Category Art
Nymphenburg Palace
The upside of staying in a skeezy neighborhood next to the Munich train station? I was just that much closer to getting out to see Nymphenburg, the Bavarian royal family’s summer palace. The original baroque palace was built in the 17th Century, and then was expanded in the 18th Century and again in the 19th […]
A palace and a play
King Henry VIII was quite the king. All those wives and the drama with the Catholic Church and the fantastic Holbein portraits. Yesterday I went to see where he used to live. Hampton Court Palace is about 15 miles up the Thames from London and claims to be the largest medieval palace in Europe (certainly […]
Portraits and pizza
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to do something interesting every weekend, even if I have to spend the rest of the weekend working or preparing my US tax return or otherwise stuck in front of a computer. This weekend I picked the National Portrait Gallery. I had never visited before because, well, I […]
Exploring Edinburgh
What a lovely, charming city! We lucked out with clear, sunny weather during the few hours of daylight (sunrise at 8:45am, sunset at 3:45pm) to explore this northern capital of Scotland. Given how limited our time would be, we stayed mainly in the Old Town and soaked up the ancient atmosphere. The castle dominates the […]
Towers, churches, and polenta dolce in Bergamo’s Citta Alta
I’m in Italy this weekend with my twin sister, Heather, and her husband and in-laws. The in-laws are living in Milan as mission presidents, but they took a break from presidential duties to show us around. We started out this morning with a stop in Bergamo, where we spent an hour or so exploring the […]
Sunsets and sushi in Seattle
Impromptu midweek date nights are the best. Especially when you know that in three more days you’ll be back on opposite sides of the Atlantic. We bagged the usual work-night routine (which now that one of us lives in London is neither usual nor routine) in favor of a stroll through the Olypic Sculpture Park […]
And of course some serious culture, too
When I needed a break from the heat, I left the gardens behind and sought refuge in some of Madrid’s art museums. They’re fully air conditioned, have lovely cafes, and some of the best art in the world. I started with the Prado, which is truly one of the top museums in the world. I […]
Rainy day at the gallery
What to do with a rainy Saturday in London? Sleep late, breakfast on Nutella and English muffins (here they’re just called “toasting muffins”), and head out to see some of London’s indoor sights. The Churchill War Rooms were at the top of my list, but the line — I just couldn’t even. So I went […]
Saturday in London
Compared to the difficulties I had trying to get to Brussels, it was a cinch getting to London. The small commuter plane left the tiny Luxembourg airport bright and early, touching down in the London City airport an hour later (though with the time zone change, we only lost about 10 minutes). I checked into […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 