to race in and tell them to sod off.
There are hints at the personal struggle the family faces. Visiting his wife’s family en route, Kabwita brings with him some little shoes for one of his daughters who lives with them, out of necessity. He appears to have arrived deliberately while she’s asleep because if she sees him they’ll both cry.
Sounds as well as sights play their part. With little or no dialogue at the beginning, we hear only the thud thud of the machete as it hits the tree and as Kabwita criss-crosses out of his village, he encounters only the occasional fellow traveller.
But it gradually gets noisier as he wends his way closer to Kolwezi, the frequent dusty drive bys of cars and trucks slowing progress. The city at night is a frenzied kaleidoscope that you want to pull your eyes away from but can’t.
The selling of the charcoal presents its own thankless challenges, and having seen all the hard work undertaken to make it, haggling from the would-be buyers is unwelcome. The film ends after a rapturous, climactic night time church service Kabwita attends, uttering hopeful prayers for a better life out loud, as he only briefly delays his tiring journey back home.
Despite all that hard work, judging by the number of roof panels he cannot yet afford, it isn’t over any time soon, even if for us as viewers, it is.
Kabwita’s journey has been described by Picturehouse as Sisyphean, after King Sisyphus who was doomed for all eternity to roll a huge rock up a mountain, only for it to roll back down again.
I prefer to think of Kabwita’s efforts as being somewhere between Hercules’s labours and Odysseus’s 10 year journey – but far more backbreaking! It’s not fiction we’re dealing with after all, this is one man’s daily struggle for a better future and his story is one we can all learn a lesson from.
It’s dropped out of most UK cinemas, but if you live in Inverness you’re in luck! It’s showing from 13th April. Look out for a DVD release from Dogwoofin the near future.
I spend a lot of my time umming and ahhhring about when to book flights for trips – none more so than this year so far, planning a summer trip around Japan, via Hong Kong.
They say that the best bit about a holiday is the journey, and for me that journey truly starts when the flights are booked – you’re not going until you pay up!
Whether to stick or switch, go for it or wait is a common conundrum among travellers browsing flights, especially when sticking to a budget.
A while back Skyscanner produced some stats about the best times to fly, including a somewhat limited selection of routes. It was interesting but didn’t have enough clout.
Momondo dazzle with pie charts and bright colours and I enjoy looking at their insights but the cost of flights they quote always seems steep – they show averages which skews perceptions. I’m flying to New York for £325 return, but Momondo quotes £790 as the cheapest average flight.
I really like Kayak but they haven’t really jumped on the stats bandwagon in the same way as Skyscanner.
There are far more locations to search than there ever have been (from Amman and Auckland to Seoul and Singapore) and a brand new interactive tool helps you better see at a glance the best weeks in advance to book AND the cheapest months to fly.
It’s based on two years of data and, while a few more years would increase the accuracy, is convincing enough for me that I’m not going to wait around any more – it’s time to book my flights to Hong Kong and Japan!
Tucked away down Ramillies Street on the edge of Oxford Street, The Photographers’ Gallery is London’s best showcase for photographic talent. That is, until stiff competition arrives from Stockholm’s Fotografiska.
As shoppers jam past each other on the streets outside, a special kind of jostling takes place in this Mecca to photography, as necks crane to see what’s on display.
What’s the big deal?
The last show I went to see there was Polaroids by film director Wim Wenders. It was everything a great Photographers’ Gallery show delivers well – multiple galleries of work from a fascinating auteur, behind the scenes insight and a chance to get lost in someone else’s world. There is always something to discover, something that delights.
‘Taking polaroids was the act of making an instant memory’
The best bits?
If you go before midday any day of the week, it’s completely free and only £2/£4 any other time.
I said it’s a Mecca and I wasn’t kidding. Bring along a camera and let the work of brilliant photographers inspire you to get snappy. I ended up looking down more than I looked up:
The gallery is a destination in its own right, boasting a bustling shop with easily 100 types of film on its shelves and a Café that you can while away in.
Stockholm, like the rest of Scandinavia, is really expensive, isn’t it? Well, no, it doesn’t have to be!
Fresh from a long weekend in Stockholm, I’ve researched (eaten) some of the best food on offer in Stockholm right now, and none of it breaks the bank.
Read on for my top 5 places in Stockholm for great food at pocket money prices.
Fabulous falafel
Prepare to stuff yourself silly with the best falafel in Stockholm.
Falafelbaren offer plenty of ways to enjoy falafel, but the ultimate choice has to be the gut-busting falafel-zilla that is the ‘Double Cheese’ pita, crammed with freshly-made falafel, goat’s cheese, a thick wedge of halloumi and a moreish mix of pickles and red cabbage, hummus and saucy salad.
