<rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><channel><title>thenomad</title><description>thenomad</description><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/home</link><item><title>Taking the high road</title><description><![CDATA[The Splügen Pass is not the most comfortable route between Switzerland and Italy, nor is it the most direct but, at 2117m it is certainly one of the highest, and absolutely one of the most spectacular.<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_0a46adfe9ae243aba7b3d1b0e872173e%7Emv2_d_12899_3055_s_2.jpeg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/10/08/Taking-the-high-road</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/10/08/Taking-the-high-road</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Oct 2017 04:40:37 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_0a46adfe9ae243aba7b3d1b0e872173e~mv2_d_12899_3055_s_2.jpeg"/><div>The Splügen Pass is not the most comfortable route between Switzerland and Italy, nor is it the most direct but, at 2117m it is certainly one of the highest, and absolutely one of the most spectacular.</div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/237260154"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Key Lago</title><description><![CDATA[One of the first things you notice when you hit the SS340, hugging the western shore of Lake Como, is that time has slowed. Lago di Como is perhaps the best known of Italy's northern lakes and, as we arrive from Switzerland on a warm October Wednesday, our leisurely drive from the north pauses as we catch our breath. © the nomad People have been coming this way for millennia. Some, just passing through, others like us, looking for a little lakeside tranquility before we have to let the world<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_f7abeb71fa2c4b01b89baf3909a3e8f8%7Emv2_d_3072_1620_s_2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_546%2Ch_288/281952_f7abeb71fa2c4b01b89baf3909a3e8f8%7Emv2_d_3072_1620_s_2.jpeg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/10/08/Key-Lago</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/10/08/Key-Lago</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Oct 2017 04:18:11 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div> One of the first things you notice when you hit the SS340, hugging the western shore of Lake Como, is that time has slowed.</div><div> Lago di Como is perhaps the best known of Italy's northern lakes and, as we arrive from Switzerland on a warm October Wednesday, our leisurely drive from the north pauses as we catch our breath.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_f7abeb71fa2c4b01b89baf3909a3e8f8~mv2_d_3072_1620_s_2.jpeg"/><div> © the nomad</div><div> People have been coming this way for millennia. Some, just passing through, others like us, looking for a little lakeside tranquility before we have to let the world back in.</div><div> We're heading for Griante, one of dozens of communes dotted around the lake. We chose it not for its charm - of which there is plenty - but for its location, handy to all that we plan to do in our three day escape.</div><div> I have been to Lake Como at several different times of the year, but this, at the beginning of a mild autumn, and long after the summer crowds have gone, is perfect. The daytime temperature never intrudes; at night we are never cold.</div><div> And so we wander. Our first stop, as it has been for many, is Bellagio, whose great tragedy is to have once been called the prettiest village in Europe. The internet then did what the internet does, and within a couple of years, while still one of the prettiest, it had also become one of the most crowded.</div><div> But there is still joy to be found. The ferry ride itself is one of those travel rarities - a necessary delight. By road, it's more than 65km and 90 minutes from Griante to Bellagio. The ferry takes us there in 20 minutes.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_8091c61133084ce18ea2d6d6f1fe97c0~mv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> We arrive as the sun is going down and the tourist traffic is (mostly) heading in the other direction. SO we do what anyone with time on their hands would do. We ramble. We get lost in the alleys and backstreets of the once prettiest village in Europe, and by some providence are deposited outside a wine bar.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_2e8255d39f0642529eec30eff20f7ae6~mv2_d_2448_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> I mean, what would you do?</div><div> So our first evening on the lake passes, fuelled by fresh bruschetta and a glorious Italian wine. You'd think it couldn't get better. And then it does.</div><div> Day two is one of exploration. We chose Griante because we had decided our lake retreat would not involve getting in the car if we could help it. Menaggio was just a bit to the north and Tremezzo just a little to the south.</div><div> Just a couple of minutes out of Tremezzo sits Villa Carlotta, a 17th century palace which is now part museum, part botanic garden, but all of it, a glorious way to kill a few hours on a sunny afternoon.