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Gulf Today
22-06-2025
- Gulf Today
Here are the 'coolest' European destinations to visit in summer
Shade seekers can rejoice, holiday travel trends are changing and tan-refreshing, sunbed-stewing summer getaways are on the decline. In light of the ongoing climate crisis, Brits - habitually inclined to boil abroad - are redirecting their wanderlust to European shores where they won't be a prisoner to a hotel room's air-conditioning or sweat over the midday UV index. The shift to more moderate climates comes as no surprise. A furnace of Mediterranean holiday heavyweights, from Athens to Valenica, were ablaze with wildfires during peak travel season 2024, and temperatures are continuing to break record highs year on year. Now's the time to swap searing Andalusia in mainland Spain for the cooler Canaries, trade Portugal's Algarve for Poland's Baltic coast, and replace big-hitting Greek islands with German variations. With chasing scorching sun on the back burner, here are the destinations bringing a breeze to summer holidays, from wind-whipped islands to northern Europe's fine coastline. Ostend, Belgium Average high in August: 21C Average low in August: 15C Though best known for its chocolate, drinks and the hub of EU democracy that is Brussels, it would be foolish to turn your nose up at Belgium's beach resorts. Let Flanders's largest, Ostend, sweep you away to its golden sands this summer for mornings spent kitesurfing and afternoons filled with fresh oysters on the Albert I Promenade - all without the need to retreat from the heat. Ostend , known for its wide sandy beach. Reuters Oslo, Norway Average high in August: 21C Average low in August: 13C The Norwegian capital is a tangle of hip districts - specifically buzzy Grünerløkka - boutique stores and al fresco dining spots fringed by thick Marka forest (where you can go for active pursuits, including zip lining and mountain biking). Slick museums on the Oslo Pass, such as the Munch Museum, meet the culture criteria for a city break while taking a dip in seawater pools and drying off in Nordic saunas nails the R&R element of a standard summer holiday. A general view of the cityscape with the new Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. Reuters La Gomera, Canary Islands Average high in August: 28C Average low in August: 21C While mainland Spain sizzles, an Atlantic onshore breeze blows through the Canary Islands, blessing balmy year-round La Gomera with inviting 20C days for holidaymakers to indulge in hiking, black-sand bathing and foodie feasts of melon lobster. The bearable heat doesn't sacrifice sunshine, with around nine hours of vitamin D on offer in August. Atlantic onshore breeze blows through the Canary Islands. Reuters Sopot, Poland Average high in August: 22C Average low in August: 12C Seafront Sopot, in the Tricity region of the "Baltic Riviera", is an affordable alternative to the beloved big names further south and at its warmest come August. A short train ride from all the history of Gdansk, 4km of tempting beaches, Europe's longest wooden pier and stylish health spas dot the fairy tale-esque facades and locals hail Sopot for its beachfront nightlife scene and, of course, decadent waffles. Lake Bled, Slovenia Average high in August: 28C Average low in August: 16C Slovenia's most famous attraction sparkles under the summer sun and Lake Bled's inviting turquoise glacial waters will help you keep your cool on climbs up to the medieval Bled Castle and romantic rows around the fantasy island. Where the legendary lakes of Garda and Como sweat with crowds in Italy, Bled's slice of the Julian Alps, though inevitably busy, offers forest trails suited for secluded alpine hikes. Machico, Madeira Average high in August: 26C Average low in August: 21C Leave the scorching Algarve for a more temperate Atlantic alternative on Portugal's Madeira archipelago. Sandwiched between mountains, far east Machico has a wave-battered artificial beach with golden grains imported from Africa, well-groomed gardens and a vision of terracotta roofs dotting its landscape. On Denmark's northeastern peninsula, the port town of Skagen has art museums and fine dining. Reuters Skagen, Denmark Average high in August: 19C Average low in August: 13C On Denmark's northeastern peninsula, the port town of Skagen has art museums and fine dining to rival the country's effortlessly cool capital Copenhagen. Wisps of cloud paint the skies and wild nature patrols the pale grains of the Grenen sandbar that straddles the Baltic and North Sea. Better still, August's T-shirt and light-layers weather is ideal for exploring this stretch of the Rabjerg Mile - a migrating coastal sand dune. The Independent
The Guardian
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I must have done something right!': dance master Jiří Kylián on his festival, fierce critics and the Ministry of Silly Walks
