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Read more: Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)Getting into Edinburgh from the airport is easy: you take the Airlink 100 bus outside the terminal (ticket office is there) to downtown. I stepped off the bus, walked 100 meters, and saw this: Saint John’s Cathedral, with the castle looming on the hill in the background. Spectacular. If you like rocky prominances and castles, Edinburgh has them. I liked this city within 5 minutes. This castle looked like a real, hard-to-storm fortress, high on this rocky hill. The castle from up in ‘old town’, from the back. Lots of dramatic old stone buildings set high on the hill. There…
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Read more: Dublin, IrelandDublin was my first destination as I started my first summer in Europe. I rented an apartment from AirBnB, which turned out to be in one of the older, run-down sections of Dublin near the Guiness brewery, and my initial impression was not too favorable. An Irish pub band puts it this way: “I met my love by the gas yard wall Dreamed a dream by the old canal I kissed my girl by the factory wall Dirty old town, dirty old town.” –The Dubliners However, given time, and looking in the right places, Dublin grew on me.…
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Read more: Seattle, WashingtonMount Rainier as viewed from the entrance to the University of Washington campus Central quad area, U of W Amazon.com makes its home in Seattle, and is building this dramatic flagship building downtown. Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island near Seattle is, in effect, a botanic garden This Douglas fir must be close to 100 years old The Reserve is used as a classroom by local schools This totem pole represents the origins of the Eagle Clan Then back by ferry to Seattle Next day, ferry to Southworth, west of Seattle, to visit my long time rock climbing buddy. We went…
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Read more: Palo Alto, CaliforniaThe area south of San Francisco, California went to considerable effort to protect some beautiful wild areas on the nearby hills as open space, with lots of trails. WIthout this, this area would have likely been covered with houses by now. A lovely place to hike. A nice 3 ½ mile hike, a good starter for my 9 year old grandson Grassy meadows at 2200 foot elevation. Pacific Ocean 17 miles off on the horizon Grass meadows interspersed with wooded areas of very old oaks and conifers This massive old oak may have been growing here since when this was…
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Read more: PhiladelphiaWorld Heritage City: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has an airy, attractive train station on the banks of the Schukykill (pronounced Skoo-cull) River. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, it is the 5th largest city in the U.S.A. In order to see as much of the city in a few days as possible, I signed up for their bike sharing program, Indego. For $15 a month, you get unlimited use of bikes scattered around the city, for not more than one hour at a time. However, if you return one to a dock, you can immediately check it out again for another…