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Hidden Venice (and other miscellany)

3 Nov

3 November 2025.

Venice doesn’t call to me, she screams at me to come and visit. It’s been four years since we last cast eyes on La Serenissima. You’d think after 11 visits we’d have seen all there is to see. Since we were staying an hour down the train line (Ferrara) and the day was fall perfection, we hopped a Frecciarossa and made the count an even dozen.

The challenge was to find something unique away from the crowds at San Marco and Rialto. Thanks to the 2025 Architecture Biennale, I found a walking tour that took us to places we did not know you could access, in particular, the Arsenale, which used to be off-limits except for The Biennale exhibits held in the Arsenale South. Now the northern section is open on a limited basis and the route to get there is astounding.

A brief historic diversion is in order if you do not know what the Arsenale is. It dates to 1104 and was the shipbuilding center of the Venetian Republic and lasted until Napoleon ruined things in 1797. It was the largest industrial complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Wikipedia has a fine synopsis if you want to know the details and see some renderings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Arsenal. Click on any picture for a better view..

The Arsenale: The approach to Tesa 105; Art in Tesa 105; Inside along the tese (old workshops); Waterfront inside. Imagine Venetian ships being built here 1000 years ago. Notice NO CROWDS.

The walking tour is called “Castello, Naval Art and Traditions.” No, it is not a Rick Steves Triple Triangle Must See tour. That is the beauty of it. Instagrammers have not descended en masse. Monday to Friday from 8:00-17:00 you can visit through Tese 105, an exhibit space and bar on the north side.

How you get there is circuitous, and that is the fun of a Venice walk, zig-zagging down various calle, up and down countless bridges, discovering new-to-you sights, second-guessing your location and direction, taking more pictures than you can fathom. We saw very few people anywhere on our route and most of them seemed to be local residents. We especially enjoyed the elevated metal walkway along the Laguna Nord wall of the Arsenale. Perfect waterfront view and luckily not a windy day or it could be a mite unpleasant. Click on any picture for a better view.

Top Row: Baroque Church in a narrow calle, far from the crowds of San Marco; A sotoportego (underpass) with a shrine dedicated to the Madonna for ending the plague in 1630; The Plague Stone is the only red stone in Venice and is said to bring bad luck if you step on it.

Bottom Row: The metal walkway along the imposing wall of the Arsenale; View of Murano from the walkway.

The tour is described in detail here https://events.veneziaunica.it/en/things-to-do-in-venice/itineraries/castello-naval-art-and-traditions. Full disclosure: we skipped steps 9 and 10 as we’ve toured the tail of the fish several times before. Click on any picture for a better view.

A few more Venice pics on a delightful October day with glorious light.

Top Row: Grand Canal view; Quiet canal; On the Guggenheim’s terrace. Middle: Selections from the Guggenheim Collection; Bottom: Peggy’s view of the Grand Canal.

This portion of our trip, two weeks in Ferrara, was day-trip centered. We dislike, in general, a lot of short stays of 2 and 3 nights, preferring a week, or more, as a base. In other words, SLOW TRAVEL This has served us well in hiking locations like Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen as well as in cities like Paris, London, Rome, and even Venice. In those places we’d head out on a hike or out to see a sight, returning as needed to our digs for meals or just to rest. Doing day trips from Ferrara, however, was challenging as we had several very long days door-ro-door with significant transit time. The good news is, that transit was by train. The downside is that a lot of the trains are regionale, meaning “local” trains that transport people to work and school and stop at many many places and ae often full of high school students.

Upside? We had a great apartment and delightful host. I got to speak Italian quite a bit as it is not a prime tourist destination. I don’t think I heard one native English-speaker until our last night in town, and she was married to an Italian raising bi-lingual children.

The food in Ferrara was excellent: cappelletti with pumpkin and ragu, pasticcio, and a tremendous pizza at Settantatrepercento, aka 73%, the percent hydration in their perfect crust.

