Category: Travel

Postcard from London, England: Who lies amongst the trees of Kensal Green?

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A vintage postage stamp featuring an illustration related to Charles Dickens, depicting a scene with children and a caregiver, and text indicating his lifespan (1812/1870) and name.

Above: A field in Kensal Green Cemetery, 2023.

The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred….”

Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (1812-1870), 1838

Wandering amongst the quarter-million souls resting amongst the bucolic 72 acres of The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, you absorb a sense of peace from the surroundings. Inspired by Pere Lachaise in Paris, the design incorporates multiple broad pathways and lush landscaping. Opened in 1833, this privately run graveyard was once the fashionable spot to be buried – some 650 titled nobles rest there.

Every direction we looked, there were headstones for those of note and those of more humble backgrounds. But all with stories. I longed to read them all, to grasp snippets of the lives they led. Given their age, many of their resting places are unapproachable, dangerously sunken or knocked out of kilter by the roots of the trees that shade them. Taphophile, yes, but I have no desire to plunge down into a grave, forced to embrace its skeletal contents.

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Postcard from Guadalajara, Mexico: No need to gobble tacos on a stoop

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A vintage stamp from Mexico featuring three green bottles labeled 'Tequila' with agave plants, indicating a value of $10 and marked as 'Exportado'.

Above: Open kitchen at Birrieria Las 9 Esquinas

My days of wanting to stand in line to grab a meal at the street-corner taco stand, even when fresh tortillas and tantalizing smells rising from the grill are at their most seductive, are gone. I love street food, but I want to enjoy the experience…. At a table. Preferably with a shaken margarita and a beer or two alongside.

Guadalajara was heaven for me. Great ceviches and tacos in colorful, contemporary, relaxed settings. I have never eaten such a high concentration of tacos in a two-week period as I did there. I promise Lamar and I did not consume all of the food pictured below ourselves. There usually were four at our table, close enough friends and relatives for sharing freely, and we went to several of these spots multiple times.

As I start this alphabetical list to help you in your restaurant decisions, I realize that the first one, with white-shirted, black-aproned servers, is perhaps the most formal of all we frequented. In other words, you need not read any farther if you are seeking romantic white-tableclothed candlelit restaurants, or ones with any table coverings at all. Although two, Birrieria Las 9 Esquinas and Palreal, are recognized in Michelin’s new 2026 Guide.

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Postcard from Brussels, Belgium: Mystical gardens of Malines’ Beguines

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Enclosed garden showing Daniel in the lion's den
A Belgian postage stamp featuring a depiction of the city of Mechelen, showcasing its architecture and bells.

Above: “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” with Saint Peter on the left and Saint John on the right, 1500-1550, Hof van Busleyden Museum, Mechelen (Malines), Belgium.

There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, ordinary women or nuns, because they live neither in the world nor out of it.”

Guibert of Tournai (1200-1284), 1274, via “Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines,” Abby Stoner, Kenyon College

The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music might have wondered what she was going to do about Maria, but that’s nothing compared to the befuddlement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the 13th century figuring out how to control the Beguine Sisters.

Limited options were permitted women in the medieval ages: subjugate themselves in marriage or enter a cloistered convent for life. Those limited choices are what attracted women to voluntarily cluster together in houses, forming their own communities on the outskirts of towns – beguinages. They donned habits similar to those of nuns and committed themselves to chastity, albeit not necessarily a lifetime commitment.

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