Where in the World are Mike and Jan?

Our first time in Raiatea! It was just about exactly like all of the other French Polynesian islands – the water views, and water sports, are everything here. There is a little village that has a few stores and restaurants, but that isn’t why you come here.

Mike went diving once again, and most of our photos are from out on the water. On the way out to the second dive site (a reef), the dive guide mentioned that white tip and black tip reef sharks were common in the area. Mike was the first one off the dive boat, and as soon as he adjusted his mask and looked around, sure enough, there were two four-foot-long black tip reef sharks circling about 20 feet in front of him. The dive group saw several other black tip reef sharks on the dive, and the sharp-eyed guide found a cute little one-foot white tip reef shark hiding under a rock. White tip reef sharks, unlike many sharks, are able to pump water over their gills, so they do not have to constantly keep swimming. A couple of the divers in our group had cameras, so they took a few photos and then left him in peace to wait until dark, when he no doubt emerged and went hunting.

Over the course of the day, there were many people on sailboats, glass bottom boats, jet skis, and parasailing. It is the best way to see the stunning water up close. The air was hot and sultry, as it always is here, and the clouds always dramatic. They slowly turned darker and darker, and in the late afternoon, it did rain a bit. But it just isn’t possible to have a bad day in French Polynesia.

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Legendary Bora Bora. Just its name conjures pictures of palm trees and the bluest of blue waters. BUT…..there is no letter B in the Tahitian language! So how did the island get its name? The original European explorers heard the islanders tell them its name – Pora Pora – but instead of hearing the P, they heard B – so it became Bora Bora to the world, as the name stuck. Its original name means “firstborn,” as of all the Polynesian islands, Bora Bora was the first to emerge from the ocean.

For the second time on Bora Bora, we rented the last scooter available at Avis. It was just $45 for five hours, so we circled the island counter-clockwise. We stopped frequently, sometimes every few hundred feet, as we saw scenes to photograph. The water colors kept changing! As we noted when we posted a few photos on Instagram, the ever-changing ocean colors are “other-worldly.” We won’t try to write a caption for each picture. The photos are more or less chronological as we circled the island, and they tell a story of the South Pacific waters. Alongside the pretty blue ocean, there are two photos of “typical” houses that we saw, all rather small, compact, and one-story, built for tropical storms. We also photographed Mount Pahia several times as we made our way around the single ring road. It was sometimes enveloped in clouds, sometimes not. And it looked different from various vantage points!

There are several photos of over-the-water bungalows belonging to various hotels. Their nightly rate is around $1,000. They first appeared on the nearby French Polynesian island of Moorea (tomorrow’s destination) in the 1960s and have since become an iconic symbol of an island paradise. Speaking of storms, due to their location, they are usually the first buildings to be damaged by a storm. But while they are there, they look great, don’t they?

Now we will let gorgeous Bora Bora finish this blog and speak for itself through the photos.

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What a great day in the Kona village of Kailua! It is all quite cute and interesting, loaded with shops, cafes, restaurants, and a long sidewalk along the ocean. It was loaded with people, and all the stores seemed to be busy. Life is back after the pandemic! It feels good.

Here in Kona is where the rich, dark Kona coffee is grown on the mountainsides. It was established to serve as King Kamehameha’s seat of government, and was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. However, it moved from here, to Lahaina, Maui, and then to its present capital city, Honolulu. Throughout the 1900s, the town had just become a small fishing village. But as in most of Hawaii, real estate and development took off, and now the area outside of this small downtown is filled with residences (with views!).

From the ship, we noticed a lot of boats in the water – even a tourist submarine! While we were having coffee in the 9th deck buffet, we got a photo of some parasailing out the window. There was lots going on in the water and onshore. You will see a photo below of our Mr. Lizard, who cozied up to us on a bench, inching closer and closer…until we finally gave in and moved out of his way.

One of the big attractions here is Hulihee Palace, built in 1838 out of coral, lava rock, and native woods. The Palace was later used as a vacation home for the royal family. It was restored by the Daughters of Hawaii in 1927 for use as a museum, and has remained so.

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Can you believe….we don’t even read (or should we say, remember) our own blog?!?! We have visited Kahului before, on Day 290 of being geographically independent, November 2018. But while “Kahului” sounded familiar, it wasn’t until we were out of the port, on the main street, that we remembered it all. That day, it was raining, and so it all had a more dismal cast. Today was sunny and glorious, although, as we noted last time, the Internet’s comment regarding this Hawaiian town is as follows: “Kahului is not generally considered a tourist destination.”

Outside of a small outdoor shopping center, and beautiful photos of the ocean and cloud-enveloped mountaintops, there isn’t anything remarkable here. We noticed that some of the photos we took this time were virtually the same ones we posted last time. So, at least for the small portion of the port we have seen, we have covered it well.

We were happy to find a very busy Whole Foods grocery store for some berries and unsalted nuts. There were a few other stores that sell clothing and other necessities, but the port itself is largely a cargo port, and it is adjacent to an auto salvage yard (filled with vehicles that had been in spectacular wrecks).

Overall, a great day to sit out on the deck or near a window and watch the ocean change colors. Throughout the day, the waves were also different every few hours. It’s a beautiful background with which to dine, read, and just enjoy the scenery.

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The very first port of call on our 69-day cruise is Honolulu, Hawaii. It is hot, beautiful, bursting with life and vegetation, and for some reason, very calming. You just don’t feel stressed here. While Honolulu is the biggest city in Hawaii, there is no feeling of rushing or busy-ness. We spent some time in the Moana Surfrider Hotel, opened in 1901 as Waikiki’s first hotel, and affectionately known as “The First Lady of Waikiki.” Rooms back in 1901 cost the pricey sum of $1.50!!! We rocked on rocking chairs on the front porch (free to anyone who can snatch one) and feasted on an Açaí Bowl – highly recommended as a cooling, delightful snack (see photo below). The music playing over the loudspeaker was old-timey Hawaiian, but the effect was very calming.

Waikiki Beach was the same as always – filled with sunbathers on the beach and surfers in the water. Bare feet and surfboards were everywhere. The city is beautifully landscaped and very welcoming, with “Aloha” greeting us wherever we looked.

Mike went diving in the early morning hours, with his destination a ship intentionally sunk off the coast in 1999. The Sea Tiger is a 150-foot former Chinese merchant ship, which sits upright at a depth of about 100 feet. It is just a few miles off shore and takes just about five minutes to get there from Kewalo Basin Harbor. Mike saw quite a few white-tip reef sharks swimming around and an enormous (5-foot-long) sea turtle taking a nap inside the ship. It is easy to see why Hawaii remains a dream and goal for so many people. Enjoy the photos!

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Janis Joplin: Take it! Take another little piece of my heart now, baby! Well, New York City has taken a little piece of our hearts. We started to miss it as soon as we left last October. Coming back has felt like “home,” as we knew where everything was and how to get there. It all came back as though we had lived here for many years, not just a month.

We have been enjoying wandering around, looking UP, as usual, and enjoying all the busy-ness of the city. We did find some new things this time: High Line Park, Chelsea Market, The Vessel, and Hudson Yards. But we also revisited the familiar: Times Square, Central Park, Greenwich Village, and Hell’s Kitchen. And we’re not done! We have several more days for exploring. So here are our photos and impressions thus far – enjoy the color, and the colorful doings, in NYC!

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This post will wrap up our doings in London. It felt so luxurious to stay in one place for over three weeks, rather than moving every few days. We are planning to spend more time in London next year, since we enjoyed it so much. We will then visit more of the places and things we didn’t get to see this time!

As we always tell people, when you are traveling 365 days/year, you can’t treat your life as a vacation and fill every day with sightseeing. While here, we mostly just picked one thing to do. Sometimes it was a local attraction, sometimes a movie. Yes, we go see movies on the road. If we don’t, we don’t ever see them! The good thing about Great Britain, of course, is that we don’t have to ask what language it is in. In many other countries we find many movies in English with foreign (i.e., local subtitles), but we always have to ask. By the way, one day we didn’t go anywhere, other than our daily walk, was yesterday. The tube (subway) and bus drivers held a one-day wage strike, so we couldn’t travel very far. We felt bad for those who rely on public transportation to get back and forth from work. It is a major inconvenience for them, but minor for us.

So today, you will see a quirky find that we discovered – Sir John Soane’s Museum. Soane was a neoclassical architect who died in 1837. Years before, he had arranged that upon his death, his home would be granted to the government so as to bypass his son inheriting it, as he disliked him greatly. The museum is filled with artwork, statuary, and all sorts of curiosities. It is almost like walking through an antique shop, but of really cool – and valuable – stuff. There is artwork by Canaletto. There is the 3,000-year-old sarcophagus of Seti I. You wander from room to room, floor to floor, at your own pace. Every turn is like a “Eureka!” moment. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged and accepted (of course!).

Novelty Animation is another quirky place. It is filled with old novelty games that you can actually play for 1-2 pounds. These are not pinball machines, nor are they very sophisticated. One machine is a pair of “hands” that fill with air to frisk you! Another is Bicycle Pong, where you pedaled hard to be sure you are in the right place to hit the ball and play pong! People were laughing and enjoying all the silliness.

We expected Kensington Palace and Gardens to be spectacular, but the drought has yellowed and withered green spaces all over London. You can see in the photos how barren and dry Kensington Gardens look, when due to abundant rain, England is generally very lush and green.

One day, and one day only, it sprinkled all day long. It was too unpredictable to walk any distance, so we visited the Tate Modern Art Museum, a walk of about three minutes from our hotel. Like many of the national museums, admission is free, while exhibitions cost a few pounds. It was quite crowded inside, and like all modern art, some of it was interesting and some of it was befuddling. A canvas painted the same, one shade of blue is “art.” A lopsided wooden structure with ripped white fabric hanging from it is “art.” Our photos show two things that we found enjoyable, however. There is always something, somewhere, for everyone wherever we travel.

We have been taking in a lot of London. This post is a hodgepodge of different places and sights. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was outstanding, as it something we have all heard of, and all depend on for living according to clocks and time as a way of ordering our lives. At different times in history, other countries declared that the Prime Meridian (0 Degrees Longitude) was in their locale. Eventually all others agreed to drop their claim in favor of Greenwich. Since then all temporal and east/west measurements have begun here.

