Author Gayle

We interrupt the program to bring you a weather update. You may have seen stories in the news about the heatwave surging across Europe. Schools are closed, roads are melting and rail tracks are buckling in the extreme temperatures. Authorities… Continue Reading →

There’s a place on Iceland’s south coast where the huge Vatnajökull Glacier reaches out to touch the ocean. At the edge of a large lagoon, great chunks of ice break away from the face of the glacier and float out… Continue Reading →

They call it ‘The Land of Fire and Ice’ and the geography of Iceland is as dramatic as that sounds. Volcanoes and glaciers dominate the landscape here. The huge Vatnajökull Glacier alone covers eight percent of the island’s landmass –… Continue Reading →

As we wandered around Scotland’s northeast one day, we stopped to admire a view. Nothing unusual in that. But then this little scene unfolded before us.    

We arrived in Edinburgh with a couple of hours to kill before we could check into our little Airbnb flat. Not to worry, we thought, we’ll drop off the car, walk over to the train station, stash the bags in… Continue Reading →

We’d learned a lot about Scotland from books and television. We’d watched Jamie and Claire survive the Jacobite Risings and the Battle of Culloden. We’d marvelled at the beauty of the Shetlands as Jimmy Perez solved yet another murder on… Continue Reading →

The country of Scotland includes more than 790 islands. We visited five. As well as the popular isles of Skye and Mull, we managed to get to a few of the smaller islands off Scotland’s west coast. Of course, each… Continue Reading →

England’s Lake District has long held a kind of romantic fascination for us. What a thing it would be, we’ve thought, to walk in a landscape that inspired Wordsworth, on paths trod by the legendary Alfred Wainwright himself. There was… Continue Reading →

The man in 12A nods briefly as I slide into the seat beside him. We’re pretty excited; on this no-frills flight we’ve somehow managed to score an exit row. Greg stashes the backpacks in the overhead locker and we settle… Continue Reading →

This year marks the 350th anniversary of the death of Rembrandt and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has mounted an extraordinary exhibition of the Dutch master’s work. ‘All the Rembrandts’ includes the museum’s entire collection of 22 paintings, 60 drawings and 300 of… Continue Reading →