Manchester

My paternal grandparents hailed from Manchester and while they died when I was very young I've always been curious about their city of origin and so when we had an opportunity to housesit in Manchester we seized it with both fists! 

Fairfax House is a Georgian delight with an eighteenth centre furniture collection that is in a word impressive. 

York Revisited

We fell in love with York during our 2014 visit and returned for a second week long stay to see what we'd missed the first time around.

Scottish Parliament Buiildings

The Scots had their own Parliament until the 1707 Act of Union when London took responsibility for legislation in Scotland. Then, in a 1997 referendum the majority of the Scottish public voted in favour of a Scottish Parliament. The new Parliament Building, designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles, is directly across from Holyroodhouse Palace and strikingly modern and yet reminiscent of ancient times in appearance.

Foggy Cramond

With clear blue skies overhead we decided to venture out of Edinburgh to the seaside village of Cramond. We boarded the double decker bus, grabbed a seat up top and for an hour enjoyed the incredible view as the bus wove its way westward. Then, just five minutes outside of Cramond the fog rolled in. We just gaped at it and then burst out laughing. So much for our day at the beach! Determined to make the best of it, we trudged on and first stop was the Kirk.

Royal Yacht Britannia

Last year while we were in Edinburgh we were pressed for time and could not visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. This time around we made it a priority - especially as one of my favourite memories of Princess Diana is her greeting her children with arms wide open when the ship was docked in Toronto.

Edinburgh Delights - Beaches to Botanics

The weather in Edinburgh is constantly changing, often within minutes, so like the locals we do our best to ignore it and carry on. That's not to say we've been plagued with cold, wet weather, because we haven't. It's just that this is November not July, but when we learned Portobello Beach is less than two miles from the city centre we naturally had to check it out regardless of the season. We weren't alone.