Prince (my beloved car) and I decided to head out for the day and went in search of Oban…
This is not the colleseum, but rather McCaig’s Tower, built in 1897 by local banker John Stuart McCaig, with the aim of providing work for local stonemasons, and being a lasting monument to the McCaig family.
~ Bella
…and while I was in London, Santa’s Elves decorated my house! …complete with snow on the mountains…
…then my ‘family up the hill’ invited me to kick off Christmas celebrations with them in Glasgow for dinner and the theatre…
…and the next night, dinner ‘down the hill’ at my place…
The changes faces of the loch are quite extraordinary… all the following occurred in just over one day…
…note, one can no longer see the mountains on the other side – they are totally engulfed in snow…
Frozen droplets on the spider’s web…
…then back up the hill on Christmas day…
Merry Christmas, one and all…
~ Bella
I spent a glorious week in London with friends, and even attending a function at the House of Lords, as one does…
These are views from my apartment… they ugraded me from a deluxe room to a five-room apartment with a balcony…
…high tea with dear Bethany at The Palace Lounge…
…and dinner at ‘my London apartment’ with dear friends…
~ Bella
On my way down to London, I stayed in a couple of glorious locations in West Yorkshire…
…that came complete with a helicopter…
~ Bella
It was a grey day when I headed off to London…
…first class on the direct train from Glasgow to London Euston – a lovely way to travel…
Arrived at my beautiful hotel, The Royal Horseguards, and since my suite was so pretty, complete with two balconies nonetheless, I decided to order in room service… Yum!
The next evening I met up with friends at the elegant and glorious Rules restaurant – established by Thomas Rule in 1798, it is the oldest restaurant in London and is officially my favourite restaurant in London!
The following morning it was off to the gallery to meet my relative…
As you may know, my great-grandmother largely raised me – and her husband’s (my Pop) grandfather was the first of the family who emigrated away from England, along with all of his brothers bar one, the eldest – Dr Richard Parnell. My 4x great-uncle Richard moved to Edinburgh and was a world-leader in several disciplines, author of several books (I have tracked down and purchased the original 1842 and 1843 editions of two of his books)… and the eminent portrait painter, Norman Macbeath painted Dr Richard’s portrait… a portrait I tracked down to a gallery in London…
…and was granted ‘behind the scenes access’ to the actual painting itself…
Macbeth’s portraits were considered “unmistakable likenesses”… and so I was about to come face to face with the true likeness of a man to whom I feel so very honoured to be related…
Although I had seen a photocopy of the image, when I saw the original painting, I wept with joy – this man is my “family”… I haven’t really known what that word meant until recently…
I have no idea how long I stood soaking in image… It was such a profoundly beautiful moment in time…
While I appreciate that he is housed in a perfectly climate-controlled archive, I am thinking I might inquire about paying to have the painting professionally restored by a conservator so that it does not deteriorate any further…
From there it was a taxi ride to another part of London to collect my Estonian business visa…
…then off for a spot of lunch…
…before returning to The Royal Horseguards for a well-earned drink…
Views from my balconies…
The next day it was off to a private club for my Debrett’s training – essentially a two-day one-on-one finishing school…
The building was astoundingly beautiful…
…and that evening, it was off to the theatre… I am very much an Oscar Wilde fan and so one of my dearest friends joined me to see, “The Importance of Being Earnest”.
The following day it was back to the club for my Debrett’s training – and around lunch-ish we were to head to high-tea, however protestors had other ideas. Were were stranded.
We attempted to leave the back way, however all other roads had been blocked as well – and this unfortunate bride was supposed to be going to the club we just left – and they couldn’t get there because of the protestors… I felt so incredibly bad for her…
The trip from the club to my hotel should have been about 20 minutes – it took almost THREE HOURS!!! …and although by then the majority of the procession was over, the roads to the hotel itself were still blocked – the only way I was able to get ‘home’ – one of the doormen came to as close as we could get in the taxi, and he managed to get the policeman to agree that if he walked in front of the car to the hotel, the policeman would let us through… He was my hero!
~ Bella
Best laid plans… I was supposed to essentially land in Liverpool, collect my car from storage, and then catch the boat over to the Isle of Man – only the boat broke…
So, I decided to do some exploring…
Helmshore Mills is essentially two mills built in Helmshore, Lancashire. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker’s Mill was built in the 1820s by the Turner family.
As the sign says, “the last original functioning cotton spinning and carding mill left in existence!” I felt so privileged to experience it!
