Brian Cox’s favourite places on Earth

“My favourite thing that I’ve ever been involved with” is how Professor Brian Cox, everyone’s pet particle physicist, describes his latest endeavour. Over several nights this summer, he’ll be presenting Symphonic Horizons at London’s Royal Opera House. An astronomical extravaganza that combines out-of-this-world space imagery with classical music played by the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Daniel Harding, it attempts to make some sort of sense of our place in the Milky Way’s 400 billion stars and the observable universe’s two trillion galaxies.

The show is essentially a supercharged version of the orchestra-free Horizons show that Cox initially kicked off a couple of years ago, which features him musing on the nature of space and time and other cosmological conundrums. He initially thought it would last for six months, but Horizons has since taken him on a seemingly never-ending Earth odyssey. Prior to that, his various Wonders of… BBC TV series had already seen him visit some of the world’s furthest flung corners. It therefore comes as no surprise that he’s now on the verge of attaining lifetime Gold membership of the British Airways Executive Club.

We asked Cox to talk about seven wonderful places he’s visited on the third rock from the Sun.

Ethiopia

Some of Cox’s favourite places on Planet Earth are those where its subterranean forces are vividly on show. In Ethiopia, he visited Erta Ale, the country’s most active volcano, which is famous for its lava lake. It’s as difficult to get to as it is visually striking, says Cox. But worth it. “If you can get there, it’s quite wonderful,” he adds. “And Addis Ababa is a great city.”

Iceland

Maintaining the volcanic theme, Iceland is another much loved destination for Cox, and one that has lessons to teach us. “One of the great things about travel is that you can let your mind wander about the things that you’re seeing, and what you see there is plate tectonics,” he says with trademark enthusiasm. “You can actually go diving in the gap between the North American plate and the Eurasian plate! Plate tectonics is one of the things that are necessary for complex life on the planet, because it regulates the composition of the atmosphere. You go to Iceland and think, ‘What am I looking at?’ You’re looking at one of the reasons why we exist.”

New York

Cox is also a lover of big cities. He talks fondly of his very first visit to New York. “Growing up, I’d always loved it and I’m not sure why – maybe it was watching Woody Allen films or something,” he says. “The first time I finally went there, I remember going over the bridge into Manhattan, and that skyline was everything I’d ever thought it would be. It was magical.”

Sydney

Cox’s Symphonic Horizons show got its first outing last year in Sydney, and it’s a city that holds a special place in Cox’s heart. “It’s quite small but it seems to have everything,” he says. “And it’s such a great site for a city on that wonderful ocean. I think a city needs to have something iconic about it, and Sydney has both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. And by the way, it’s a wonderful thing that one of those icons is an opera house. There aren’t many places in the world where the first thing you think about is an arts venue!”

Sofia

Cox’s Horizons tour took him to the Balkans earlier this year, and he was very pleasantly surprised. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “It turned out that there were beautiful intact Roman ruins all around Sofia. It’s a beautiful city. As is Zagreb. They’re places that you don’t necessarily think of in terms of a weekend city break, but they’re really worth visiting.”

Tokyo

“I like to be confused when I travel,” says Cox. “I love going to places where I feel I’m in another world, and when you first step foot in Tokyo, it just doesn’t compute. It’s so dramatic and bright, it’s an exciting place to go.” He also has a soft spot for Japan’s less vibrant former capital, Kyoto. “It has a very different feel,” he says. “It’s a beautiful, almost spiritual place. The whole region is a very nice place to visit.”

Singapore

“On my way to Australia or New Zealand I always enjoy a night or two in Singapore,” Cox says, although he finds it difficult to put his finger on what in particular he likes about the place. “I really don’t know, I’ve been going there for decades,” he adds. “I think there’s something exotic but at the same time easy about Singapore.”

Professor Brian Cox and Daniel Harding: Symphonic Horizons is at London’s Royal Opera House from 30 July to 4 August