Category Travel
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 […]
Gravestones and Jeeves in Stoke Newington
The middle weekend of February. The second of three weekends that I set aside to do my U.S. taxes. Ugh. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still do something interesting! I spent all morning figuring out the accounts for my house in Seattle, which I’m renting through Airbnb (surprise: it’s making money), and then hopped […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 