Hello, again, Blogonauts! Let's keep the scribbles brief for a few days ... just so I can catch up. More pictures mean I don't have to spend so many words, according to the old adage. Right, Love? The city of Bath has bubbled up from near obscurity several times over the centuries. There is no record of how the prehistoric locals treated these, the only natural hot springs in all of Britain. The Romans, however, acted as if, in Bath's three steamy water sources...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! You may be getting 2-for-1 blog entries today. Be certain to check out my Sunday visit to Oxford's museums, too. So, on Monday, I headed from Oxford to a delightful little family cottage in the Oxfordshire countryside. The home is owned and occupied by the humble Duke of Marlborough, and christened with the difficult-to-pronounce name of Blenheim (BLEN-hm) Palace. They are so humble that they only charge £23 (about $35) per visi...

Hello again, Blogonauts! On Sunday, I wandered through the collections found in a triumvirate of treasure troves, i.e., three of the many museums found in Oxford. Universities are often endowed with semiprecious or memorable objects. Most often these bits of historic paraphernalia were discovered, invented, constructed, or just as often, pilfered by their graduates and patrons. The Louvre, the Prada, the Uffizi, the Rijksmuseum, even the Vatican Museum would b...

Hello again, Blogonauts! Welcome to "Gothica"! I am, after a long time sleepless, in Oxford. Etymology for the town's name is easy to work out. It was a initially a farming settlement, and this is where the cows could cross the shallows of the river... in other words, here is the ox ford. But from these humble beginnings arose great spires and inspirations. As a university, Oxford is legendary... iconic... revered... and highly, highly traditional. On the day of ...