Hotel Plaza - Laredo, Texas

Here's Laredo's famous Hotel Plaza with its Spanish Grill. The hotel doesn't seem to be there anymore.

 The message on the card, sent to Miss Rosalie Newcomb of San Antonio in 1943, reads:

Dear Roesel: This is where we are - bridal suite. It's raining cats outside. Say "hello" to Flo.

Love, Annette

Edinburgh, Scotland

Our recent visit to Edinburgh was initially inspired by the old Valentine prints I posted on this blog some time ago. We were so enchanted with the views that we decided to go and see for ourselves what it looks like today. Edinburgh did not disappoint. We were also fortunate to arrive for a week of warm sunny weather. Edinburgh residents, particularly the students, were obviously elated and in a very festive mood. While we were there, we met up with Susi and Thomas, friends from Germany. Susi took a few pictures from a similar perspective to the old Valentine views.

Both views are from the Balmoral Hotel towards the Scott Monument, named after Sir Walter Scott. Sadly, the incredible plaza and gardens over the train station no longer have the same elegant design. The old view shows an existing tram system, which was decommissioned in 1956. Decades later, it was decided that maybe Edinburgh needed a new tram system. The recent photo shows the new tramline construction on the right, a project that has been underway since 2008 and angered citizens for a number of years with cost over runs and traffic delays.

Here's a view from the Scott monument toward the Balmoral Hotel.

And the approximate view today.

Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, with amazing green space so close to the city center. It's definitely a place I would like to visit again. Here's a link to the previous post on theses Edinburgh views and the tram system. And here's a link to information on history and progress of the tram system.

Here's a street sign in Edinburgh.

York, England

In retrospect, it occurred to me that I should have taken some of my UK postcards along for our recent trip so we could try to capture the same views today. Too late, but in a few cases the views turned out to be fairly similar just by chance.  Here's an old postcard of York, with a view of the Minster from the city wall.  Note the long line of laundry hanging out to dry in the lower right corner.

This photo is taken from a little bit further back, and unfortunately we can no longer see the clothesline, but the general scene is little changed from a hundred years ago.

As tourists, there are some things that are remarkable to us that locals would not even look at twice. Certainly the food is different. We found ourselves fascinated with Cornish pasties, with each shop claiming to have award-winning versions, though specific award names were never mentioned.  I think they probably all deserve awards.

Mushy peas were also new to us, served with fish and chips or with pasties. They don't sound glamorous, but mushy peas are good.

Most American buildings have not been around long enough to see this kind of settling, so we found the sloped floors, cracked walls, and crooked door frames to be pretty interesting. This one is at Betty's Tea Room in York.

I don't think this hair color has made it to Oregon yet, though it would do a lot to brighten up our wet and gloomy winters, as would the pink dresses.

Here's a previous post on York and the its trams.