David Kotz

Westminster Abbey

Not to be missed!

We live within walking distance of Westminster Abbey, just a few steps beyond the Parliament building and Big Ben in Elizabeth Tower. Although we’d visited once before – briefly, to hear an organ recital (amazing!) in December – we’d never had a chance to enter and really explore. So today we bought tickets and (for £10 extra) signed up for a tour guided by a Verger, one of the assistant clergy. Although the church was packed with tourists wandering around with headphones and audio tour guides, our little group of eight enjoyed a personal tour from Alex, a delightful man with an incredible knack for storytelling.

Hiking the valley of Eden

28th consecutive weekend hike!

I’m back in England and today gave me another opportunity to hike through the rural forests, pastures, and villages in the greater London area. For this week’s hike – my 28th consecutive weekend hiking – I chose a counter-clockwise loop hike in the valley of the River Eden, through the historic villages of Chiddingstone and Penshurst. Spring has arrived! and the landscape is about as different as different can be, compared to last weekend’s hike!

Following the public footpath through the pastureland near the Eden River.

Svalbard cruise

A first installment about my trip to Svalbard.

I’ve just completed an amazing ten-day visit to Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago far to the north of Norway. In a prior post from Longyearbyen (the only substantial town in Svalbard), I described the fascinating multi-national character of these islands located at 76-81ºN latitude, only 600 miles from the North Pole. I flew here for a week-long photography workshop with Muench Workshops, aboard the MS Virgo. In this post I’ll share an overview of the ship, our itinerary, and our activities. I’ve posted a photo gallery; the videos may give you a good sense of the incredible landscape, but I am saving the best shots for future posts focused on wildlife and landscape – I’m still sifting through over 12,000 raw images snapped over ten days!

Our group photographs the landscape in Hornsund, southern Svalbard.

Forty years in research

How time flies.

I realized this month that I have been involved in academic research for four decades. Indeed, I started getting involved in computer-science forty years ago today.

Moffen Island, Svalbard

Snow and walrus at 80ºN.

Today was not a typical hike, by any stretch of the imagination! While a light snowfall whipped across the featureless arctic landscape of Moffen Island – a tiny islet three hours’ sail north of Svalbard’s mainland at 80ºN – we walked across the southern spit to photograph a group of walruses that had hauled out of the sea for a long nap.

David (at left) and others photograph walrus during a snowstorm on Moffen Island.

Longyearbyen – Svalbard

Time to launch a new adventure!

I’ve just concluded a 48-hour visit to Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Svalbard, an archipelago far, far above the Arctic Circle. (Just to give you a sense how far north, the flight from Oslo (Norway) lasted over two hours.) The weather was fantastic and the flight delighted us with spectacular views of the snowy mountains and fjords as we descended along the west coast before landing just outside Longyearbyen.

Incredible views of mountains, glaciers, and icy fjords as we approach landing in Svalbard.

Wimbledon Park to Richmond Park

Another segment of the Capitol Ring trail.

Another weekend, another hike in the London area… (my 26th consecutive weekend of hiking!). Although the weather is beautiful today, my time was limited. So I took the Tube toward Wimbledon – nearly to the end of the line – and hopped off in Wimbledon Park. This pleasant (and I imagine quite affluent) suburb is the starting point for Segment 6 of the Capital Ring Walk, a 78-mile continuous walking route encircling the city of London. Today’s walk started, perhaps not surprisingly, in Wimbledon Park… filled with tennis courts.

Tennis courts in Wimbledon Park, outside London.

Dover Castle

A visit to Dover, its Castle, and the famous White Cliffs.

We decided to spend the day visiting Dover, a seaside city to the east along the English Channel. Famous for its chalky white cliffs, and for its history. Because it is the closest point in the United Kingdom to France and the continent, it has been strategically important for centuries. We spent most of our time at the Dover Castle atop the cliffs, where we toured the underground tunnels cut for military use in the 1790s and used extensively during World War II.

Dover Castle, within the broader castle complex.

Cissbury Ring hike

Climbing over 2,300-year-old earthworks with grand views of the sea.

The weather was beautifully clear for my 25th consecutive weekend of hiking, so I decided to head once again for the south coast and do a sort-of loop hike that would take me from a tiny coastal village, up to a hilltop capped by a Bronze-age earthworks that once served as a Saxon fortress; through the pastoral village of Clapham; to lunch in a 13th-century building housing a 17th-century pub, and over the highpoint at Cissbury Ring, a massive earthwork created in 300 BC and used (on and off) as a military asset for more than two thousand years. Read on!

Outer and inner earthworks of Cissbury Ring, atop a hill outside Findon.

Correçon-en-Vercors

Three days in the French Alps.

When I was invited to attend an academic conference in the mountains near Lyons and Grenoble, I did not hesitate. Especially when I learned that this small workshop (about two dozen experts in cyber-privacy research) is located in the tiny ski village of Correçon-en-Vercors at the base of the French Alps – and structures the program to retain the afternoons for skiing. This week’s forecast was not promising, however: rain every day. Nonetheless, we were able to find some rain-free time for outdoor activities on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.