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_b0ffbf64f85d4bc693d7607d5f736e1d~mv2_d_2448_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_96b618705a5441a8aa31159c6d595f79~mv2_d_2448_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_75e4c19e4160426386c012d7c1b3a2e5~mv2_d_13628_2936_s_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Hiding in Blanket Bay</title><description><![CDATA[The road to Glenorchy takes you back in time. For more than 40 kilometres, one of New Zealand’s great journeys hugs the eastern edge of Lake Wakatipu, leaving Queenstown and its urgent sprawl behind. There is a moment, just after the road turns north, that a lookout appears on the left. A series of signs warn of its location but nothing, truly nothing, can prepare you for the view you find. Before and below, the lake is revealed. Pig Island and Pigeon Island laze in the midwinter sun. It would<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_e4458c35d03f4ec8ad910f4614bc6308%7Emv2_d_4032_3024_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/24-hours-in-Washington-DC</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/24-hours-in-Washington-DC</guid><pubDate>Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:09:52 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div> The road to Glenorchy takes you back in time.</div><div> For more than 40 kilometres, one of New Zealand’s great journeys hugs the eastern edge of Lake Wakatipu, leaving Queenstown and its urgent sprawl behind.</div><div> There is a moment, just after the road turns north, that a lookout appears on the left. A series of signs warn of its location but nothing, truly nothing, can prepare you for the view you find.</div><div> Before and below, the lake is revealed. Pig Island and Pigeon Island laze in the midwinter sun. It would be easy to just stay and enjoy this remarkable place, but our destination calls.</div><div> Glenorchy is the lake’s less shiny jewel; a place of glorious scenery and the gateway to some of the South Island’s most spectacular walking tracks.</div><div> We never get there. A couple of kilometres before the town at the top of the lake, we take a left turn down a long driveway and emerge into a movie star refuge.</div><div> Blanket Bay Lodge is, in every sense, a sanctuary. A place to hide. A place to relax. A place to forget that just a few kilometres away lies one of the adventure capitals of the world.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_e4458c35d03f4ec8ad910f4614bc6308~mv2_d_4032_3024_s_4_2.jpg"/><div> © the nomad</div><div> We arrive earlier than scheduled, but nothing’s a problem. Our room is ready and perfect for what we have planned, which is nothing. The property sprawls across this historic landing on the upper reach of the lake, and walking paths can take you through low brush, or along the coastline.</div><div> We try one out, but after an hour or so, decide lunch is probably going to be a better option and we are right.</div><div> Though it is midwinter, we park ourselves outside where a log fire keeps us warm, and the extraordinary view keeps us entertained until the fabulous three course lunch arrives.</div><div> “Glass of something with your lunch, sir?”</div><div> “Try and stop me.”</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_ad025bdd920d4578b448fb9cf7b271e9~mv2_d_2016_1512_s_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> And so our day passes, somewhere between filling our stomachs and filling our hearts with some of New Zealand’s most glorious scenery.</div><div> Complimentary pre-dinner drinks in the bar are the perfect way to build towards what was another ideal expression of what Blanket Bay does so well, dinner.</div><div> Individual tables sprinkled throughout the main dining area ensure privacy isn’t just acknowledged, but a reflection of what the lodge is best at.</div><div> And you know what? With the exception of running into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in more than a decade, I can’t remember noticing any other guests the entire time we were there.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_51d3dbd5cc6f47eb8ea4edcd4109eee6~mv2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> But isn’t that the point? I’m not sure many choose a place like Blanket Bay to socialise.</div><div> This is in every way an escape.</div><div> We weren’t there for long, but long enough to dream, and after our bags were carried to our car, we pointed our way back towards reality.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Behind the scenes at NOMA</title><description><![CDATA[A quick visit to the kitchen, in the weeks before NOMA left its iconic address at Strandgade 93, Copenhagen.<img src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/649078166_640.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/08/17/Behind-the-scenes-at-NOMA</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/08/17/Behind-the-scenes-at-NOMA</guid><pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2016 23:25:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/228904105"/><div>A quick visit to the kitchen, in the weeks before NOMA left its iconic address at Strandgade 93, Copenhagen.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ett Hem, Stockholm</title><description><![CDATA[CHECK IN: Staying at Ett Hem is less like staying at a hotel than it is hanging out at a really rich uncle's place, if that uncle was Swedish, with extraordinarily good taste, a rather nice wine cellar and never at home. A small door in a wall off a Stockholm side street leads you into a discreet courtyard. Up a few steps, you find a room filled with contemporary art, and one of Ett Hem's famously friendly staff.THE ROOM: There are just 12 rooms in this completely updated former private mansion<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_38a986e8091e4bf6b8afa0cb00cd5fd3%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/11-tips-for-navigating-markets-around-the-world</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/11-tips-for-navigating-markets-around-the-world</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Oct 2016 11:15:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_38a986e8091e4bf6b8afa0cb00cd5fd3~mv2.jpg"/><div>CHECK IN:</div><div>Staying at Ett Hem is less like staying at a hotel than it is hanging out at a really rich uncle's place, if that uncle was Swedish, with extraordinarily good taste, a rather nice wine cellar and never at home. A small door in a wall off a Stockholm side street leads you into a discreet courtyard. Up a few steps, you find a room filled with contemporary art, and one of Ett Hem's famously friendly staff.