From Mexico to outer space, Patrick Stewart on his life in travel
By virtue of his illustrious acting career, Sir Patrick Stewart’s passport is more stamped than most. The Star Trek and X-Men star and accomplished theatre veteran recalls learning to ski at 72, stumbling upon ancient Mayan ruins with his wife in Mexico and tells us why he won’t be joining Sir Richard Branson on an intergalactic cruise-ship any time soon.
What essential accessories must you bring on your travels?
I always travel with a ziplock bag of Yorkshire Gold teabags, my iPad and my IWC Schaffhausen watch.
Do you prefer the beach of the slopes?
Well I couldn’t actually ski until five years ago. My in-laws have a cabin in the mountains near Tahoe and, at 72, they forced me to learn. ‘No no no,’ I thought, ‘it’s much too late, I’ll break my neck, I’ll break something’. I had an instructor for four mornings, 16 hours of one-on-one instruction in total. On the fourth morning, my instructor – a very patient Austrian woman – wished me good luck and pushed me onto a lift. I went up to the top of the mountain and I skied down it. Now I’m technically an intermediate-level skier. But I’m a diver too.
Where's best for diving?
The Sea of Cortez [off Mexico's Baja Peninsula] was awesome. My friend’s a marine biologist and I went diving off his research vessel a decade ago. At one point he pushed my head under the water just in time for me to see a huge whale shark swim between us and the boat.
You most adventurous holiday?
Mexico. My wife and I flew into Merida and then zigzagged all over the Yucatan peninsula – driving along tracks, not even roads – tracking down still-unexcavated Mayan ruins in the jungle. They were awesome because they hadn’t been cleaned up in any way at all. We had wonderful times exploring those and also the otherworldly, underground lakes, or cenotes, that belie the Gulf of Mexico. In some of them, the earthy ceiling above has collapsed forming an island in the middle of the lake below. The water was teaming with all kinds of wildlife. I didn’t dare take a plunge but my wife did.
Your favourite holiday resort?
The Belmond Maroma Resort in Mexico.
A place that surprised you?
In 1961 I stayed in Melbourne for a long time with the Old Vic Company and Vivien Leigh, where I became embroiled in the art scene, forming good friendships with Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd. But I didn’t fully appreciate it until I visited again decades later while filming Moby Dick. There’s so much going on: great museums, a great concert hall, delightful people, wonderful food – seafood in particular – and it's so close to the outback.
Best museum?
I know you have the Uffizi in Florence, The Metropolitan in New York, The Getty and so on, but the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City’s Chapultepec park is the most magnificent I’ve ever seen. It deals exclusively with Central American culture. They have one of those headdresses, with all the coloured feathers in it – an original, the kind you see Atahualpa wearing in The Royal Hunt of the Sun.
The most cinematic view you've ever seen?
Two immediately spring to mind. There’s an ancient fortress called Masada perched atop a plateau in Israel. From there you can look down onto the Dead Sea and across to the mountains of Jordan and beyond. I was incredibly moved by that view. Switzerland’s Engadin Valley was stunning too. While filming The Gift a couple of years ago we stayed there, in the village of Sils-Maria, Nietzsche’s birthplace. It’s unusual in that the mountains rise almost at a right-angle from the valley floor. Our crew set up at 8,000 feet above sea-level – the view down the channel stretched all the way to St. Moritz. It was sublime.
Companies like Virgin Galactic are preparing to offer trips to space. Are you interested?
I would absolutely love to do it, but not for the prices they’re charging for four minutes of weightlessness. I can drink half a bottle of scotch and get the same feeling!
