Julian Worker Travel – A few ideas for your next trip in every direction

You can still visit glaciers and coral reefs, and see active volcanoes or wolves without getting on a plane. The journey from the UK is all part of the fun …

Cycle through the Highlands, sail around the UK, run across Wales, photograph wildlife on Dartmoor … and more fabulous activities

For you from some of my recent magazine reading.

China

Like other middle-income countries China has a debt problem about one third of its GDP is tied up in an indebted property sector that appears to be in crisis. Like other middle-income countries China risks “getting old before it gets rich”; its working-age population is shrinking and its death rate may exceed its birth rate this year for the first time.

China has vast environmental degradation, but is advancing technologically at an extraordinary pace, particularly in areas that are pivotal in warfare – not just in hypersonic missiles but quantum computing.

Take a walk among stunning carvings in beautiful settings at one of these art parks

The market town of Ledbury is the picturesque starting point for a nature trek through a county for all seasons

Wonderful places to celebrate the night sky

This book is a travelogue about the cities of northern Spain.

I travelled to Pamplona, Burgos, San Sebastian, Valladolid, Segovia, Leon, Gijon, Oviedo, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra, A Coruna, and Vigo on board the fast, modern trains of the Spanish railways.

I describe the history of these places along with the sights seen plus some food and drink options available to all.

The cities range from the familiar such as Pamplona with its bull running and Leon with its world-famous cathedral to those not so well-known cities such as Pontevedra with its pedestrianised centre and A Coruna where I saw the world’s oldest lighthouse.

There are extra stories about two pilgrimages of my own – to see the modern architecture of Santiago Calatrava in Valencia and to watch Lionel Messi play football in Barcelona.

With the landscape laid bare, now is the perfect time to explore the stark UK countryside

Cycle through the Highlands, sail around the UK, run across Wales, photograph wildlife on Dartmoor … and more fabulous activities

Based on James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece, here’s a pilgrimage you can fit into a single day