A six-mile loop outside of a thirteenth-century castle village.
We are spending the weekend in Wales, including a few nights in the charming village of Conwy (CONN-wee) on the north coast. Shortly after sunrise this morning, I left the center of this historic village to hike a six mile loop up and over Mynydd Y Dref (Conwy Mountain), the dominant hill overlooking the village. Spectacular!
Visits to Cambridge and Oxford universities, and a long loop hike outside Oxford.
This week I had the opportunity to visit Cambridge University on Wednesday, and Oxford University on Friday, to meet colleagues and present my research. (Together, these universities are colloquially known as “Oxbridge”.) The weather continues to be sunny and beautiful, so I took the opportunity to explore each of these historic cities – and to get out into the Oxfordshire countryside for a delightful hike.
A magical place at 60º North.
After a week spent exploring Scotland’s mainland – if one can refer to the ‘mainland’ of what is, after all, part of an island – we boarded a large ferry in Aberdeen for an overnight cruise to the Shetland Islands. Located around 60º North latitude (more than 100 miles north of the mainland), this windswept archipelago in the North Sea is well-known for its stunning scenery and its hardy residents. We had three days to explore and found that was barely enough to experience the main island, and its hub settlement of Lerwick, without hopping any of the short ferries to outlying islands. Once again we were incredibly lucky with the weather! Let me share a few highlights and a gallery of photos.
A week of fabulous spring weather in Scotland.
We’ve just completed a week-long exploration of Scotland, just as the flowers were blooming, the landscape was beginning to green, and the young lambs pranced in the pastures. Wow! Ever since my 2011 visit to Scotland I have wanted to return. On this visit, with my wife and two dear friends, we packed a lot into one week. I’ll touch here on the highlights and share a gallery with highly selective subset of photos snapped that week.
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!
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!
A beautiful two days in the remote northwestern region of Iceland.
After a few days amongst throngs of tourists at the “Golden Circle” of sights near Reyjavik (see my prior post) we headed for the remote northwestern corner of Iceland, the Westfjords. We rented a rural house at the blue dot on the map below, and explored westerly from there – reaching the westernmost tip of Iceland, which is also the westernmost point in Europe. It required driving some remote, dusty, narrow, twisty, and sketchy roads… but also led us to stunningly beautiful landscapes. Read on! and check out the galleries linked below.
David Kotz 