To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the super rich are different from you and me — they keep camels in the conservatory and have playhouses for their children that are bigger than the average American home. There really were live camels kept at the Doris Duke house, Rough Point in Newport Rhode Island. Born as the
On a cold rainy day, I visited Highgate Cemetery on a whim. I took a guided tour by a volunteer guide who regaled us with fascinating tidbits of history. Divided into two parts, east and west, Highgate Cemetery is one of the great monuments of London. It is Grade I listed by the National Heritage
The famed landscape of Big Sur in California is nearly vertical with the Santa Lucia mountains behind you and the rocky cliffs to the sea in front of you. On our Pacific Coast Highway road trip through Big Sur this summer, both natural and man-made marvels were spread out before us. The PCH is merely
Would you live with construction workers in your house for 24 hours/7 days a week for 38 years? It would be enough to drive anyone mad. Supposedly that is what Sarah Winchester did when she built the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California at the turn of the 20th century. No one knows why
Santa Barbara prides itself on being the California Riviera (so much so that its trademarked the slogan). A Riviera anywhere in the world conjures up images of beachside affluence and glamour. When you think of contemporary cool, you think of Brooklyn. What do you get when you mix the Riviera and Brooklyn? Something that is
Although my children have been going to New York City every year for the last 9 years, we have only just completed visited all of the major tourist attractions in Manhattan. Why? The crowds, the lines and the expense. I can only cope with a couple of sightseeing options per trip before we go do
The mind boggles when you think about how old the California redwoods are. When some of these trees in Muir Woods were saplings 900 years ago, the world would have been a vastly unrecognisable place. To put things in perspective, in 1144 AD, the French and Germans were off on a doomed Second Crusade. In
So many chateaux, so little time. With more than 500 chateaux in the Loire Valley, where does one start exploring this region which has been called the garden of France? Having been to the Loire Valley a few times, we decided to narrow down the geographical area we would visit on our first trip to
Although it is only September, the mild chill of autumn is in the air in London. August in San Francisco felt the same way. Coming from a heat wave on the East Coast, we felt the nippy weather keenly. When we visited the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, the leaves were changing color.
Although everyone associates New York City with the tragic events of 9/11, that day affected other people near and far. There are the obvious consequences such as the tightening of airline security and the wars to eradicate the Taliban. Less known is the fact that some of the victims came from 2 hours away where