They also make their own delicious baklava, sold in great big squares, perfect for sharing with no-one…
How much? Double Cheese pita 85kr (£7.70), baklava 25kr (£2.50), organic juice 35kr (£3.15).
Stockholm isn’t famed for its Mexican food and, believe me, I’ve eaten my worse ever burrito there (you can keep your gross slaw, Zócalo).
But taqueria La Neta atones for the sins of others with its cool vibe and a menu of tacos and quesadillas worth guzzling in full.
There are plenty of carnivorous fillings – try the Choriqueso quesadilla – but also lots of veggie choices from frijole beans to pumpkin flowers. The freshly-made green sauce is addictive, or test your mettle with tree chilli.
How much? Five tacos for 95kr (£8.60) or mix and match from 22-52kr (£2-£4.60) per item.
Where? La Neta Barnhusgatan 2, 111 23 or Östgötagatan 12B, 116 25.
The art of Fika
A Swedish favourite pastime, particularly in the afternoon. It’s simply the act of having coffee and cake but it’s more than that in reality – it’s something Swedes make time for.
Head to Fabrique and have that kanelbulle (cinnamon bun) you know you want, or give a kardemummabullar (cardamom bun) a go.
Or, if you’re lucky enough to be in Stockholm before Easter, gorge on semla buns in Vete-Katten, a café that’s been open since the 1920s. Go for vanilla for a gorgeous bun packed with vanilla bean-flecked custard and cream.
How much? A cinnamon bun and coffee at Fabrique, 31kr (£2.80) and 44kr (£3.95) / large Semla bun at Vete-Katten, 46kr (£4.15).
Where? Fabrique has locations all over the city / Vete-Katten, Kungsgatan 55, 111 22.
Get your hotdogs!
Scandinavians love their hot dogs and, at hotdog stand Östermalms Korvarspecialist, they don’t come much better, or more varied.
There are 28 different types to try, from Polish, Alpine and vegetarian to Italian and Turkish, large, small and double.
Try the Alpenwurst – a meaty sausage with sauerkraut, salad and special sauce in a soft, toasty ‘baguette’ or a normal bun.
How much? A simple hot dog is 25kr (£2.20) or the Alpenwurst is 60kr (£5.40).
Visit Nystekt Strömming and order the fried herring burger (strömming hambugare), dressed with pickled onion, slaw, special sauce and lettuce. I’m not the world’s biggest advocate of herring but the Scandinavians swear by it, and there’s no better, cheaper place to try it for yourself, tiny bones and all.
‘We call these fenced migrant camps “jungles”, as if they are all savages, when what they are doing is trying to escape savagery’.
I wobbled, eyes stinging in an attempt to hold back tears. Though physcially I was sat down in a performance space at Imperial War Museum London, my mind was inside what I could see projected on the wall. I was standing on a jetty, looking out to Britain from Calais, joining the thousands of refugees thinking the same thing: what do I call home and what does it mean to me now?
Remembering a Future is an intimate, collaborative performance from Afghan-American artist Aman Mojadiditaking place this weekend at the museum.
Carefully challenging his audience to express what home means to them in a ‘post-9/11’ world, Aman leads them down the path of his own experiences – racism as a kid in Florida, visiting his uncle leading the battle for Jalalabad in 1990, moving to Kabul in 2003.
Blurring fact with fiction, he presents postcards of real sites of American drone strikes – some of them beautiful landscapes that he urges us we may wish to one day see – alongside objects he has created to serve a purpose. Prayer beads from a fictitious ‘Tigers of Allah’ group, mud brick, a series of child-like drawings depicting war gradually tearing a family apart.
The performance culminates in a literal ripping apart of what we identify ‘home’ to be, in order that a new home might be built, one that we can all identify with and share.
As Aman says: ‘either voluntarily or involuntarily, because they don’t have a choice, people are trying to find their place in the world…no-one’s first choice is to leave their country, leave their home…the whole notion of “home” has changed for a lot of people’.
Tickets £6 adults or £5 concessions and exhibition ticket holders. After the performances have ended, the end result is free to view from 16 February – 27 May.
Full disclosure, I work for Imperial War Museums in the Marketing team on campaigns including our current major show Age of Terror: Art since 9/11, on until 28 May.
I’d love to hear from you if you managed to make it along to meet Aman Mojadidi over the weekend, or would like to share where or what you identify ‘home’ to be.
Ski Sunday is on, there’s a new champion at Kitzbühel and the Winter Olympics are around the corner. The ski season is well under way and if you want some serious snow, now’s the time to plan your winter holiday.
Not sure where to go? Whether it’s a short break or a week long adventure you’re after, the best ski resort in Europe or you want to ski under the radar, read on for my piste picks.