Flamsteed House housed the Astronomers Royal (the first of whom was John Flamsteed, hence the name). One of the astronomers who lived there was Edmond Halley, of Halley’s Comet fame, which made it thrilling to be there, walking where he walked. Just down the hill from the Observatory is the Royal Maritime Museum, which had interesting exhibitions and artifacts.

We went by Buckingham Palace, saw the guard doing his walkabout, and took some photos. We were surprised that we didn’t remember that the gates and fence are highly, highly decorated – but the palace itself is gray and plain. There is a lot of fun street art (as there is everywhere nowadays) on the streets of London and loads of beautiful buildings, from the ultra-modern to the much older structures.

For our health, we always like to have berries every day. Across the street from our hotel is an Amazon Fresh store. If you haven’t yet been inside one – it will blow your mind! You display a QR code in the Amazon app to enter, put items in your bag, and, as Amazon says – “Just Walk Out.” It is so weird not to checkout. In about two hours, an email arrives telling you how long you were inside, how many items you bought, and the total – and they are always correct! Once we got the hang of it, and knew we only wanted berries, our receipt would note that we were inside for 49 seconds and bought strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, along with the total charged. (By the way, we have never gotten fresher or nicer berries than in Amazon Fresh, which is really saying something.) It is a great experience. If you have one near your home, try it!

The medieval Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, an Anglican Church – Oh, my! It is London’s oldest surviving parish church and was built in central London north of the Thames (in Smithfield) during the reign of King Henry I in 1123, meaning that next year it will celebrate 900 years! Founded by Augustinian monks, they brought free healthcare to London, as they constructed St. Bartholomew Hospital at the same time. We found the church extraordinary, in that parts of the remaining church are the original construction. Half of the church was demolished in 1543, after being ransacked. But what remains is definitely unique. We decided to devote this entire post to St. Bartholomew Church, as we found it so evocative of an ancient time.

There are fascinating angles, arches, lighting, and views, as you will see in the photos. The last photo shows a few of the movies that were filmed here, but there are several others. The beautiful pipe organ “stopped working” several years ago, but replacing or refurbishing it will cost more than a million pounds. A sign asking for donations said that it costs approximately 1,000 pounds per day to keep the church up and running. We learned this from church volunteers working as greeters, who were very welcoming.

So take a peek into this extraordinary and atmospheric place. It is our hope that you will get a sense of how it casts a spell through its shadows and angles.

With our hotel in Bankside, London – south of the Thames, near London Bridge, and roughly between Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London – we are in an up-and-coming area undergoing gentrification and lots of renovation. It is one of the oldest areas of London, and feels a bit gritty (but safe and pretty cool) with lots of trains and old train tunnels. We are a few steps away from the Tate Modern art museum. It really feels like life is happening all around us. There are lots and lots of tourists in London right now, so everything is busy and crowded. We are discovering why we used to travel in the spring and fall! Summer is crazy.

Even though we did okay with the language in France, able to read menus and signs in French, and say a few phrases to locals – it sure is great to be in a place where English is spoken! We can speak without our brains going through a translation process, sometimes trying to answer in French, but with Spanish coming out (“Oh, you speak Spanish!”), and we can once again order food with items “on the side” and be fully understood.

There are statues everywhere we look, with some shown in our photos. We have walked through Chinatown and past a lot of famous landmarks, including Big Ben. Westminster Abbey charges a hefty 25 pounds ($30.53) to walk inside, but we attended an organ recital on Sunday and so entered for free. But as soon as it was over, the staff was very insistent on everybody leaving right away. Whenever we go into a church for free (none in France charged admission), we always leave a donation, since we feature them in our blog, and since we realize that they incur costs such as electricity and maintenance. Still, we don’t ever donate $61 for two of us to walk through!

Our favorite activity here, as everywhere, is just wandering the streets aimlessly and seeing what we stumble upon. We get to see fabulous architecture, street decorations, statues and monuments, and the other day we came upon Borough Market, with all of its lights, smells, and colors. There is lots here to discover! We still have almost three weeks to continue our life here, and we can’t wait to see more!

Our last full day in France was partially spent in Dijon, which was just an overnight stop as we made our way back to Paris to catch the Eurostar to London. We only had an hour or so to explore the city, so we walked around the old town and got a few photos. We had the opportunity for a home-cooked meal here, as our “hotel” room had a full kitchen with everything we could want, and even a washer and dryer.

You likely known the name Dijon from its famous mustard. Even though it is sold here, of course, it is not made here! The most striking attractions in the city are the half-timbered buildings and the 13th century Church of Notre Dame.

Atop the church is an clock with an automaton that strikes the hour called a Jacquemart. Nobody knows the origin of the word, just that it was being used from 1458. The Jacquemart was sacked from Belgium in 1382, and it was a marvel of its day. A second automaton, depicting a woman, was added in 1651 to alternate with the Jacquemart to sound the hours. The people of Dijon named her “Jacqueline.” (Who says life was hard back then, and people had no sense of humor?) In 1714, a Dijon poet asked the city to provide Jacquemart and Jacqueline with children (even though she was now 63 and he was 332 years old!). And so, Jacquelinet was added to sound the half-hours. In 1884, Jacquelinet received a sister – an automaton named Jacquelinette was added to make the family complete, as she strikes the quarter-hours. Phew! Is that complicated (and cute) enough for you??

France threw us one last curve ball as we returned our car the next day just outside of Paris. When we rented the car in Strasbourg, the agent mentioned the city where we were returning the car and didn’t say anything about it. When we looked at the address the night before, Google Maps showed that the location was “temporarily closed.” We tried calling the corporate office and every branch we could, only to get automated responses and to be hung up on. So we drove to our drop-off address, but the location had been closed for some time. It looked ramshackle, with bugs and flies in the dirty windows and mail piled on the floor. A sign on the door had an alternate address, so we drove there. It was a small back alley filled with rental trucks. We walked around and discovered a yard where men were washing vehicles. They said it was the place to return our car! There was no sign, no office – just a man who completed our paperwork on a table adjacent to cars being washed. The silver lining was that they offered to take us to the subway station and advised us as to how to get to Gare du Nord in Paris to catch the Eurostar. We made it with two hours to spare!!! Lucky us. We were on the last day of our allowed 90-day Schengen Area stay. If we had missed our Eurostar train, we might not have been welcomed back to the Schengen Area (i.e., most of Europe) for quite a while. Disaster averted!

We look at this experience as a positive occurrence, giving us the opportunity to build up more brain cells. Whenever we have to figure out something that is blowing up our plans, we get creative and start thinking out loud about what we might possibly do and how we can solve the problem. We have, so far in our travels of 20 years, averted everything in our paths that could have slipped us up, from trains not running to the city where we had hotel reservations, to train tracks under repair and torn up in entire countries, to being lost (!) countless times, to walking for an hour only to discover it was the wrong way, to missing stops on trains or subways. We’ve also been tricked in Barcelona, where the names of streets in our trusty tour book had all been replaced – Spanish names for Catalan names!! We couldn’t figure out how we were exactly where the map indicated we were, but the street names were wildly different! All of this makes us stronger and wiser, and gives us the experience we need to travel better in the future.

Avignon is famous for the Avignon Papacy of 1309-1377, wherein seven successive popes reigned from Avignon, France rather than Rome. The fabulous Palace of the Popes is actually two buildings that were joined in the 1300s to centralize the administration of the Catholic Church. When the papacy returned to Rome, the palace lost much of its former glory. However, its grandeur and immortality have captured the imagination of people over the centuries. We walked through the interior, but sadly for us, much of it has been taken over for the annual Festival of Avignon, an arts festival, and bleachers and hundreds of chairs have been placed inside, which obscured the openness and views. In addition, there is an exhibition on the Amazon (of all things), so several of the great rooms are not recognizable. We visited here 20 years ago, but today it is nothing like it was then.

The city is one of the few left in France that has retained its old walls surrounding the old town. The wall runs for 2.7 miles and encloses 370 acres. Originally, there were 12 gates that controlled access, but today there are 11 pedestrian entrances and 15 vehicular entrances. Inside the walls, it is vibrant with people drinking, eating, and attending theater shows, and it just has a vibrancy and sense of joy. There was a lot of activity! For us, it was a one-day whistle stop, as our 90 days in the EU Schengen area are up in a few days. Our last several locations were to be a bit longer, but we had to cut back our days in each after we did the math!

Marseille! It is a city that has been mentioned in every history course that we have taken online over the past three years. It has been an international port since being founded by the ancient Greeks around 600 BC, who called it Massalia. The Black Plague likely entered Europe through the boats that docked here. Whenever a trivia question asks about a major, ancient port on the Mediterranean, the answer is always: Marseille.

We found it to be a city with many faces. We stayed in Vieux Port, the ancient port, and it was very touristy and busy, with loads of people walking around. The oldest part of the city is Le Panier, at quite an elevation from Vieux Port, so we huffed and puffed as we climbed a mountain to get there. But when we did, we were rewarded with delightful shops and cafes, little winding pathways and streets, and tons of street art. We drove through the newer part of Marseille as we entered the city, and it looked a little rough. Neighborhoods called Noailles and La Plaine are to the east of the Vieux Port area. They, too, are where the typical working class people live, filled with street markets and street foods. We were a little apprehensive just driving through the close, winding streets.

The cathedral here is huge. It impresses not with its gold and statues and elaborate stained glass windows, but with its size. It is adorned in the signature Moorish red and white stripes, indicating that this is, indeed, an immigrant city, filled with many cultures. It was mostly too hot while we were here to be very ambitious about walking a lot or seeing many places. We are remembering why we never traveled during the summer! We only went out in the heat long enough to see the things that are pictured, but not much more. The sunny photos do make Marseille look like an idyllic vacation spot – but they came at the cost of just being too hot!

