Welcome to Scotland! On Friday we drove from York to Edinburgh, with a stop about halfway to walk part of Hadrian’s Wall. We could tell we were farther north, in this wild, rocky, windswept landscape. On Saturday we took the train to St Andrews, which was its usual chilly, grey, windy “self”; we took Meg’s favorite walk out the pier and along the Scores, and along the West Sands where the opening scene from Chariots of Fire was filmed. Today in Edinburgh we explored the Royal Mile and National Museum before a lovely afternoon tea in the Balmoral Hotel to a live pianist who played The Beatles, David Gray, and the Imagination song from Willy Wonka! It’s early to bed for our 6am flight out of the UK. Slainte!

Welcome to the “Midlands” of England: rolling forests and pastureland dotted with tiny towns that seem to have been lost in time, where the houses have names instead of street numbers and only one car at a time can fit on the road. Josh is driving our rental car – and doing quite well – and we’re glad we have it to explore (or at least drive through) as many of these hamlets as possible. We took a walking tour of Chipping Campden today, and braved the rain so Meg could see the ancient yew trees that (supposedly) inspired Tolkien’s doors of Moria. We finished the day with a leisurely half-hour stroll down a quiet footpath to a pub serving excellent local beer…and managed to walk it off on the return trip to the car to drive back to our quaint B&B.

Today we finished our 2-day hike on the Ridgeway – and sore legs and tired feet aside, this was quite an adventure! The westernmost part of the trail runs through miles of gorgeous farmland, through the Iron-Age Barbury Castle, and across wild Downs strewn with sarsen stones and burial barrows. Our journey ended in Avebury among circles of massive standing-stones (like Stonehenge, but older and bigger), where there were more people than we had seen in both days of our hike put together! From Avebury we caught a bus and a train to majestic Bath, which we’re excited to explore. A dip in the spa sounds like a fantastic idea after the Ridgeway…

Today we took the train to Steventon (near Oxford) to meet Meg’s family friends Marilyn and Roy in their incredible 17th-century timber house with very low ceilings and actual doorsteps to step over! We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly, a scrumptious dinner, a walk ’round town (down the 15th-century causeway) and a quick pint at the local pub – all in all quite a lovely and relaxing day. Tomorrow: we hike the Ridgeway Trail!

Summer weekends in Paris = busy but beautiful! We’ve been all over the city, mostly by walking (our tired feet can attest to this), to see everything from the Eiffel Tower to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, from Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur to the Le Petit Journal jazz club on Saturday night, and an organ concert in St Sulpice church by their master organist on Sunday morning (watch a video). There was even a guy on the Parc du Champ de Mars who tried the “I found a gold ring which you can have if you buy me coffee” scam! The food is amazing, the wine unbelievably cheap (but fantastic!), and we’re a bit sad to be leaving tomorrow. But there are sights, food, and wine and beer waiting for us in England, so to majestic Paris we say: Bon soir!