Hmmmmm, well since I am stuck on the mainland, had best find somewhere to stay for the night…
~ Bella
You will have seen my posts of the beautiful marina in Torquay across the road from where I was living, bathed in glorious sunshine… Or views from the lovely Grand Hotel where I would often sit and work, overlooking Torbay harbour…
Well… It has been ten years since Torquay in South Devon, England saw snow… but right now they are being covered in the stuff! With more blizzards forecast… and a huge thank you to my dear friend Marcus Throup who took these photos for me.
I wish I was there to witness it! It may be snowing here where I am in Budapest at present, but that’s nothing new. Snow in Torquay? That pretty much doesn’t happen.
…and you would normally be able to easily see the Grand Hotel when standing on this spot – not today!
…and just along the road a little way, Plymouth was also white…
~ Bella
It has been quite the ordeal getting to this point, but I have finally left England yet again. 🙁
After being quite ill for almost four weeks, then packing up the house and putting everything into storage, I finally left beautiful Torquay on a magical sunny day…
…drove five hours up to Liverpool to put Prince (beloved car) into storage (I am coming back from Ireland by boat and we dock at Liverpool) – then checked into a lovely hotel right in the heart of Liverpool city…
…and for a fine hotel, the fact that they had a special for guests in their restaurant for two courses only 17.99… Yum! First course, scallops (that were beyond delicious!)…
…followed by steak Diane… that sizzled for a good five minutes after it arrived…
The view from my window…
Parts of Liverpool look lovely…
…and I am sure Lime Street Station will look lovely when they are through with the renovations…
Caught the fast train into London…
…and stayed for a couple of nights at the Tower Hotel. Wouldn’t recommend the hotel itself, but the location was heavenly!
I love beautiful architecture and the Tower Bridge is yet another stunning example of when people actually cared about creating a functional monument that was also incredibly beautiful.
Here, below, are several photos of the bridge as the sun sets behind her… (taken through the windows of the bar upstairs at the hotel)
Looking at these windows as the lights come on, reminds me of the movie “Hugo”…
…and perfect reading material…
I realised that I had left my coat in Prince, so of course one had to go into Oxford Street to go shopping for another… Upon my return, a late, leisurely lunch…
The marina next to the hotel…
I feel very blessed – when I checked out I asked for a taxi to take me to St Pancras Station, only to have the concierge tell me that the road had been closed, so I would need to schlep my way up the hill on foot, dragging my luggage behind…
“Ah yes – no. That is not going to happen,” was my response, followed by, “I have faith in you, sir! I know you can twitch your nose and find me a ride…”
After asking me to take a seat, within less than 10 minutes a taxi mysteriously arrived to take me to the station.
If you haven’t travelled on the Eurostar from London to Paris, it’s just like going through security at an airport, only waaaaaaay less people, and much more civilised.
…and back to my comment about when people cared about what they built… Look at the beautiful tiles around the iron-work in the ceiling…
Onboard – and Eurostar is just lovely!
Farewell, London…
The seats have everything you could want – including mirror and two different types of power outlets.
Going into France by road looks like it is nothing like the ridiculously long queues to go from the USA to Canada or from USA to Mexico…
Through the “chunnel”, out the other side, and I caught sight of a pink commuter train – love it!
Arrived at Paris Gare de Lyon and then hightailed it across the city to Paris Gare du Nord for my connection to Zurich…
Whereas first class on the Eurostar from London to Paris included delicious meals and wine in real glasses… first class from Paris to Zurich included a welcome drink in a plastic cup and snack for which you had to pay extra!
…and this is the majestic sight that greets one at the exit from Zürich Hauptbahnhof…
…view from the car on the way to my hotel…
…and the view from my window (it looks a little dingy in these photos, but is actually very lovely and quaint…
The hotel is right in the absolute centre of the city and is just lovely – small, quaint, friendly… and it even comes with a Samsung tablet for travel guide, alarm clock etc…
…and yes, that is a hat. I’m a girlie-girl… 🙂
…and after a wonderful night’s sleep, this is the view downstairs – I stayed in bed working until about noon before greeting the day…
More about that in my next post…
~ Bella
St Michael’s Mount, the extraordinary Minack Theatre, Lands End and more… These are the highlights from yet another glorious day exploring…
Starting in our lovely manor as the sun was beaming in the beautiful bay window, Karen and I met up and the headed off…
…and in case we were peckish, we had some Rudolph jerky on which to nibble…
Arriving in Marazion to horses on the road and on the beach – I love it!
St Michael’s Mount at high tide is an island, and at low tide is a tiny outcrop of land. There has been one form of monastery or other on the site since the 8th century.
Its Cornish name is Karrek Loos yn Koos, literally meaning ‘the grey rock in a wood’.
