Monthly Archives: October 2015

It’s been two weeks since our return and we are sliding back into home and the city quite comfortably – though it is disconcerting to find places gone, moved or otherwise different than we left them in New York. Why, we feel like tourists!

Last day, last museum, last walk around an ancient city. We have come to the end of our 28 weeks of travels and adventures. It’s hard to remember back to April 1, when we first discovered Nice. (Just like America before Columbus, it didn’t really exist till we set foot on its shores.)

In late 1996, the Metropolitan Museum held a major retrospective exhibition of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s works, and we fell in love. It was clear that we would have to go to Glasgow to see more one day, and today was the day.

Most would agree that sunny days are preferable to dark and gloomy ones. But how much of a difference do they make?

Is it the water? The rain? The stones? The haggis? What makes Edinburgh so rich in writers cherished around the world?

Eighteenth-century poet Allan Ramsay looks over the crowds on Princes Street, with Edinburgh Castle as his back, as he has since 1865. He must marvel at the changes this city has seen. We certainly do, and it has only been 31 years since our last visit – just yesterday, in the scheme of Edinburgh’s history.

We gave ourselves another day just to explore this lovely city, now that we have the official and obligatory tours and sights covered.

York is as good a place to study English history as we will find on this trip, we think. It experienced a full range of invasions and conquests, and so much of historical note took place here that we are reeling from the sheer volume of it all.

There was one more experience left for us in Liverpool today. We booked our visit to both John and Paul’s houses, as one cannot simply just appear at their doors, as fans did in the good old days.

We went well beyond the Beatles in the last two days to better understand the great city of Liverpool. One of the most important trading ports in the world, this city is full of many grand buildings have been constructed in the city as headquarters for appropriate for great shipping firms, insurance companies, banks and other largeContinue reading “Tough, proud and going strong”