St. Martin in the Fields

One of our favorite places to worship we registered last time as regular visitors. It is St. Martin in the Fields at Trafalgar Square, London. Great music, excellent preaching and a nice cafe in the crypt (a real one) in the basement. Would not miss a visit while in London.

My Favorite Pub

Pakenham Arms Pub near the Royal mail facility and King Cross Station, London, England. After being there a few times, then being gone for several weeks, the barkeep recognized me and wanted to know where we had been. (Scotland was the answer.) I felt like Norm walking into Cheers, Boston.

Harrods London/Heathrow

Harrods Department Store is Disneyland for shoppers. They also have an outlet in Heathrow so we Yanks can spend our pounds before flying home. On our last trip we carefully figured out what we could purchase to end up with zero and took them to the counter. We were way over. No matter, we got to count the excess as a gift from Harrods. Nice lady and look at the free advertising here for the store.

Amish Food

INCREDIBLE MEALS: There is a restaurant between Lancaster and Intercourse Pennsylvania run by the Amish. We had asked at the B&B (where we were staying several nights) about a place for dinner and they pointed us that way. This is simple, wholesome food which was amazing. It was not expensive and the shoofly pie was killer.

Beefeater stories

Conversation with a Beefeater – Everywhere I go I like to stop and find out about the stories of people. At the Tower of London, I stopped to visit one of the Beefeaters who act and guides and guards at the tower. All of them are military or retired military and most live with their families in the Tower. This particular one was sharing his story and how special it is to do his job. There is great pride in being a symbol of a nation.

French Postcards

The following pictures all have one thing in common.



In Europe we have the uncanny ability to find French people – no matter the English speaking country. We often ask people to take our pictures in front of places of interest. Almost without exception the person turns out to be French and we have to use our hands to ask them to take our photo.



Travel Details

Often the details make the biggest difference in a trip. Speed does not make for pleasant memories. Five countries in five days is a blur. Stopping and looking makes the difference. Here are some details.

Close Call

A "close", in the UK and The Irish Republic, is a small alley or a narrow passage to more dwellings behind a primary one on a main street. They are interesting because it is where life is actually lived. They were once a little dangerous for, in a day without toilets, people dumped their waste out of their windows into the close. It was a walkway and also a sewer. They are mentioned in many novels old and new.



Kingman, Arizona



It was a hot day in the desert and we were returning from taking a youth group to the Navajo Reservation near Winslow. We got to Kingman and the sky was full of aircraft and the streets full of speeding emergency equipment. The trains had exploded in the rail yard. One of the major disasters of the 20th Century.

The only inconvenience for us was that our Cokes were warm at the cafe -- all of the ice in the city was going to the burn unit at the hospital.

For us, looking back, we are reminded that little inconveniences for a few can mean life for others. It is at the heart of our charity work/giving.

The Toilet Attendant

  So what do you do for a living?

  An attractive young woman we met was the toilet attendant in Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland.
  She sat all day in front of the public restrooms and took 25 pence from each patron in exchange for a whole day pass to go in. As I only used it once, I have kept the ticket,
 All day long she sat there, reading a novel and watching the people go in and out.

The Titanic

  Cobh (pronounced “cove”) is a city on the south west of Ireland and the last port the Titanic made before it hit the iceberg and sank. The pier still has large ships docking. It also celebrates its role in being the place where the survivors of the Lusitania were brought ashore.

  On this 50^th anniversary of the sinking of the “unsinkable” we celebrate the spirit of the people of Cobh.

Colonial Williamsburg

INCREDIBLE MEALS: In Colonial Williamsburg there was a restaurant in on old house which featured dinners as would be served during the Revolutionary War. The highlight/lowlight of the meal was peanut soup. It tasted fine, but the mothers in our group could not stop laughing at how it looked. Don’t ask.

INCREDIBLE MEALS: London

INCREDIBLE MEALS: There is a pub on Rathbone Street, Bloomsbury, London that has a restaurant upstairs that serves pies. No, not apple, peach or lemon…this is real steak and kidney, shepherd’s, and lamb. They have one that they say is “hot” (meaning spicy) called “Dragon”. Californians find the description amusing. Yet, it is great. I often think about going there for dinner, but is costs about $1,200 including airfare, value added tax and tip.

Dingle Peninsula, IE

Tim Collins is the former police chief of Dingle and runs a wonderful tour of the Dingle Peninsula. His wife, Eileen, is a bit of an Oliver Twist character, but a delight. (Take the tour and skip their B and B.) Dingle is popular because of Rick Steves, but do not let that change your mind about it. It is wonderful. The pictures here are remarkable as it was extraordinary weather for us. Expect to carry your umbrella.   

A friend in need - Mt. Whitney

  I do not know his nationality, name, or even what he looked like. He came and went out of nowhere.

