Blog: 2015

Crete

  • Posted on: 31 October 2015
  • By: Aline Dobbie

We visited Crete on a press trip in the third week of October and were enchanted.  The weather was warm and sunny and we had the opportunity to see a lot of eastern Crete having flown into Heraklion.  We were centred at Agios Nikolaos which is a lovely town with beaches, a lake, smart shops, nice restaurants and heritage.   Crete is a lovely island  and indeed cradle of western civilisation with so much to see and learn from, and we long to return in the Spring for the famous spring flowers and all the fresh blossoms and colours of spring.

Rosewood’s Garden, our home in Scotland

  • Posted on: 28 June 2015
  • By: Aline Dobbie
I am sitting down at my desk, but literally I have just walked indoors from the garden where I sat with a coffee and enjoyed the vivid array of flowers now that it is nearly the end of June.  Our garden is looking so beautiful and that is in an indifferent summer when the sun has been very bashful and it is not all that warm – which is common in Scotland!
 

Tulips from Amsterdam

  • Posted on: 15 June 2015
  • By: Aline Dobbie

To be invited on a press trip to Holland to enjoy the amazing Keukenhof Gardens, Amsterdam and Haarlem was an immense pleasure for me.  I wrote of it for Platform 505 and now of course the spring is over and the garden is dug over…. until the next time when Keukenhof will flower anew with a different set of bulbs and colour schemes. 

Eternal Mewar and Udaipur

  • Posted on: 6 May 2015
  • By: Aline Dobbie

Having spent six nights in Mewar as the guests of HH Maharana of Udaipur – Sriji - at two of his hotels, one a palace and heritage therefore it was a real pleasure to write about the history of this region of Rajasthan steeped in history of nobility and chivalry.  

Aline’s Indian Journey Diary in early 2015

  • Posted on: 11 April 2015
  • By: Aline Dobbie

We spent seven weeks in India this year starting by flying into Chennai on 16th January.  We spent a pleasant couple of days on arrival at the Radisson Blu airport hotel where we were made very welcome.  I recommend it as a quick efficient transfer if one visits Chennai.  Then we spent a short but delightful time at the ITC Grand Chola.  This huge hotel we first encountered in 2013 so it was great to see how it had matured…the various restaurants are of a very high calibre and we had three superb meals, Indian, Pan Asian and then Fusion.