A quick post-trip note before the end of the trip.

As we were sitting in the hotel bar after concert, I said to Ronnie that it had been a good trip. She noted that of course it was easy to say that after a great evening like we'd had, but yes, it had been good.

I'm not even sure a summer would really give you a chance to properly explore the UK. And the UK is small, though dense in history and culture. As much as everyone talks about global this and that and how the world has gotten so much smaller because of instantaneous communications, but that's only true un the most shallow sense. Yeah, it's harder to find unique things to buy, for instance, because you can order anything online. But there are artists everywhere, all of whom you can buy from online. But how would you know and how well would you know it without being there and meeting them or at least seeing their creations in tangible form.

Even leaving London out of things, because London would take a lot of time explore in itself, we just hit a few chosen highlights, most of which worked out as we would hope. And in fact the things Ronnie bought that she likes the most were bought at a one-off store in Durham, a city that we knew little about and that in ways was a mistake in the itinerary because it wasn't close enough to the main attraction we were coming to see.

I can't say we completely get Edinburgh, but that's okay. We've been her for 48+ hours in peak tourist season at the end of a 2-week trip. I remember getting to Venice at the end of a similar bounding about trip and just not being able to handle to crowds and the business. This hasn't been as bad because Edinburgh is more manageable and it's less taxing being in an English-speaking country. And it's small, there is much less water, and the maps make at least a modicum of sense.

Don't know if we'll ever be back to the UK. I'm okay with that, but I certainly wouldn't mind returning.