Small Feet

The thing about Glasgow is that it has nine -- nine -- free museums . On a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday morning, people spill in and out of tall doors to examine paintings, stone arrowheads and wall fragments, faded gowns from the nineteenth century, sculpture, books with indecipherable handwriting opened to the middle of their spines, taxidermies from around the globe, and artifacts both from colonized jungles and from Glaswegian houses down the street.   Museums are a beloved pastime of mine, a superb shelter from rain and wind and indeterminate precipitation of all seasons. In my opinion, the people in the museums are as much an object of fascination as the objects numbered and held behind glass. The small families, scattering themselves sometimes across the wide galleries as they seek something of interest; the chattering tour groups on a determined yet careless scavenger hunt that they will likely repeat in a similar location tomorrow; the elderly couples who walk slo...

Canal sunset, Venice In line for the bar, Venice Museum, Venice Brunch in Edinburgh Ricotta, sesame and honey gelato in a deserted campiello (square) Maps exhibit, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Fresh spring blossoms all over Venice Public art drowning in Venice 

Venice is a city founded on shifting sand and soil, a maze of water and stone streets. It's unlike any place I've ever been. 70% of the Venetian economy is based on the massive influx of tourists that pour into the city all year long; the main centers of the lagoon are choked with people, but stray off the beaten path and the narrow streets are deserted. The current population of Venice is only a third of what it was at the height of the city-state's power in the seventeenth century. Now, it can be hard to make out the lagoon's identity from the masses of souvenir shops, 100 euro gondola rides, and selfie sticks. The canals lap at the bases of Venetian homes, on which the facades crumble to reveal discolored brick walls. The doors seem to be rotting, but in the upper windows flowers show signs of life.  It seemed appropriate to visit Venice in the week leading up to Easter; the countless brick churches in the city boast magnificent architecture as well as paintings a...

Literary destinations seem to be something of a theme for me -- all of England made me want to sink into a grassy meadow with the entire canon of my childhood favorites (which still remain my favorites). Bath is no different -- it is home to the Jane Austen Centre, the very homes where she lived in her later years, and the architecture and sites, like the Assembly Rooms , that are brought to life in her works as the settings for the most mundane and also most thrilling events of the English glitterati.  The city is even more ancient than Regency dances and love affairs -- it was a Roman hub due to the famous baths, which were used by soldiers during the height of the Empire as well as by cure-seekers in the seventeenth century and social butterflies as late as the twentieth century. History from all different periods of the Western world abounds here, and you can tour deep underground to see the baths and temple themselves. In some places, it's even possible to see t...

Oxford is sort of the be-all end-all of college towns -- it is literally a town made up of colleges. It was home to a few of my most favorite writers and thinkers: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. It's a mecca for academics, museum-lovers, and Harry Potter fans. In some ways, visiting Oxford was like coming home.  Stone buildings like churches and castles and the different parts of Hogwarts, are scattered throughout the town. So are museums -- I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum of anthropology, and the Museum of Natural History .  There's also Magdalen College, academic home of Lewis, Tolkien, and many others.  And of course, the Eagle and Child, affectionately known as the 'Bird and Baby' by its frequent customers, the Inklings.  The literary magic and academic development of Oxford oozes out of the very stones. You can hardly help wanting to pour yourself out into a novel or play, history or theorem. Visiting it was a sort of pilgrima...

Some might say that it's impossible to get a good feel for the city of London in a mere three days. After crisscrossing the city with countless steps, I beg to differ. Here are some highlights and snapshots from a brief journey to the heart of the British Empire. Sights: The British Museum, Westminster (two days after the attacks, there were police and bouquets of flowers everywhere, but no signs that tourists had been deterred), Trafalgar Square, Notting Hill, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens, and the list could go on. Food: Pimm's Cup and so many samples of cheese and Turkish delight at the Borough Market, full English breakfast complete with tea at Mustard , espresso and delicious porridge at  Sourced Market , and gelato at Snowflake  that I devoured before taking a picture of it.  London has beautiful doors and delicious Indian food and so many tourists that even my extroverted self wanted to crawl into a hole sometimes. It also...