While I try to sort out all the fotos and stories from my summer trip, I figured I’d post something slightly out of the ordinary from my usual stuff… these are the views from some of the rooms I called home in Orkney, Berlin and London.

At first I thought I would just post all the window shots but most of them are truly unremarkable, especially the view of the super narrow alley in Edinburgh that didn’t even produce a decent image. My room at the B&B in Inverness was more interesting than the view out the window but for some reason none of the photos came out (outdoor setting not working in low light maybe). The tiny room was all chintz, frilled pillows, 50’s style wallpaper and varnished pine trim. This could have been the owner’s daughter’s old room, it was that cozy and adorable.

OK. So forget about the photos I’m not posting. On the other hand…

The Ferry Inn, my Orkney accommodation in Stromness, gets my vote for most dramatic room’s view of the ferry port. The ferry that crosses the Pentland Firth to Scrabster on Scotland’s north coast anchors here overnight; the hotel was just across the parking lot. The ferry looked sort of magical, all lit up, ready to head off again in the morning.

North Link ferry asleep in Stromness

Time for a change of country /city. I’ve been to Germany a couple of times on previous trips but Berlin was a new adventure and lest there be any doubt that I was in Germany, one glance out my window would fix that – a lighted, revolving Mercedes logo atop a nearby office tower. Sheesh!

Berlin view sponsored by Mercedes Benz

Finally, London. Every time I return to this busy, crowded, still very European metropolis, I feel I’ve come home. This time, I stayed in an ordinary IKEA-furnished room in one of the dorms at the London School of Economics – Northumberland House. The location was absolutely ideal – right across the street from the Sherlock Holmes pub and barely a two minute walk from Trafalgar Square, one of my favorite public spaces. The view from my ninth floor room included a red brick tower that I never managed to locate at street level. The unseen but definitely heard bonus for this place? Big Ben’s hourly chimes wafting in the window. Heavy sigh.

London mornings almost always start out sunny