Aaaahhhhh – relaxing in the sun-drenched south of France! The world calls it the French Riviera. The French call it Côte d’Azur. We call it Utopia, since there is absolutely nothing to do and not much to see other than the beach and the sea. Oh, and people. Lots of people. We read that the French have been ecstatic that so many Americans have come to France on vacation. There are generally lots of Russians who visit during the summer, but with the war, of course they cannot come this year. Their places have been taken by Americans, with the visitor numbers likely enhanced by Western Europeans trying to cool off in the ocean because of the heat wave.

Our biggest decisions have been what to order at breakfast and what to do about dinner. Since it is so hot, we walk rather laconically and just look around as we get hotter and hotter. It is nice to not care about seeing anything in particular, as we then hightail it back to the hotel for the air-conditioned temperatures inside.

And so, for the first time…no captions under the photos. You can write your own! (Regarding the last photo, though – their idea of a “taco” is very, VERY different than ours!) These have been days of just lazing, reading, doing laundry, walking, sleeping, and catching up in general. We only have three locations left in France over four days before we return our rental car and catch the Eurostar (we found that nobody here says “the Chunnel” any more!) to London. We will be in the same hotel in London for over three weeks, so that will also be a welcome change to moving every few days. But we wouldn’t change our schedule in France for anything, as we got to see so many amazing sights and places that we couldn’t have dreamed of before we arrived.

Lyon! Even though the word lyon loosely translates as “lion,” we haven’t seen a single fountain or building featuring lions. Horses, yes. Fish, yes. Maybe we didn’t look hard enough? But – we got to see one of the most gorgeous, gilded churches we have ever seen, the local basilica. To get there, high on a hill (as you will see in the photos), we took a funicular both ways. We stayed in a part of the city called Presqu’ile – “almost an island.” It is supposedly where everything happens in the city, and is a finger of land between the Rhône and Saone Rivers, built due to a massive 18th century fill project, connecting what was once an island with the rest of the city.

Lyon – Gastronomic Capital of the World!! Unfortunately for us, a lot of their gastronomy features tripe, steak tartare, calves’ brains, and various organ meats, which we do not care for. The cuisine here is heavy on meats, and we tend to like chicken and vegetarian dishes. In addition, we found the perplexing problem of restaurants closing very early in the afternoon and not opening again until much later in the evening. We showed up to one restaurant whose own hours, written on their door, said they were open, only to find it locked up. After that, we called another to ensure it was open, and when we got there (driving several miles), they said it was three more hours before they would be serving food, even though they were “open.” Many of those situations happen to us often in Europe, with seemingly infinite variations. Just when we think we have figured out every question we can ask to ensure that we can eat something, they come up with a new way to foil us. It is turning into quite a game. We should have it mastered in a week or so, the day we leave France for London!

The “traboules” of Lyon almost got by us, but they couldn’t hide from us – we found them. They are Lyon’s own covered passageways from the renaissance, which are fun to discover and walk through (although some that were recommended in articles are boarded shut!). We walked alongside both rivers and felt lucky to see some of Lyon’s famed “frescoes” – buildings that have been completely taken over with painted scenes. Lots of people were standing with us, gawking. And we ventured out to two of Lyon’s sites of Roman ruins. Even though it was very hot, we went to a lot of places. Now we are heading to the Riviera for some beach time and not as much walking as we have been doing. We saw on the news last night that Nantes, where we spent time in May, hit 115 degrees yesterday! Parts of France in the west are experiencing wildfires. It is scorching hot here. We so appreciate air conditioning, when we can get it in Europe!

Bern, Switzerland has a lot more going for it than a clock – the famous Zytglogge – yet that it all we remembered from our one-day visit in 2003! It is on the top of every list of what to see here, but check out our photo and commentary. Yes, it is big; yes, it attracts crowds; but it was a little short on performance, as we were expecting more. We have seen city clocks in Germany that have figurines going around in a circle, chasing each other, even on the hour.

This time, we took a tour of the National Parliament building. The outside doesn’t do Justice to the fabulous interior! It was just magnificent, and the city offers free tours with a great guide, in English. Other than that, we visited some churches and just walked the streets of Old Town. There are statues with fountains, as we show below, in the middle of the streets here and there. The streets are lined with covered arcades, which cooled us from the unrelenting sun and heat. Did you see that there is a Heat Wave in Europe? It is supposed to reach 100 degrees here early next week. We have been in several hotels with no air conditioning, so that would be most challenging. Good thing we have our small fans! At night, they provide just enough air movement to feel comfortable.

One of the reasons we love having reservations and plans that are cancellable is getting an email from friends saying, “Hey! You should come visit us in Zurich!” We had not included Switzerland in this trip, but we looked at our itinerary and figured we could spend a few days in this gorgeous country. So we cancelled our previous plans, made reservations in Zurich, and headed this way. Driving from Colmar, France, on the back roads as we love to do, we passed through the High Black Forest. In addition to farms and villages, we also drove through an area with crystal-clear lakes and, because we were so high in the mountains, several ski lifts. It was spectacular.

So, for those views, and for a wonderful evening of lively conversation and delicious Lebanese cuisine, we have to thank our friends Yasmine and Onur. They struck up a conversation with us on a subway in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2019, and we saw them again the next day while we were on a tour in the city. We have had an email correspondence since then, so it was great to meet up and talk the night away. They are so interesting and knowledgeable! And, of course, they speak multiple languages fluently – their English is as good as US natives! We told them that we are just the opposite. We have studied several foreign languages, and can get by reading signs and menus, etc., but don’t truly speak any of them.

As is true with most of Europe, Zurich was occupied/founded by the Romans (although settlements 6,400 years old have been found here), who called the city Turicum. You can see the small leap between that name and the present name of Zurich. We found it to be very youthful, open, and utterly delightful. The Old Town is divided by the River Limmat, and the two most ubiquitous flags around town are the Swiss and the Ukrainian (even though Switzerland, of course, is neutral). A free walking tour filled in some extra interesting details that we had been unaware of. We wouldn’t mind coming back for a longer period of time. One note, though – Switzerland is the most expensive country we have been to in the world. You may have seen on the news that because of concerns about the world economy, the dollar has been rising with respect to many foreign currencies. For the first time in 20 years, the euro and US dollar are at par and the Swiss franc almost the same (about $1.02 today). So, a BK fish sandwich combo in France costs 5 euros. Here, the fish sandwich combo is 18 Swiss francs! It is bordering on four times what you will pay elsewhere. Most common meals are in the area of 30-50 Swiss francs, which is eye-popping. But for a few days, we don’t mind at all, as life here is so great. Just advising our readers to be ready for sticker shock!

What do you get when the equation is Crowds + Charm + Attention to Detail + July + Canals + Flowers Galore + A weekend + Ancient Buildings??? The answer is – Colmar, France. This is breathtaking. It really is a wonderful find on our journey through France. We walked through the town once, for 20 minutes or so, and every time after that, we ran into the same places over and over. In other words, it is very small, tiny, cozy, and compact. But its effect is huge! It is just overwhelming.

Colmar is known for its preserved medieval Old Town and was first mentioned by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. It has been occupied by Sweden, the Empire of Germany, and then Nazi Germany during WWII. In 1863, the Colmar Hoard was found, a collection of precious objects hidden in a house’s walls by the Jews during the Black Death.

We greatly enjoyed seeing all of the timbered buildings, the flowers (and flowers, and flowers) everywhere, and the pretty canals that run through the town. In many ways, we were reminded of our travels through small towns in Switzerland several years ago. The food was good and the people friendly, which is all we ask of any new place we haven’t seen before. Colmar is great for a few days if you are ever in eastern France!

Baden Baden is a cute cute town that was just made for tourists and guests heading toward its famous baths. It had some formal buildings, including a casino (for which you have to dress up – not in the cards for us!), a theater, and an exhibition building called the Trinkhalle. In addition, there was a park with a tree-lined street and walkway called Lichtentaler Allee, which legend says started in 1655 when towering oaks lined the way. We have seen advertisements calling Baden Baden “the Good Life,” and it seems to have that genteel feeling and still harkens back to years gone by.

The main restaurants are German, and the streets in Old Town are cobblestoned. Hotels are from another age (even though they have been modernized), and there are many German bakeries on every street. The city is lovely and charming, and is a bit of the slow lane when it comes to leisure. No busy crowds, no frantic shopping, and no lines anywhere – it is a slower life here than we have seen in other cities. And for a few days, that suited us just fine!

Strasbourg is the European city of your dreams! It has everything going on. Gigantic ancient cathedral? Check. Flowers everywhere? Check. Busy cobblestone pedestrian paths jammed with restaurants and retail stores? Check. Old buildings that have been maintained in great condition? Check. Does a river run through it? Check. Pretty bridges cross-crossing that river? Check. Resultant canals and river boat tour companies? Check. Good public transportation? Check. Bakeries, patisseries, and boulangeries everywhere (and we mean everywhere!)? Check. In other words, Strasbourg has it all. Since it once was part of Germany, the border of which is only about 15 miles from there, it also has a wonderful two-country personality. There is a healthy mix of French and German restaurants. Both languages abound on menus.

We could have walked the canals, and near the River Ill, for days. It was very pleasant and welcoming. We stumbled on one of the most ancient buildings in the city, Eglise St. Pierre le Jeune, the Church of Young St. Peter (yes, there is an “Old St. Peter’s” in town). We spent a long time there, as the frescoes on the ancient walls were partially intact, and it had the prettiest chandeliers we have ever seen in a church! Wait until you get to the photo below! It also had an outdoor cloister, with colonnaded arcades, garden, and well. What a place! Oh, and the city’s cathedral isn’t too shabby, either!

Overall, we would return to Strasbourg and stay for a longer time next time! We figured out the excellent public transportation system of above-ground trains that run all over the city, and enjoyed getting around. There are several pedestrian streets that are interesting to walk on. Additionally, it is so close to Germany that we are heading there, as well (but just for a few days). Enjoy the photos! Yes, it is even better than it looks!

“Wow!” It’s great to be in a city whose name we know how to pronounce! We know people named Nancy!!” NOPE. In French, it is pronounced Non-SEE. Sigh. About all we have down for sure are merci, s’il vous plait, bon jour, and excuse-moi. Those are our go-to phrases for most things.

