Microblog

Today, Prince Charles rode the Tyne and Wear Metro for two stops. So did I, but I paid for my ride, and rode it all the way to my friends’ house.

Arrived in Newcastle upon Tyne, my home town, then went walkabout. At the Quayside, looked upriver at several road and rail bridges. The top bridge was a prototype for the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bottom, swing bridge stands on a site that may have had bridges since Roman times.

I’m in York, England with my brother for a couple days, a city I have explored so many times at various points in my life. Revisited York Minster’s Chapter House, an octagonal space dating from the 1280s. Took this (somewhat distorted) photo.

Posted Thames Path Hike.

A mint garnish was all that remained of a sticky toffee pudding: a fitting end to dinner on the last night of our three-day Thames Path hike to Oxford.

Walked from Wallingford to Abingdon, the longest section of our three-day Thames Path hike. After dinner we walked through this gateway, the entrance to former Abingdon Monastery, on our way to our hotel in a big old house by the River Thames.

Day 1 of 3 hiking part of the Thames Path. Home tonight is a 16th century coaching inn in Wallingford, a picturesque market town. Grateful to be walking with good friends: one I’ve known since school days, 60 years ago, and another I’ve known since moving to the US 40+ years ago.

Spent the day with friends in Fleet (Hampshire, UK). We chatted so much, I forgot to take photos. Took this picture from the rather fine footpath between the train station and their home.

Posted The Day Swinging England Invaded America.

Wandered through soaring, flowing spaces, admiring how architect Eero Saarinen understood how to leave so much out yet leave us with more. Tonight my home is TWA Hotel, New York JFK Airport. Public spaces are in the restored and reassigned 1962 TWA Flight Center.

A surprise on our Mississippi walk: Vincent van Gogh reimagined as a hot-air balloon.

Posted Superior Hiking Trail: Fall 2021.

A radioactive injection followed by a bone scan seemed appropriate for Halloween. Glad to learn tumor is too small to be visible.

“Highway 61 Revisited” along the North Shore of Lake Superior towards Bob Dylan’s birthplace, Duluth, then beyond to Minneapolis.

One final day, walking the Superior Hiking Trail… until next year.

Lake Agnes, today, from the Superior Hiking Trail. Without a beaver dam at one end, there wouldn’t be much of a lake.