Ferrara is a very old city with an interesting history involving the Dukes of Este and the Papal governance after the duchy failed to produce an heir. We had great food and an insightful private walking tour. We walked the entire ancient perimeter wall (mostly intact) of about 6 miles, and saw an amazing Chagall exhibit that happened to be in town. We filled in with myriad day trips by train: Padova, Ravenna, Florence, Bologna, none of which had we visited in many years. Truly enjoyed seeing them again. Those mosaics in Ravenna! The Scrovegni Chapel in Padova! Florence was not as crazy with people as we feared it would be and we found a delightful trattoria where it seemed mostly locals were lunching. Venice still screams at me to come back and spend a few more nights. Click on any picture for a better view (unimpeded by captions).

Path on top of the 500 year old Ferrara wall
The wall from path below. Most of it is intact.
Lovely, level path for cycling and walking.
Ferrara city plan, depicting the city of the 17th century.
The chevron bricks on the right installed in the Este duchy. on the left, the cobbles of the papacy which dominate the streets today.
On our tour, outside the cathedral.
It is still spritz season! We found “our” bar in Ferrara the second night.
Outstanding pizza at 73%.
Trattoria di Noemi became our favorite.
Intro to the extensive Chagall exhibit.
Chagall’s “Russian Village,” 1929. Charming style.
School group very enrolled in their teacher’s discussion of Chagall.

Samedan, (see Graubunden Wrap-up) our first two-week leg, was excellent and probably our favorite. Lots of outdoor time, great Swiss trains, mostly good weather, well-equipped apartment and a lovely host. It’s a tiny town that does not draw tourists like its neighbors. They speak Italian as well as German, so that worked nicely.

Basel was interesting in itself, but harder to day-trip from as it turned out (see Basel Wrap-up). Everything in Switzerland was relatively easy to reach and there are cute towns and villages everywhere with ancient castles and charming streets. France was more challenging to reach due to poor transportation connections. We had hoped to spend more time in the Alsace but it was too difficult without a car. The best of the Black Forest in Germany is also a bit far removed from Basel to visit by train. To us, a decent day-trip should be within an hour by public transport. 90 minutes is OK, but two hours each way is a non-starter.

Ferrara tested our plan to try a base with regional day trips. We would not do it again and that is not to detract from Ferrara. Some of the rural places I counted on visiting by bus became impossible due to the schedules. Oh to have Swiss transportation everywhere!

We learned that we still do not want to drive. Thought about it twice, in Basel and in Ferrara, but rejected it as too stressful. In Basel, the cost of the rental was cost-prohibitive (about CHF 140.00 per day!) though the driving would have been more efficient and supported a wider range of options. In Italy, the cost to rent was not awful, but parking in Ferrara is at a premium and in some of the cities we visited by train, very hard to park as well, not to mention the dreaded ZTLs where you get fined if you enter.

We also learned that a first visit to an area should probably be in the 3-to-5 night range. Better to leave wanting more time than less. You can always go back. That does mean moving around more and less of what we see as SLOW TRAVEL. As we plan our trip for next fall, we are already thinking of visits to some of our favorites again, after a year off from Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen. But we’ll add in some new stops as well, as we continue to look for more places to call “favorite.”

We wrapped up with a pre-flught stay in Milan, which is usually an annual stop for us. We have a favorite hotel and a restaurant we have dined at for over a decade, but this year we discovered a new-to-us restaurant called Velavevodetto. The original, Flavio Velavevodetto (Flavio, I told you so), is in Rome but we never managed to get there during our residence. We love Roman food so a tram trip across Milan on a pleasant October evening was appealing. It was terrific. Have to arrange a stop there again next fall.

Elegant interior, lots of wine.
From the menu, the philosophy.
A Roman suppli, a bit like an arancino.
Even Ric’s tripe looks delish.
My pollo alla Romana
Velavevodetto means “I told you so!”

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Crossing Borders

8 Oct

8 October 2025.

Monday we walked from Switzerland to Germany, passing closed border-control booths. Not in a high-mountain pass. A suburban street was our path, once again, to lunch.

Staying in Basel is part of our experiment this trip: two weeks in each of three new-to-us-places, exploring, finding places less-visited by our ilk, and “living local.” Basel is in a unique international position, a notch of Switzerland that juts into France and Germany and shares the Rhine River with both. This is a strategic shipping hub for Switzerland and the Dreiländereck, where the countries officially meet, is a mere half-hour’s walk from our apartment. Of course, since it is Switzerland, walking there is quite simple.

