Oh my god, the next telly is Donna Leon, Commissario Brunetti. I assumed dubbed, but no, it is a German language Venetian detective series. Based on American novels.

Cheers to safe returns and following advice on bottles #ConfinedCocktails

Always cheers to good glassware #aConfinedCocktails

It's raining! The heat has actually broken. It'll be normal summer tomorrow.

Ooh yes, cheers to Time Team #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to weekending properly #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to outings and rehydration #ConfinedCocktails

Cìn cìn and hooray Liguria! #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to a very good day. And to decaffeination with beer water and lettuce #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to Tour enjoyment! #ConfinedCocktails

Always cheers to risotto, and to moderating the sunflowers #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to welcome photos, and to both of you for last week x #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to perfect evening drinking #ConfinedCocktails

Cheers to hot weather adaptations! #ConfinedCocktails

Evening all. When in Deutschland, drink like the Germans do. Mine is a slightly ersatz Hugo Spritz, with some watermelon because I had some. Cheers! #ConfinedCocktails

Archaeology can do so many different things. What I’ll highlight for this year’s #FestivalOfArchaeology is the accessible fun you can have, finding out about people living in the past and yourself living in the present. Find a Festival activity near you! 4/n www.archaeologyuk.org/festival/fes...

Right. Today is the start of the 2026 #FestivalOfArchaeology brought to you by @archaeologyuk.bsky.social and hundreds of archaeologists, museums and volunteers around the country. So why am I sitting in a service station café with a bucket of coffee? 1/n

Right. I want some kind of #UnconfinedWalks medal. Look at these hills. Look at that skirt. 17k steps is pretty par for my holidays but few of them are vertical.

It also has a station with five consecutive platforms.. named 1a, 2, 4, 5 and 8. I'm fine. Everything is logical.

Marburg: very charming. Not a place for people with Knees. Or indeed Vertigo. Goodness me that is a lot of vertical.

The very faint jeopardy of being in a train that separates en route, in a language you can read and understand but not fluently. I am indeed vorne im Fahrtrichtung, and the carriage definitely says we're going to Kassel and yet.

Very much familiar spaces today, but I'm not going to stay in Frankfurt and not visit anything at all, obvs. To the Museumsufer! #UnconfinedWalks (Not *all* the museums are on this riverside strip, but it is definitely handy for planning.) And the Römer and the Dom. Even with trams, plenty of steps.

Woefully late for lunch but sustaining my holiday styling. On the Römer, succumbing to tourism Frankfurt. It absolutely hoofed it down earlier which you would simply never know now.

Always educational, travel. Political story here means I've learned the word for surrogacy (Leihmutterschaft).

Mainz is just a very nice place to visit. In, as I say, sunshine. I also fulfilled a nagging wish from at least a decade back: to get off the train at Mainz-Römisches-Theater station, albeit not taking a very good pic of the remains #UnconfinedWalks

Mainzer #TeaUp. Glad to see Germany falling into line

Today's conclusion is that it is much nicer visiting Mainz when it is sunny. Even very sunny.

Huh. This hotel telly is about a minute behind some of you.

Sort of holiday reading accountability post as I've simply been inhaling penny thrillers lately and not opening books I properly want to read. Had to finish a thriller en route (No Entry, Manning Coles, *fascinating* on the GDR-DDR borderlands in the early 1950s) so I am only just starting out.

Evening all. Settled in my apartment eating a sandwich and drinking a little Sekt, with a view of Mainhattan skyline to enjoy. A second #UnconfinedWalks pic, especially for any folk with a niche thing about tan lines I guess.

Over the Rhine into Germany and immediate stop for ID checks. (We were warned about this. It seems to be an increasing fixture, judging by the graffiti. Also that the locals aren't happy, ditto.)

A toast to Liz (@greensideknits), a great one for a Schweppes Agrume, tennis-branded or otherwise. Livening up essential hydration.

Thing about going by train to Germany is sometimes you have to have a lengthy layover lunch in Paris. Sometimes in a bistro that doesn't do wine by the glass. Bearing up.

Pierre Paulin furniture exhibition at Musée Fabre Montpellier was fab. Go see it, not least for the recreation of the smoking room in the Elysée palace 1970

Dawn #UnconfinedWalks

The #TeaUp of imminent Eurostar.

It's such a beautiful painting. In the Louvre, often rather overlooked. Go see her if you're in Paris, and while you're there perhaps ponder the way misogyny creeps unquestioned into pop historical narratives. Then, should you feel so moved, scream into a bin for thirty seconds and go on with life.

Poets wang on and on about daffodils and lilies, but chicory is definitely overdue for a mention.

Big fan of this part of the announcement: *LOOK* UK archives! Free support where you used to have to pay for this!

This year, we’re working with The @araukie.bsky.social National Surveys Group to deliver The Survey of Onsite Visitors to Archives! This invites people to share feedback on their experiences at archives including reasons for visiting, travel, staff, facilities and any barriers faced... (1/2)

This should be an excellent event tomorrow on the history of fingerprinting. Do come along and join us online! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leaving-a-...

It only took us a year, but let it never be said we don't make good on our promises.

Submissions for A Year in Archives 2026 are open! This year we’re making exciting changes to #AYIA, broadening its reach to public audiences as well as the sector. Find out more and submit your highlights from the past year: www.smartsurvey.co.uk/t/1P8AIO/ 📷 Northumberland County Council

Haaland exiting the plane holding what seems to be a stuffed raccoon holding a liquor bottle and what’s probably an Hermes bag. This is peak something

Oddly busy day, probably pre-holiday-ness manifesting. To mum's around lunch #UnconfinedWalks

#UnconfinedWalks today mostly mooching in Southampton parks before hellish train home so pics are all from late afternoon. You can judge how bright the sun was from the excellence of my framing.

Of interest to me and perhaps three (3) other 20th cent political nerds: not just any Burne-Jones, the full Perseus series. These are the cartoons for the famous Balfour commissions, that among others some vile diarist used as a symbol of his "unmanliness"/presumably unfitness to lead the Tories.

Astnoshing eye-opener at #ArchivesFest at The National Archives: Anne Boleyn’s trial record and death warrant, and the minutes of Tony Blair’s first cabinet, among many other wonders.

I have had the kind of return journey from Southampton that could really create a grudge against the city. However, it was a great place for a get together. The Civic Centre and especially the art gallery are delightful

Happy Sunday! #ArchivesFest is on at The National Archives. Lots of treats in store including Magna Carta, and me talking Family History. Come join us in our lovely air conditioning!