</div><div>THE ROOM:</div><div>There are just 12 rooms in this completely updated former private mansion in Stockholm's embassy quarter. We stayed in two rooms. The (entry level) Double at $635 and the (all right, bugger it, let's have a splurge) Suite (below) at $1280. For that kind of money you expect spectacular and you are not disappointed.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_60428fbfa8634eb4aecfca9addb516ed~mv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div>THE BED:</div><div>As the American president might say ... &quot;uuuge&quot;.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_3d68f66beaf14f1c832bb93fe47d100d~mv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div>WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT IT?:</div><div>Where to begin? Quite easily, the most beautiful urban hotel in which we have ever stayed. Early 20th century Scandinavian aesthetic meets contemporary luxury near the centre of Stockholm. A handy Scandy dandy.</div><div>AND THE BAD:</div><div>Are you kidding?</div><div>WHAT'S IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD?:</div><div>In some ways, Ostermalm is to Stockholm as Herne Bay is to Auckland. The Humlegarden, one of the Swedish capital's most beautiful central parks, and home to the National Library, is a five-minute walk, as is the wonderfully historic Olympic Stadium. Central Stockholm is a 20-minute stroll.</div><div>FOOD AND DRINK:</div><div>This is where Ett Hem goes next level. The philosophy is that of a country house, with the kitchen available 24/7 to cater to the guests' every whim.</div><div>Breakfast in the courtyard? No problem. A drink in the library? Excellent idea. Ett Hem has so many private areas, your stay can be as discreet - or not - as you prefer.</div><div>EXERCISE FACILITIES: </div><div>The usual gym equipment is there, but this is Sweden, so obviously there's a sauna and a stone spa. Pro tip: Try not to fall asleep.</div><div>CONTACT:</div><div>etthem.se.</div><div>WOULD I GO BACK?: We already did.</div><div>PERFECT FOR:</div><div>Pretending.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Fårö for a Day</title><description><![CDATA[The first thing you notice when you drive off the car ferry to Fårö is that the wind which blows off the Baltic has done a fabulous job of removing the hills.© the nomad This 113 sq/km island off Gotland's northern tip seems to have none. And what few there might once have been, have been gradually consumed by the Baltic breeze which on this particular day, is sending quite the message. Fårö was home to iconic Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman who, before his death on the island in 2007, was<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_5271177d1a4e46a78d8af7f29f4eeaa0%7Emv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg/v1/fill/w_546%2Ch_410/281952_5271177d1a4e46a78d8af7f29f4eeaa0%7Emv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/21/F%C3%A5r%C3%B6-for-a-Day</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/21/F%C3%A5r%C3%B6-for-a-Day</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Oct 2016 22:16:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div> The first thing you notice when you drive off the car ferry to Fårö is that the wind which blows off the Baltic has done a fabulous job of removing the hills.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_5271177d1a4e46a78d8af7f29f4eeaa0~mv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> This 113 sq/km island off Gotland's northern tip seems to have none. </div><div> And what few there might once have been, have been gradually consumed by the Baltic breeze which on this particular day, is sending quite the message.</div><div> Fårö was home to iconic Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman who, before his death on the island in 2007, was shameless in his use of it as a location.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_b40bd8be3fb1427eacc8cc6459612cc8~mv2_d_2448_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> Through a Glass Darkly, his 1961 drama was the first to be shot there, and the landscape contributed in no small way to film's bleak noir look.</div><div> Fårö and Gotland are popular Swedish holiday spots, and sommarstuga, or summer houses dot the countryside. But today, the sun is being outgunned by the wind, and the only tourists seem to be us.</div><div> Which is fine.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_98c7c5de5d014d76a0d89ae1e16a3b1f~mv2_d_3264_2448_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> There are only around 500 permanent residents on the island, and unlike us, they all seem to be sheltering from the wind.</div><div> We have come at the recommendation of friends, whose summer memories were of long walks on sandy beaches. But today we barely leave the car as the breeze batters us at every stop.</div><div> But when we do pause, we discover why Bergman was so inspired here. </div><div> He set Through a Glass Darkly on the rugged Langhammars peninsular, where stone monoliths, relics of the ice age, dot the shoreline. From a distance, they appear to be the kind of rock formations you find on any coastline on any continent.