The Silver Lining Blog

Review of Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal, Mosconi Restaurant

GB — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:43:48 +0100

FOR most Europeans, I would guess, Luxembourg features very little in our thoughts. It sits oddly, permanently in the background of our lives, a minor detail on the map of Europe as we scan for more glamorous locations in Italy, Switzerland or France. For some reason, we had a rising curiosity about the Grand Duchy in 2008, partly inspired by the search for well-regarded Michelin-starred restaurants on the continent. It turned out that Luxembourg was home to Mosconi, a two-star Italian restaurant - the only one with such status outside of Italy itself. So we packed a party of six ...

Review of La Reserve, Lake Geneva

GB — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:17:29 +0100

Getting to La Reserve is super easy from London, as long as you use the Swiss service from City Airport to Geneva. Thank Heavens for London City Airport on a Bank Holiday weekend - no Heathrow, no desperate lines at security, no long queue to get on the plane. Once you land and get through passport control (with typical Swiss efficiency), it’s only a ten minute taxi ride before you are pulling into the gates of La Reserve. As you can see from the picture above, the building isn’t going to win any architectural awards, but once you get inside, this is one luxurious resort.

Sunset at the Miraflores Park Hotel, Lima

GB — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:09:35 +0000

Miraflores is one of the wealthiest parts of Lima, and home to most of its best hotels. It sits on the cliffs high above the coast, and has very pretty gardens which run along the front.

Review of Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu

GB — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:43:00 +0000

The defining feature of Machu Picchu is mystery. Even though the buildings are bare and decaying, there is still the sense that the place has just been abandoned with great haste. You half-expect to come across a dinner plate with half-eaten Alpaca bones in one of the tiny houses below. But who was here and why did they leave?

Review of La Tremoille & Le Pre Catelan, Paris

GB — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:55:49 +0000

There are five of us here for a special occasion - KB’s birthday - and I can’t imagine a better place to stay than Hotel Tremoille. It has been undergoing an extensive renovation itself, 16 months of upgrading which has turned Tremoille into a very fine mid-sized hotel in the heart of Paris’ ‘Golden Triangle’, just a few minutes’ walk from George V Avenue and the Champs-Elysees.

Review of Sumahan on the Water, Istanbul

GB — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:59:48 +0000

Sumahan was created from the shell of a 19th century Ottoman distillery. It has been renovated with a great deal of care, and sits in perfect harmony with the quiet little village next door.

Review of Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten and Tantris restaurant, Munich

GB — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:28:03 +0000

With its bulbous yellow lamps and multi-coloured pillars, Tantris is more like a Tate Modern installation than a restaurant.

Review of Hollmann Beletage, Vienna

GB — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:20:21 +0000

Looking for the Hollman Beletage Hotel? Do we have the right address? you may ask yourself as you head down Köllnerhofgasse, a short street about five minutes walk from St Stephen’s Cathedral. You stop at the entrance to a grand old apartment building and enter a secret code which opens the heavy door. Once inside, your eyes wander around the cavernous hallway, which looks little changed from the late Imperial era.

Review of The Astoria, St Petersburg

GB — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:49:33 +0100

There are a small number of world class hotels in St Petersburg, and this is one of them. The Astoria has been around since 1912, when the unfortunate Nicholas II was still living in style down the road at the Winter Palace. Just about every world leader who has visited the city since has stayed at the Astoria.

City Hotels : Kurhaus Hotel, Den Haag, Netherlands

GB — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:26:21 +0100

I could write a novel set in the Kurhaus. Having much work to do in the Dutch capital last year, I must have stayed there at least a dozen times. Last week I found myself back there for the day, and had to take the tram down to Scheveningen for a quick visit to the grand old lady of the Dutch hotel trade.

For those unfamiliar with the Netherlands, Scheveningen is the small outpost which sits right on the North Sea, about three miles from Den Haag city centre. There is a very long, straight drive down to the coast, ...

City Hotels: The Kamp, Helsinki

GB — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:27:49 +0000

You have to love the capital of a country which single-handedly held off the might of the Red Army, enjoys a drink without behaving like British morons, and has produced some of the hi-tech products which define our age.