  We had pulled off the road to take a photo of Mount Whitney. It was an amazing sight from the desert. Our car parked next to a road sign, I jumped out and took the picture.
  Once back inside I noticed that the road sign said, “Soft Shoulder”.
  Well, we were stuck. There were hardly any cars on the road. There were the four of us having visions of just dying in the desert.
  Then we saw the truck bearing down on us. It passed by. The driver hit the brakes; put the truck in reverse, backed up to the front of our car. He got out and put a chain around our bumper and then around his trailer hitch. He yelled for me to put the car in neutral. We were free in an instant. He got out of the truck and took back his chain. He waved as he drove off.
  I had that “who was that masked man” look on my face. The only thing he said was “Neutral!” and I didn’t even get a chance to say thanks.

Towers pointing to Heaven

For eons people have been fascinated by towers and high places.

Around the world, towers point to the stars or the creator of the universe.
Towers have been used for defense and for refuge.
The Tower of Babel was one such place as were the temples of the mystics on mountain tops.  People built them as places to be close to the divine or away from the marauding heathens.
While attending a conference in Boston I was so engrossed that I had not gone out to see much of the city. My wife demanded that I go with her to the top of the Hancock Tower and see the view.
Your ears pop in the high speed elevator going up the Hancock Tower. Even more, you are overwhelmed by the view from this marvelous perch.

In Chicago we went up the Sears Tower  (now the Willis Tower) on a clear day and could see for miles.  It was much the same in Atlanta in the Peachtree Tower.  Many cities have their high holy places.  Seattle has its Space Needle, San Francisco has Coit Tower. 

Pictured here is the high tower at the Rock of Cashel, Ireland. 

The Grand Canyon

We had taken a group of kids from Long Beach California out to the Navajo Reservation near Winslow, Arizona. Many of these kids had never seen a river that did not have cement sides. They were from the inner-city where nature is rarely experienced,

As a treat and because we had an extra day, we decided to take the kids to see the Grand Canyon.

One of the boys walked to the rail of the South Rim, his eyes filled with awe. Without looking at me he asked, “How did they do this?”

How, indeed.

Antique Shopping

Charles Dickens could have done justice to the little lady in Phoenix Oregon. She was the lady in charge of a grand antique shop where she fit in nicely. Withered and worn like her goods, she knew the story behind every item. This one can from an estate sale, that one belonged to a man who lived down the road. It was a world before eBay.

We had to reward her by buying something and so we bought a "Willkie for President" button. This started us collecting buttons for presidential losers. That, and “church keys” are our excuses to go into every antique shop, charity shop and junk store we can find.

The picture above is my favorite hunting grounds. It is the Portabella Street Market held Saturdays in the Notting Hill section of London.

San Francisco, USA

San Francisco can be a little arrogant about itself. Why not? It is truly a great city. It also has a sense of humor.
Back when riding the cable cars cost a dime each way, we took brother-in-law and sister-in-law to "The City" for Japanese food and a tour.
Having just missed the Powell Street car we ran up hill to catch it at the next intersection.
More used to those hills, my wife and I beat the other two and jumped on. The car driver waited for our relatives and then charged them for the ride. As for us, our reward for winning was to ride free.
You will not likely have that happen, but San Francisco is a place of good people, great views, and mystical experiences.

SCOTLAND: Holyrood

While in Edinburgh we wished to tour Holyrood Palace, the Edinburgh home of the Queen. Several times we were told that it could not happen because "Charles is there with that woman." Or, it was said that the Prince was there with "That woman."
As it turned out he married her. She now has a name. She is Camilla. Yet,we wonder if those folks in Scotland ever have given her her real name.
By the way, after a day "of cleaning up" they opened the palace for tours. It is really the Palace at Holyrood House. Mary Queen of Scots lived there. Nice digs.

The Farmer in the Dell

St. Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny, Ireland is the burial spot of an ancestor of Barak Obama. It is also a place where the leaders of the church take you around on a tour. On a rainy day --they are not all rainy-- we met a local farmer who was a volnteer docent. It was not just a one-on-one tour of a church, it was the story of a man who loved the land, his nation, and his church (Church of Ireland).
He was excited that some Americans wanted to listen rather than to tell about their country. He was what Ireland is all about.
A stranger meets other strangers and they tell their stories and they leave friends -- no, relatives -- forever. At St. Canice's you must also check out the high tower.

This is a photo of Dingle Harbor, Dingle Ireland (The closest point of Europe to the United States):

This blog is about the adventure of traveling and especially the interesting people that you meet. We will share stories about people we have met from around the United States, Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Mexico and more.  This is not a travelog -- we leave that to Rick Steves -- this is a collection of fragments in the journey of life.