Well, that’s the end of my trilogy of summer holidays (Tromsø, Bristol, Luxembourg): nicely indulgent but it’s back to work tomorrow. These little statuettes were a feature of our apartment and seem to sum up the feelings, though I accept that it is unreasonable to complain, as such.
“The Family of Man” is a famous photography exhibition featuring more than 500 prints that was first shown in New York in 1955 and toured the world. It is now preserved in Luxembourg because it is the birthplace of the original curator, Edward Steichen and resides in Clervaux Castle in the north of the country (which is not all that far from the capital in the south of the country, this not being a very big place). Well worth a visit, and I am being a little mean to Joe here by using a picture of him yawning: he wants me to note that this is unrepresentative of his actual reaction.
I don’t do “retail therapy”. I just needed a new pair of shoes. There’s a wedding coming up and certain standards are expected.
The alley of China Lane lies on the shortest walking route between Victoria and Piccadilly stations in Manchester and when I’m walking between them — as I was this morning — it is always worth looking down to see if the opportunity arises for a shot — specifically, this one. Why is it called China Lane? No idea, but as it is lined with warehouses and located right beside Piccadilly Basin on the canal, maybe it’s a tea reference.
Up until Tuesday afternoon Bristol was the largest city in the UK that I had never previously visited, but it can now pass on that honour to Coventry. A first full day here revealed many things of interest but to illustrate them I pick what is almost certainly the city’s most depicted feature. Why not, though? I am partial to a good bridge and in the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the place certainly has one of those: this is an extremely handsome and impressive construction, even now. The road deck is nearly 250 feet above the water below — how does one even start going about such an enterprise? OK, build the towers first, but then what? But that is why I am not or never will be Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed it — though did not live to see it completed.
Having celebrated Hebden’s attractive qualities yesterday I am also permitted to be relieved that the football season has restarted so I have excuses to leave it on Saturdays, when it becomes too full for its own good — and go drink in some other town’s pubs instead. Like Wrexham in North Wales, for example. Which, this being taken in a Wetherspoons (if you have ever drunk in the UK surely you know of these places), looks much the same as anywhere else, of course. But I don’t mind them.
The drive home — with a walk on the way, to the summit of Broad Law, the highest point in the Scottish Borders at 2,760 feet. There was not a great deal to see on the way up, but the top is graced by this construction, a VOR beacon (that is, Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range — so now you know). Should every mountain have one? Well, probably not, but this one does.
Chester is a city that has maintained its pre-WW2 architecture better than most, and going black-and-white seems appropriate today. It also hides the anomaly that is the bright blue of the sign for bus stop S3. Yes, I was in the beer garden of the Town Crier at this point, but at least it was after noon. Just.
This memorial consists of 2,711 stone slabs — officially ‘stelae’ — of varying height arrayed across an acre of ground near the Brandenburg Gate: more land formerly occupied by a part of the Berlin Wall, in fact. For more, see this page. That’s three pictures out of four that highlight a less favourable element of this country’s history but at least they seem to be prepared to remember in public.
Time for a holiday. This one at the instigation of the wife, for various reasons, but I am happy to tag along for the ride, and for the break. You can find out the destination tomorrow, although it’s somewhere the blog has visited before. As is Terminal 5 of Heathrow airport, where we and a few thousand others waited for the beginning of the fourth leg of our journey (after two trains and the Elizabeth Line).
I went for this shot because of the illuminated cup of hot beverage to the right, and I guess it works, but yes, I would like to take out the plug sockets.
Being 42 