Photo Friday: La Monstrosa – the Prado’s fat Spanish princess

Madrid, Spain; October 2008

I stumbled across his pair of oil paintings upstairs at the famous Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.
It was quite a contrast immediately after perusing the rooms full of Spanish royal portraits, mainly by Velazquez. There was quite a striking family resemblance between fathers, sons, grandsons and brothers and also sisters – all [...]

Photo Friday: Labyrinth at Land’s End in San Francisco

San Francisco, USA; July 2009

On a foggy July day, we hiked from Cliff House to Baker Beach in San Francisco and back. Our route there was via Land’s End and the cliffs and our route back was through the Presidio.
Along the way we stopped and saw this cool stone Labyrinth at Land’s End. It was [...]

Best of the Web: Carnival of travel and art

Last week the theme was food and travel, this week I have focused on art.
Exhibitions and museums
Sydney. Dee at Babel at Bedlam says the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney is “venerable yet hip”. I know it well – it’s certainly a great place to check out Australian art and the main galleries are free.
Wellington, [...]

Steinbeck country: The Carmel Valley Road

Back roads are often the best.
Given the choice I will always take the byway, not the highway.

And so it was on our California road trip. We planned to drive south from Monterey to San Simeon and then explore the scenic Big Sur stretch of coast line. My mother-in-law was not keen on taking the hairpin [...]

Photo Friday: Standing Pebbles in Orkney

Orkney; June 2009

My friend and I were sightseeing around mainland Orkney when we stumbled across this circle of Standing Stones – or rather, Standing Pebbles!
I don’t know who did this but it tickled my fancy as a joyful and creative response to the environment. I could imagine doing this with a child – but equally, [...]

Best of the Web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 31 August

Collating these links collections takes up quite a lot of time but I also enjoy it as there is so much great travel content out there. In this week’s edition we have everything from the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo to expensive farm stays in upstate New York. I hope you enjoy it!
Part of the purpose [...]

Best of the Web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 17 August

Today brings another bumper collection of links to great travel content on the web. I hope you enjoy it – let me know in the comments. If I link to you below, please pay it forward and give link love to someone else.
Debates, trends & reflections
Island caretaker. I was less than complimentary in my recent [...]

Best of the Web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 3 August

Oh my! When I decided to do the ‘link love‘ posts every week, with travel and food on alternate weeks, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I added quite a few blogs and a few of my favourite publications to my RSS feeds, as well as continuing to find great [...]

Photo Friday: Seascape in St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives, Cornwall, UK; June 2008

Usually you go to an art gallery to see the landscapes and seascapes inside the building.
In that respect, the Tate St Ives gallery does not disappoint. It has a large collection of modern and contemporary art and the price of admission also includes entry to the nearby Barbara Hepworth Museum [...]

Photo Friday: Ghosts of an artistic past in Detroit

Detroit, USA; October 2005

These days Detroit is often put forward as the poster child of urban decline, but it wasn’t always this way. Back in the days of Motor City, it was quite the place to be. Although it’s thought of as an industrial city, the wealth from the car industry helped support a thriving [...]

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