As of June 15th, 2020, much of Europe will re-open borders and begin to re-open hotels and the like…

…and so for me, that means it is time to consider ‘where next’?

I have decided the next stop on my Luxurious Nomad life will be Iceland for three months – August to October.

…but first, the job of deciding what now fits into my luggage for me to navigate this ‘new world’ – and the rest goes back into storage.

What to pack?

Not only personal items as a result of the Coronavirus (hand sanitisers etc), but also now a full mobile audio/video recording studio I have created – they all need to fit into my beloved Hartmann suitcases and my equally beloved Louis tote.

…AND… in a moment of insanity, I enrolled to do an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation PLUS several classes at Harvard, Babson, and MIT – and to do it all in ONE YEAR!

Soooooo, that means I now also need to cart about twelve text books around with me, as well as folders for my notes etc etc etc…

But – that’s where shipping services come in handy.

I will go into more detail in the coming weeks as I pack and share tips etc…

For now, it is back to enjoying a magnificently peaceful day here beside the Loch…

~ Bella

We may all be in lock-down at the moment, but that’s even more reason to let our creative juices out and see what amazing things we can create!

Inspired by a friend’s birthday, I decided to make a chocolate and slivered almond ‘green man’, complete with edible 23 carat gold flakes, adhered to the chocolate with a paste I made from Scotch Whisky.

He cracked up a little in the process, but I figure we are all a little cracked up at present…

…but who is the ‘green man’?

He is an ancient mythological character covered in foliage, primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth and representing the cycle of new growth.

Rather than me go into more detail here, the Historic UK website has an excellent article:  https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Green-Man/

PS:  this particular green man is no more… but he tasted delicious!

~ Bella

I was planning on visiting Ireland until mid-May when I thought Brussels might be my next destination, only to be told one evening that the hotel was closing the next day!

To be fair to the hotel, they said they were aware of my ‘Luxurious Nomad’ lifestyle and so if I needed another couple of days to get things sorted, they would stay open just for me – I thought that was lovely of them.

So, I decided to make a return visit to Scotland – packing up my gazillion suitcases, getting everything loaded into Baby Jaguar, and headed for the ferry terminal at Larne in Northern Island – about four and a half hours away – just in time to catch the last ferry to Scotland.

It was at least encouraging to see a rainbow from my balcony before I left…

Driving along the highway was surreal… and at this multi-lane automated toll booth, not one other single vehicle – not one…

…and this ominous sign getting closer…

I also thought it strange to see strips of rain only falling in shards…

…but with my trusty travel bear, Montesquieu, I continued…

I have dreadful night vision, so was going to have to sleep in my car when I landed in Scotland as it would already be dark, but thankfully a dear friend said they would fly over to Belfast, I could collect them there, and they would drive us back up.

These are the images of a usually busy airport he sent to me…

We met up at a tavern near Larne, and Baby Jaguar was sitting alone in the parking lot…

…then off to the ferry…

Just in case you haven’t taken one of these, they are HUGE vessels – more the size of an ocean liner than what one would normally call a ferry…

…and you can see from the massive queue behind us just how empty it was!

There were in total seven cars only on the crossing.

We finally arrived just before 1:30AM… and the following morning looked like this…

I was encouraged to see this tree – it had washed down the loch in the last storm before I left, but now is actually growing!

…despite it being completely submerged at high tide each day!

Who knows what the future will hold for any of us, but I wish to each of you, my friends, a safe, healthy, and happy transition through this extraordinary time.

Sending love and prayers…

~ Bella

For a girl who is largely entrenched in the late 19th century much of the time, the thought of it being the year 2020 in a few days is quite astounding! It truly sounds like something from a sci-fi novel.

For me personally, this past decade has been one of amazing contrasts encompassing both ends of life’s spectrum.

I have made soooooo many new friends, many of whom I call ‘family’ and are so very, very dear to me… I love the work I do and the people with whom I work…

I spent time exploring fourteen countries (America, Great Britain (England, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales) Ireland, Romania, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Canada… and managed to take a wrong turn on one road trip and ended up crossing the Mexico border! But I won’t count that)…

In this past decade, I have essentially lived in 7 different countries (America, England, Scotland, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Austria); published 6 books (three non-fiction, and three short historical fiction); gone through 5 laptops; constantly navigate 4 currencies; owned 3 cars; had 2 relationships… and while I don’t have a partridge in a pear tree, I do have a wooden carved eagle in Scotland I am in the process of saving!

It’s funny, while I acknowledge I now live a very blessed life in spite of my physical challenges, at times I honestly don’t think I am achieving or experiencing all that much…

So, I decided to do a ‘decade retrospective’ of some of my highlights since 2010… and the more I thought about it, the more I kept adding to the list…

(oh, and while I think of it, I took the photo above on a beach at Pawley’s Island – under the full moon, the waves could be mistaken for silvery clouds in the sky…)

Among other things:

I rode in a husky sled in the Scottish Highlands; spent time down in a Romanian salt mine; cruised Loch Ness on the Winter Solstice; travelled overnight by rail from Vienna to Rome; chatted with Daisy Godwin (writer of the ‘Victoria’ television series); explored Vienna in a horse-drawn carriage; attended the Winter Olympics in Whistler; cruised the River Danube; and visited the town with the longest place name in the world – Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch…

I stayed overnight by myself in a ghost town in the middle of the Nevada Desert; attended an opera and a ballet in the Royal Box at the Vienna Opera House; spent a weekend sailing on a Victorian-era sailing ship; and visited the tiny fishing village made famous by the series, ‘Doc Martin’, as well as many of the filming locations of the ‘Outlander’ series, and those of ‘Foyle’s War’…

