Photo Friday: Travel back in time to Victorian England

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

London, UK; May 2009 / 19th century Discovered – a rare colour photograph of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens in London. Since colour photography didn’t exist in the Victorian era, this clearly proves the existence of time travel. Maybe the Doctor and his TARDIS had something to do with [...]

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Steven at the Latin American travel blog Travelojos has nominated me to share three travel secrets in the Trip Base blog tag. I like the idea of highlighting obscure places. 1. Dougga, Tunisia Dougga in Tunisia gives Ephesus in Turkey a run for its money when it comes to impressive Roman ruins. It is not [...]

Photo Friday: The British Museum with children and the Parthenon Marbles debate

London, UK; July 2007 This is my sister Emma riding on my shoulders at the British Museum in summer 2007. She was five at the time and is now a big girl of seven and a half. We are standing in front of the Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles) and our dad [...]

Travel back in time to 1920s London

This gem of a video is from the British Film Institute but came my way via my friend Joanna Moncrieff on Facebook. Jo is a qualified tour guide in London and has a blog Westminster Walking. The video shows London in 1927 – in colour! Lots of familiar landmarks like Westminster and Buckingham Palace and [...]

Photo Friday: Giant water lily pads at Kew Gardens

Kew, London; May 2008 When I was seven my third-grade teacher gave us our very first assignment. We could do a project on any topic we wanted. I chose flowers. I liked flowers and still do but the deciding factor was my aunt Frances who promised she would help me do one on flowers. She [...]

Photo Friday: London bookworms soak up the summer sun

London, UK; June 2009 The photo above is of a man reading a book on the roof of a narrowboat on Regent’s Canal near the Angel Islington. I love the way he is sitting in what is clearly an extension of his living space, soaking up the precious sunshine, with piles of chopped wood beside [...]

Top tips for visiting Borough Market in London

Borough Market is one of my all-time favourite places in London. It’s a gourmet food market right near London Bridge and South Bank and a definite must if you come to London and have even the remotest interest in cooking or eating. It’s not exactly a farmers’ market but there are plenty of farmers plying [...]

Best of the Web – Gooseberry Fool: Foodie links for 27 July

I have decided to make the ‘best of the web’ link collections a weekly event, alternating each week between the Gooseberry Fool (foodie links) and Roaming Tales (travel). I hope you enjoy it! Recipes An intriguing idea for salsa – a blueberry salsa! The recipe, tested by Alanna from Kitchen Parade, also includes serrano chilli [...]

Photo Friday: Narrowboats at King’s Cross

King’s Cross, London; December 2008 There are many ways the Old World is different to the New and it’s not all about buildings and antiques. One of the less obvious ways is the canals. Sure you get canals in the New World but not to this extent. England is literally criss-crossed with canals, most of [...]

UN of food: China (plus win books!)

We all think we know what Chinese food is but the truth is that it’s incredibly diverse. The most common style of Chinese cuisine in the West is Cantonese but China is an enormous country and even within the majority Han population, there is vast regional variation in the cuisine. When you take into account [...]

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