Chatham, Cape Cod

In early November, I went to Boston MA, for an international meeting for work. As I'd visited Boston in 2013 during my travel fellowship, I decided to spend a few days seeing a different part of the state. My colleague E and I left London on the Friday before the meeting so that we could spend the weekend exploring Cape Cod.

After collecting the car at the airport, we made our way south (old school style without a sat nav and just some printed instructions from the car hire company). After a few wrong turns when we reached Chatham, we finally found the lovely inn where we spent two nights.

The New England fall weather lived up to expectations with a beautifully sunny day...here are some scenes from our stay in Chatham...

Venice - St Mark's Square and Murano

Part of wanting to re-visit Venice, was the opportunity to visit some of the places for which it is renowned and of which I had such limited memories of my previous visit. So early on Saturday morning, I left our apartment and wandered towards St Marks hoping to arrive before many of the tourist crowds. My route took me over the Accademia Bridge with the above view of the Grand Canal.

After about 15 minutes I reached an almost deserted St Mark's square. For anyone who has been to Venice, this is a rare occurrence...but at 8am on a Saturday morning, there were only a few other tourists and quite a few joggers.

St Mark's Basilica - the bench like structures in front of the church are the boards that are laid around the city during the aqua alta so people can still get around when areas of the city flood.

I had been into St Mark's Basilica on my previous visit, but hadn't been to see the Doge's Palace - which was my main destination for the morning. The pink and white marble exterior is exquisite.

The palace opened at 8.30, and so I was also able to explore without hundreds of other people. The palace also afforded some wonderful views across Venice.

After I left the Doge's Palace, I queued briefly to go into the Basilica. It feels far smaller than some other European and English cathedrals, but the mosaic work is incomparable.

As I left St Mark's Square the crowds were beginning to build, so I made my way back across the Accademia Bridge for views back towards the Doge's Palace and the Campanile.

I met up with my friends for lunch, and as the weather had become so lovely, we decided to hop on a vaporetto and spend the afternoon on Murano (with an obligatory gelati!)

My last view of Venice as we caught the vaporetto back to collect our bags and make our way to the airport. I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to return to visit after so many years, and explore such a wonderful city properly...

Venice - a wander through the city

Last weekend, some friends and I spent the weekend in Venice. Earlier in the year I had been talking about how I had once spent 24 hours in Venice about 17 years ago. Unfortunately, that one day was in mid July, the temperature was well over 40 degrees, and we shamefully spent several hours sitting in a fast food restaurant as it was the only place we could find that had air-conditioning. Ever since, Venice has remained on the list of places I wanted to re-visit to explore and appreciate properly. After mentioning this over drinks one Friday evening, momentum took hold and our weekend trip was planned.

My friends had also been to Venice before, so weren't keen to visit the very busy tourist sites. So on our first day we simply wandered from our local area (we were staying in an apartment) across the city, trying to stay off the tourist routes, and exploring the less busy areas.

We stayed in Dorsoduro which is the university quarter. It was a great spot to stay in terms of local bakeries, cafes and restaurants...but we were also able to get a real sense of how Venetians go about their daily lives.

On the canals, we passed produce stores, garbage collection boats and everything in between.

Our footsteps took us towards the Rialto bridge which also afforded us our first daytime view of the grand canal. The local market was still in full swing, with an amazing array of fresh produce for sale.

After exploring the market, we quickly crossed the Rialto bridge and once again headed away from the regular tourist haunts to avoid the large crowds.

This last photo is actually a modern, functioning hospital! By the end of the afternoon we had walked over 8 miles, so we caught a vaporetto back to Dorsoduro and enjoyed an evening of enjoying more Venetian delights (Aperol spritz and cicchetti).

It was a lovely day and a wonderful start to the weekend...

The Lake District (a belated Easter update)...

Whilst we are enjoying a beautifully sunny May bank holiday weekend here in London, I am finally finding time to record my trip to the Lake District over Easter with two good friends. Although only two weekends ago, it seems much longer - possibly due to the fact that just after we arrived back from the lakes, I flew to Atlanta for five days to speak at a conference.

The trip to the lakes was only planned a few weeks in advance. When my friend L was able to extend her trip to the UK past Easter, we made a decision to look for somewhere to stay and explore a part of the UK to which she had never been before. I also calculated that it was over 15 years since I had last been there - it was so beautiful that it made me wonder why I had allowed such a long time to pass before a return visit.

We stayed in a little terraced cottage in Bowness (a village on the shore of Lake Windermere). After a seven-hour drive from London on Friday, we arrived to a lovely warm and sunny afternoon. We promptly set off to explore the village and lakeside.

In our planning we had decided to devote one day to a walk. Based on the weather reports, we chose Saturday as the day, and decided to take the walk that circumnavigates Derwent Water. Being such a beautiful day, it was a popular route...but after the first hour or so, the numbers of people thinned out. The surrounding scenery was gorgeous...

And one cannot visit the Lake District without reference to Beatrix Potter. On Sunday we caught the ferry to the other side of Lake Windermere and walked (uphill!) to Hilltop, the farm that she bought with the sale proceeds from 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'. It is located near the village of Far Sawry. Beatrix mainly used the farmhouse initially as a holiday home. Once she married, she lived on a farm nearby, but used to visit Hilltop daily to write and receive visitors. Hilltop is now managed by the National Trust (after Beatrix bequeathed it to them after her death).

Hilltop Farmhouse

We were so blessed with the weather, and it was lovely to spend the time in the company of two very good friends...

Istanbul...

View from the breakfast terrace at our hotel

Last week I spent 5 days in Istanbul with my friend L. L was returning from a work trip via Istanbul so it was the perfect opportunity for me to visit a city that I had long wanted to explore and spend time with a very good friend at the same time.

I very happily relinquished decision-making responsibility and let L lead us around all of the treasures of the city (starting with her most excellent choice of hotel in Sultanahment, where most of the sights were within walking distance or an easy tram ride away). Never before have I encountered a city where you are so surrounded by evidence of three distinct empires - Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman. It has inspired me to brush up on my history - fortunately my return to London has co-incided with the broadcast of a 3-part documentary on Istanbul.

We visited bazaars (Grand Bazaar, the spice bazaar and Arresta Bazaar)...

The beauty of Aya Sofya...

one for my mother

and the Blue Mosque...

The gorgeous painted tiles at the Topaki Palace...

The haunting beauty of the Basilica Cistern...

We also had a very early start one day in order to travel to Gallipoli and tour the battlegrounds. Our guide was excellent, presenting a balanced view of the conflict from both the ANZAC and Turkish perspectives...

We tried virtually every type of traditional Turkish food - kebab, kofti, borek, and the local fast food speciality (a fish sandwich) by the side of the Bosphoros...

...and I took great delight in trying baklava from all of the recommended patisseries in the guide book...even a final day purchase to enjoy at the airport while waiting for my flight...

...I fear I am still having withdrawals from my daily hit of sugar, pastry, pistachio nuts and honey...

Istanbul was fabulous - I'd highly recommend it (and thanks L for being such a wonderful 'tour leader' and helping to put the world to rights over our Turkish wine...)