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_da8a30be9a2c4d888b9c9767db56e0d3~mv2_d_2448_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> But up close, you get a sense of the their magic; of their ability to draw the eye from an otherwise flat horizon.</div><div> One excellent by-product of such a small island is that, though it was easy to get lost, it was just as uncomplicated to find your way back to the road which eventually deposits you back to the ferry at Broa.</div><div> Our stay was brief, but even now, Fårö stays with us. A place of inspiration to some and whose stories echo on the Baltic breeze.</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Brilliant Bergen</title><description><![CDATA[Fans of Scandinavian noir fiction know Bergen. Norway’s second largest city is not so much a location as a character. A brooding, rainy extra, painted in a palette of greys and blues. But not today. Today, this city of the fjords is basking in the late summer sunshine, showing off its best face. And why wouldn't it be? We were told not to expect much from Bergen, but from the moment we arrived, it has been dressed to impress. A university city perched so close to the fjords and the North Sea<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_0f1fd80b056a4d009424645a45b92274%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_546%2Ch_68/281952_0f1fd80b056a4d009424645a45b92274%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/20/Brilliant-Bergen</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/20/Brilliant-Bergen</guid><pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:16:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div> Fans of Scandinavian noir fiction know Bergen.</div><div> Norway’s second largest city is not so much a location as a character. A brooding, rainy extra, painted in a palette of greys and blues.</div><div> But not today.</div><div> Today, this city of the fjords is basking in the late summer sunshine, showing off its best face.</div><div> And why wouldn't it be? We were told not to expect much from Bergen, but from the moment we arrived, it has been dressed to impress.</div><div> A university city perched so close to the fjords and the North Sea beyond, it doesn't even try to hide its maritime history.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_0f1fd80b056a4d009424645a45b92274~mv2.jpg"/><div> © the nomad</div><div>The dockside area of Bryggen, a World Heritage Site, invites visitors to wander through the brilliantly restored and reconstructed Hanseatic merchants buildings.</div><div> Beyond, Fløyen, which looms over the older part of the city, can be reached by the Fløyenbanen funicular, an eight minute journey which deposits tourists on top of the 425m mountain.</div><div> On a good day - and the day we were there was a very good day - you can see far beyond into the Byfjorden.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_7d21b147381542468559a8da4195b9aa~mv2_d_13632_3040_s_2.jpg"/><div> © the nomad</div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Naoshima, Jackson and me</title><description><![CDATA[© the nomad I’ll never forget the day my wife woke up with Jackson Pollock. My surprise is that I could have sworn she’d gone to bed with David Hockney. Michelle is generous with her affections; especially so when it comes to such pillars of experimental contemporary art. Less than a day on Naoshima Island, on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, and my limitations were becoming embarrassingly obvious. We are here on a kind of retreat; two and a bit days in which my wife will indulge her love for<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_f5efb6a01221403bb2e461db1c820ea8%7Emv2_d_4896_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/>]]></description><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/The-5-must-see-art-galleries-around-the-world</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2016/08/22/The-5-must-see-art-galleries-around-the-world</guid><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2015 12:23:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_f5efb6a01221403bb2e461db1c820ea8~mv2_d_4896_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> I’ll never forget the day my wife woke up with Jackson Pollock.</div><div> My surprise is that I could have sworn she’d gone to bed with David Hockney.</div><div> Michelle is generous with her affections; especially so when it comes to such pillars of experimental contemporary art. Less than a day on Naoshima Island, on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, and my limitations were becoming embarrassingly obvious.</div><div> We are here on a kind of retreat; two and a bit days in which my wife will indulge her love for contemporary art, I will get my fix of unconventional architecture, and in a very Japanese way, we will combine our passions while barely leaving our room.</div><div> We’d been told of the Benesse Art Site by a friend, whose advice pretty much began and ended at: Go. Enjoy.</div><div> So here we are, having triumphantly managed the first, we are making a spectacular success of the second.</div><div> When it comes to researching holidays, we’re close to world class. Up there, anyway. There can barely have been a room, a rate, a side-trip or a shrine that went unconsidered while planning our Japanese holiday.</div><div> But nothing prepares you for this.</div><div> As recently as the early 1980s, Naoshima was a lumpy and unexceptional 14-square kilometre rock on the Inland Sea, notable mostly for a refinery, and populated largely by the families of those who worked there.