Dede Sophie

I just spent a fun time in vegan Madrid, mostly thanks to the fact that this is one European city where vegan and travel are perfectly aligned – the vegan Spanish food is done so well here that no one can say you are missing out and aren’t eating authentic Spanish food. Literally, I can’t stress this enough, the vegan meats, cheeses and fish that I had in Madrid were so authentic, so convincing and so much like the ‘real’ thing I often had to triple check that the foods were vegan (which is hard when you don’t speak Spanish).  I went to Spain five times as a non-vegan and had my fair share of authentic Spanish food, let me tell you, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between vegan Spanish food and non-vegan Spanish food in Madrid in terms of quality and authenticity. If you’re looking for an authentic Spanish gastro holiday, you’ve found it. And for those of you that don’t want to be reminded of the taste of meats, cheeses and fish, don’t worry, there are plenty of delicious

They contain some of the oldest surviving Hindu temples and iconography in India. They are a 5th century cave wonder. Many relics and sculptures from this place can be found in museums across the country. I am talking about the twenty rock cut caves at Udayagiri in Madhya Pradesh. Located just 60 kms from the capital city of Bhopal, Udayagiri caves is a group of temples and monasteries from the Gupta era that were carved out of a hill. These rock-cut caves contain iconography of Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Shaivism and Jainism. While Jainism is limited to only one cave, the other 19 caves are dedicated to Hinduism. Udayagiri, which literally means ‘sunrise mountain’, was following Surya tradition since 3rd century BCE. During the prime of Buddhism at Sanchi, Buddhism made its way to Udayagiri in the 2nd century BCE. And these rock-cut caves were built under the patronage of Chandragupta II in the late decades of the 4th century. By then, Hinduism had firmly planted its roots at Udayagiri. T

Opel has changed the name of its battery electric version of the Mokka SUV to Mokka Electric rather than Mokka-e, writes Brian Byrne. The car also gets a new 54kWh battery, increasing the rated range by 20pc to 406km. Mokka was the first Opel available from launch with fully electric drive as well as combustion engines, thus giving customers the choice of which drive suits their needs best. In November, no less than 65pc of all Mokka customers in Germany opted for the battery-electric variant. Twelve electrified Opel models are already available today, including a range of light commercial vehicles. By 2024, the manufacturer will also offer every model in an electrified version. And by 2028, Opel expects become an all-electric brand in Europe. 

It has been a good while since I was in a Jeep, writes Brian Byrne, and though the second generation of the Jeep Compass has been around since early 2018, changes for last year have made it a car that surprises. Slight modifications to the lights and bumper and a somewhat wider grille might not seem much, but visually they have tanked up the look of the brand’s competitor to the likes of Nissan’s current Qashqai or Toyota’s Corolla Cross. Inside has been more substantially modernised, with the dashboard no longer a throwaway retrospective of post-millennium Americana.  Pending the arrival of a new set of Jeeps to Europe, which will be spearheaded by the all-electric Avenger, the Compass is now the flag-carrier for the brand in the compact SUV segment, with the demise of the Cherokee. The Compass is built on a stretched version of the funky Renegade, but presents as an altogether smoother big brother. Think ballroom svelte instead of the morning after an Ibiza disco. Though the ballroom