TRAVEL

Home & Away with Robert WalsheLiving

GoHop.ie, an online travel com-pany, asked its 47,000 ebuzz email subscribers “If money and time was no object, where in 2011 where would you most like to holiday?” The USA appeared as both a city break and also a family theme park destination, with the Middle East and Africa featuring strongly. Al-most bizarrely cruise holidays fea-tured in the top 10 even though not officially a destination. The top ten destinations for 2011 were: Las Vegas, Australia, orlando, San Francisco, Sri Lanka, Cruise, Mauri-tius, Dubai, India and South Africa. Juniper berries were recognised in ancient times as possessing medicinal properties, so perhaps there is no better time of year to celebrate the spirit distilled from these berries than January. The Jazz it Up with Gin promotion is a celebration of gin and consists of a very special food and cocktail menu designed around Gin or Gin ‘flavours’. The promotion will run from 4th to 30th of January in the Lobby Lounge and Seasons Restau-rant at the Four Seasons Hotel Dub-lin. www.fourseasons.com

Holiday Hotspot

Built on the banks of the Rio Rimac, Lima is Peru’s largest city and its capital. A sprawling and chaotic city, the capital of peru is overcrowded, polluted and a noisy metropolis. The stark contrast be-tween poverty and wealth is most visible in the miles of dusty shanty-towns that stretch along the coast on either side of the city, and the glitzy apartment and office build-ings of the affluent seaside suburbs. During the days of Spanish colonial rule the city was regarded as the most important and prosperous city in Spanish America and was the finest in the region, known as ‘The City of Kings’. Lima was used as the headquarters of the Spanish con-quistadors, ideally located because of the surrounding fertile planes ir-rigated by the Rimac and its close proximity to the natural port at Cal-lao. Lima soon became the commer-cial and administrative centre of the Spanish empire in South America, bringing a period of prosperity to the city until an earthquake in 1746

destroyed all but 20 houses.

Following this devastation the op-portunity was taken to elaborately rebuild the city. Today’s wide streets, huge plazas and old houses with ornately carved balconies are a legacy of this period. Lima is an animated and bustling city with an exciting mix of nationalities and styles; a city crammed with culture, a rich heritage and eight million people. Lima dominates the coun-try’s political and commercial life and is the major gateway to the rest of the country.

The city retains some of its original charm and has much to offer the vis-itor. Some of Peru’s best museums, restaurants and nightlife are here, and the old colonial centre holds certain elegance with its beautiful churches and convents, graceful old mansions, central plazas and classic colonial-style buildings. The art and archaeology museums provide an excellent introduction to the history and culture that visitors will come across in other parts of the country.

The JW Marriott hotel is the capi-tals most luxurious hotel sitting in a prominent position overlooking the splendid Pacific Ocean. It’s a gleam-ing, ultramodern 25-story high-rise building hugging the coast and parks along the malecón, complete with glitzy ground-floor shops and a much-frequented casino. It seems to serve mostly short- and long-term

b u s i n e s s t r a v e l l e r s from North and South America, but it’s perfect for leisure t r a v e l l e r s and families. Children can be easily en-tertained at the outdoor pool or on the tennis court. Rooms are very well equipped and comfortable, with nice bath-rooms. Inexpensive weekend rates are available, making the luxurious Marriott one of the best values in Lima. I used Cultural Immersion a specialist tour company. They provided quality travel services throughout peru, including Machu picchu. Cusco, Sacred Valley, Lake Titicaca, the peruvian Amazon, Colca Canyon, Nazca, Arequipa, Lima and other main attractions. The company also help with the development of the poor villages of the Andes working on many devel-opment projects so you know you are helping the indigenous popula-tions by working with this Eduardo and his team. Iberia flies ex Dublin via Madrid daily. www.marriott.com/lima . www.culturalimmersion.org www.visitperu.com

www.iberia.com

Weekly Best Buy

There’s great value in a Canary Islands and Morocco cruise on the Norwegian Jade (NCL) departing April 8th for a 9 night Fly/ Cruise from Barcelona.