Our border crossing experience was not as straightforward. Ignoring spits of rain, we traveled by tram (so convenient!) to suburban Riehen to take the Rehberger-Weg, an artistically inspired walk between the Fondation Beyeler Museum and the Vitra Campus (a furniture company and design museum). Finding the start of the path was our first adventure as a construction project forced a detour. The track seemed obvious from there, but as we searched for the first piece of art we found we were off piste. Huh. Luckily, as paths cross-cross this country like plaid in a tartan, we were able to re-route ourselves with only a half mile walk for our trouble.

Top left and center, our inadvertent detour was at least well-trod and scenic; Top right, a vineyard; Bottom a distant view of Basel.

In my defense, I was guiding us with a very stylized map created by the artist. You can see it for yourself using the link above and clicking on Walking Map. Once I decoded what actually constituted art and which landmarks on the map corresponded, the going was simple enough and the views to Basel remarkable. We passed through small vineyards and past garden allotments, encountered little traffic and even fewer people. The art is, to me, obscure. They are (mostly) three-dimensional, brightly colored objects that allude to real things: a birdhouse, a streetlamp, a tree. We had fun making fun of them.


Top Row: Lookout, big enough for a human to climb into; Streetlamp; Signs. Bottom Row: Drinking Fountain (yes, it works!); Tree

The possibility of rain evaporated and we arrived at the Vitra Campus just in time for our Noon lunch reservation. Lunch in Germany, priced in Euros, was a treat both gastronomically and economically. A bus directly to our neighborhood left from Vitra every half-hour made our return uncomplicated.

Top Row: Vegan quiche and organic salad at VitraHaus Cafe; A Vitra-designed chair for €429 which doesn’t seem bad until you realize it is a miniature like those in the case in the bottom row; A bit of elephant whimsy. They are for sale.

The path was envisioned as a 10-year project in 2015, and it officially ends this month. Presumably, the art along the route will go away…at least in time. We were lucky to have it as a guide.


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Holding hands in Roma

5 Nov

5 November 2024.

Every trip has a name or a theme. We have had the “Mountains, Lakes and Sea” trip of 2018 (See the trip plan Mountaintop to Sea Level ), “The Grand Tour” of 2017 (See Tourists Again), and the “We’re Back” trip of 2021 after missing 2020 due to a worldwide plague, to name a few. (See Hey Europe! We’re Back!.)

This year, in my mind, the theme was “Return to Roma” as it has been 8 years since we moved from Rome back to the US.

Scenery walking back after dinner is one of the delights of Roma. A 2-mile walk goes by quickly.

We loved our time this trip in the usual locations of Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen, and enjoyed the Italianness of Locarno even though it is in Switzerland. Wrapping up our eight weeks with a gastronomic tour of Rome, the subtitle might be “A Reacquaintance Tour: Eating our way through Rome.”

We often talked about missing Roman restaurants: Our neighborhood favorite, Taverna Rossini, the best pizza places we found and wrote about for our blog Our Weekly Pizza, the fish place we traveled an hour to-and-from it was so good, the authentic Sicilian food. These neighborhoods, walking routes, coffee bars, restaurants, and pizzerias called to us. It was time to return and eat our way through town while revisiting old haunts.

Lunch at Rossini with our friend Eleonora.
Rossini: still a fabulous ristorante.

We had not been in town for 30 minutes when my love/hate feelings welled up. This crazy town continues to perplex and amaze. A fabulous double espresso in 30 seconds for €2.00! A taxi across town for €15! Ancient sites harboring a cat sanctuary and a wealth of art-free-for-the-viewing in vast basilicas and churches. People who weave back and forth on sidewalks and narrow streets. Tour groups coming at you like a tidal wave. The buses still ghost you and are uncomfortable at best, but the taxi drivers were, to a person, polite, efficient, and helpful. What’s up with that, Rome?

My hips and back took a beating on the sampietrini (aka cobblestones). Ric and I remembered we really liked to hold hands when walking in Rome and not only from affection but to keep each other stable and upright.