A gang of young dancers, their black costumes offset by colourful hats, cascade down the sloping roof of Oslo's opera house for a jubilant routine to a Prince song by the waterfront. The building's huge glass facade has become an unlikely stage for sculptures, digitally scanned from dancers' bodies, positioned as if they are plunging into the building like the nearby bathers in the fjord. Inside, there's an eclectic bill of ballets including one inspired by a painting from the Edvard Munch museum next door. In the wings of the theatre is an installation drawing on the Buddhist Zen symbol ensō. The studio space is screening short films veering from slapstick to the profound. But this sprawling festival, spanning more than two weeks and then partially touring, has a singular focus. These are all works by Jiří Kylián, the Czech choreographer-cum-renaissance man, who in one pre-show discussion declares himself 'the happiest boy in the world'. There has never been such a celebration of his work and, he suggests with wry self-effacement, there will probably never be another. When we meet for coffee, Kylián elaborates on the opportunity given to him by Ingrid Lorentzen who, as artistic director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, enabled the festival. 'I'm not a spring chicken,' he says. 'I'm 78 and I know that the end of life is nearing. To be able, at my age, to have a major retrospective, but also show new things that I've created specifically for this festival, is huge.' After a choreographic career spanning around 100 pieces (a quarter of them now in the Norwegian Ballet's repertory), it has brought a degree of affirmation, he says. 'I must have done something right! I'm not a particularly confident person. It might look like I am, but I'm not really.' With an impish smile, he adds: 'If I had to write reviews about my work, you would not want to read them. I don't get so easily frightened by critics because I'm my worst critic.' There's a pause before reconsidering: 'My mother was, actually …' He trails off and winces in mock horror at her feedback: 'If you do something like that one more time, I will disown you!' However, it was Markéta Kyliánová – a former child star – who directly inspired her son. 'She was a Shirley Temple. A 10-year-old who sold out performances, dancing by herself, with her father accompanying on piano. So it must be somewhere in the genes.' Growing up in Prague, Kylián was swept away by the magic of circus acrobats, became a dancer and began to choreograph. Britain played a key part in his success. In the mid-60s, Jennie Lee – the first minister for the arts in Harold Wilson's government – visited the Prague conservatoire and saw one of his earliest works. Kylián remembers her saying to him: 'I can see that you do not only have it in your legs, but also in your head.' A scholarship at the Royal Ballet School was arranged. 'I met Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, I had the time of my life,' he remembers of his stint in London. John Cranko invited him to work with the Stuttgart Ballet and then Kylián led Nederlands Dans Theater as artistic director from 1975 until 1999, continuing to choreograph for the company until 2009. But this 'Praguer' who has long lived in the Hague is being feted in Oslo. 'I was introduced to this country by a composer, Arne Nordheim, who wrote music for me,' he says. The Norwegian Ballet has been staging Kylián's work for almost 40 years. Oslo's long-awaited opera house opened in 2008 with his ballet programme. 'There is no other house in the world' that could put on this festival's installations alongside the performances, he says. Those sculptures bisected by the glass facade, modelled on eight of his dancers and rendered at 138%, provide another way to invite new audiences into this most playful of opera buildings whose openly accessible roof is a popular vantage point. The figures' positioning, part inside and part outside, brings to mind the uprooted, upside-down tree that is suspended above the stage in Kylián's Wings of Wax (1997) and continues his interest in transitional states. His choreography frequently gives dancers a winged position like resting marionettes – as in Petite Mort (1991), their heads bowed, shoulders hunched and elbows out, evoking a burden but also an imminent launch to liberation. Entitled Wings of Time, the festival is promoted with a poster of Kylián as if taking flight, with one arm raised alongside its reflection, the image mirroring an airborne gull in the distance. 'We are on the way constantly,' he says of this impulse in his work. 'I say 'now',' he pauses, 'and it's already in the past.' The other installations on display evoke not just Kylián choreography but his previous productions' set designs. In the meditative, healing Ensō, set to Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, a mirror rotates above a calligraphic circle on the floor, casting shadows as well as a latticed light, the mirror rippling with the foaming crash of a wave that recalls the silvery wreckage of John Macfarlane's set for Forgotten Land (1981). It is that piece, opening with the sound of the wind and featuring a storm of dancers' feet and elemental percussion, that draws on the century-old Munch painting The Dance of Life. Munch's depiction of a woman at three ages – enigmatically wistful in youth, solemn in middle age, eventually mournful – gave Kylián goosebumps when he first saw it. 'Munch was a troubled soul – that kind of fight with the canvas and with your own problems, it beams out of the paintings,' he says. 