</div><div> But Japanese industrialist Tetsuhiko Fukutake had plans. Big plans and with a billionaire’s budget. He would take the unremarkable and make it extraordinary. He would engage an architectural rising star to design a series of galleries which he would fill with the work of some of the world’s greatest contemporary artists.</div><div> He would have that same architect, Pritzker Prize-winner Tadao Ando, design an exquisite series of accommodations which would allow guests to sleep not just near the artworks but in them.</div><div> And he would wait for the world to arrive. He wouldn’t wait long.</div><div> Within a few years the Benesse Art Site had become a place of pilgrimage for people like Michelle (there for the art) and people like me (there for the architecture) and it is beautiful in its vision and in its absurdity.</div><div> We are staying in Benesse House, one of four accommodation options within the site, mostly because it is the one closest to what they call the Museum, but is actually the largest of the galleries. Our room, one of just 10, is just a couple of metres away. If it takes you more than 30 seconds to get there, you’re already lost.</div><div> Technically, it closes at 9.00pm but there was no one there to stop us when Michelle and I went off-piste after a late dinner. It was, in a childishly enjoyable way, our own ‘Night at the Museum.’</div><div> For the next couple of days, we roam the island, walking between some of the galleries, or taking the hotel-provided mini-bus for those further afield.</div><div> Only once do we go our separate ways. The Chichu Art Museum, just a few minutes up a winding road, is another of Ando’s glorious absurdities. Mostly underground, its five main galleries afford only occasional glimpses of sky, which provides the only illumination of the artwork. It is here, in what I have come to see as an island-wide rivalry between art and architecture, that architecture wins. Handsomely.</div><div> Michelle has disappeared to another queue, where she waits patiently for a brief viewing of a selection of Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’ series.</div><div> I have taken myself off to a quiet corner, where Ando has managed to frame a slice of bright blue Autumn sky. I try to concentrate on my book and I lose. That’s the thing about remarkable architecture, it will always claim your eye.</div><div> This is how we spend our days. She, refilling her heart with the art of her imagination. Me, forever stumbling across glimpses of Ando’s genius. A line here. An angle there.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_7cf1792f7a3a495f9ffa68c6e3d538b7~mv2.jpg"/><div>© the nomad</div><div> On our last night, we walk the few hundred metres down the hill to a restaurant by the water, with views out to the mountains of Shikoku. We used the final few minutes of daylight to wander some of the island’s earliest installations, among them Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dot pumpkin.</div><div> There is nothing joyless about the island’s unofficial motif. Like much of the site, your first reaction is to smile. Your second, if what we saw is any guide, is to take a photograph. The only pumpkin to launch a million selfies.</div><div> Later, in our room, I turn to a volume on Tadao Ando, purchased at the Museum shop. Next to me, Michelle prepares herself for another night with Jackson. Or David. </div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Itsukushima's Floating Shrine</title><description><![CDATA[A short train and ferry ride from Hiroshima, one of the world's hidden gems rests gently on the waters of Japan's Inland Sea. The Itsukushima Shrine offers a watery welcome to those who make the 10-minute journey from the mainland to Miyajima, the 30 sq/km island which is home to just 2000 locals. The floating torii gate is a regional icon, and the first glimpse from the ferry is disappointing, overshadowed by the surrounding hills. The best view is from the shrine itself; a brief walk from the<img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_8a89cc13a64d480082806113843d429c%7Emv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_546%2Ch_364/281952_8a89cc13a64d480082806113843d429c%7Emv2.jpg"/>]]></description><dc:creator>By Eric Young</dc:creator><link>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/21/Itsukushimas-Floating-Shrine</link><guid>https://www.thenomad.co.nz/single-post/2017/09/21/Itsukushimas-Floating-Shrine</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2014 22:22:00 +0000</pubDate><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_8a89cc13a64d480082806113843d429c~mv2.jpg"/><div> A short train and ferry ride from Hiroshima, one of the world's hidden gems rests gently on the waters of Japan's Inland Sea.</div><div> The Itsukushima Shrine offers a watery welcome to those who make the 10-minute journey from the mainland to Miyajima, the 30 sq/km island which is home to just 2000 locals.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_19b897ad9a5b495ab94625f513c96acb~mv2.jpg"/><div> The floating torii gate is a regional icon, and the first glimpse from the ferry is disappointing, overshadowed by the surrounding hills.</div><div> The best view is from the shrine itself; a brief walk from the dock.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_ef22c91e2f6e45df9e21317e731743cc~mv2.jpg"/><div> The Gojunoto, or five-tiered Pagoda, was built in 1407.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_0d8c04c9f23e4f418a20b914b67d0049~mv2_d_4896_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/><div> Deer wander the island.</div><img src="http://static.wixstatic.com/media/281952_815c648a2cdb47dd9ff5d924de02f72b~mv2_d_4896_3264_s_4_2.jpg"/></div>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>