At high tide, the man-made causeway is completely under water.
Next stop, the Minack Theatre…
The Minack Theatre (or Gwaryjy Minack in Cornish), gives one the feeling of being in an exotic location in Italy or similar…
According to Wikipedia: “The theatre was the brainchild of Rowena Cade, who moved to Cornwall after the First World War and built a house for herself and her mother on land at Minack Point for £100.[3] Her sister was the feminist dystopian author Katharine Burdekin and her partner lived with them from the 1920s. In 1929, a local village group of players had staged Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a nearby meadow at Crean, repeating the production the next year. They decided that their next production would be The Tempest and Miss Cade offered the garden of her house as a suitable location, as it was beside the sea. Miss Cade and her gardener, Billy Rawlings, made a terrace and rough seating, hauling materials down from the house or up via the winding path from the beach below. In 1932, The Tempest was performed with the sea as a dramatic backdrop, to great success. Miss Cade resolved to improve the theatre, working over the course of the winter months each year throughout her life (with the help of Billy Rawlings and Charles Angove) so that others might perform each summer.”
Hmmmmmm, yes – my thinks that is stating the obvious! 🙂
…and here is when the alien space ship finally came down to collect us…
From there, it was meandering over to Land’s End…
…and along the way being stopped by traffic geese…
…and then suddenly I felt as though I had been transported to a cheap American theme park… Welcome to Land’s End.
Needless to say, we didn’t stay long and instead headed off in search of somewhere lovely for lunch…
…and the dip in the roof is unfortunately not an optical illusion…
Anywhere that has fresh yellow roses and books is a winner with me!
After a lovely lunch and live music (smooth, cool jazz feel) that I could have listened to for hours and hours, we headed toward home base…
…grabbed a cab and went into Falmouth for wine, food, wine and more wine…
No, this is not a huge chimney for the building – well, not exactly… read on…
This building used to be Customs House…
…right next to the Harbour Master’s office, complete with lookout bay window…
This is Jack – local celebrity…
He orders his drinks at the bar…
This is our trusty bartender with Karen’s chocolate Baileys…
Back to Jack – he has a calendar, raising money for the air ambulance. When I adopt my next fluffy, me thinks we will do something similar for a local cause…
Then we arrived back to the manor and, being the only residents, duly sat in the bar consuming a nightcap (or two) and singing a range of songs, much to the amusement of the bartender!
The following morning (Monday) we set out to head back to Torquay, with a minor detour… Karen needed to run an errand along the way so while she was taking care of that, I headed off to do some more exploring…
…and we stopped for lunch at one of my favourite quirky pubs… The Highwayman Inn…
Then back to sunshine in Torquay…
…dropped Karen at the train station, dropped my luggage at home, then off for dinner and drinks with another lovely friend, Rachael…
…and now finally back home…
This weekend feels like it was a month full of fun – I had such a wonderful time, full of laughs, fabulous company, interesting scenery…
I feel so very, very blessed…
~ Bella
My dear friend Karen came over from Hastings for a long weekend and we are spending it exploring Cornwall.
Although today was raining all day long, we had a lovely time!
Starting in our lovely hotel – Penmere Manor. Built in 1825, it was originally home to Captain John Bullock of the Falmouth Packet Service.
During WWII, the manor was turned into a home for injured officers; and after that it became a teaching convent for girls for a short period.
Since 1958, the manor has been operating as a hotel.
When we arrived on Friday (yesterday) evening, the lovely receptionist arranged a taxi for us and we went into Falmouth Harbour to the lovely Chain Locker Restaurant.
…and toasting to some wonderful business news I received the day prior.
Back to today, we went exploring to St Anthony’s Lighthouse and although we essentially found it, the thought of trekking to it – whether in good weather or bad – we decided to head somewhere lovely tu curl up for lunch instead. Hmmmmmm, do you notice a theme here… LOL!
The Pandora Inn was built in the 1200’s and has a fabulous vibe…
On the way back to the manor, we just meandered down this road and that…
…and came across the delightful Greenbank Hotel, Falmouth’s oldest hotel.
Originally built in 1640, the hotel has had quite the history…
In 1907, Florence Nightingale stayed here and her name can still be seen in the guest book on display by reception. Additionally, Kenneth Grahame stayed at the hotel in 1907 and it was here that he wrote letters to his son, which later formed the stories that became ‘The Wind in the Willows’.
This lovely couple shared their high tea yummies with us!
Check out this amazing decanter chandelier!
…then headed back home…
…for wine in front of the fire… (hmmmmmm, no – no theme here……)
What a glorious day!
Until tomorrow…
~ Bella