'I tried to portray it as well as I could with Benjamin Britten's music.' The exhibition's use of backstage areas is fitting for a choreographer who has often challenged notions of where the playing space – and even a production itself – starts and finishes. No More Play (1988), uncannily set to Anton Webern, finds a dancer rolling across the very edge of the stage, arms spiralling into the orchestra pit, and ends with the full cast dangling there. Bella Figura (1995) begins when the audience are still finding their seats as dancers rehearse their moves, Kylián taking the stage to make the odd tweak. The performance gives a supporting role of sorts to the theatre's layered curtains which in one illusion seem to hold a dancer in mid-air and are used for an effect akin to an iris film technique, framing certain dancers and obscuring others. Kylián plays with other silent cinema tricks in a quirky screen programme featuring his long-term partner, the dancer Sabine Kupferberg, who makes a superb bowler-hatted clown in the short film Between Entrance and Exit from 2013. (That title is telling for a choreographer who loves to bring dancers on in eye-catching ways, such as under billowing sheets.) Amid his elegantly fluid explorations of time and space, and his dancers' sensitive partnering, Kylián can rarely resist a comic moment or trompe l'oeil gag such as the freestanding dresses with a mind of their own in Petite Mort. He tells me about his joy at once spotting John Cleese in a restaurant. 'I went to him and said, 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?'' Cleese immediately played along. ''Yes, absolutely!'' Kylián told him: 'I'm a choreographer and I was inspired by your Ministry of Silly Walks.' Is that really the case? 'Of course! The Czechs have a pretty good sense of humour. They're really pretty crazy.' His own sense of humour remains intact when we discuss his 'more than catastrophic' reception from London's dance world. That auspicious-seeming arrival in the 1960s was followed by 'totally negligible' representation of his works and what he calls the 'Royal snub' in the years since his choreographic debut at Covent Garden. In 2022, Forgotten Land was staged by Birmingham Royal Ballet and his piece Gods and Dogs was performed in a mixed bill by NDT at Sadler's Wells. But he picks up his tablet and shows a calendar of upcoming Kylián productions. 'This is where they are doing my ballets in the world.' Dates come up for South Korea, Poland, the US, Albania … 'Anywhere except Great Britain! I even got the Laurence Olivier award [for outstanding achievement in dance with NDT in 2000]. That didn't do the job.' Maybe it's not for him to answer but does he know why? He leans over and whispers: 'I have no idea!' If Kylián is his own fiercest critic then the late Clement Crisp of the Financial Times came a close second. 'I don't mind to be criticised, but I don't like to be insulted particularly,' he says of Crisp's vociferous reviews, then paraphrases the kind of writeup he used to receive in London. 'The first piece was by Ashton, it was like that and like that. The second piece was by Kylián, we don't need to talk about it. And the third one was by Balanchine, it was great.' How did he find running NDT for such a long stretch? The company rocketed under his leadership but balancing the roles of choreographer and artistic director was surely draining. 'It's really rough. I'd want to do a piece for six dancers and I had 32 dancers in the company. You know what happened? Six happy people and 26 unhappy people. You have to cope with it.' As well as choreography, he has often provided his own design concepts including, unusually, for the lighting. 'A terrible ballet well lit is better than a great ballet badly lit,' he says. 'I work very closely with the lighting designers and set designers and composers. I'm one of those who sticks his finger in!' He assesses one of the pieces revived in Oslo. 'The choreography is old, OK, it has maybe a bit of an old-fashioned touch. But it fits completely with the music, the choreography and the stage design. If you like it or not is another story. But it fits. It's made of one mould.' His approach to the music has changed over the course of his career. 'When I was young, I got inspired by a piece of music and tried to do steps as closely to it as possible. But later that wasn't enough. I have things to say myself.' He did not seek to reflect 'what the music is already saying' but rather add another layer. Later on, composers would create specifically for him. 'What I do usually is take an existing piece, something extraordinarily beautiful by Beethoven or Mozart or baroque. And then give it to a composer and he recomposes it. I like this bridge between the past and the contemporary.' In Chapeau, the piece performed as a flashmob by the dance students tumbling down the opera house roof, he doffs his hat to Prince. 'I love him. Genius. You know, he was in Holland and I was too shy to approach him and then he died a year or so after.' Chapeau was created for the silver jubilee of the hat-loving Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, where Kylián still resides. He and Kupferberg have been shooting a film on the Dutch island of Terschelling and he sees his future in such projects and visual art rather than creating new work for the stage. 'I'm really getting on. The energy is not enough.' We consider the chicken-or-egg question about the choreographer's job of matching music and movement. Kylián recalls creating a duet for Whereabouts Unknown (1993) to be used with Charles Ives's piece Unanswered Question. 'I choreographed it on a Sunday and did the whole six minutes in one day. Then I said, OK, let's try it with the music now. It fit like a glove: they stopped dancing exactly at the end of the music. Sometimes I really don't know how or why things happen. I look at it and think, I'm not sure if it's by me.' He gives me a slightly bashful look about this mysterious, even mystical process which he manages to suggest with both modesty and curiosity. 'I felt like it was said through me.' Kylián festival: Wings of Time is at Oslo Opera House until 14 June. Then touring 18-22 June. Chris Wiegand's trip was provided by the festival.