Do you know what we are enjoying every bit as much as these gorgeous medieval cities and sights? Driving along country roads to each destination! We use Waze for our GPS guidance, and we have set it to avoid freeways and avoid toll roads. Most days, it is no more than 20-30 minutes longer to go off the beaten track. We drive through tiny villages (each with a huge church!), along beautiful fields of crops or grazing cows, and we get to see French life up close. On freeways, of course, you can keep a more steady speed than the back roads, but there isn’t much to see except other cars and trucks. On our routes, we slow down every few miles as we navigate through a village, then speed up again (but not at speeds as fast as the freeway), then slow down. It continues like that the entire way. Sometimes we pass a local cafe, turn around, and take a break as we enjoy a leisurely cappuccino and espresso. You can see in one photo that we went through an area (near Villiers) whose crop was…. sunflowers! We passed thousands and thousands of them, one curve after another showing us fields of them. It was overwhelming, and beautiful.

On to our time in Non-SEE! What a historic and beautiful place! In many ways, it rivals capital cities like Paris and Vienna. There is some over-the-top stuff here! We went to a simply terrific museum of Art Nouveau furnishings, two floors of jaw-dropping stained and painted glass, and….wait’ll you see the bathtub! Never ever have we seen one like this! A visit to Place Stanislas is required of every visitor here. It is dripping with gold accents, and is truly…excessive. Its construction was overseen by the exiled Polish king, Stanislas I (the father-in-law of Louis XV), in the mid-1700s.

We would have loved to show you the interior of several churches, but all were closed (on a Sunday afternoon!) save one that is now a necropolis and museum of sorts. It is a day that we are certain that we walked 10,000 steps, and likely double that! We walked for many hours, and were rewarded with the best that Nancy has to offer. This is another little gem in France that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but Place Stanislas was jammed with people yesterday afternoon, as you will see in the photos. So others have also found out about this delightful destination, as we have!

Ancient! Charming! Unusual! Authentic! The City of Troyes amazed us, and is probably one of the most unique cities we have visited in our travels. A fire destroyed most of the city in 1524. When they rebuilt, it was in the style of half-timbered houses. The Old Town overflows with them! They have kept them up, painted them in vibrant colors, and preserved this tradition for almost 500 years! It is amazing, and you can feel the history of bygone days as you walk the streets. So, we have started with photos of buildings, as they make Troyes what it is. By the way, don’t pronounce it as we did – Troy-ess. It is Twa! If you pronounce it the way we would in English, the locals will have no idea what you are saying. We have the same problem with the French word for butter – beurre. As hard as we have tried, even with their coaching, we still can’t pronounce it so they know what we are saying.

The city is also known for its high number of churches. We just can’t understand how, for hundreds of years, they have supported behemoth buildings, just a block or two from one another. We put in photos of two of the most noteworthy churches, but figured that was enough.

When we drove out of Troyes, through the new part of the city, it was quite ordinary – just office buildings and block houses. The treasure is in the Old Town. Are you ready for a tour? We have started with the oldest, least renovated building that we encountered…and we loved it!

Reims is a Cathedral Town, and yet so much more was happening here! We found the cathedral to be truly magnificent. We gaped in wonder inside (as we usually do!), wondering about the people who had built this masterpiece, and how they were able to accomplish construction at this height without modern equipment or building techniques. It is a stunning church in which you just sit with your mouth open, amazed. What was neat was that for once, we couldn’t see it all over the Old Town as we wandered the streets. We knew it would be massive, and tall, but we turned a corner and it was suddenly there in front of us, in all of its proud beauty. It was really a thrill.

Reims also has a lively pedestrian street just jammed with restaurants and cafes. Everyone was out, drinking something. We visited what felt like one park divided by a highway and some roads, but the locals name them as three different parks. There is an interesting looking ancient Roman ruin in Reims, the Cryptoportique, which is a lovely ancient colonnade from the second century. We walked and walked to see it, as it was free, and open every day from 2 pm to 6 pm. When we arrived at 3:00 pm, it was closed. A restaurant worker shrugged and said, “It is not open today.” A British man, also wishing to enter, also told us it was closed. “But Google Maps says it is open every afternoon from 2 pm!” we said. He also shrugged and said, “That’s Google Maps!”

In Reims there is also Carnegie Library, free to enter and look around. It is situated just behind the cathedral and is in Art Deco style. We found it to be just beautiful, a little chunk of architectural history. All in all, the city is very vibrant and alive, filled with things to see, great food and shopping, and very welcoming. We are enjoying every minute that we are in France.

One of our fondest memories of our European honeymoon in 2003 is visiting Brussels for two days, and needing a break on Day 2, we found a small square, ordered some drinks, and sat and watched the world go by for a few hours. It was a good plan, and one we still subscribe to: don’t try to do everything in every place without rest! This time, we did walk somewhere every day we were here, although rain threatened each day. We explored on our own, met with new friends who also got rid of their home to just travel, took a free walking tour, wandered the streets aimlessly, and walked to a local church for a concert.

We had the best guide on our free Sandemans walking tour! Fraser is Scottish but has been a tour guide here for 14 years, even though he hardly looks old enough! He was fun and funny, and we saw the highlights of the city, learned a lot, and went back to see some of the places that we had just breezed by on tour. We met two couples who had also been on our tour in Antwerp, and we met new friends from Ireland. That is the best part of this life of ours – meeting and chatting with people from all over, and finding out about life in their corner of the world.

We went to Notre Dame du Finistere Church for the weekly Monday afternoon organ recital, only to be surprised with an hour-long organ concert with four soloists. It was glorious. Everyone came in, and turned their chairs to the rear of the church, toward the organ. We did likewise. Nobody applauded after the first five pieces, so neither did we. Out of the blue, they applauded for the next piece, then not again until the end. We just follow the locals! Beneath the organ pipes, on three sides, you can see inscriptions in Latin. We translated them: (1) They shall rise up from the ends of the earth, singing to the Lord with instruments. (2) The ends of the earth scatter at the sound of the pipe organ. (3) From the ends of the earth, praise the Lord with strings and organ.

Please don’t take offense, but in the photos you will see the most famous statue in all of Belgium, dating to the 15th century! People search the city for it, thinking that it certainly will be prominent, in the center of a city square, of course. But it is tiny, in a corner, and now apparently is always costumed according to the day or season. The city museum holds his array of costumes! Every souvenir store sells replicas, in all colors, no less. Chocolate shops sell him in Belgian chocolate form. It is like a mania. If you know what the statue is, you are smiling by now. If not, see him in the photo below! But squint – or enlarge your screen, as he is hard to see!!

The legend as to how Antwerp got its name is the best story, so we have to start with it. The green fountain in the first two photos depicts the legend of Brabo, who killed a giant who demanded a high toll for ships entering the city. If crews couldn’t, or wouldn’t, pay the toll, the giant cut off their hands. Brabo was fed up and wasn’t going to take it any more. He fought the giant, cut off his hand, and threw it into the river. So, Antwerpen comes from the two words, hand werpen, meaning “to throw a hand.”

The city has quite an ancient history, having been invaded and occupied by both the Romans and the Vikings. The River Scheldt brought commerce and trading to the city, making it the leading port in medieval times, but it also made the city vulnerable to invaders. In the photos, we will show you a few things the Romans and Vikings left behind.

We found this off-the-beaten-track city to be quite wonderful, but didn’t schedule enough time to explore it fully. We took a tour to get an overview, but still missed most of the main shopping street and pedestrian walk, the Meir. We would also love to see the central train station one day, as it is very ornate and said to be the one thing you should not miss in the city (but unfortunately, we missed it!). There are also several museums we would love to explore, but there just wasn’t enough time. In the future, we plan to visit fewer cities wherever we go, but stay longer.

“Bruges is very touristy! You don’t want to go there – go to Ghent instead.” That was the advice from a man we met in the laundromat last week, who helped us buy tokens for the machines. But we had visited Bruges years ago and had a very positive memory of it. Besides, we made hotel reservations in July 2021, so we were heading for Bruges regardless of his opinion. Are we glad we did! It’s fa – bu – lous!

The entire Old Town and all of its buildings are a World Heritage Site. There are towers everywhere, gorgeous facades, Dutch architecture buildings and houses, Belgian beer, and Belgian chocolate, chocolate, chocolate just EVERYWHERE! In fact, there are so many chocolate shops that the city has banned any more from opening their doors – they have decided that enough is enough. Only 17 of the hundred or so that we have passed are artisanal – that is, actually made in Bruges. The others have chocolates imported from China and other countries, which is not what you want when purchasing “Belgian chocolate.”

There is also a lot of water in Bruges – as in canals! It makes for a very pretty walk around town as you cross ancient bridges decorated with flowers. All of the squares are very lively and are just beautiful, already filled with lots of tourists. When we drove into Belgium from France a few days ago, it was very strange. We saw no people out, and there were few cars on the road. It was as if time had stopped, or like the beginning of a weird horror movie. All was well as we arrived in Bruges, as it was jammed with people and activity.

City Hall on Burg Square was pretty impressive, with its towers, flags, and ornamentation. But it is nothing compared to the Gothic Room inside. Wait until you see it! It took our breaths away, and we snapped many pictures, sat down just to soak it all in, then took more pictures. We did not want to leave. You will see why, but the photos probably won’t do it justice. If you are ever in Bruges, with all there is to see, do, and eat, City Hall’s Gothic Room is the one stop you MUST make. It is thrilling, to say the least.

Lille, France, is one of those large, small towns. But now that we’ve looked at the city’s statistics, that might not be entirely true, as it has a population of about a quarter of a million people. The feeling is that of a small town, however. The Old Town in the city center is very compact and very walkable. There are two enormous churches in the Old Town, but only one of them is a cathedral. There are ancient buildings and a modern train station. Every restaurant has outdoor seating, regardless of the view offered. We passed an Italian restaurant whose view was of buildings covered in graffiti across the street, and we wondered why anyone would eat there rather than in one of the pretty squares, or along the pretty cobblestone streets. We can only guess that the food makes it worth it, but we didn’t verify that ourselves.

