Tag: Scotland

  • EYE ON DESIGN | Glasgow School of Art

    EYE ON DESIGN | Glasgow School of Art

    In 1896, a junior draftsman named Charles Rennie Mackintosh won a competition to design a new building for the Glasgow School of Art. The building was completed in 1909, heralding the birth of a new style in 20th-century European architecture and establishing Mackintosh as a design influencer in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau…

  • TRAVELING SOLO [Tricks of the trade]

    TRAVELING SOLO [Tricks of the trade]

    I’m a woman and I travel the world. Alone. (With some occasional exceptions.) Alone, I’ve stayed in a stone cottage on top of a mountain in Tuscany, an 11th-century fort on an island off the coast of Brittany, an estancia in Argentina, and a riad in Tangier. Alone, I’ve shopped in chaotic flea markets in…

  • Weird but Wonderful | Cone Head

    Weird but Wonderful | Cone Head

    In front of the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art stands a statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, sculpted by Italian artist Carlo Marochetti in 1844.  For as long as anyone can remember, there has been a traffic cone on his head. For the past thirty or so years, the traffic cone has been…

  • Style Moment | Glasgow Launderette

    Style Moment | Glasgow Launderette

    “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear.  Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and…

  • Glasgow | Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, and Dinner

    Glasgow | Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, and Dinner

    Starting in the trendy West End of Glasgow, Scotland, here are my recommendations for breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner – and a little tour of the city as a bonus. Sandy Welch (above) is a well-known Scottish actor, who also makes the best croque-monsieurs in Scotland, if not the world.  His shop, Felix and Oscar,…

  • Glasgow | Citizen M Hotel

    Glasgow | Citizen M Hotel

    A last minute hotel booking in Glasgow introduced me to a groovy new breed of hotel called Citizen M. With a splashy contemporary design and a dose of humor, Citizen M was developed to provide affordable luxury accommodation to the “mobile citizens of the world.” From their website: “Mobile citizens include the the suits, weekenders, explorers,…

  • Scotland | Why I Went to Kirkcudbright, Part Two | Glenholme Country House

    Scotland | Why I Went to Kirkcudbright, Part Two | Glenholme Country House

    It took me four somewhat dicey hours to get to Kircudbright, Scotland, only to find there was, literally, nothing to do there.  Here’s the thing about travel: No trip is ever wasted.  Somewhere along the way, you’re bound to meet someone interesting, or see something intriguing, or find inspiration in an unexpected source.  When I…

  • Weird but Wonderful | Compromise

    Weird but Wonderful | Compromise

    These neighbors in Kirkcudbright, Scotland found a way to express their individual taste, even though their houses are attached.

  • Scotland | Why I went to Kirkcudbright (“ker – COO – bree”), Part One

    Scotland | Why I went to Kirkcudbright (“ker – COO – bree”), Part One

    I had a limited amount of time in Scotland, and I knew I would go to Edinburgh and Glasgow – but I also wanted to see a bit of the country.  My first choice would have been the Highlands, but I didn’t have time to do that trip.  So I did what I always do…

  • Weird but Wonderful | Not What You Think

    Weird but Wonderful | Not What You Think

    The FBI in a bonny little village called Falkland, in the Kingdom of Fife.  It’s not the Federal Bureau of Investigation, though – it’s the Falklands Bruce Inn.