View of the harbor at St. Mawes, in Cornwall, UK. This tiny fishing village is part of the Roseland Heritage Coast, boasts its own castle, and is located just across the Carrick Roads from Falmouth and Pendennis Castle.

Tags: Cornwall, St Mawes

Installed in 2008, the font in the center of Salisbury Cathedral was created by British sculptor William Pye. The cruciform-shaped bowl holds a still, mirror-like volume of water, reflecting the ceiling vaults and stained glass around the cathedral. Water pours constantly from the four arms of the bowl into a bronze grate below. 

From the William Pye web site: "Here two contrasting aspects of water are woven seamlessly together: stillness expressed in the reflecting surface, and the flow and movement though the spouts expressing its essential life giving properties."

Tags: England, Fountain, Salisbury

In 2016 the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU). It's been a long, slow, and messy slide toward the final divorce. The UK officially departed the EU on January 31, 2020. Negotiations over how the UK and EU will deal with each other in terms of trade and travel have been going on for the last 11 months, somewhat hampered by the COVID pandemic, but on January 1, 2021 it's all over. Either the UK and EU will reach a deal, or they won't (a situation more likely to affect trade between the regions, than it will travelers).

The BBC has a good run down on the major changes effecting UK and EU citizens here, but almost none of this applies to US citizens traveling as tourists.

What changes will be in store for Americans traveling to the UK, to the Continent, or in between? Almost nothing. For Americans arriving in the UK or the EU from the US, of course, nothing changes. You'll still have to go through immigration control, standing in the line for non-EU citizens, and show your passport. If you are traveling between the UK and the EU, you'll also need to go through immigration and show your passport – but that was the case even while the the UK was part of the EU. There have always been passport controls for Americans traveling between the UK and EU (except on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland).

So what does change? Well, you can now buy merchandise – like alcohol – duty free and get a tax break when traveling between the two. It's unclear yet just what, if any changes will be made to border crossings between Northern Ireland (UK) and the Republic of Ireland (EU). Citizens of either will still be able to move freely between them, but there may be border controls and passport checks for those who are not citizens of either (like Americans).

In short, Brexit is a big non-event for Americans.

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