We caught a little of the European Heat Wave here that we have been hearing so much about on the news. It was very hot walking from place to place, and even relatively short walks felt oppressive. One thing we have found in France is that the businesses don’t provide us with much humor. In other places, we are always seeing goofy windows and funny signs in front of businesses. We did see a lighthearted barber shop, as you will see below, but it isn’t overtly funny, just subtly. And now, we are off to Belgium once again!

Visiting the beaches of the Northeast coast of France/Northwest coast of Belgium is quite an experience. First, it is very windy on the beaches, which makes it chilly when you are out of the sun. Second, you apparently don’t need to see any water when you visit – getting sun is the important thing. And third, views of the beach are somewhat obstructed by rows and rows (and rows and rows) of beach huts. They are small cabanas, and act as a refuge from the wind as well as a place to store your beach items and clothing for the day. It is very different from other beach areas we have been to.

First up, Dunkirk was our favorite beach, although we favor the French spelling, Dunkerque. (Why do we anglicize actual names, instead of honoring the way the country itself spells things??) There is a small area with beach huts (in the photo below painted as “Malo -Les-Bains”), but most of the rest of the beach is wide open. It has restaurants, crepe/waffle/and ice cream stands, and loads of people. There was a basketball tournament taking place, and grandstands were set up for spectator viewing. Of course, Dunkirk is known for its beaches in 1940, as 300,000 soldiers waited for evacuation back to Great Britain, just 50 miles away or so by sea. We watched the movie Dunkirk the night before to refresh our memories about the historical importance of the area. It is quite sobering to see the calm beach today, and imagine it crowded with over a quarter of a million desperate soldiers.

Downtown Calais was more enjoyable than its beach. Town Hall can be seen from around the city, and it is some stunning architecture. The sculpture of the Burghers of Calais in front of it is very moving…and magnificent! The beach was jammed with beach huts, some not in great shape, which made the beach seem a bit degraded. Many people sunbathed in Calais with no view of the water whatsoever, which we found so strange.

De Panne, Belgium is the location of our hotel, just over the border from Dunkerque. Ditto on the beach huts crowding the beach. But we must say, it was very crowded, with both children and adults enjoying the boardwalk area, eating, walking, and biking. We can just imagine it in another month, in the middle of summer, bursting at its seams.

We visited these three cities yesterday. Today we are taking a break, resting and reading in our hotel room. We try not to treat our travels as a vacation, where every single thing needs to be seen (there will be other years, after all), but as our life. Lying here on the bed and sitting in the chair, with the window open, we are feeling the breeze and listening to various birds cooing a hundred times in a row. It is nice. We have a view of trees and gardens, and there is no traffic noise. And Mike just “put the kettle on” for some afternoon tea. Heaven!

Amiens was a big surprise for us. We went for the cathedral, but got canals, hortillonnages, Jules Verne’s final residence (and final resting place), some peaceful and pretty walks, and the chance to eat a wonderful local specialty. It is great when a city gives more than you were expecting, rather than less.

The cathedral’s entrance is magnificent, with more sculpted figures than we have seen on the exterior of a church. And rather than repetition, each one is different, with even different characters acting as pedestals. And it was the first time we have seen gargoyles on this trip! Gargoyles are a noteworthy feature on Notre Dame in Paris, but we couldn’t get close enough to see them with all the construction going on.

All of the water features in Amiens were really nice. Not many people were out in the morning, and as we strolled along the water, it was easy to imagine that it was many decades ago, a more serene time, not 2022!

After the cathedral, the highlight was Jules Verne’s house. There were many artifacts there that were his personal possessions, and even furniture from when he lived there was on display. As we have seen in other museums in France, however, we had free use of/could roam the house, with nobody telling us what to look at, nobody shushing us, nobody saying, “NO!” (Not that we, ever-obedient, would ever touch anything we weren’t supposed to! Huh-uh. Not us.) Verne died in 1905, so it all gave us a glimpse into a largely-untouched home of the turn of the last century. It was very moving to be there and see how the family lived. And then, we visited his grave, to see that he would love to live again!

What an interesting place we discovered when looking at the area around Amiens! The City of Naours has a subterranean city, re-discovered in 1887 by a local priest, Rev. Ernest Danicort, who encouraged its restoration so as to open up the caves to the public. The subterranean city is about 100 feet underground, and its labyrinth of tunnels and chambers runs about two miles, with 28 galleries and 300 chambers.

The site began as a limestone quarry, built by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. Once the quarry fell into disuse, the local people began to store goods there, and eventually hid in the caves from invading armies. Most notably, they used the underground during the 16th century Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years War in the early 17th century. They developed the tunnel system and built rooms so that it could be used as an underground city for extended periods. Apparently, the children knew the underground city so well that they could freely run through the tunnels without getting lost. Ingeniously, so as not to be discovered, they situated their fireplaces so that the smoke vented through the chimneys of the cottages above ground!

The audio guide given to us told us many great stories about the subterranean city. The 10th photo below shows a passage where we had to stoop very low to pass through. Apparently it was made that way intentionally. When enemies were present in the subterranean city, the citizens would have children run through the passage, with the invaders in tow. The children’s progress through the cave could be followed by the sound of them running over gravel on the ground. The citizens would be hiding on the far side of that pinch. The children, small and unencumbered by weapons or equipment, could run through quickly. Invaders following closely behind were slowed going through it. The citizens would wait in ambush on the other side of the pinch and attack them as they passed through.

As we passed a large steel plate on the ground (the 16th photo), our audio guide explained that there was a pit under the plate. During times of trouble or invasion, boards covering that hole would be removed and invaders, lured down that dimly-lit passageway, would fall into the deep pit.

Soldiers of WWI visited the caves as tourists, and almost 3,000 names of individuals can be found in the caves’ graffiti. During WWII, the Germans used the caves as a radio control room. We found the caves to be an unusual and unique attraction. The site is nothing we had ever heard of before and is an interesting historical artifact. And to top off the experience, we went to a small farmer’s market a short walk up the hill from the caves. We found the windmill shown in the last photo and bought two cartons of some of the best strawberries we have ever tasted from one of the vendors. (European strawberries are very tender, softer than those in the US. This means that they spoil much quicker, but the taste is unbeatable!)

Rouen was a city on our list to visit because Monet had done a series of Impressionist paintings of the Rouen Cathedral. We wanted to see it in person, and we arrived to fabulous news. Each weekend, the Cathedral is the site of the Rouen Lumiere show – a video presentation using the Cathedral as the backdrop and tabula rasa. Waiting until it was completely dark, the show began at 11 pm, and it exceeded our expectations. In the first photo, you will see the Cathedral as we did in the afternoon. Starting with the fifth photo, wait’ll you see how the church changes with some video enhancement. We have also included three short videos of different parts of the 25-minute show. By the way, even at 11 pm, the plaza in front of the church was jammed with people. We have read that most towns in France have similar shows, using the facade of their largest church, so we will be on the lookout as we travel through the country.

Rouen is also noteworthy as the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431 at age 19. There is now a church named for her where it occurred, with ruins outside noting the place as well. Her church is quite striking, dating from 1979, and the windows give it a very modern look; however, they were saved from another church that was bombed in WWII, and actually date from the year 1520.

The Old Town consists of twisting cobblestone paths, with stores and restaurants on both sides. The town has an ancient clock set in a tower that dates to the 14th century – everyone stopped in front of it to watch it for a while, even though it had no moving parts (they looked rusted, understandably), and the time depicted was wrong. That all just added to its charm, as we understood that it was suffering from old age.

What an emotion-filled day, visiting Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc, along with all the memorials for the US forces here on the northern French coast of Normandy. Omaha Beach, we were told, looks exactly as it did in 1944 – wide, long, and undeveloped. As far as the eye can see, there are no hotels or even beach cottages on the beach. We didn’t look for any, but we read that they recently found mortar shells and shrapnel in the sand; experts said it would all still be there in a few hundred years, as there was simply too much of it to ever clean it up completely.

As Americans, we absolutely can feel the gratitude of the French for our efforts to liberate the country from Germany. All the memorials are well-kept, pristine even, and are decorated with fresh flowers. Photos of American soldiers are celebrated on banners lining the streets. There were many flags representing the Allied powers on the streets, on businesses and even on homes. The American Cemetery is exceedingly beautiful, with careful attention to the landscaping. Even the crosses marking each grave are clean and debris-free. It is so impressive!

As you walk to the different areas of the beach you find memorials telling stories of individuals and groups of soldiers. One memorial told of a group of rangers who were landed three miles away from their target area due to a navigational error and had to fight three miles down the reinforced beach before they could even start the mission they were sent for. Other memorials recall areas being taken that the Germans had thought were unassailable.

Today, this whole area that was chaotic in 1944 is serene and calm. There were a lot of buses, though! We ran into many groups touring the sites, especially students, and loads of buses filled the parking lots. As we drove away in early afternoon, in the rain, we encountered at least two dozen buses heading toward the memorials. A busy time! – and only early June.

History can be brought alive in so many ways. The Bayeux Tapestry does it through embroidery – get this: it is a 230-foot-long hand sewn depiction of the years 1064-1066 in British history, wherein 626 people, 190 horses and mules, 541 birds and other animals, 33 buildings, 37 ships, and 57 Latin inscriptions are included to tell the story of the Norman Invasion of Britain. It was a phenomenal object to see! Imagine one piece of art stretching across 23 standard (10-foot) rooms.

A little back history: apparently, in 1051, the King of England, Edward the Confessor, told William the Conqueror (at the time, William the Bastard) that his desire was to see William become king when he (Edward) died. Edward had no children, and succession was decided jointly by the king and his council. Edward’s brother-in-law, Harold, had sworn to honor Edward’s wishes, but he usurped the crown as soon as Edward died. William arrived from France to fight for the throne. In the battle of Hastings in 1066, Harold was struck dead by an arrow in the eye, and William became king.

