Snowdonia National Park in Wales

31 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  12 minutes

Sunrise over Snowdonia © flickr.com - Hefin Owen/cc-by-sa-2.0

Sunrise over Snowdonia © flickr.com – Hefin Owen/cc-by-sa-2.0

Snowdonia, or Eryri, is a mountainous region and national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales over 3000 feet high, including the country’s highest, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), which is 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) tall. These peaks are all part of the Snowdon, Glyderau, and Carneddau ranges in the north of the region. The shorter Moelwynion and Moel Hebog ranges lie immediately to the south.   read more…

Shepherd’s pie

20 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Acabashi/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Acabashi/cc-by-sa-4.0

Shepherd’s pie, cottage pie, or in French cuisine hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, also called Sanders or Saunders. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lamb. The terms shepherd’s pie and cottage pie have been used interchangeably since they came into use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although some writers insist that a shepherd’s pie should contain lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie, beef.   read more…

Gateshead in North East England

5 October 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Gateshead Millennium Bridge between Newcastle (left) and Gateshead (right) © Christopher Down

Gateshead Millennium Bridge between Newcastle (left) and Gateshead (right) © Christopher Down

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne‘s southern bank. The town’s attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town’s southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.   read more…

Strand in London

3 September 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Bernard Gagnon/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Bernard Gagnon/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Strand (commonly referred to with a leading “The”, but formally without) is a major street in the City of Westminster, Central London. The street, which is part of London’s West End theatreland, runs just over 3/4 mile (1.2 km) from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where it becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4, a main road running west from inner London.   read more…

St Andrews in Scotland, the home of golf

10 August 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

View from St. Salvator's Tower © Jamesmcmahon0

View from St. Salvator’s Tower © Jamesmcmahon0

St Andrews (Latin: S. Andrea(s); Scots: Saunt Aundraes; Scottish Gaelic: Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, 10 miles (16 kilometres) southeast of Dundee and 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 as of 2011, making it Fife’s fourth-largest settlement and 45th most populous settlement in Scotland.   read more…

Boston in Lincolnshire

9 August 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Pilgrim House © Immanuel Giel

Pilgrim House © Immanuel Giel

Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Boston local government district. The town had a population of 45,339 at the 2021 census, while the borough had an estimated population of 66,900 at the ONS mid-2015 estimates.   read more…

Southport on the Irish Sea

2 August 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Southport Town Hall © geograph.org.uk - Alexander P Kapp/cc-by-sa-2.0

Southport Town Hall © geograph.org.uk – Alexander P Kapp/cc-by-sa-2.0

Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 94,421, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. the town is the third most populous settlement in the Liverpool City Region.   read more…

Theme Week Firth of Clyde – Great Cumbrae

27 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Newton Beach in Millport looking towards Isle of Arran © LucyLou2/cc-by-sa-4.0

Newton Beach in Millport looking towards Isle of Arran © LucyLou2/cc-by-sa-4.0

Great Cumbrae (Scottish Gaelic: Cumaradh Mòr) is the larger of the two islands known as The Cumbraes in the lower Firth of Clyde in western Scotland. The island is sometimes called Millport, after its main town. Home to the Cathedral of The Isles and the FSC Millport field study centre, the island has a community of 1,300 residents.   read more…

Theme Week Firth of Clyde – Isle of Arran

26 July 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit Reading Time:  8 minutes

Isle of Arran Distillery - Special casks © flickr.com - sebastian.b./cc-by-2.0

Isle of Arran Distillery – Special casks © flickr.com – sebastian.b./cc-by-2.0

The Isle of Arran (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Arainn) or simply Arran is an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at 432 square kilometres (167 sq mi). Historically part of Buteshire, it is in the unitary council area of North Ayrshire. In the 2011 census it had a resident population of 4,629. Though culturally and physically similar to the Hebrides, it is separated from them by the Kintyre peninsula. Often referred to as “Scotland in Miniature”, the Island is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault and has been described as a “geologist’s paradise”.   read more…

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