The price includes an inside state-room from €999.00

www.sunway.ie only 20 minutes from Malaga

airport, the Sunset Beach Club at Benelmadena has free activities every day and entertainment every night.

over the winter B&B rates are from €28pps and half-board from €38pps. www.sunsetbeachclub.com

Early 2011 offers for Croatia with Concorde Travel include the four-star Hotel Lapad in Dubrovnik from €654pps, the Hotel Croatia in Cavtat from €660pps and the Hotel Dalam-cija on the Makarska Riviera from €624. www.concordetravel.ie

Pet’s Corner... with Kathleen Murray: Animal Behavioural Therapist

with Kathleen Murray

Does your dog cry, bark or whine a lot?WE have all seen the cartoon or watched a film where a dog is barking in the night and some-one gets up, opens a window and throws a boot or something at the dog.

They are usually at the end of their tether and the frustration and anger is plain to be seen and heard. Does this method cure the problem barker perma-nently? No. Can you be done for cruelty? Yes. If we look at rea-sons why dogs bark then you will know how to deal with the problem.

If a neighbours dog is barking then it can be for many reasons. Some of these reasons are: It could be that the dog is new and

feeling a bit insecure. It could be that the dog is alone a lot and is very lonely.

It could be that the dog has been used to being in the house a lot and is now growing up into a nuisance because nobody put manners on it and now it has been put outside, causing much stress to the dog, the family and all the neighbours. Another rea-son for barking a lot is that the dog could be scared.

A dog could be ill, have an in-jury that nobody knows about, has an owner in hosptal sud-denly and left to it’s own de-vices for a bit in the heat of the moment.

None of these reasons are the

dogs fault but the dog is the one that “gets the boot”.

What can you do if there is a problem with nuisance barking in your neighbourhood.? It is usually a good idea to approach the owner of the dog when they are at home.

Tell them their dog has been barking a lot and ask if there is a problem? Maybe you could help in some way?

You could offer some support if it is a temporary situation and the dog has nobody to walk it or look in on it for a short spell, you could suggest a dog trainer if you think the person simply doesn’t know how to fix it them-selves or call for some help if

the person is an addict and is not fit to look after the animal. If it is something that you can work out between you then all the better. If you get a hostile re-sponse from the neighbour then you have some options also.

You can ring the Gardai, Social Services, Animal Welfare, Dog Wardens or whoever you think could help. The animal may be a nuisance to you but it is not the animals fault, remember?. It is depending on you to help it.

If it is your own dog then do something about it. There is no need for a dog to be barking all night or all day if the owner and the dog have the right relation-ship. A dog that is a nuisance

barker does not make a good guard dog as nobody pays much at-tention to it after a while.

They just turn up their television to block it out.

If someone comes to your door in a civilised manner and explains to you (in a civilised way) that your dog is caus-ing them distress, then please try to work with them rather than against them. They are not doing it to annoy you, it is you that has annoyed them.

n Colonial Lima Peru

n Cultural Immersion Peru Projects

n W Marriott Lima Peru

British Midland International (bmi) has unveiled a new logo and visual identity to help strengthen its brand even fur-ther. The airline undertook a strategic review of its brand when it became part of the Lufthansa family last year. The new logo offers bmi a much stronger identity by using the full name of British Midland International, rather than just bmi. The new brand mark re-freshes the heritage blue colour that bmi is known for but also creates a larger logo footprint for bmi, enabling it to achieve greater presence and standout in its communications. The air-line is also to codeshare with Croatia Airlines on its services between the UK and Croatia. In the reciprocal codeshare, bmi has now added its BD code to Croatia Airlines routes to Za-greb from London Heathrow and London Gatwick, both operated using Airbus 319 air-craft. Croatia Airlines has also added its oU code to selected bmi routes, enabling customers to book between Croatia and bmi’s domestic network, includ-ing Aberdeen, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Man-chester. www.flybmi.com

Robert Walshe is a freelance contributor / broadcaster and is guest travel writer for River Media newspaper titles across the island of Ireland

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