We never thought about how the tapestry would look. In fact, we both approached the museum with a desire to see the tapestry because we had learned about it in school and read about it, but thought it would be kind of boring, a tapestry on a wall that we wouldn’t understand too well. However, it was one of the most fascinating museums we had ever been to. The scenes are numbered, and an audio guide leads you through each scene, what is happening, and points out things to take note of. You walk slowly past this 900+ year old relic, taking it all in, realizing that its design and completion took many years of labor. In fact, recently, a history fanatic embroidered his own version of the tapestry. It took him 18 years to create one that was 40 feet long. The original is 230 feet long!

We are calling it a tapestry, as that has been its name for a millennium. In truth, it is not woven, but embroidered, which has led art historians to call it the Bayeux Embroidery. But that is ridiculous, and nobody refers to it that way. Even the museum where it is housed is called the Museum of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Due to its fragile nature, photos were not permitted. But viewing the tapestry is very moving. In addition to all of the historical scenes, there are animals running along the top and bottom. During the battle, dead soldiers and even decapitated soldiers are shown lying in the dirt. It shows the first known depiction of Halley’s Comet. As they say during the narration, this is a documentary on a piece of cloth. We are just gobsmacked, and in a very real way, we feel privileged and humbled to have been allowed to view a Masterpiece of History (and a medieval version of a Wikipedia article).

Our last week in Paris was lot of fun, but we rested more than we did last week. We always tell anyone considering our lifestyle not to treat it like it is a vacation, trying to fill every day with tourism, as that just leads to burnout. Even more so – as senior citizens, we just can’t go and go every single day! We went to the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery, which we didn’t know was famous until it was an answer six or seven times on Jeopardy. It is always the question to the answer, “It is where Jim Morrison is buried.” So now we went, we saw, we know it forever. It is the first garden cemetery, opened in 1804. It is not only the largest green space in Paris, it is the most-visited necropolis in the world, with more than 3.5 million annual visitors. Here you will find the graves not only of Jim Morrison, but of Frederic Chopin, Edith Piaf, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, and Moliere. The cobblestone streets are all named, with signs to lead the way, and there are 5,000 varieties of trees! It is far more impressive, botanically, than the formal gardens we visited in Paris. We walked around for maybe 2-3 hours, and estimate that we saw perhaps 25 percent of the entire site. It is huge, and the famous reside next door (as it were) to the ordinary citizens.

We also visited the inside of the Palais Garnier, which houses the Paris Opera. What’s interesting is that, unlike tours of most famous buildings, visitors were allowed to roam through the building freely, with no time limits. Consequently, though, there were hordes of people that you had to fight through to see the most interesting places inside. And this is only early June!

Speaking of hordes of people: we bought tickets for the Louvre online, at 17 euros each. We arrived about 20 minutes before our designated time, to find hundreds and hundreds of people in line with the same time as us! The queue stretched forever and wasn’t moving, looking to be about two excruciating hours of standing in line, which is what we thought we were avoiding by buying online. So we decided that our entrance fees were a donation to the Louvre and went walking the streets of Paris instead. (We think we had more fun doing so!)

“Wow!” we remarked – “if we are climbing this many steps just to get to the funicular to take us all the way up to Sacre Coeur Church, what is it like if you climbed all the way to the church??” Little did we know – that is just what we had just done! We followed our phone’s directions, and it always led to us another loooooong staircase, then another. We (well, Jan) huffed and puffed and rested and pulled out the bottle of water, absolutely winded, thirsty, and exhausted. So, we arrived at what looked like an Alpine village, very charming, and searched for the funicular to make our way up to the church. A curious thing happened. As we walked, a huge church loomed in front of us. We walked toward it, wondering if there was another church part way up the mountain? Nope. It was Sacre Coeur. We had climbed stairs (the back way) all the way up. 270 steps, to be exact. Excruciating.

To get to the funicular (which of course we never found), we started out on the subway, exiting at the Abbesses station, just three stops away from our hotel. We did not know that Abbesses metro station is the deepest in Paris (118 feet below ground), and we exited up the staircase, as usual. Every time we thought that – this is it, we’ll be at the top and outside, just around the next bend – there would be another staircase, and another, and another – 200 steps, in total. (When we returned to our hotel, we looked up the number of steps at that metro station. Climbing the stairs there is on a list of things never to do in Paris; wish we had known that before we went!) Soooo, with the metro station and church, we climbed 470 steps!! No gym for the next two days!

The Champs Elysees is beautiful to walk down. It is filled with both vehicles and pedestrians, as well as every designer store from around the world. Each restaurant has outdoor seating, as all other large cities do, but one in particular was just beautifully decorated. Look at the photos to see which one it was. Also, we have provided the requisite photo of the Arc de Triomphe, but these huge monuments that everyone knows aren’t very interesting, other than their fame and size – oh, and their place in history, of course!

We spent a bit of time in the Petit Palais, which is across the street from its big sister, the Grand Palais, both built for the Universal Exhibition in the year 1900. It is a free art museum, and its architecture, ornamentation, and art collection are quite wonderful. In turn, both of these wonderful buildings are just a few steps down from the Pont Alexandre III, one of the most beautiful bridges across the Seine.

As we have wandered the streets, just about every restaurant has a “fixed price” menu for lunch and often dinner, but lunch is the main meal here. Generally, for lunch, you can get an appetizer, main dish, and dessert for anywhere between 12-20 euros. All of them have available tables, particularly inside, as outside fills up first. The only lines we have seen? You won’t believe it – Burger King, Five Guys, and McDonald’s. Five Guys on the Champs Elysees had about 30 people in line, spilling out onto the sidewalk. We always remarked about how, on our honeymoon in 2003, driving around France for five days, every tiny medieval village that had two dozen houses always, also, had a McDonald’s! And so to see fast food so popular, still, in the City of Gastronomes, is just astonishing.

Paris. Paris. Paris. What a wonderful city. We have been wandering around aimlessly, roaming whichever streets catch our fancy. We haven’t yet been to the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. Since we are here for 15 nights, for free (on Hilton points), we don’t feel the need to rush to all of the famous landmarks right off.

On Saturday we headed to the Latin Quarter on the Rive Gauche, and just walked along the same cobblestones that people famous and not famous have walked on for centuries. What a thrilling feeling that is, that connection to history, even as we created our own history. We stopped and had fondue, as it is so hard to find, only to discover that the next 15 restaurants also had fondue! Later that day, we read about sights not to miss in the Latin Quarter, which, of course, we had missed. (By the way, regardless of what you may think, the Latin Quarter was named because the Sorbonne is there, and, with a classical curriculum, the students all spoke…Latin!)

However, we were returning the next day to go to Mass at Saint Sulpice, as there was a short organ concert before Mass, and a longer one afterwards (which was amazing and terrific). Then we went out to walk some more, and interestingly, we stumbled upon several of the sights that the article said not to miss! So we were content.

One of the terrible things about being in Paris, with our “everything is packed in a backpack” lifestyle, is that we really can’t buy anything except food. Jan saw a red spring jacket in a shop window that was just beautiful (red being her favorite color), and not a minute later, a woman walked toward us wearing that very jacket. We each have an all-weather coat that can be folded and fits into our backpacks, but a bulky cloth coat is just not in the cards. Every lifestyle has its pros and cons, and we just live with knowing that we can’t have everything we want! In that way (she also saw shoes she coveted!), being in this Capital of Fashion is hard.

King Midas would just adore Versailles – gold, gold, and gold everywhere. This was our second visit to the Palace of Versailles, as the first time, in 2014, we went on a Saturday in September. Talk about crowds: it was so crammed with people that we left as soon as we could, without seeing all of it. This time, it was pretty busy, with lots of buses parked in the lot. However, by early afternoon the crowd was sparse and calmed down, except when we left, more buses were pulling in!

So, Versailles was built out in the country as a hunting lodge by King Louis XIII before it was added on to, more and more and more, so that today, it has 2,300 rooms in total. The entire modern city of Versailles has sprung up around it, beautifully landscaped and modern in every way. The palace is the main attraction and tourist draw, of course, with 15 million visitors per year. We were surrounded by American tourists as we slogged through the King’s and Queen’s chambers and auxiliary rooms, and chatted with them quite a bit.

The palace has also changed its ticketing. The last time, we purchased a ticket, toured the palace, and quickly made a beeline out to the gardens to be able to breathe. So this time we purchased a ticket, only to be dismayed to find out that it was only for the palace interior and did not include the gardens. We will explore them the next time we are here. During the pandemic, we took a 48-part university course dealing with the history of France and the French Revolution. It was so interesting to visit here, knowing all the history that occurred in the hallways and on the grounds of Versailles. It held kings and queens and the Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. It is now administered by the state, as so many grand historical buildings are, due to the cost of maintaining such a huge property.

Nantes is about 40 miles from the Bay of Biscay (the Atlantic Ocean), and in the 17th century, it gradually became the largest port in France. Today it is primarily known for Les Machines de I’ile, a still-developing array of mechanical animals that are just astonishing to see. The elephant is below! Watching him walk, you don’t see or notice the men driving it, or the wheels, or the main vehicle with the engine that is attached to the rear of the elephant. It trumpets, it walks, and it blows water – mostly, whenever the driver sees some children just waiting to get wet!

The city has a charming downtown, and this May weekend, it was loaded with people walking and out eating. Business is booming! The cathedral has its doors open, welcoming visits. When we went inside, there was a string quartet with a flutist rehearsing some beautiful music. The Botanical Garden is open and free, and contained some of the most whimsical art installations we have seen anywhere. The Chateau of the Ducs de Bretagne (the Dukes of Brittany) sits a short distance from the Old Town, and is magnificent to come upon as you are walking.

The cobblestone alleyways host lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, and ice cream/crepe/waffle shops. It felt very festive and very European. The weather was good, and the people were all friendly. Nantes delivered!

Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Louis VII of France in Bordeaux in 1137. Fifteen years later, Eleanor of Aquitaine married King Henry II of England in Bordeaux. Isn’t history fun? Bordeaux is only about 100 miles north of Spain and 40 miles east of the Bay of Biscay. It has a long and storied past, and was important in French history.

