30 April 10, 2022The Sunday TimesTravel
The tattoo artist and singer
owns an abandoned castle in
Spain and is a fan of Prague
MY HOLS
KAT
VON D
I was born in
Montemorelos, a small
town in Nuevo Leon,
Mexico. I’m the middle
child with an older sister, Karoline, and
younger brother, Michael. We were poor
and didn’t take many vacations, but when
we did go away, we’d visit touristy
Mexican beach towns like Acapulco and
Mazatlan. I didn’t travel until I was older
and went on my book tour.
When I was five or six, we moved to
America. We lived in San Bernardino,
a small city two hours east of Los
Angeles. It was fairly desolate and
there wasn’t much going on — there
was no Starbucks or any corporate
stores. There were a lot of
tumbleweeds, but it was a good
transition going from a really simple
life to a slightly less simple one.
I’m the black sheep of the family
and aged 15 I was sent to the same
troubled-teens facility in Utah that
Paris Hilton went to and exposed
to the shocking way they treated
pupils. I’m surprised it’s still open —
it was the most traumatic period of
my life. When I was 17, I moved to
Hollywood, which was wild and
crazy by contrast. The music
aspect appealed to me and the
fact that art is so nurtured there.It felt welcoming to outsiders and I finally
had a sense of belonging, because when
you look like a weirdo and you’re in the
middle of nowhere, you stick out.
I love how Los Angeles is so spread
out; there’s the beach, downtown,
mountainous areas and even pockets of
nature. In 2007 I set the Guinness
World Record for doing the most
tattoos in a 24-hour period. I
designed an LA logo and tattooed
400 people. We raised a lot of
money for Vitamin Angels, a
charity that helps to supply
vitamins to underdeveloped
countries, where kids go blind
owing to a lack of nutrients.
I adore the seasons and cold
weather, which LA doesn’t have, so
I used to go to Finland in winter.
But my favourite city is Prague — I
love the architecture. I’m a big
Beethoven nerd and he lived in an
apartment there that I’ve visited
several times. I try to incorporate
days off in my tour itinerary and I
get up early to sightsee.
In London I always used to stay
at the big fancy hotels until ICharles Bridge spans the Vltava River in Prague, which is one of Kat Von D’s favourite placesfound the Karma Sanctum Soho, which
is very rock’n’roll. There’s a mural of
Jimi Hendrix in reception and beautiful
photographs of some of the bands that
have shaped my musical career, like
Siouxsie and the Banshees. Something
about that place feels like home to me.
I lived there for two months when I was
recording my album and I always book
a room with a bathtub.
I’m such a workaholic and have never
taken a vacation, so I’m lucky that my
work has taken me to so many cool
places, everywhere from Australia to
France. I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain
and found an abandoned castle outside
of Barcelona that I’m restoring. It was
built in the 1700s and it’s in the middle
of nowhere, about an hour away from
Girona. Maybe we’ll retire to Spain
when my son is older and leaves home.
I’m not a fan of the Florida humidity
as my eyebrows fall off and the idea of
having a tornado season is wild, but I’m
obsessed with the Coral Castle in
Miami-Dade County. About 100 years
ago Edward Leedskalnin supposedly
built it for his unrequited love by
himself. He used some very crude,almost brutalist stone pieces, weighing
30 tonnes.
Chicago is one of my favourite US
cities; it’s like New York and LA had a
baby. There’s a prominent artistic and
Chicano community, so it’s a great place
for really good Mexican food. I also feel a
kinship with Texas and love touring there.
I’ve almost hit everywhere on my
bucket list, but I haven’t been to Korea
or Turkey. The Turkish have influenced
architecture in Spain and Portugal for
so many years, and I’m constantly
around Spanish
architecture in LA, so I
would love to go to where
it originally came from.Kat Von D, 40, is best known as a tattoo
artist on the television show LA Ink.
Her debut album Love Made Me Do It
was released in 2021. On Wednesday
she will be releasing Enough and Lost
at Sea (Bat Cave Mixes), featuring Dave
Grohl on drums. Her vegan shoe range
is available from vondshoes.com. She
lives in Los AngelesInterview by Shelley Rubensteina small
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getaCharles Bserved breakfast and dinner
(excluding drinks) in the
Cameron Grill, one of the
hotel’s six restaurants.
For more details about
Cameron House’s blend of
modern luxury and baronial
grandeur — combined with
enough facilities and
activities to fill an entire week
— visit cameronhouse.co.uk.
The prize must be taken
before September 30, 2022,
subject to availability and
excluding public holidays.The winner and guest will
enjoy a two-night Unrivalled
Adventure package at
Cameron House, the five-star
resort at the southern end of
Loch Lomond. The package
includes accommodation in a
handsome Auld House suite,
as well as unlimited access to
a curated range of activitieson the loch and in the
countryside around it. These
include paddleboarding,
golf, mountain biking, a forest
tour and a trip on the swanky
Celtic Warrior motor cruiser.
Also included is entry to the
Cameron Leisure Club, home
to two pools, a gym, sauna
and steam room.
During their stay, the
winner and guest will beOnly one entry per person,
at thesundaytimes.co.uk/
wherewasi by Wednesday.
Normal Times Newspapers
rules apply. No correspondence
will be entered into.The answers are Eric Idle
and St Peter. Christine Dixon
of South Yorkshire wins a
five-star break in Crete with
St Nicolas Bay and Inspiring
Travel Company.successful; the second,
marked by a plaque 600
yards further on, was not.
Still, Friend is inspired. He
wants an adventure too, and
is sure we can find it on a river
that winds through the city,
broadly southwards. Dinghy
sailing, kayaking, rowing —
he doesn’t mind which.
“What, in this weather?”
I shout as we’re raked by
another gust.
“Oh come on, it’ll sort the
wheat from the chaff,” he
tells me. “Besides, it’ll be
more sheltered up there.”
“Near, far, wherever you
are thinking of, I’m not
coming,” I tell him.
“We’ll have life jackets!”
Friend splutters. What could
possibly go wrong?”
“On an anniversary like this
one, quite a lot,” I growl.
Sean NewsomCOMPETITION
WHERE WAS I?
THE QUESTIONS
THE PRIZE
HOW TO ENTER
LAST WEEK’S PRIZE
WIN A
FIVE-STAR
BREAK
ON LOCH
LOMOND
AT CAMERON
HOUSE
RATNAKORN PIYASIRISOROST/GETTY IMAGES; STARTRAKS/SHUTTERSTOCKFriend and I are standing on a
causeway by a rare and aged
production facility. It’s a
blustery, blue-skied day, and
as the sun sparkles on the
wind-furrowed creek below
we agree that there are worse
places in which to endure the
daily grind. Maybe that’s one
of the reasons people have
been working this site for
more than 900 years.
A slice of toast in the
facility’s café is a must. But
we don’t linger. Today we’re
embarking on a tour of a
nearby city. We cross a bridge
heading east-northeast, then
turn southeast past an area
dominated by well-travelled
boxes. Our first stop is a
stretch of 14th-century walls
that were prompted by the
arrival of visitors from France.
Then we visit memorials to
two famed departures. The
first, commemorated by a tall
and slender monument 3½
miles east-southeast of the
production facility, was — in
the long run — spectacularly1 What’s the name of the
aged production facility?
2 In what year was the first
commemorated departure? *