Local Norway
02-06-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
'Oil corrupts everything': Norway blasted as 'object lesson in hypocrisy'
The Norway Paradox, or Norgeparadoxen , published last month by the leading Swedish investigative journalist Lisa Röstlund, takes a critical look at Norway's claims to be a forerunner in the green transition while continuing to be a major oil and gas producer. "It means that oil corrupts the whole country," Röstlund told Swedish public broadcaster SVT in an interview . "Oil seeps into everything. A large part of the welfare bill is paid by the oil fund. Research, art, culture and sport are often sponsored by oil companies, like the new opera house in Oslo, or the Munch Museum," she said. Röstlund, a journalist for Dagens Nyheter, previously published Skogslandet , a prize-winning investigation of Sweden's forestry industry. The Swedish journalist Lina Röstlund has accused Norway of being "an object lesson in the West's hypocrisy" in a new book. Photo: In her new book, which is part travelogue, part investigation, she shows how Norwegians at all levels of society turn a collective blind eye to the country's dependence on the oil and gas industry. "You really notice that very few people raise their voice against oil, even among researchers," she said. "You can talk about the climate crisis and its consequences in general, but no one turns their gaze onto their own industry." Advertisement She paints a picture of a country where the new wind power developments trumpeted as part of the green transition are then used to pump out more oil and gas, where the number of climate deniers per capita is second only to the US, and where the oil fund invests in fracking companies in the US. Equinor, the state oil company, is continuing to push ahead with new oil and gas developments. This is despite the International Energy Agency concluding in its 2021 Net-zero by 2050 report that no new oil and gas fields should be approved for development after 2021 if the world is to limit global warming to the safe level of 1.5C. The book has already received some pushback in Norway. The Norwegian journalist Hilde Sandvik accused Röstlund of "not fully acknowledging the complexity" of Norway's situation. "Of course it's easy to accuse Norway of having double standards," Sandvik said in the Norsken, Svensken og Dansken podcast. "We've been doing very nicely out of oil for 50 years and we are still living off something that both Europe and the rest of the Nordics are dependent on." But the book, she said, glossed over the fact that Swedish businesses and consumers, and those in Europe as a whole, are also dependent on Norwegian oil and gas, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine made them reluctant to rely on supplies from Russia. Author Röstlund does acknowledges this in the introduction her book, recognising that the entire western world remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels, so Norway is by no means uniquely hypocritical. Advertisement "Nonetheless, I ask myself whether the elephant in the room, which is there in all rich countries, is not most conspicuous in Norway, if it does not have the sharpest contours there," she continues. "The Norwegian elephant in the room is a fantastic object for anyone who wants to study the hypocrisy of the self-congratulating West." She also pre-empts the criticism that she, like many Swedes, simply feels envious of her country's richer Nordic neighbour. "Am I writing this book because I am jealous?" she asks in the intro. "Yes, maybe."
Local Norway
28-04-2025
- Business
- Local Norway
What's open and what's closed in Norway on Labour Day 2025?
