Category Architecture
Harry Potter!
I figure it wouldn’t do to have lived in London for several years without visiting the Harry Potter studios — if for no other reason than to be able to tell the nieces and nephews about it. Tickets are devilish hard to get hold of, so today’s excursion is the fruit of planning done months […]
Edinburgh
I’ve been to Edinburgh before, and I only had a half-day this time. So what do prioritize? The castle, of course. Because it’s kind of a big deal in terms of castles, and because last time we had (correctly) focused on food tours and not freezing to death. Like Stirling castle, Edinburgh castle sits atop […]
Road trip! Falkirk, Scone, St Andrews, Edinburgh
With the Victoria Square guest house as glorious as it was, I was sorely tempted to linger for a leisurely Easter morning reading in the arm chair in front of those windows . . . but no! Travel calls!! Twenty minutes up the road, in the otherwise nondescript town of Falkirk, the Kelpies awaited me. […]
Stirling!
On Saturday morning I checked out of the hotel early and picked a car from near the Glasgow train station. From there it was a quick, sunny drive to Stirling. Did I say it was sunny? This weekend is the best weather we’ve had all year! Anyway, Stirling is a pretty little town full of […]
Glasgow!
What to do with the four-day Easter weekend? Go to Scotland! In a fit of unreason I booked a 7am flight from Gatwick to Glasgow, which meant I had to get up at 3am to get to the airport on time. Since with work and packing and watching Fleabag I didn’t get to bed until […]
Weekend in New York!
I flew in from London on Friday night; Justin landed a couple hours later from Seattle. We rendez-voused at the hotel near Bryant Park and enjoyed what turned out to be just the most lovely spring weekend in the Big Apple. Saturday morning started out with a tasty but disappointingly served breakfast at Le Pain […]
Weekend in the Northeast: Newcastle, Durham, Hadrian’s Wall
On Friday night I took a train from London to Newcastle, checked into a grand-but-faded Victorian hotel next to the train station, and after a few hours’ sleep, woke up to a rather damp weather forecast: Not to be daunted by a little rain, I pulled on my long underwear and all my sweaters and […]
Prehistory in the rain: Stonehenge and Avebury
This morning dawned cold, dark, and wet. Freya had arrived during the night and there was no missing her . . . . . . which made for a delightfully gloomy breakfast in the conservatory of my hotel but put quite literally a damper on the rest of the day. I left Salisbury at 9am […]
Salisbury Cathedral
First weekend in March — time for a road trip! I knew the weather likely wouldn’t be good, and although it’s peak season for daffodils, we’re a bit too early for the best of the gardens. So I decided to go for the timeless: England’s tallest cathedral. Salisbury sits in Wiltshire, about two hours west […]
Finally inside St. Paul’s
I have this philosophy that I should never see absolutely everything there is to see in a place. Setting aside that it would be impossible to actually do that (except, maybe, in Winnemucca), this philosophy means that there’s always a reason to come back One of the “obvious” things that I’ve never done in all […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 