PHOTOGRAPHS: ADRIENNE PITTS, KULTURPROJEKTE BERLIN/OANA POPA, COURTESY OF COUCOO GRANDS CHÊNES
Way ahead of time and with a dash of surprise that I suspect she’d have appreciated, our director of magazines Sue Coffin recently passed away. Amid the deep shock and sadness for all of us at Lonely Planet, I paused to consider how Sue had made the most of her shortened time on Earth. She adored an imaginative weekend trip, frequently while wearing a T-shirt with the legend ‘#middleagedwomanontour’ across it. I could scarcely keep up with the destinations she had been ticking off her bucket list – for that, I state with no glibness, is precisely what it was. Vilnius, Plovdiv, Marseille, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Genoa and Kraków (alongside, at a greater stretch, Montevideo and Buenos Aires) were all highlights over the past year, variously involving Depeche Mode, bars and cultural explorations… many photos in comedy cardboard cut-outs among them. If you’re sensing a link between the mention of a dearly missed friend and colleague – one who had such a passion for travelling every spare moment she could – and promoting the ethos behind our annual 52 Best Weekends Away issue, then I’ll just say this: Sue, I hope you’re proud of my continuing efforts.