Getting the flavour of…

Kayaking down the Nile Most visitors to the Nile “travel comfortably along the river on tourist ships”, says Patrick Scott in the FT. But there’s a better way to cover the 125-mile stretch from Aswan to Luxor – on a kayak. You paddle for five days downriver, but a boat with showers and a kitchen serves as your “campsite”, and you don’t need to be an “extreme athlete” to keep up. Each day takes you past a “parade” of hazily beautiful landscapes; there are “bracing swims” to enjoy, and stops to visit ancient sites. As you drift along, the river’s surface is in constant flux, transforming from an inky black at daybreak to a glimmering silver as the sun goes down, and you get to appreciate the great Nile from a perspective that most tourists never see. The Nile Kayak Club (www.nilekayakclub.com) has tours for about £242pp, excluding flights. Fossil hunting in Yorkshire Saltwick Bay is a rich hunting ground for fossil lovers, says Kevin Rushby in The Guardian. This small cove, east of Whitby, is littered with perfect ammonites concealed in rocks. The uninitiated will find it impossible to work out which rocks are likely to contain one, but a guide armed with a geological hammer can help. It may only take a quick tap to reveal a prize “moulded by 180 million years” – to find “something from so deep in the past” is an almost magical experience. Other treasures to be found on this beach include lumps of Whitby jet, a black, semi-precious stone made from the fossilised wood of an ancient strain of the monkey puzzle tree. Further out, at low tide, you can see the iron skeleton of the Admiral von Tromp – one of many “unfortunate ships” to have foundered on this wild stretch of coast. Hidden Horizons (01723-817017; www.hiddenhorizons.co.uk) runs three-hour fossil hunts for £25pp.

Architecture in Aragon’s capital The capital of Spain’s Aragon region, Zaragoza is crammed with architectural wonders, says Amanda Linfoot in The Times – from the beautifully detailed tiles in La Seo cathedral, to the “ballsy” Plaza del Pilar, to the “monolithic” Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, its towers and cupolas decorated in yellow, green, blue and white geometric patterns. Francisco de Goya was born 30 miles away, so, naturally, the city has a museum dedicated to the artist; its collection includes his series of prints The Disasters of War. In 1808-09, 54,000 people died when Napoleon’s forces laid siege to Zaragoza – and Goya “didn’t shrink from the horror”. His depictions of the slaughter “stop you in your tracks”. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) has one-way fares from Stansted from £19.99. Visit www.zaragoza.es/turismo.