And coming soon, look out for my review of Stockholm’s city slope Hammarbybacken, where I’ll be on Saturday.
Ischgl, Austria
Catch this Austrian resort on a blue sky day and nothing beats it. Ischgl is pretty damn big, with 238km of pistes, 45 cable cars and, right now, up to 170cm of snow. It’s perfect for all levels with an excellent Ski School.
Smuggler’s Run down to Samnaun in Switzerland is loads of fun with glorious scenery all the way as you cross between the countries. It was called the Duty Free Run back when I skied it as you can bring a rucksack and stock up on cheaper alcohol and gifts in the Swiss shops six days a week.
Tempted? A week’s lift pass will cost you €278.50 and BA, easyJet and Thomas Cook fly from London to Innsbruck, from £90 return.
Hlíðarfjall Akureyri, Iceland
Ski with 360° Icelandic snow views, marked only by Akureyri, the country’s second city. There are 24 ski trails, all easily toured on a day trip and the resort is at its best in the evening as snow and sky alike turn all shades of blue.
Easily the best snack wherever you are in Iceland, refuel with hot dogs to keep you going at this neat little resort.
Tempted? A day pass is 4,900 ISK (about £34) and the resort is easily reachable by car or bus from Akureyri city centre, and the drive from Reykjavik is long but stunning. Short of time? Return flights from Reykjavik start at £158.
Prices are high but it’s worth it for those wooden chalets as far as the eye can see at this French Alps resort. 3 Vallées is the biggest ski resort in the world, with over 600km of pistes and 166 lifts. Méribel turns 80 this year, so expect events and activities throughout 2018.
Tempted? A Méribel-only lift pass is €282 for seven days, so you’d be mad not to go for the 3 Vallées six day €300 pass. You can reach Méribel via Lyon or Geneva, by plane or Eurostar. Flights from £40 return and Eurostar from £45 one way.
Piani di Bobbio, Italy
Who says you can’t combine a busy city break with some skiing on the side? Piani di Bobbio is an hour outside of Milan and looks out to the jagged belt of rock that is the Lake Como mountains.
Small but perfectly formed, the resort has 17 slopes covering 35km. The resort attracts a healthy number of snowboarders and you can also try your feet at Nordic skiing and snowshoeing.
Tempted? A day pass costs €27 (or €35 during holidays) and the best way to reach the resort is by car from Milan. Flights to Milan from London are frequent, from £40.
Newsflash: Lumiere London is back. And whether you know much about it or not, if you so much as stray into King’s Cross, Piccadilly, Southbank or Mayfair, you’re bound to trip into some lights fantastic.
2018’s Lumiere London is bigger, brighter and brasher (light up candy floss, anyone?) than previous years, and it remains one of the best free activities you can enjoy all year.
It’s also only on until Sunday 21st January so you’ll need to be snappy if you want in. All those electricity bills I expect.
Tempted? Download the Visit London app to plan your route and don’t forget to wrap up warm, it’s cold work enjoying good art.
Scroll for my pick of some of the loveliest Lumiere has to offer:
Nightlife by Lantern with Jo Pocock. A menagerie of lit up animals in Leicester Square was always going to be incredibly popular, so bang goes the aim of this ‘secret garden’ to be a space for ‘quiet reflection’. It’s lovely though, and who doesn’t love lovely?AETHER by the Architecture Social Club. The forecourt of the huge Waitrose in King’s Cross has never seen so much action. A beautiful soundscape accompanies the installation. Elbow your way into the centre for the best view.The Light of the Spirit (Chapter 2) by Patrice Warrener. Back at Westminster Abbey after two years and bigger and brighter than ever, the colourful imagination of digital artist Warrener has been let loose on the Great West Gate. A must see.LAMPOUNETTE by TILT. If, like me, you once bought a Tiny Tim Booklightso you could feel like a giant next to it, well now you get to feel like a Borrower in King’s Cross! Head to King’s Boulevard for your time to shine.Harmonic Portal by Chris Plant. St James’s Church is usually viewed from just one angle, Piccadilly street. Plant’s work takes you to the walls of the churchyard on Jermyn Street.DOT by Philippe Morvan. Warm. Pulsing. Dotty. Streams of light set to a surprisingly spine-tingly soundtrack composed especially for Lumiere by composers Solomon Grey.Love Motion by Rhys Coren. As if you needed an excuse to have a gander round the Royal Academy courtyard. A delightful animated film played on on the façade of Burlington House.Child Hood by Collectif Coin. The best way to end your Lumiere tour. The sight of Trafalgar Square packed with luminous balloons, lit up at intervals to a throb of sounds.Child Hood by Collectif Coin, re-imagined as an abstract landscape by me.
Kate on her travels 
