Pittsburgh isn’t your usual tourist destination but with my son, his wife and baby having recently emigrated there – well, he did, she is American – my husband and I set off to explore the city.

Not being a keen flyer, the good thing is that there are several direct flights from London Heathrow to Pittsburgh every day with British Airways. The flight takes between 7-8 hours.

Pittsburgh is a city of 300,000 and is built where three rivers meet and so is typfied by a number of bridges, most of them being of yellow metal in construction, as you can see from the one in the picture.This was taken during a river trip along the water, a great experience especially in hot, sunny weather.

There are other things to recommend too. For example, H.J. Heinz was born in Pittsburgh of German parentage. He started the business after growing horseradish in his garden! The Heinz museum is a very interesting place to visit, especially to see how the packaging has changed over the years.

There is also the Fort Pitt museum which gives you an overview of early American history, especially of the native Red Indian tribes.

This history is not to single out America. The same thing happened to the native dwellers of Australia, the Aborigines and in New Zealand, the Maoris.

On a happier note, you can get into the culture while you are there and visit a local baseball game.

Unfortunately the local Pittsburgh Pirates were beaten by Kansas City Royals 5-1 on our visit. Oh well, you can’t have everything! At least the weather was perfect.