A scorciatoia (shortcut) through the maze in the historic center.

The old routes came back to us easily enough. The way through Villa Borghese we walked to-and-from work; the route we took from home to Piazza del Popolo to Campo de’ Fiori to go shopping every Saturday. Some of the vendors we used to buy from are still in the same stalls.

We dined at a couple of favorite pizzerias, La Pratolina and Da Remo. Still great: in fact they seem untouched by the intervening years. Even some of the servers are the same people we remember.

Our old standby, Antica Taverna, was not as good as we remember but it has suffered a change of ownership. It was nostalgic to sit there, on an obscure vicolo, and reminisce about our many dinners there including a Christmas Eve before I was blogging, Thanksgiving of 2012, and New Years of 2014. We ate there about once a month for over four years. Taverna Rossini, the neighborhood joint where we took all of our guests, was still so good we went there twice this trip!

Finding good Sicilian food outside of Sicily is a challenge, but Siciliainbocca did not disappoint. We happened by on a Tuesday, which was couscous night. Couscous ala Pesce is my favorite memory of Sicilian food, and it was memorable. No wonder Elon Musk dines here! (The cabbie told us about Elon’s visit, but we went there anyway.) Donna Fugata wine, an octopus appetizer, grilled calamari for Ric. We left happy and walked back the 2 miles to our hotel as penance for all we consumed.

Polpo a favorite!
Siciliainboca means “Sicily in your mouth” or, more elegantly, flavors of Sicily.
Fabulous Couscous alla Pesce.

We found some fun, new places to eat as well. Lunch has always been hard for us in Italy because they like to offer big lunches of pasta and traditional main courses or pizza. We like salads and sandwiches. Two new eateries we recommend, Cabullo (3 locations) and Molly’s Garden, are a welcome change. Molly’s, in particular, appeals as they know what they are doing with eggs, and they make a delicious wrap. Osteria La Quercia was so good I forgot to take food photos. They only use fresh ingredients guaranteed by small breeders and farmers, organic companies, and seafood from the Lazio coast. (Click on any photo for a better view.)

Cabullo’s counter. Everything made fresh in house.
Cabullo sandwich with marinated beef, cicoria,and peppers on a house made bun.
Molly’s philosophy.
Turkey wrap at Molly’s.
Molly’s interior: the bar.
Puntarelle, a favorite and only available seasonally.
Near Largo Argentina, but in a quiet piazza, where food is respected and traditions adhered to.
At Al Pompiere, millefoglie.
Osteria La Quercia, a stone’s throw from Campo de’ Fiori but a world apart.

Our final dinner of the trip was at Al Pompiere, well known yet for all the years we lived in Rome we had not visited. It was our loss! Family owned and operated, the padrone waited on us in the tradition of old hosterie (osterias). Classic Roman food: puntarelle (a salad of chicory sprouts with anchovy vinaigrette), carciofi alla giudia (fried artichokes), fiori di zucca (fried zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese and anchovy, battered, and fried) and much much more.

Without fail, everywhere we dined at night we were glad we had reserved. Any place decent and not too touristy was full and tables do not turn like they do in the US.

We found our way to a leather shop we used to patronize in Trastevere. There are leather shops all over the historical center, and some of their products might actually be made in Italy, but Ciufetti is the real deal. We arrived at opening and told the owner we used to come here many years ago. He told me it has been in business since 1955, the year he was born. He and his wife now run it and are open 7 days a week! He loves it! They make all of their leather products in house and sometimes, when tourists discover them, they literally get their stock cleaned out because people recognize the value and the quality at a fraction of the prices in the tourist shops.

Signor Ciufetti at work in his shop.
In Trastevere, easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it.

The city is getting ready for a Papal Jubilee year in 2025 and as a result there is construction and restoration everywhere. All the tram lines are down. The Metro Line C is still not complete and screened fencing blocks vast sections of the historic center limiting views. There is scaffolding everywhere and it seemed like every fountain was dry and being repaired. If this was my first visit to Rome I might be annoyed at how much is blocked but we saw it as a reminder that Rome has been changing for millennia and will continue to do so.

Screening hides much of the area around the Forum as they try to get Metro Line C completed.