As usual, we walked around and took some photos to give you a sense of the city today. We took a 45-minute tour on Le Petit Train, an electric train with four cars that took us past all the points of interest. You could choose one of eight languages for the audio narration, and the history of each site was most interesting. It even told the story of the Bordeaux mummies, discovered when digging up a graveyard, only to find the bodies preserved as mummies. They went on display in quite a gruesome “showmanship” fashion for many years. Finally, in the 1990s, the mummies were reburied in a local cemetery. On the train, it was a bumpy ride, as being in the last car, we felt the potholes and street bumps more than anyone. Jan got a bit nauseated, so we returned to the hotel after our tour.

The Basilique Saint Michel (St. Michael’s Basilica) was a curiosity to us. As you walk up to it, there is no identifying sign or name whatsoever. It’s “lawn” is surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence, and the weeds had taken over. It looked neglected, deserted, and forgotten, and as we walked around it, we decided it was a “former” church no longer in use, without even a name to identify it. But then we came upon a little plaza on the far side and saw the church doors open. The bell tower, opposite, had construction netting up near the top. We went inside, and it had a plaque with its name and the times of Sunday Mass, along with leaflets about its organ recitals. The plaque with its name noted that its construction was 13th century, but the stained glass windows were 20th century. Were they ever! There are a few examples in the photos below. It was a very puzzling church, looking deserted on the outside and yet very vibrant on the inside.

Food. Restaurants. Opening and closing and reopening times. All a mystery to us. Most restaurants close at 2-2:30 pm and reopen at 6:30 or 7 pm. So last night, we thought we would go to dinner once the restaurants across the street reopened at 7, as indicated on their website and Google Maps (updated last week, they said). Guess what? Not a single restaurant we were interested in was open, and two of them that said they were “open for business” had ladders and construction debris inside! We ended up at the only restaurant open, Vapiano, an Italian pasta/pizza place. So we ask for a table for two, and the hostess gave us each a card that looked like a credit card. We asked what it was for, and in a little English and mostly French, she took us up to the counter where one man was cooking. She put the card on what looked like a stovetop burner, and indicated that we do the same. We finally realized that this is how you order food, not from a human server. So we sat down, figured out what we wanted, and went back to the stovetop with our card. A woman behind the counter came and asked what we wanted. We pointed on the menu to a pasta with chicken and veggies, and she nodded and gave us a restaurant pager that would beep when it was ready. We then asked for a pepperoni pizza, and she shook her head and said no. NO? She motioned for us to walk around the counter to another stovetop, far on the other side, if we wanted to order pizza. Really? So we walked all the way around, with her walking inside, and then she stood near another stovetop and raised her eyebrows, like she didn’t know what we wanted! So we placed our card on the stovetop and asked for a pepperoni pizza, and she said yes. We asked if we needed another pager for the pizza, but she said no, both orders were on the same pager (since we were just about the only two in the place). We waited about 20 minutes for it all to cook. When we finished eating, we had to approach the register, where the same woman who took our order was now the checkout person, and she scanned our order card, which spat out the total for our food. The food was okay, fairly good, but the restaurant has a lower rating compared to others around. We think it might be due to the silliness of how you have to order. It makes everything tense and confusing just before dinner!

We found the city very welcoming otherwise, with lots to see. The weather was warm, and the Old Town had cobblestone streets and old buildings, repurposed as contemporary stores, of course. There were river cruises offered on the Garonne River, all sorts of walking tours, and comprehensive free tour guide booklets explaining all the tourist sites. The city does a great job of promoting itself. Now, if it could only straighten out its restaurants, it would be awesome!

You enter the city of Carcassonne. When you finally catch your first glimpse of the gigantic structure on the hill, it is almost more than you can take in in one view, as it is mammoth, a behemoth bearing down on you. Yes! It is that large, that commanding. We have read that this medieval walled city, high on a hilltop, looks like the perfect setting for knights and dragons. The oldest buildings here date to the 13th century. It is a curious experience visiting Carcassonne, as when you enter what you think is the castle, you are entering a walled city with stores and restaurants…and even a church!

In 2014, we first visited Carcassonne, having read a travel article about the city and citadel. However, we can’t find many of the photos, and we did want to experience this amazing place once again. Like San Marino and Seville, Spain, there are many weapons shops. You can buy swords and daggers and even full suits of armor! The fantasy of being a knight is alive and well here (and Game of Thrones probably doesn’t hurt!).

Eating continues to be a bit of a challenge. After driving several hours and settling into our hotel, we went in search of a bite to eat, since we hadn’t eaten since early morning. But most French restaurants are open for about two hours for lunch, then close and reopen around 7-8 pm. We searched for places that were open all day, what they call “all the way through,” only to show up and have them say, “Yes, we are open all the way through for drinks; the kitchen is closed until 8 pm!” Another place listed its opening time as 5 pm, so we arrived at 5:05, but it was dark inside and locked. The sign with its hours was listed on the door – every night, it opens at 5 pm! We waited until 5:15 (still no sign of anyone inside) and left. We finally found a small sandwich shop that was open, but it wasn’t very good. French cuisine is great, yes! – but not if you are hungry between 2 pm and 7 pm. You. Are. Out. Of. Luck!

So, today (Sunday), we decided we would play ball with them. We had coffee and a croissant for breakfast, then walked through the Old City and took photos, stopping for a three-course lunch around 2:15. By the way, Mike asked a waitress at this restaurant as we were a walking by around noon if the kitchen closed and then reopened in the evening. She said it didn’t close and was open all day. As we were eating lunch, about 2:45, we overheard a couple of British women asking if they could get anything off the lunch menu, only to be told that only the limited menu was available of soup, sandwiches, drinks, and desserts. In other words, the kitchen stays just a little open all day. Europe makes it hard for people who only eat two meals/day – an early breakfast and an early dinner.

There were a lot of people visiting, but we were told that in summer it is almost impossible to move, the crowds are so heavy. In 2014 we visited in September, and now in May, so we have only been here in the shoulder seasons, which suits us fine. We took a drive around the city to see what else is here, but it is unremarkable and fairly bland. The biggest (and only) draw is the Cite, and it truly is magnificent.

Mid-May, Perfect Day! If you look up Le Grau-du-Roi on a map, you will see that it is situated right on the Mediterranean Sea, about 20 miles south of Montpellier. The name roughly translates as The King’s Bayous. The roads just before you arrive are lined with salt marshes and inhabited by hundreds of wild flamingos. But only their legs and beaks are that famous salmon color – the rest of their body is a pale pink. We saw them from the highway, so we couldn’t take any photos of them.

One of the advantages of the way we travel is that if we are tired, we can easily change our plans depending on how we are feeling. We have spent the past two weeks traveling in the mountain towns of Italy, and really haven’t had a break, a day where we just spent an easy day doing nothing. We had planned to head east today and spend time in Arles, where Vincent van Gogh created some of his most famous works, and where he cut off his ear. Arles also has an ancient Roman Colosseum and other Roman ruins. But we needed a break, so we changed our plans. You can’t do this when you are with a tour, for example. When you are with a tour group, you are told to have breakfast by 7 AM because the bus is leaving at 8 AM, and then you will have an opportunity to tour a famous site for one hour before continuing on to the next place. That is way too structured for us!

We just wanted to take a short drive today, so we headed 15 minutes south to Palavas les Flots. The city had lots of sand and beaches, but no area to walk around and have coffee. So we headed farther east, to La Grand-Motte. Ditto – we did not locate a good area for walking. But we didn’t strike out on our third attempt, we struck gold! We found Le Grau-du-Roi, a charming city with an inlet to the Mediterranean, with a huge marina. The town is connected across an inlet by a swing bridge, which rotates horizontally, rather than lifting vertically from the middle. We have seen the same kind of bridge before in the Caribbean.

Boats were taking people fishing and sightseeing, and restaurants offered every kind of seafood imaginable. We must have passed a dozen ice cream places, and in each one, waffles, crepes, churros, and beignets were also offered – with or without ice cream! Walking around this charming place delighted us for a few hours, just long enough to be out and seeing some sights, but by no means a tiring day. We had no agenda, no “famous historical site” to see. We just walked and enjoyed this seaside village. We heard some American English and a little German, but mostly French. It was a great day!

A funny thing happened on the way to relaxing in Montpellier. We spent four hours on a train from Genoa, changing trains in Marseille, and decided we would check in upon arrival (scheduled for 1:03) and have a leisurely lunch, since we had left early and only had coffee. It sounded so simple, way back then – yesterday morning. Our six-minute walk from the train station was, uh, a bit longer, as there is a fence across the street we needed to turn on. Instead, they made us walk UP 25 steps with all of our luggage, only to walk DOWN all those steps on the other side. We arrived at our hotel tired from traveling, eager to dump our stuff, get into the city, and eat something. The hotel had emailed us the day before, asking what time we would arrive at the hotel. How nice! Except that, upon entering and chatting with Simon, the owner, he said we did NOT have a reservation! We showed him our “guaranteed room,” and he said no, it wasn’t in his system. We said that this had happened to us 10 years ago or so, in Krakow. Our reservation went into a subdirectory that they never looked at, and they had no rooms available, so they called the nicest hotel in the city, got us a room for exactly the same price, and called a taxi to take us there! Simon looked at us, startled, and said that every hotel was sold out in this area of the city. He didn’t have much hope for finding us a room, and called several hotels in the area, with no luck.

Finally, he came back to us with a solution. His parents have a guest apartment two blocks from the hotel, and they were fine with us using it…he just needed to call a service to get it cleaned and freshened. If we could wait until 4:00 pm or so? Well, we really didn’t have a choice. He suggested a place where we could have lunch and hang out a while, and we had a fantastic lunch. Our apartment has a full kitchen, dining area, living room, two bedrooms, bathroom, and a washer/dryer. The Wi-Fi is fast! It is super-quiet, as only Simon’s parents live on our floor, next door. We went to the grocery store up the street and had fresh homemade omelets with veggies and salmon for breakfast! It was quite wonderful. So, a good moral to our story to remember – things work out for the better. We didn’t get what we wanted and planned while we were on the train, but we have some added advantages now, and actually got something better.

