Traveling Fool

It is much easier to pick a place to stay and then do little day trips and sightsee in the vicinity, but I rarely do the easy thing. My recent trips have been based around concerts (in 2017 I went to Paris to see Phil Collins and London to see Adele and filled in the middle bits with other countries; 2019 was Mike & the Mechanics in York); this trip was centered around two Genesis concerts, Glasgow and London, and Steve Hackett in Newcastle. I also try to build in time to see my friends in Edinburgh and Bracknell. Basically, I had a lot of ground to cover and was going to be moving around. After my delightful experience in 2019 in guesthouses/B&Bs, I wanted to try and stick to that 'genre' if possible.   In Orkney I stayed at the Bellavista Guest House . The bed was amazing, so comfortable. I could make my own tea, coffee or hot chocolate, and there was a delightful collection of biscuits to go with it. Sandra was very friendly and made that scrumptious salmon omelet i...

To steal a quote from Lionel Bart and Oliver!  "Food, glorious food!" I have no pretensions of having a sophisticated palette, but I have my favorite things and things I want to try. One of the fun things about traveling is trying new foods and flavors or food in different preparations. One of my go to foods when I travel in Europe is pain au chocolat (or as we say here, chocolate croissant); I probably had about 8-10 over the two week period (perhaps fewer, but perhaps not). I'm not bragging, just saying. I also had my share of pizza and fish and chips on this trip. There were other meals and beverages as well, some that stuck with me and others that were more sustenance and eating out of habit rather than any experience I had. I didn't photograph everything, because sometimes you just look like a pillock.  The first fish and chips on the trip, but not the last - Edinburgh An amazing salmon omelet, toast, tea and cranberry juice breakfast at my Orkney B&B. My mou...

There was nothing easy, straightforward or regular about my first COVID-era international adventure. In fact, the night before I was supposed to leave, I was seriously worried the trip might not happen at all. Between COVID testing requirements and government required paperwork, I almost gave myself a heart attack. But, never fear, dear reader, I did go, I did have several adventures, I did get lost with predictable regularity and I did eat some very good food. So, since the trip wasn't exactly predictable, I thought I would write the blog in a somewhat new fashion for this trip (truth be told, I would have blogged over the two weeks, however thanks to the built in obsolescence of technology, I could not blog on my iPad...argh). As a way to ease into the two week adventure in England and Scotland, I thought I would make topical posts instead of just straight chronological posts. I am going to start with some of the unusual signs or street art I found along the way. You just never k...