I am a food and travel writer as well as a cruise ship enrichment speaker: my passion is exploring the cuisine, history, and culture of new places and writing about them here in my free bi-weekly (twice monthly) Destination Curation newsletter where I look at the intersection of history, culture, and cuisine in major destinations.
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An Edwardian Interlude in London
Published 11 days ago • 8 min read
June 22, 2025
Greetings and Happy Midsummer from the Land of the Midnight Sun!
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Seabourn Sojourn in Trondheim, Norway
Greetings from the top of the world! Yesterday, we left Honningsvag, Norway and made our way back down south towards Loen, Bergen, and Amsterdam: three marvelous stops I am looking forward to revisiting.
The weather has been chilly and damp, but that cannot deter from the many charms of Norway. We’ve enjoyed several nights of beautiful scenic cruising during that magical period of The Midnight Sun, when the sun doesn’t really ever set this far north. Here are some shots from the evening of June 20th as we left Tromso. The sun shot is time stamped at 10:30 pm.
It’s a great pleasure to be back on Seabourn Sojourn, which is identical to Seabourn Quest, which I was on in April and May, so no trouble finding my way around! I’ve been lecturing on aspects of Norway’s history, including the heroic resistance during World War II and the breathtaking act of sabotage, which may well have won the Allies the war: the destruction of the heavy water supply from the Vermork Hydro Electric Power Plant. Without the heavy water, the Germans could not realize their goal of getting a nuclear device.
Spotlight on: "The Edwardians: Age of Elegance" at the King's Gallery in London
Before heading to Dover, we spent three very happy and busy days in London, seeing friends, taking long walks in the park, and poking around secondhand book shops. The highlight, however, was taking in the wonderful exhibit at the King’s Gallery: "The Edwardians: Age of Elegance.”
The exhibition masterfully captures both the glittering surface and the deeper currents of a society on the brink of transformation by bringing together objects and paintings from the Royal Collection Trust, the world’s largest art collection.
Many of the paintings I use in my talks were on display, and it was a lovely experience to see them live for the first time. Having done a lot of work on Faberge back in the day, I was thrilled to see several more elegant creations, including animals from the Sandringham Commission and a stunning blue enamel cigarette case that almost made me want to take up smoking again.
The visual highlights are stunning: Queen Alexandra's famous Kokoshnik Tiara sparkles alongside Queen Mary's Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara, while impossibly tiny wasp-waisted corsets and beaded evening gowns transport you to an age of extreme elegance. London drawing rooms are masterfully evoked with their cluttered surfaces, strewn with invitation cards and dance programs, offering an intimate glimpse into the elaborate social rituals that defined the period.
The exhibit also looks at the world beyond the refined confined of the Marlborough House Set and focuses on a society enthusiastically embracing new technologies like motorcars while clinging to rigid social hierarchies–a balancing act that would prove unsustainable as the world lurched toward 1914.
It wasn’t a coincidence that we stayed at another Edwardian institution: the Cavendish Hotel on Jermyn Street, once the domain of the legendary Rosa Lewis, "The Queen of Cooks" and close friend of Edward VII), and the inspiration behind the beloved TV series, “The Duchess of Duke Street.”
The exhibition runs through November 23rd, and I highly recommend booking in advance, especially for weekend visits. While you're in the area, the Cavendish makes an ideal base for exploring nearby attractions including the Royal Parks, National Gallery, and Buckingham Palace–not to mention the legendary shopping at Fortnum & Mason, Hatchard’s and the Burlington Arcade.
I wrote a longer review of the exhibit on my website, which you can enjoy here, with lots of photos of the exhibition. I was fortunate enough to receive permission from the King’s Gallery to publish some of their excellent photos, and my thanks to them for that gracious permission.
Practical Information:
Exhibition at King's Gallery through November 23rd, 2025
If you are looking for an excellent biography of the man who gave his name to the Edwardian Age, I recommend Jane Ridley’s The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince. She achieves that tricky balance of lots of lovely gossip with admirable archival research and excellent writing.
For me, Edward the King is the ultimate comfort watching, and I cannot count the number of times I’ve gone through this magnificent series, which stars the late and very much lamented Timothy West and a host of other A-team British actors.