I planned to get transit passes for the week we are here, but they proved remarkably hard to find. Luckily, we did not invest because the buses have been impossible and after two buses did not materialize (ghosted) twice in our first afternoon, we had to find a taxi to take us back. At that point we decided to go a piedi (on foot) or take taxis. Period.

Speaking of feet, in Rome we far exceeded the mileage we had in Richmond early in the trip (see 61000 Steps). In 8 days in Rome, we walked over 56 miles and I had almost 162,000 steps on my pedometer, an average of >20,000 per day. it helps when you can’t get a bus. (Trip total on the pedometer was a respectable 950,000.)

“Bigfoot” one of the remaining chunks of a statue of Constantine, Capitoline Museum.
Gorgeous Forum view from the Capitoline Museum. We had the place to ourselves.
Cats in Largo Argentina
Examining a cannon ball and it’s damage in Palazzo Colonna.
A very small portion of the gardens at Palazzo Colonna.
Forma Urbis

I should author a book called “Rome the Umpteenth Time” highlighting the places we visited that were new-to-us. Rome may seem static, but she is always undergoing change.

  • We had, remarkably, never been to the Capitoline Museums. Underappreciated, vast, uncrowded, with amazing statuary and Renaissance art plus a drop-dead perfect view over the Roman Forum. We passed a quiet hour with few other patrons around and no massive tour groups.
  • Palazzo Braschi, Museo di Roma, offers insight into how Rome has changed over the millennia, and startlingly over the past 100 years. We had visited once in 2012, but seeing these exhibits again made me realize my annoyance at the current state of pre-Jubilee clean up is a mere hiccup in this city’s progress. It would be nice if they were not renovating all the fountains at the same time.
  • Largo Argentina, long known as a cat sanctuary, opened the sacred area in the past few years enabling one to descend to the area where the Roman senators murdered Julius Caesar. (You cannot walk in that site but still impressive!) And the cats are there too. Bonus.
  • Forma Urbis, a new museum housing the surviving fragments of a stunning marble map of Rome carved early in the 3rd Century. An 18th Century grand map overlays the fragments showing the relationship to more modern locations. Hard to understand until you see it and the lights go on. A remarkable display.
  • Galleria Colonna was another repeat. We were there in 2013, as I wrote about in the blog Rain in Rome. This time, we had dry, lovely fall weather and were able to tour the fabulous gardens which are not open when it’s wet. The gardens alone were worth the price of admission. The Princess Isabella Apartments are an extra-cost add on that we popped for and were also worthwhile. Isabella was from a wealthy Lebanese family and married a Colonna prince. She used these fabulous apartment to entertain her guests. Interesting articles here (in Italian, so use Google Translate to enable your favorite language). Il Filo Rosso Tra Beirut e Roma della principessa Isabelle Helene Sursock and Isabelle Colonna l’ultima regina.

We had a lovely extended stay of 8 nights, with mild weather, great sites old and new, excellent meals at old favorites and two new-to-us restaurants that we were sorry we could not visit multiple times. The mileage on foot helped (we hope!) defray impact of the consumption of fine Roman cuisine.

Holding hands is nice even after 40 years of doing so.

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More Rainy Day Plans

30 Sep

30 September 2022.

Mother Nature decided Switzerland was due for a good rain, which means snow in the high elevations. For those visiting the area for only 2 or 3 nights, which many do, it is sad because they are not treated to the amazing vistas brought by sunnier days. 

However, after a hot dry summer, we cannot deny the need for a good rain bringing relief to the farmers and hopes of early snow. 

Luckily, we are settled here for a month and  can take this in stride. Last week was a dream of sunny days and we have ideas for any weather be it hot, cold, misty, snowy, or heavy rain. 

The other day we did the first half of a walk along the Weiss Lütschine River (See Rainy Day Hikes).

Here are some other options we chose this week based on not-so-great weather.

Zweilütschinen to Wilderswil. This is the next portion of the Weisse Lütschine and is detailed in our book. This is a “path to lunch” which many of you know is a common theme. Our objective was a lovely Italian restaurant in Wilderswil, Luca Piccante. Great pizza! The 3 mile walk was a good first course but after eating an entire pizza each (Italian-style, not the hulking monstrous North American type), further walking was in order. There are ruins of a very old castle about 20 minutes from Wilderswil on an enjoyable path offering views over Interlaken. An additional 2.75 mile walk brought us to the train station and the BOB (Berner Oberland Bahn) took us back home. 