May 1st is classified as rød dag in Norway, which, in short, means most people can look forward to a day off from work. It's covered by the same laws that make May 17th a public holiday, but not the same laws for religious public holidays such as Easter. The reason for this is to allow public demonstrations, such as parades and processions, which would not be permitted on a religious public holiday. Essentially, all this means that you can expect closures on May 1st as the same strict rules that close stores at Easter and Christmas apply here. Shops When it comes to groceries, all but small convenience stores will be closed on May 1st. Furthermore, shopping centres and other kinds of stores will also be shut for the day. However, one slight caveat to the rules is that garden centres will be open. May 1st can be a popular day for gardening, although the use of loud machinery like lawnmowers is frowned upon. Furthermore, the sale of alcohol (outside of bars and restaurants) will not be permitted on May 1st, even from the shops that remain open. Norway's wine monopoly will also close, meaning it will not be possible to purchase any alcohol stronger than 4.75 percent for home consumption after 6pm on Wednesday until 10am on Friday. Advertisement Banks It will be best to sort out your banking needs on Wednesday, or earlier if better, as banks will be closed on Thursday. This means you won't be able to pop into your nearest branch. Transferring money between banks may also take longer if you try to do it on Thursday. Banks will reopen as normal on Friday. Healthcare and pharmacies Doctor's offices will close on Labour Day, as will pharmacies. If you need medical care, you can try the out-of-hours medical service. The number for this service is 116 117. Every local authority in Norway has its own out-of-hour medical room if you need to see a doctor. Alternatively, if you find yourself in a life-threatening situation, you should contact the medical emergency number in Norway, 113, and the service will send an ambulance to your location. Advertisement Bars, restaurants and coffee shops While shops and businesses will be closed, you can expect plenty of bars, coffee shops and restaurants choose to remain open on May 1st. In the big cities, plenty of bars in the city centre may even be quite busy as it's normal for unions to lead parades, marches and processions through the streets. For example, the bars around Youngstorget in Oslo will be quite busy on May 1st. Booking ahead may also be useful, given that plenty of people will be free during the day Attractions Most gyms and other exercise centres, like swimming pools and saunas, will remain open. However, things will be more up in the air when it comes to museums. The National Museum and the Munch Museum are closed, while The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History will be open on Labour Day. Things like zoos and theme parks may also choose to remain open. Tusenfryd near Oslo is a theme park that will remain open on Labour Day.
Local Norway
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Local Norway
What's on in Norway: Six fantastic things to look forward to in May 2025
Trondheim Jazz Trondheim Jazz features acts from Europe and the Nordics, as well as lectures on the art of jazz. The festival will take place between May 8th and May 12th. The various concerts will take place at several venues across Norway's former Viking capital. Therefore, it's worth checking out the programme to see who is playing where. Trondheim Jazz Festival has existed in various forms and under several different names since 1980. MaiJazz Running almost alongside Trondheim Jazz will be MaiJazz in Stavanger, which will take place between May 6th and May 10th. The festival started in 1989 and has grown into one of the country's most well-known jazz festivals, so if you are on the west coast – it's worth checking out. There will be several free and paid-for concerts. Jazz lovers will also be able to pay 1,700 kroner for a festival pass. Bergen international festival A mammoth 14-day festival between May 21st and June 4th is the Bergen International Festival , which is one of the country's oldest cultural gatherings. The festival usually offers visitors a blend of theatre, dance, music, opera, and visual art, showcasing both Norwegian and international talent. Each year, the Bergen International Festival captivates audiences with hundreds of live performances staged both indoors and outdoors. Advertisement Last chance to catch exhibitions Early May will be the last chance to visit the Georg Baselitz Feet First exhibition at the Munch Museum. The works of the confrontational and internationally renowned artist feature large upside-down paintings, his reflections on the fragments of post-war Germany and his admiration of Edvard Munch. More than 80 works are displayed. Baselitz has established himself as one of the biggest names on the global contemporary art scene. Meanwhile, the exhibition Hertervig – Hill. Dream and Reality will come to a close at Stavanger Art Museum on May 18th. The exhibition is centred on Norwegian Lars Hertervig and Swede Carl Fredrik Hill. May 17th and other public holidays May 17th is the country's national day and is a fantastic occasion in Norway. People nationwide will be decked out in their national costumes and attend parades with marching bands. Oslo is set to have the largest parade, which makes its way up Karl Johan Street to the Royal Palace. Meanwhile, Bergen puts its own local spin on the annual traditions. The day is a public holiday, meaning that almost all stores and businesses will be closed for the day. The only downside to May 17th this year is that it falls on a Saturday, meaning workers won't receive the day off like they would if it was a weekday. May 1st is Labour Day, so it will be a day off work for most workers in Norway. Meanwhile, Thursday, May 29th, is Ascension Day, which should also mean a day off. Advertisement If you haven't considered it already, it might be worth booking off the Friday, which is an inneklemt dag (meaning squeezed day). Concerts and shows Many of you will unfortunately have to miss out on some of these events as tickets may be hard to come by currently. Tyler, The Creator has a sold-out show at Oslo Spektrum on May 6th, while The Lumineers will perform at the same venue on May 11th. A few days later, Robert Plant (legendary lead singer of Led Zeppelin) will perform at Folketeateret in Oslo, with a handful of tickets still available at the time of writing. Finally, Canadian comedian Russel Peters will perform shows in Oslo and Bergen in early May.
