View from Musée d’Orsay, Paris It would be our second time traveling Europe By Train, this time in spring to avoid the heat and crowds. We arrived in Rome early April. Like falling off a bicycle, I resumed my love affair with the Eternal City. http://dianarchambers.blogspot.com/2016/04/europe-by-train-these-roman-streets.html After a glorious week, we left Rome’s mammoth Termini railway … Read more
Horse of Selene, the Greek moon goddess, British Museum With Samuel Johnson’s famous quote in mind, I gorged on London museums, most free. I wanted to devour everything, an impossibly rich buffet. The British Museum is, simply, mind-boggling. With self-deprecating British humor, they state that here they display the best in the world, since the … Read more
Eurostar is a sweet way to travel. We left Gare du Nord mid-afternoon, and in less than three hours arrived at St. Pancras in the heart of London. Two Tube stops later, we reached Covent Garden, where we stayed with my brother. We came across this florist in our neighborhood, a nod to Eliza Doolittle … Read more
We say we’ll never forget, but we do. When I look back at my 2012-13 Letters from Asia www.dianarchambers.com/passages.php (written for Sisters in Crime www.sincnorcal.org), I’m grateful for the memories. So I wrote Europe By Train, a dozen posts in all, one per city. Please hop aboard for the entire journey or join me for a … Read more
Paris and I go way back, but this was the first time I will arrive by train. Arriving at the Gare du Nord is a step back to the era when trains were the modern way to travel. Taking the Eurostar from London’s St. Pancras station remains the modern way to travel, from city center to … Read more
For all that we rant about social media, there are moments when I marvel at the way it can connect us. At the start of my “Europe By Train” trip, www.mysteryplayground.net asked me to blog about the London book benches commissioned by Britain’s Literacy Trust. http://www.mysteryplayground.net/2014/07/dateline-london-literary-investigation.html. They quickly became a high point of my stay, so I also … Read more
Always a trading city, London is undergoing yet another resurgence, a safe haven for the developing world, digital lockbox for hard and soft assets. Property values are soaring, red cranes angling across ancient spires. New captains of industry are rising, new fortunes being created. London’s pulsing artery remains the River Thames, its banks and quays … Read more