From upper left: BOB along the river as seen from the path; View toward WIldersvil; Path to the Castle ruins; Castle ruins from below on the way to Interlaken; Pizza at Luca Piccante

Mountain Joy Riding. Wednesday was supposed to be wet wet wet! The forecast was for 2-3 inches of rain between 0800 and 2100. Ugh. Taking advantage of our Berner Oberland Regional Passes, we did a grand tour of the Jungfrau Region. Here are the stages:

  • Wengernalpbahn (train) from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen and on to Kleine Scheidegg at 2061 meters/6762 feet of altitude
  • Change trains at the top to the Wengernalpbahn down to Grindelwald
  • Change trains to the BOB to Grindelwald Terminal base station for two fabulous lifts, the new Eiger Express and the Männlichen Gondolbahn
  • We took the Gondelbahn to Männlichen an amazingly long cableway
  • Männlichen to Wengen via another cableway
  • Wengernalpbahn back to Lauterbrunnen

I don’t like to advertise, but I have to recommend highly the Berner Oberland Regional Pass. It is expensive but the value is there and once purchased it is a no brainer to hop on any lift or train or bus and go anywhere in the region. This trip would cost CHF 134.00, but with the pass the cost was zero, niente, nada. We used 1/3 of the face value of our 10-day pass in this single day and still have 9 days to do as much riding as we desire. It is available for for 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 day periods. There is a further discount on the pass if one buys a Swiss Half Fare Card which I also recommend. Have lunch as we did in Grindelwald and walk around a bit for a break. Our loop including a stop for a nice lunch, took about 5 hours.

We had train cars all to ourselves during our joy-riding day.
Tolkien had it right about the Misty Mountains.

View on the right, above, is from the Wengernalpbahn descending into Grindelwald. We are actually above the fancy new Eiger Express Gondola.

Three Village Tour. For a we-don’t-want-to-do-much day, rain or shine, one can explore the three villages and do some shopping. Take the train up to Wengen and walk the village, maybe stop for coffee. Coming back down to Lauterbrunnen, stop at the Tourist Information Office to see what might interest you that you haven’t thought about, then walk the length of the village, perhaps past the Staubbach Falls and as far as Campling Jungfrau. You could have lunch here or in the village along the way. Finally, take the lift from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp and the little train to Mürren, walk the village, check the shops, and descend via the Schilthornbahn to Stechelberg where you can catch the bus back to Lauterbrunnen.

We left home at 10:00 and did not return until almost 16:00. It wasn’t hiking but it was a nice pace, about 3 miles of walking, and a leisurely chance to look for Christmas gifts. We had lunch “at home” in our apartment. The rain spit off and on but was never a deluge and there were occasional sun breaks. Another good reason for the BO Regional Pass is not having to weigh the expense of jumping on trains and lifts impetuously for shopping.

One of the benefits of rain is increased waterfall volume. Staubbach Falls near Lauterbrunnen was a bit thin until this week.

Lauterbrunnen Valley Walk. We have done this walk (it is detailed in our book) from the south to the north, from the north to the south, in sun, in rain, in mist. We love it. A rushing river, mountain peaks, waterfalls, cows, goats, and base jumpers offer diversion on this 4-mile easy path. We like to start at the last bus stop near Hotel Stechelberg and walk back to Lauterbrunnen, but both directions are beautiful. 

Little Stechelberg at the south end of the valley is little more than a Post Office, a hotel, and a few small farms, gardens, and houses. Very quiet. The clouds cover the majestic Breithorn mountain peak.

Take a cruise. The excitement factor is limited but the relaxation factor is high for a two-hour cruise with lunch on the Thunersee. Rain or shine, the BLS ships sail on both Lake Thun (Thunersee) and Lake Brienz (Brienzersee). The train delivers you to Thun, a lovely city worth exploring, right next to the landing for the ships. After boarding you can choose from a varied menu of choices from soups and salads to multi course meals or a snack. There’s plenty of time for a leisurely lunch while hopping from town to town along the lake with distant peaks and nearby waterfalls in view. There are also cruises that are not meal-centric. Cruises on both the Thunersee and Brienzersee are free with your Berner Oberland Regional Pass.

