The last thing you'd expect in this distant corner of Scotland is a smart, buzzy outpost of Islington…

5 Bank Street, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis (01851 700 026). Meal for two, with wine and service, £70-£100

It is my last night on dry land, and outside the restaurant the streets of Stornoway are being washed by a hard summer rain. In the

Bristol throws open the doors to its 52 green houses on 11 and 12 September

There's knowing how much energy your home uses (see "Can I use energy and be green?" column ) and then there's doing something about it. We hear a lot about sustainable housing stock and the retrofitting of

There is no reception, no bar, no restaurant and no room service, but Berge, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, is the ultimate mountain retreat

It's been raining for days. The sky is a murky grey and the mountains, rising steeply just a few hundred metres away, are a blur. After a 90-minute train journey from Munich, I am standing outside the tiny station of Aschau, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, waiting for Nils Holger Moormann, the celebrated and somewhat eccentric furniture designer, to pick me up.

I'm