July may not be my favourite month (I prefer May or September). But there has been much to like about this past July, which was bookended with special celebrations.
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I left you all at the stunning Kings College chapel. Now let’s continue our walk. From Kings we walked past the Old Schools which house the Cambridge University offices and formerly housed the Cambridge University Library.
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When I was a child my mother, despite being the most unreligious person I know, would always insist on listening to (and in later years watching) the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s on Christmas Eve. That pause for beautiful music amidst the frenetic preparations for the big day was as much part of our family’s Christmas traditions as Mum’s recipe for Christmas pudding and the Morecombe and Wise show in the evening.
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The universities of Oxford and Cambridge (often shortened to ‘Oxbridge’) are known the world over for the quality of the education they provide, their many illustrious alumni and their long history. They dominate the towns in which they are based, giving each a unique atmosphere. Both towns are within easy reach of London and make for an interesting day trip from the capital.
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Vienna must be one of the most elegant cities in Europe. Its small scale gives it an air of intimacy that contrasts with the grandeur of many of its buildings. That’s an appealing combination.
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June is often a lovely month in England. This year it has brought us a short heatwave (temperatures topping 30 degrees, very unusual so early in the year), and plenty of pleasanter sunny days. But typically for Britain, we started the month with a cool, sometimes wet weekend that coincided with a public holiday for the Platinum Jubilee.
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I find it a little odd that Avebury is not as well known, nor as visited, as nearby Stonehenge. Personally I find it just as impressive and in some ways more atmospheric. Its stone circle is so large that over time people have built their houses around and among the megaliths; so that today it seems almost as if the somewhat unearthly stones are slowly encroaching on human space.
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Riga was a city in which I quickly felt very comfortable. It has a compact old town with plenty to see but not too ‘aspic-like’; by which I mean that it felt both touristy and homely at the same time, somewhere I could imagine that the locals don’t feel too overwhelmed by the history and the visiting population. It is also a city of monuments.
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Nowhere in England is the summer solstice more famously celebrated than at Stonehenge. This ancient site has been a place of worship and celebration of the solstice for thousands of years. Every midsummer it draws crowds, some committed Druids, others merely curious observers, to watch as the sun rises behind the Heel Stone to the northeast, and its first rays shine into the heart of the stone circle.
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Anyone who has spent even five minutes exploring my blog will know that I love to travel. The world is full of wonderful places to explore! But I have to admit that there are some pretty wonderful places right on my doorstep too.
