Scotland visit

We stayed for two nights in Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow is an industrial town, so there aren't alot of tourists. Still, we enjoyed the people and the places we visited. I discovered a fabric store and ordered a half meter of fabric! We stayed in a lovely hotel, called the Blythswood. This is the view from our room.

A view of Glasgow streets.

We discovered a very special restaurant near our hotel called "Two Fat Ladies." We ate there one night.

We thought the restaurant was connected to a TV show with the same name. (Is it on any more? I don't think so) But a waitress explained that it was named after the number 88, its address at another location. 88 kinda looks like two fat ladies, get it? One of the fat ladies from the TV show did visit this restaurant and gave it her blessing.

We had one of our favorite meals there, lemon sole, yum yum. Then for desert we shared a slice of mango pie with berries and chocolate sorbet. So good!

I used this tote the whole time. It was great, not too big. Small was good, so I wasn't toting around a super-heavy load. I also carried a fun purse, the "Tomato Traveller." I don't think I have a photo of that.

The next day we took the train to Edinburgh. This was one of the lovely views along the route.

Edinburgh was our favorite place on this trip. It is a lovely, walkable place. Our hotel, the Balmoral, gave us wonderful views, including this one.

Another great view from our hotel windows.

 

 

 

We were amused by the giant photo of Sean Connery from "Casino Royale" in our bathroom. Dave thinks "Goldfinger." Any opinions out there?

I thought this was a very stylish makeup mirror, also in the hotel bathroom.

We visited the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, which was disappointing. But I liked the neon on the front of the building. It's hard to see, but it says "Everything will be alright."

I have several photos from Edinburgh Castle, and I will share those in my next post.

London 2013

We finally made it to London, a bit low on sleep (redeye to from Montreal to Heathrow). We had already seen the usual sights like Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum and Harrods, so on this visit we did other things.

One day we took the train to York. We loved taking the trains; they are clean, plentiful and on time.

We only had time for a quick lunch and a walk into the older part of town.

York was crawling with tourists. Not so much Americans, but Europeans. It was a Sunday.

The next day was the London Marathon. While we saw runners at a distance, we had other fish to fry.

We took the Underground to the Tate Modern. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. First we had a delicious lunch in the museum restaurant, and then we looked at all the art.

A small sampling of the art we saw there. There were four or five floors.

 

 

 

 

By the end, Dave's ankle was bothering him, so he relaxed while I gazed.

 

 

We saw a beautiful artsy bridge by the museum, so we're heading out to explore it.

It's one of many bridges crossing the Thames.

 

That's me on the far right.

 

 

 

We had a nice view of the Shard from the bridge. A cabby told us that it was all finished. It only looks like it is still under construction on the top!

St. Paul's cathedral was at the other end of the bridge.

I had to snap a photo of one of the many taxi cabs. They were so cute, usually black but sometimes in wild colors like this one.

The next day, we boarded the train again, this time for Scotland.

400th post; Binghamton and Quacks

We went to a play center in Bingamton, NY; the zoo was closed, but this was fun for Samantha. This is a giant bubble maker; she kept popping the bubble before it got too big.

Sammy loved the pretend diner. She cooked and served us all elaborate meals.

There were fun things to explore outdoors, too.

 

 

 

 

 

On our final morning in New York, we ate breakfast at Quack's and posed with Samantha.

I'm wearing my new packable puffer jacket. I wore it every day of the trip.

Goodbye until next time! We're headed for London.

Short Visit to New York

The first leg of our recent trip was central NY to visit our daughter and family. Here are some photos from this visit.

This was the wonderful winter farmer's market at Poolville; most of their products have already sold. My daughter is co-manager.

 Love this photo of Samantha, Martine and Jack.

We took a break to swing Sammy out back. That's Martine's friend Heather.

Samantha's friend Claire is on the other swing.

We stayed in Cooperstown the first night - no rooms in Hamilton.

She's wearing the new sweater I made her. It should fit her next winter, too.

 

These are the baby goats that they have on order. They can take them home in a few weeks, when they are weaned.

These are Nigerian goats. They stay small and are very gentle.

They are getting them to help mow the grass around the fruit trees on their farm.

I have a few more New York photos, and then I will post photos from our UK trip.

home from our trip to the UK

We've been gone for three weeks! We visited our daughter and fam in central NY, then headed for England, Scotland and Ireland. It was a great trip, and I'll be sharing photos one of these days.

Trip detritus: rail tickets, maps, ear buds from plane, room keys, etc.

Some things I packed were useful, such as this little bag on a string, made by my friend Joanell. It was useful at various airports: it held my passport and boarding pass so I didn't have to fumble for them.

One thing I packed that wasn't useful was this vintage passport holder. I took it to France in 1969!

It's a pretty blue and I think it's kinda cool, but it was easier to keep my passport packed next to my wallet in my purse most of the time.

When we got home, we discovered our pomegranate tree was loaded with blossoms!

This mug was also waiting for me in the mail when I got home. It's my premium for subscribing to KCRW, and it reminded me of quilting designs, sort of.

Trip photos soon...