One day, I booked us in for afternoon tea at The Dome, a very old building in Edinburgh. I didn’t eat breakfast since I knew there would be a lot of delicious things to eat. The building is lavishly gorgeous and inside too: the flowers, wallpaper, chandelier. The doorman directed us up the stairs to …
Author Archives: steelgirl58
Edinburgh: so much to love
Edinburgh is a city of contrasts: ancient and very new, stone and green, hilly and flat. Our first morning here we had breakfast at the Tree Cafe, situated a stone’s throw from Bruntsfield Links and the Meadows park. Our breakfast was great. Will noticed the golf clubs leaning in the corner of the cafe, available …
Chaos and Kindness
Tuesday was our day to leave Richmond and head north to Edinburgh. It became a day of experiencing “keep calm, carry on”. . We found a great taxi driver at the station in Richmond who wound his way through narrow streets and parts of highways to get us into London for Kings Cross station. Just …
Hello England
It’s been 40 years since I landed at Heathrow and visited London. When some lovely island neighbors offered us the use of their flat in Richmond(part of Greater London), we couldn’t resist adding it to our travel plans. Delta Airlines was surprisingly easy to get on the phone and within minutes, our original first destination …
Flora and Fauna
The growing season here is like our spring and summer combined. The flower pots I’ve seen in various places have combinations of plants that look to be quite hardy for cold. I see calendula mixed with other plants like kale everywhere- in the north as well as in Reykjavik. On Friday, I visited the Botanical …
Art and Creativity
There’s so much creative thinking in Iceland, evident everywhere I look. It’s been inspiring to see so much creative energy and the ways it gets expressed.
North Iceland: Water: cold and hot
Charles arrived early Sunday morning, and we headed north. The thermal river experience had us ready to seek out more warm soaks. As we drove, we were often surrounded by mountains with melting snow, waterfalls cascading in large and small crevices, and fiords slipping in between green fields and plains. Thanks to Will and Charles …
South Iceland
For our first post-pandemic travel foray, Will and I chose Iceland. We’d come up a few years ago on a brief visit and decided we had to come back in summer when the daylight lasts nearly til midnight. Traveling with masks on the ferry, bus, and plane is tiring for sure, and I was really …
A Dutch holiday week
A short flight over the North Sea landed me in Amsterdam airport, where it’s easy to get a train into the city. Will met me off the train with a big smile and huge hug. The houseboat we rented for the weekend was near where we stayed last spring. It’s a great neighborhood to explore, …
Final days at the cottage
It feels like suddenly it was my last week at the cottage, and I still had so many things I wanted to do. My fellow Workawayers were due to leave 2 days after me and they were feeling the same way. It made for a busy week. The photo above is a bouquet I cut …
Birdgirl’s travels 