If you aren't taking your inner child on holiday, you're missing out
But we all have a child lurking inside of us, according to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. It may only be a metaphor for the childlike aspects of our personality and emotional state, but ignore it at your peril, or your inner child will scream for four hours straight on the long-haul flight and throw a tantrum if you don't take it to Disneyland.
We need to give these little brats – sorry, adorable youngsters – a good time because otherwise travelling can just be too grown-up for words. That means giving ourselves permission to spend half a day in an amusement park – the Tivoli in Copenhagen, or the Prater in Vienna – and to do silly things, like hire a pedal-boat on Lake Geneva, or stop for an ice-cream whenever you feel like it.
In Bordeaux, the Miroir d'Eau, or Water Mirror, is a thing of beauty – but it is also a thing of fun. An adult would stand there and aim for a symmetrical photograph in which the pool of shallow water reflects the shimmering magnificence of the Place de la Bourse and surrounding monuments. They would tell you the reservoir of water beneath it contains 800 cubic metres of water, that it operates ecologically as a closed circuit, and that it was designed by Michel Corajoud in 2006. A child would just run into it, laughing, delighted by the finale of thick clouds of fog.
Inner children don't know there are any rules to break, which gives them a great advantage over adults. My partner is keener on luxury spas than she is on visiting aquariums and zoos, so I head off to spend a couple of hours with manta ray sharks or wander through butterfly enclosures on my own. Except I'm not on my own, because mini-me is always with big-me, having a grand old time.
I still laugh out loud every time I think of the polar bear in New York's Central Park Zoo. As he did his daily laps in the pool, he'd press his giant white furry bottom against the viewing glass, right in front of my face, before pushing off to the other end. Biggest bum I have ever seen. Imagine if he'd farted! (Kids love farting.)
Feeding your inner child is even more amusing. It's incredible the rubbish they are prepared to eat, at any hour of the day. Chocolate is especially good – for breakfast. In Naples, it's worth seeking out the best pizzeria for a margherita (Pizzeria Da Attilio), to feel that little face light up; and in Singapore, follow the crowds to the best ice kachang stall (Annie's, at Tanjong Pagar hawker centre), for a frozen treat that's like a kid's birthday party on ice.
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Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Wheel of Misfortune will spin over Docklands again, and I'm excited
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The Age
2 days ago
- The Age
The Wheel of Misfortune will spin over Docklands again, and I'm excited
The news this week that Melbourne's much-maligned, mocked, and long-motionless giant ferris wheel will soon(-ish) turn again – following a complex $11 million deal with Swiss and American backers – has me in a spin. The story spoke (sorry, can't resist) to me. But what did I feel, exactly? A mix of disbelief, doubt, disdain, maybe even dread? A lot of D words, which is appropriate given the oversized role the attraction (or distraction) plays in the life of Docklands. The $100 million wheel opened in 2008, was shut down 40 days later when structural flaws were detected, reopened after extensive and expensive repairs (practically a rebuild) in 2013, and closed again in 2021, a victim of COVID and lack of interest. You might say the wheel is symptomatic of Docklands itself. It should work, but it doesn't. But for all that, one D word I don't apply to the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel – or M-SOW, as I prefer to think of it – is disaster. Loading Unlike most Melburnians, I have been on the wheel. I was gifted a spin with my family for a birthday some years ago. It was winter, it was night, the sky was clear, and we could see for miles: shipping containers as far as the eye could see in one direction; suburban sprawl to the Dandenongs in another; the stretch of the bay to Dromana to the south; the strange solitary highrise blip of the Broadmeadows Civic Plaza to the north. And, of course, the dense forest of towers of New Quay, the CBD and Southbank right up close. People love to complain about the view, to insist the 120-metre-tall wheel is in the wrong spot, that it should be on the banks of the Yarra, at Birrarung Marr, perhaps, or by Polly Woodside, where its much smaller sibling, the 35-metre-high Skyline Melbourne, operates. But I'm not sure that I buy that. What you see from M-SOW is Melbourne as it really is. A sprawl. A nice bay, with some lovely beaches. A cluster of hills in the distance, but not overly endowed with the geographical magnificence of Sydney, or the lush green and undulating topography of Brisbane.
West Australian
03-08-2025
- West Australian
Morecote is a Swiss village with a sublime lakeside setting
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