I find it hard to land on just one novel from the Edwardian period, but I return repeatedly to Isabel Colegate’s The Shooting Party for its lyrical prose, masterful use of multiple points of view, and a magnificent sense of time and place. The film adapted from the book is also superb.
A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at the Morgan Library brings together items from Austen’s home in Chawton, England with numerous items from the Morgan and other collections to reflect on Austen’s considerable achievements in what would be her 250th birthday. It’s a good companion piece to Miss Austen, a marvelous new series on Masterpiece in the United States, starring Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, desperate to protect her sister’s literary legacy. I loved it! Learn more about the Morgan exhibit.
Exciting news for Viking enthusiasts! The Guardian reports a spectacular discovery of a 10th-century burial site of a Viking noble family. Read on!
Bookmark this exciting exhibition, “Unicorn: The Mythical Creature in Art” at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, which brings together over 100 objects dedicated to the enduring appeal of the iconic mythical creature. On from 25 October through 01 February , 2026. Learn more.
Window Shopping
I am loving my new Brooklyn Mid Rise Ankle Pants from Athleta, and now want them in every single color. Lovely fit and feel, and perfect for staying stylish on the go. They’ve been perfect for layering up here in Norway! Learn more.
Here’s your annual reminder that there are sun hats, and then there are Eric Javits sun hats. My 12-year-old Squishie is looking a little worse for wear after living in the bottom of a suitcase for as many years and doing stellar service in sun and salt. I’m thinking of splurging on this model for my time in the Mediterranean and Caribbean later this year.
I’m going through Dmitry’s phones to pull out photos I want to save, and as usual, it is the Augean Stables. Each year, he asks me to make a book of our travels, so I’m creating some dedicated folders to do just that with Photobooks. They offer a vast range of styles, shapes, and sizes to turn your pictures into a lovely coffee-table book to cherish. Learn more.
Culinary Corner: Celery & Sumac Salad
I’m co-opting the Creative Corner this week and turning it into a Culinary Corner, because I’m beyond excited about a new recipe I concocted for Celery & Sumac Salad. As usual, more method than recipe, but it was the perfect way to use up two bunches of celery before leaving for six weeks and it turned out to be quite a star of a Sunday night dinner in Riga with friends.
My inspiration came from several bunches of lovage on offer at Riga’s Central Market, which is a seasonal rarity. I love lovage — its celery-adjacent flavor does really well in salads and spring soups, and it was just the accent I needed for this bright dish.
Celery rarely takes center stage and I wonder why not? It has a fantastic texture and taste, and it was fun to let it have its time in the sun.
I sliced up French radishes and celery on a thin diagonal after removing the celery leaves and keeping them to dress the salad at the end. I used the radish greens to make pesto.
To this, I added chopped Castelvetrano olives, capers, and the juice of one lime. I drizzled olive oil over it, then scattered the whole thing with chopped lovage, dill, parsley, mint, and chives. To finish it, I sprinkled it with salt and sumac.
It was glorious. I will have to make this again when I get back to Riga in August and photograph it properly and write up a proper recipe. But it is such a great dish, I couldn’t wait — make this for your next barbecue — it is a superb summer salad. I toyed with the concept of adding orzo or black lentils, but in the end, I decided that celery needed its day in the sun. Bulking it up in this way would work well, however, so I may do this in the future.
Here are a few more of my favorite summer recipes for you to enjoy!
And that will wrap things up for this week! I hope you are keeping well and enjoying the summer.
I loved receiving all of your questions for the Ask Me Anything section. There were so many, I’m still weeding through them, so I will do a live video for the next installment and answer as many as I can. You posed some superb ones!
After we finish this segment of the voyage, we will head up to the Shetland Islands and Northern Scotland, which is always a treat. And then it is on to my beloved Iceland for a cruise around both the north and the south, as well as a stop in Reykjavik with just enough time for the best lobster soup in the whole wide world. I can’t wait!
As a subscriber to the Destination Curation Newsletter, you have access to my cruise schedule, which you can visit here. If any of these voyages align with your travel plans, I'd love to share the journey with you!
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I am a food and travel writer as well as a cruise ship enrichment speaker: my passion is exploring the cuisine, history, and culture of new places and writing about them here in my free bi-weekly (twice monthly) Destination Curation newsletter where I look at the intersection of history, culture, and cuisine in major destinations.
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