Archive for the Category ◊ History and Archaeology ◊

10 Sep 2009 Exploring Caledonia: Part I

A Week in Caledonia

I began writing this shortly before we left Britain, but then life caught up, and in the chaos of returning to the US, it got set aside. As I write these words now, it has been nearly a month and a half since we landed in the US and a month since we returned to Albuquerque.  Life has been…  Very good, but very busy since the return.  But the memories of Britain and Europe are still strong, and part of our hearts still live there, I think.

So now I flip back through my notes and the feel and scents of Scotland return to me.  I will do my best to transcribe some of them, but there’s a great deal to say, so this may take more than one post and some time to get out.  (Not aided, I know, by my incurable verbosity.)  Think of it as a slow-motion discovery for each of you — you’ll never know when another bit of it will pop up.  But I’ll do my best to at least finish up Scotland before, oh, say, Christmas…

One of the final tour targets for the great Rati-Lane British Isles tours was Scotland. We’d been hoping to hit all of the major regions/countries of the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland), but we still missed Ireland.  Ah well — good reason to return at some point.  ;-)

We had to decide on something, and we had really needed a work-free vacation, so we packed our bags and headed North.  A lot happens in a week of intense vacationing, so there’s quite a bit to report.  We’ll start with:

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17 May 2009 Rocks Rock! More on Stonehenge et al.

I have been meaning to follow up on the Stonehenge/Avebury trip, beyond the teaser photos that we posted. more…

26 Apr 2009 Quick Stonehenge pic

Just back from a fantastic trip to Stonehenge and Avebury (courtesy of a couple of local London friends, who played fantastic tour guides for a day). As always, there’s much more to say, but in the interest of getting something up soon, rather than a thorough post later (or, sadly often, not at all), here’s at least a couple of pics:

Stonehenge, seen from the center of the circle

Stonehenge, seen from the center of the circle

Trilithon backlit by the early morning sun

Trilithon backlit by the early morning sun

13 Apr 2009 Royal badasses

A recent voluble tour guide was lecturing us about the history of York and, while telling us about the ruins of their abbey, he started a remark:

“And then, when Henry took the throne, he…”

I had to interrupt (being a loud and obnoxious American), “Which Henry?”

He stopped his flow of lecture and blinked.  “The Eighth, of course.  We’ve only had two monarchs, you know: Henry and Elizabeth.  All the rest were just placeholders…”
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10 Apr 2009 The view from the bus

So, Mom and Dad are visiting us for Holy Week.  We should have a post about Palm Sunday services in St. Paul’s Cathedral, but this post is not that post.  This post is about a bus tour.

Magdalen College Tower in Oxford

Magdalen College Tower in Oxford

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17 Mar 2009 Versailles

In the delightfully (we hope) non-linear order of travel log episodes, I thought I would share our trip to the Palace of Versailles as part of our weekend in Paris at the end of February.

The Palace of Versailles with a bit of obligatory scaffolding

The Palace of Versailles with a bit of obligatory scaffolding

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09 Mar 2009 Home of Zero

A couple of weeks ago, while our friends David and Jen were visiting from Boston, we all went to Greenwich to visit the Royal Observatory. more…

06 Mar 2009 Empire of the Dead
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Two weekends ago, we were in Paris.  It was a whirwind tour, so there’s a lot to say about it.  But a quick post and some pics on one of the less widely known Parisian attractions: the catacombs.

"Stop!  Here is the Empire of the Dead."

"Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead."

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25 Feb 2009 A bit of Egypt in Madrid

There are so many backlogged (backblogged?) things that we’ve been meaning to post about.  Here’s a quick one… more…

05 Feb 2009 Museum followup

As a small follow-up to Susan’s post on our visits to the British Museum, here’s a photo that I really liked of Susan in the new courtyard:

Susan in the new atrium of the British Museum.

Susan in the new atrium of the British Museum.