Waterfall by St. Beatus Caves
One of several castles seen from the ship
First Class dining room
Leaving Thun’s River Aare for the open lake
Misty mountains surround the lake today

Perhaps Tolkien, who visited the Lauterbrunnen Valley in 1911, would not have been so inspired in his creation of Rivendell had he not experienced the misty mountains and abundant waterfalls brought by the gift of rain.

It seems the rainiest of days have passed for us — did not get wet today in 4+ miles of hiking — and starting Sunday we will have brilliant fall weather once more. Can’t say I am sorry to see the rain end, but we enjoyed our days nonetheless. 

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Wrapping up the Grand Tour    

6 Nov
6 November 2017.
Our Grand Tour brought us to places new-to-us and also to locations we consider old friends. Our last stop: London for a fortnight. This was our fourth trip to the fabled city. We love it!

Dating to 1610, this is one of few buildings to survive the Great Fire of 1666.

People often ask me why we go back to the same places. While exploring and discovering unfamiliar places is exciting, going back time-and-again to a location allows us to dig deeper and experience things the one-time traveler doesn’t have time to discover. 
Since we’ve already seen the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Greenwich, the Cabinet War Rooms, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, and St. Paul’s, what’s left?
Plenty. Here are the sights, sites, and activities that filled our two weeks. Note that only two of these were repeats from prior visits.
  • Victoria & Albert Museum for the Pink Floyd Exhibit
  • London Walks “Shaken not Stirred 007 Pub Walk” on Saturday night
  • London Walks “Little Venice” walking tour on a sunny Sunday
  • Self-guided walk through “The City” (in the Rick Steves’ Guide)

    View from lunch at Darwin Brasserie. Decent food, great view!

  •  The Sky Garden Darwin Brasserie for a view of London from 36 floors up in the “Walkie Talkie”
  • Liberty Department Store (old, classy, beautiful)
  • Fortnum & Mason (Scored some yummy cookies)
  • “Wicked” at the Apollo Theatre (Well-done but rather silly)

    Did you know that many Tube stations feature artwork particular to the location? Guess where this one is.

  • London Underground Tube Tour with Insider London (Very interesting history and operations)
  • Portobello Road Market
  • Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising (We were nearby in the Portobello Road Market and figured “Why not?”)
  • Hyde Park Italian Water Gardens and a lovely Saturday stroll to Hyde Park Corner with a stop for lunch at Serpentine Bar Kitchen
  •  London Film Museum for the “Bond in Motion” exhibit

    From the “Bond in Motion” exhibit. A couple of dozen original vehicles displayed with other artifacts and movie clips.

  • London Walks “Harry Potter on Location” walking tour
  • Exploration of Hampstead Village and Hampstead Heath (What a view!)
  • Canterbury and the famous cathedral
  • British Library
  • Bletchley Park (Had to watch “The Imitation Game” again after the visit)

    The pond and mansion at Bletchley Park.
    Heron in the pond at Bletchley Park.
    One of the famous huts at Bletchley Park.
  • Westminster Cathedral, home of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.K. with stunning mosaics
  • The National Gallery (Amazing collection! How did we miss this on prior trips?)
  • Kew Gardens (Would love to visit in May!

    Fall color at Kew seemed to be just past peak. Lovely, nonetheless.
    Kew Gardens and Hyde Park are both full of these little green parrots.
    Kew Gardens fall color.
  • London Transport Museum (second visit)

    The Mail Rail train at the new Postal Museum, now carrying people on a history tour.

  • Imperial War Museum (second time)
  • Postal Museum and Mail Rail Tour (Really off-the-beaten)
  • Sir John Soane’s Museum
  • Other innumerable walks, wanderings, and shopping
We were fortunate to once again rent an apartment from London Connection. This is our third time with LC and I believe we benefit when we rent from the same people multiple times, especially a small, privately held agency like this. A long stay can result in more favorable rates than a shorter stay.

