More gallery picks

Anthony Gormley Sculpture

And so it rains in Edinburgh... Dr Fred and cronies went climbing which is probably why it rained. I went to the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art which had quite a pleasant collection - a few odd bits and pieces including a Peter Doig, Anthony Gormley and a nice Hockey - the grounds are nice and have a good selection of interesting sculpture. The huge steel sculpture of Vulcan by Eduardo Paolozzi in the cafe was very impressive.

the vulcan

I walked back into town through more impressive Edinburgh streets lined with amazing four and five storey high terraces and then the rain arrived so I decided to have a wander around the Scottish National Gallery which was full of quite marvellous overblown Renaissance and Dutch/Flemish art.

Much of it was early religious iconic based - and then a lot of quite wonderful Italian Renaissance art - not exactly the kind of stuff I'd hang in the house - although I probably wouldn't turn down one of the amazing Raphael's or Titians... come to think of it they would look superbly out of place in my kitchen... alas its not to be. I really like the flamboyant over the top colours and imagery and considering some of these pictures were painted in the sixteenth century and some even earlier - the colours are glorious and the condition of the paintings excellent.. I wonder how much modern art will stand the test of time.

Waller hugh Patton - Entrance to the Cuirain

Alongside the very old masters on show were one or two more recent paintings - one in particular caught my eye. It was painted in about 1870 by Waller Hugh Patton called ''Entrance to the Cuirain'' - depicting the Cuirain (now spelled Quirain) on the Isle of Skye looking just as we saw it earlier this year... moody and atmospheric.... although much less snow on the painting.

By this time I had a serious case of 'museum leg' so time to jump on the number 10 and head back to base.

Next time I go up to Edinburgh I'm going to look in the smaller less feted galleries and try and track down some of the local contemporary artwork that pops up on my Instagram or Facebook,

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RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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