I explored and stayed in countless castles and historic inns; wandered around Stonehenge and the Roman Baths at Bath; visited the mysterious Georgia Guidestones; marvelled at the White Cliffs of Dover from the deck of a boat; slept in King Edward VII’s bed; rode on the world’s steepest incline railway; visited the grave of my great-grandfather’s great-grandparents!; visited the Spanish Dancing Horses’ Lipizzaner Stud Farm in the Viennese countryside; explored Hannibal, Missouri where Mark Twain grew up, and I stayed in a haunted house there that has been featured in several documentaries…

I bought a Victorian horse-drawn carriage (as one does!); road-tripped across, around, and through America multiple, multiple times in a classic Jaguar convertible; took a vintage five-star fine-dining rail journey from Wales to Scotland and return; cruised the Mississippi river on a paddle steamer; studied artificial intelligence at Stanford for a semester for fun; and attended a steampunk festival, the Goodwood Revival, the Mille Miglia, the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, a Royal Russian Ball, the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, a medieval jousting tournament, and the Braemar Gathering Highland Games…

I explored parts of Great Britain by steam train, including the Jacobite Railway (aka Harry Potter train); managed to find myself in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan family BBQ (although memorable, an adventure I do not wish to have again); travelled by Jeep through underground caverns in the Ozarks; spent a week camping by myself beside a stunning lake in Georgia, complete with nightly skinny-dipping under the stars; visited the Altaussee salt mine in the mountains of Austria where WWII art treasures stolen by the Nazis were found by the ‘Monuments Men’ – and had also previously this decade attended a reception and met the author of the book about this incredible true story that was then turned into a movie…

I practiced what little Italian I speak in little local markets full of cheeses, and all the sights and smells of a glorious Italian market town; traversed the extraordinary Transfăgărășan Road; visited where Agatha Christie lived and wrote; flew internationally by private plane; rode on one of the world’s oldest surviving Ferris Wheels; visited Cadillac Ranch (the place in the middle of the desert where are buried old Cadillacs standing up); road-tripped around the Amalfi Coast; toured castles in Transylvania; visited the home of outlaw Jesse James; and experienced the decadence of a seaweed bath (if you haven’t done it, I thoroughly recommend it!)…

I took a leisurely trip on a horse-drawn canal boat; listened to Strauss being played in the same room where Strauss first played Strauss; visited every significantly historic antebellum home/mansion in the American South; lived in a four-star ski resort; road tripped around the Scottish Highlands; flew in a helicopter; went horseback riding through an antebellum plantation; attended a private champagne reception at Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey); and took one of the most visually stunning trips of all by rail from Zurich to Budapest through the snow-covered Swiss Alps…

I spent an entire week without spending any money; a week without technology; a whole week without speaking to another living soul; and a week without any modern conveniences (except the refrigerator), reading and dining by candlelight…

I invited strangers home for dinner; took people who are homeless out for a meal; and volunteered at soup kitchens…

In this decade, I learned to lasso a fence post, throw a clay pot, develop a smart-phone app, make paper by hand, shoot a gun, build a voice-activated skill program command for Alexa, make moonshine, be appreciative of my blessings each and every day, interpret scientific analysis of organic fertilizer (yes, there is a story behind that), shuck an oyster, spin wool, and do more of what makes me happy…

I drank Irish Whiskey in Ireland, Scottish Whisky in Scotland, and Bordeaux in Bordeaux; ate a California Roll in California, a Cornish Pasty in Cornwall, Canadian Bacon in Canada, Hungarian Goulash in Hungary, Irish Stew in Ireland, New England Clam Chowder in New England, Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia, Sacher Torte at the Sacher Hotel, Weiner Schnitzel and Weiner Sausage in Vienna… and ate a Milky Way in the Milky Way! (ok, so no points for the last one)…

…and I sat beside Walt Disney’s original “Dreaming Tree” on the farm where he grew up – while the original tree has fallen over, the trunk is still there, a sapling from the tree is growing next to it – and the entire field is awe-inspiringly beautiful! Wild flowers that grow as high as your waist in some places…

All this in a decade that has seen among other things, the very first iPad (seriously, it’s hard to imagine that the first iPad was launched this decade), the continued impact of the crash of 2007/08, 3D printing, world’s first synthetic organ transplant, two British royal weddings and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch, autonomous cars, the self-destruction of a $1.4Million Banksy painting, and the end of the world in December of 2012.

Here’s to seeing what amazing things we experience in this coming decade… May it be everything wonderful you would wish for yourself, and more…

Much love…

~ Bella

A lovely day to explore where Andrew Carnegie grew up and where Robert the Bruce’s heart is laid to rest – the picture-postcard beautiful Dunfermline, Scotland.  These photos do not even come close to doing justice to the beauty of the village.

First, through magnificent Stirling and past historic Stirling Castle…

…past Carnegie Hall…

…detouring to visit lovely little Culross…

With so many village schools closing, I wish more philanthropists such as Mr Geddes, Esq would step up these days…

This trip was merely a pleasant drive…  On another excursion, I will actually go in and explore many of the buildings that I simply admired from the outside on this visit.

~ Bella

One of the joys of my little piece of Heaven in Scotland is curling up and creating…  Whether it is writing, creating art, craft… it is the perfect location.

Here is a snippet of just some of what I have been up to recently…

I decided to give the tired purple shade a new lease of life…

…and creating requires the accompaniment of good red wine, of course…

The candelabra started life like this…

…oh, and I also gave the bench-top some restoration work…

…and thought the leaves that support the glass bowls for the candelabra would look pretty with ‘glow in the dark’ veins…

Finished candelabra!

…and as for my other project…

~ Bella