St Ives, Cornwall, England

In August 2015, love to go back.

Hungry in Berlin

At Roamers, I ordered too much food. A girl in the next table wanted to take some pictures of my food. I let her. The food was really good as I slowly polished it off. I ordered eggs and I didn't know it came with toast. So I made another order of toast and ended up with 2 orders of toast. They didn't go to waste, I finished everything.

Brunch in Berlin

Roamers is a tiny cafe in Berlin. Its been written up by many blogs. So I had to go there. I was early and was able to snag a seat inside the cafe but there were a lot of people eating and waiting outside. The food was really good, the ambience was excellent. I'd go again if I'm ever in Berlin again.

Eating in York, England

Its roast beef and Yorkshire pudding everyday, all day...only in York. One can smell the roasting of beef or pork throughout the town. Its a wonderful town. For 2 pounds one can buy an envelop of crackling, just crackling. Here I was having a pork bun with crackling.

King Henry VIII

St Mary's Abbey, now still as majestic as it was before the decree of King Henry VIII. He needed money for his numerous military campaigns and ordered the dissolution of Catholic monasteries, Abbeys, Priories and Friaries. He sold off their properties and confiscated their income. This led to many beautiful Abbeys in ruins. This as what remained of St Mary's Abbey in York. It sits high on a steep incline and is now part of a municipal garden. It is a beautiful place to spend a few hours roaming the gorgeous grounds.

Ribe, Denmark

Summer in Denmark, I wish for it again. To see the many rose bushes and hollyhocks leaning against the houses. What a summer it was.

Sunday in Cambridge, England

I was in Cambridge one Sunday in June 2015. It was early in the morning still when I arrived on the train from London. As I walked between the overgrown narrow lanes past the numerous churches I hear the familiar sound of the liturgy of the Anglican church being said. I remember this liturgy well after having grown up with it. But in the time I spent in the USA I've gone to other churches which does not use the Anglican church liturgy. Today I've come full circle, going back to an Episcopal church in my Los Angeles neighborhood and saying again a very similar liturgy. Its almost time to go to church. Have a great Sunday.

Hole foods

Hole foods is a vegan restaurant in Mousehole, Cornwall, a little seaside village wuite like Port Wen in the BBC TV series 'Doc Martin.' It is as sweet as Port Wen or Port Isaac or whichever name you want to use. I took the bus there from Penzance and walked round this adorable village full of English holiday makers, renting the numerous self catering cottages. I had a vegan English fry up which was quite nasty. What's in a vegan sausage? Lots of bread crumbs!

Ash wednesday

Humans are inherently religious. At Stonehenge, thousands of years ago, they worshipped the stones. Its amazing. There are no stones like these in the area but how did they move stones that weigh tons to this area? People are still trying to uncover this mystery. Here in August 2015 and on a very rainy day, I was here, trying to figure it out.

Fat Tuesday

Eat up. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. An English fry up is always called for on any visit to England. There are places that advertises them and you can't help but plop your butt down and order it. Here in St Ives, it wasn't any different. I arrived on an empty stomach by bus and every restaurant was trying to lure visitors in with their full English breakfast. I found a cute cafe and had a full English breakfast.

Unfinished business

My next project is England, as I like it. I love the cottage gardens and one can find them even in London. Here at Lambeth Palace garden, it was closed when I was here. But what I saw outside was still enthralling. This is a decommissioned church but it was closed when I was here in August 2015.

Next project, England, as I like it

One of the most delightful things about England are its cottage gardens. Besides the wonderful big estates and gardens are small nondescript gardens which can be found even in crowded London. I found this in the Temple area of London, it was not small, it was quite sizable for London. But in London there are big garden parks. I took the bus to Hampstead Heath one morning which to my amazement was a huge wide and wild space. Regents' park is another huge garden space replete with formal gardens but the most amazing part is the Queen Mary rose garden containing 4,000 varieties of roses. If roses are your thing, the best time to see it is the first 2 weeks of June. The collection of old fashioned roses is found nowhere else in such abundance. You'll be so enthralled.

Finnish bookstore

Bookstore window in Turku, Finland.