Lorenzo Quinn’s “Love” on the banks of the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge. The same artist did the large hands called “Support” for the Venice Biennale. That is MI-6 in the background.

Our first experience with London Connection was at Christmas 2015, and our second was when we visited with our son in the spring of 2016. We liked the small apartment we had that Christmas, so I arranged to rent it again. However, a week-or-so before we arrived I got word that there was a problem: The flat had to be taken off the short-term market due to an Airbnb problem in the building. LC does not participate in Airbnb, but some other flats in the same building were rented through that service. The renters caused problems with noise and such, so the condo board said, “No more!” It would be 90-day rental minimums effective immediately. Tom Moore, the owner of London Connection, rebooked us in a flat considerably more expensive than the little one we had chosen, but of course, it was a complimentary upgrade. They really took care of us very well. We ended up staying in a new-to-us section of town, the very swanky Mayfair. The flat was in a mews house, once the residence for the horses and carriage drivers who served the important Georgian and Victorian families. Here’s a link to the flat.  It is a bit quirky in that the entrance stairs are very steep and narrow (think housing for grooms and their families 150+ years ago), and the second staircase inside the apartment was sort of a spiral, again narrow and steep. But once inside, we were in the lap of luxury.

Whimsical art in a park near our apartment.

We cooked dinner in quite a bit since we had a very nice kitchen and we enjoyed many a pub lunch. A roast for Sunday lunch is a must so we popped just around the corner from our flat to The Audley. We had the best hamburger ever at the Morpeth Arms pub, found a delicious flatbread pizza at the Serpentine Bar Kitchen, indulged in a gastropub dinner at the Queen’s Head Piccadilly, ate lunch with a view at the Sky Garden’s Darwin Brasserie, stumbled into the very sweet Greenhouse Café near the station in Kew, had unbelievable luck in Bletchley with our blind choosing of Pasha Med Turkish Bar & Grill, visited our standby for Indian at Punjab, “discovered” the charms of Le Pain Quotidien, and found pretty-darn-good-almost-Italian pizza at Bar Remo. Whew!

The street where we lived for two weeks.

A saving strategy given the steep staircase issue was shopping online at Waitrose and having our groceries delivered. I’ve done this three times now in London. I set up a delivery for an hour-or-so after we check-in, so while we are unpacking the delivery person shows up with the wine, water, breakfast items, staples, and supplies for our first dinner or two. Saves on schlepping.
In contrast to the start of our trip, we had almost no rain and temps were moderate in London. The storm Ophelia which hit Ireland and SW England made for some breezy days, but I think I deployed my umbrella only briefly one day in two weeks.

Little known Little Venice. Rather untouristed, peaceful.

Spending two weeks in London allowed us to become familiar with our neighborhood, sort out transportation options, and feel “at home.” We didn’t have to rush from sight to sight and could deviate from our plan to take advantage of discoveries. A long stay gave us a front-row seat to changes in the neighborhood. Window displays moved from fall to Christmas themes, decorations went up over major shopping streets, and pubs started to promote holiday parties and menus. We started to feel rather local. We tired ourselves out most days and relaxed at home with a simple dinner in the evenings.
Over the course of eight weeks, Sept 3-Oct 28, we walked an average of 15577 steps per day, covering about 330 miles according to my pedometer. We rarely took taxis and never rented a car. 
It was a perfect end to our eight week Grand Tour. Following are a few more photos just in case you are interested. 

Views from a double-decker bus going over the Thames. It’s a treat to ride in the front seats of the upper level.
National Gallery: During mid-term break lots of students participating in classes.
Sometimes just around the corner from a busy street, you find a reminder of what the city must have been like 200 years ago.
Flatbread “pizza” with harissa hummus, chili spicied lamb, roquito peppers, and feta. Yum!
Fall color in Hyde Park.
Started in 1875 for the cab drivers’ benefit, today some still remain and serve cheap, hearty, and very British food to London’s “black cab” drivers. Some also sell snacks to the public. although never inside.
Amazing stained glass, Canterbury Cathedral.
Quaint street often used in films. I believe some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed here.

 

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