On to this beautiful city! It was fairly busy. Looking for a room for us, Simon remarked that it was especially busy for early May. People were out enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Our suspicion is that most places will be very busy this summer, as everyone is so happy that everything is open again after more than two years of staying home and being ultra-cautious. The city has many labyrinthian streets teeming with shops and cafes. The Botanical Gardens were quite busy, as well. It is free admission, but the glorious thing was, no car or tram sounds could be heard, even though it is located on a busy boulevard. It was pure bliss.

Montpellier has its own, older, Arc de Triomphe, along with beautiful public parks and plazas. We are still weaning ourselves from Italian phrases and trying to remember “please,” “hello,” and “thank you” in French, instead. Everyone has been very nice, trying to speak to us in English. We should be in Germany about the time we are used to using our meager French. After that we will be in Britain and we will probably be stuttering through several languages for a while before we get any English out. But we all understand each other, eventually.

Tomorrow, we pick up a car for a while, so we no longer will have to conform to train and bus schedules, early in the morning, wearing masks for hours. It will be very freeing!

Three countries hosted us on our way to Cannes: via bus, we started out in Italy, passed through Monaco, and wound up in France. From Monaco on, we remembered driving this twisting, tunnel-dotted mountainous road 19 years ago, on our honeymoon. We were denied entrance to the very posh Monte Carlo Casino because we were wearing t-shirts and shorts, very unaware of its history and prominence. Sure, James Bond wore a tuxedo there, but that was from another time, another age.

In six days, the Cannes Film Festival begins, and the town will become a mini-Hollywood. But during our one day and night here (just passing through), it was “ordinary time,” and hotel rates were low. We were in a nice hotel, rated well, for 127 euros per night. We looked ahead to next week, during the film festival, and the same room is 400 euros per night! Hotels will always charge whatever they reasonably think they can get!

So, we took the bus here from Genoa, as it was direct, but Cannes wasn’t the final destination. We stopped several times to let people off and take on new passengers in shopping malls and other places, but we had expected to be let out at a bus station in Cannes. At one point the bus stopped on a street with no name or signage, oand with no announcement from the driver, and new people had started to board. We just happened to look at the time and noted that it was right about when we should arrive in Cannes. So we asked the woman next to us (who had just boarded), “What city is this?” She answered, “Cannes.” We then asked, “Is this the only stop in Cannes?” “Yes,” she replied. We looked at each other, shocked, and hurriedly packed our iPads and other items we were using, hoping the bus wouldn’t pull away before we could disembark. We encountered people trying to board, annoyed that they had to back out to let us pass. And here’s the kicker to the story: we were standing on the street for all of 30 seconds, trying to get our bearings with the help of Google Maps, when a man asked us for directions, in French, no less. We have been studying French for six months, but we are nowhere near understanding rapid French, even if we knew where we were going – which we didn’t!

This was our first time staying on the Riviera again in 19 years. The city is very much alive, busy, and so darn pretty! It was a sunny, warm day, which made it all that more enjoyable. The Mediterranean Sea was a dense blue color and looked very inviting. Life here is very leisurely and measured. Nobody was hurrying anywhere, as you see in places like New York City. We will return to the Riviera later in the summer, before we leave for London. The photos will give you a glimpse into why the Riviera is so well-known and beloved.

All we knew about Genoa (or, in Italian, Genova) before we arrived was that it was the hometown of Christopher Columbus and that it was a port on the Ligurian Sea, a branch of the Mediterranean north of Corsica and Sardinia. But we have discovered its charms. We are staying in the city’s Old Town, directly across from the Old Port. We arrived by train from Bologna on Sunday morning, and as we walked the 15 minutes to our hotel, we were unimpressed by what we saw. Genoa looked rough, and grim. But when we got to the street our hotel was on, there were more people, cafes, and traffic. The city was coming to life. And when we wandered through the old town and into the newer area, it was like we had crossed from several centuries earlier into more modern times. Once outside the old town, prices rose! Everything was more upscale, with the prices rising accordingly.

We did try to tour the Christopher Columbus house today (Monday), but it was closed. We found that half of all businesses were closed on Sunday, and the other half are closed on Monday! His childhood home is just at the dividing line between the old and new cities. It is just a little downhill from the famous Porta Soprana, the highest (“soprano” – get it?) gate/fortification in the city.

We walked the Via Garibaldi, a noted street in the Old Town, which has more than 100 palaces. A few are now art museums, but the exteriors are magnificent. Visiting the Genoa Cathedral, we found it to be absolutely glorious inside. We walked along the harbor for a while, where a lot of people were going to the largest aquarium in Europe, or just having some cappuccino. Local dishes were on our agenda while here, as we leave for France tomorrow – lasagna with pesto (a Genoese specialty) and pansoti (a Genoese triangular-shaped ravioli stuffed with herbs and cheese) with its traditional hazelnut sauce – very rich and unusual. We enjoyed them greatly.

On the Via XX Settembre, a wide shopping and dining street, there is a beautiful inlaid sidewalk (photo below), and for several blocks, there is a fun and gorgeous portico that runs along both sides of the street. Innocently and unknowingly, we walked up one street called the Magdalen (Maddalena) – can you guess what we saw there? See below! All in all, Genoa was a fun city in which to end our time in Italy. We would happily return to this country anytime at all. You know the old wisdom…you will never have a bad meal in Italy! It’s the truth. But you will also, always, see beautiful old buildings and churches and meet the nicest people ever. Grazie, Italia!

If you were dropped into the Plaza Maggiore in Bologna, blindfolded, and had to guess where you were…you might guess Rome, Florence, or Milan, or another more popular Italian city. There are crowds (in many alleyways filled with bars and restaurants, there was not a table to be had). There is every conceivable high-end retail store you can think of. There is world-class food, especially tortellini, a city specialty. And there are the porticoes, the covered walkways (that we unknowingly called arcades, at first) that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site – if you can believe it, 25 miles of porticoes run through the city. Since we had rain off and on throughout the days we have been here, the porticoes were a godsend, keeping us dry. And walking through them for hours is one of the best things to do in Bologna. Seeing how they change in construction as the city grew is quite interesting.

Our entire lives, all that we knew of Bologna is that it was a “university town,” so we looked forward to arriving, as we suspected we would find more diverse food choices and more choices in stores. In fact, the University of Bologna was founded in 1088, and is the oldest university in the world. There were lots and lots of people here, and many groups of teens sightseeing and going to the front of the line because they had a group reservation. At one point we decided to skip the ticketed portion of the Archiginnasio (the oldest university building) because of so many tours going in ahead of us. We didn’t know what the Anatomical Theater was, but we skipped it, only to find out that it was where cadaver dissections took place for medical students. At any rate, as you will see in the photos, what we could see for free was impressive enough and much less crowded. Maybe we’ll see the rest on our next trip to the city. We never feel we have to “do it all” in one trip, as we always assume that, like MacArthur, we will return!

It is easy to envision staying here for a longer time in the future, as the city has so much to offer. Our first night here, we enjoyed Pakistani food, as during our last two stays in more secluded mountain towns, all we could find was pasta and pizza. So the diversity here was most welcome. But now that we have had some variety, there will probably be quite a bit of traditional Italian food in our near future. We are only going to be in the country for a few more days, and there is nothing like real Italian food.

Oh my, oh my! San Marino is our 105th country to visit, and it truly is a fortress town and a hilly town. The views are beyond compare. It reminds us of watching a video on Yosemite a few weeks before we first visited there, and then arriving and looking up. It was such a feeling of reverence and awe, very different than seeing a film or photos. The same applies here. Pictures can give you part of the story, but being here is a whole different level of being.

We arrived by bus from Rimini, Italy (as there are no trains that travel here), only to find no taxis at the station. The man there said, “You can walk! Only 10 minutes!” In front of us was the steepest mountain we had ever seen, and it was like looking up at the Empire State Building and having someone say – “It’s easy! Just start walking up the face of the building!” It was a sheer vertical climb UP. We declined, and he helped us call a taxi, a complicated venture. The 5-minute ride cost us 20 euros, and while shocking, it was money well spent!

San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy. DON’T refer to the citizens as Italians, though – they are Sammarinese, proud of their independence from Italy. The country is the third smallest in Europe, with only Vatican City and Monaco being smaller. It is the world’s oldest republic, having been founded by a stonemason, Marinus, in 301 AD. The city’s most notable features, and the most popular, are the three towers, which are on the crest of the city. The largest, and most accessible, is the Guaita Tower, built in the 11th century. We visited there and climbed more stairs in an hour than we had in the last year! The city is built for defense, with guard towers overlooking the city. This is reflected in the shops on the medieval streets (which twist and wind – up, up, up only, it seems), as there are quite a number that sell weapons. See the photos below – in the shop windows were crossbows, knives, daggers, swords, bows & arrows, handguns, and rifles. The other popular, and ubiquitous, stores are perfume and sunglasses…outnumbering even clothing stores, we think. The only cuisine is Italian, and our only dining choices are pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. No, we don’t mind that much, as it is all delicious.

The views! The stunning layout of mountains and fields is inescapable. We are at 2,457 feet, and each glance out is gasp-worthy, even after seeing it a hundred times. We spent three days here, although travel sites mention that a few hours are sufficient to see the entire city. What you miss that way, is having the streets to yourself after the day tourists leave, and being able to watch afternoon turn to dusk turn to night, watching the valley below and how it changes as the light fades. And the opposite is true in the morning, as it all “fully wakes up” before your eyes! Writing this blog, sitting on the bed with the panorama before us, is beautiful and priceless.

Of course, restaurants and hotels take full advantage of the view. The window tables fill up first, and hotel rooms with “a view” are more expensive. We don’t know how we lucked out, but we are on the top floor of our hotel, in a corner room, with four panoramic windows looking out (see the photo). We keep the drapes open all night, looking at the view before/as we drift off to sleep. Mike said, “Other people look at their Hummel collections; check out what WE look at!!” It makes us feel very fortunate to see the world as we do.

It is simply amazing – wonderful – spectacular – molto bene – to be traveling internationally again, and currently, back in Europe! We have spent two full days here, and as we walked up and down hilly streets in this mountainous ancient city of Perugia, we kept talking about how we loved exploring new places and loved to be out in the world again. During our spring and summer in Europe, we are mostly visiting places that will be new to us, while including some of our favorites. We love big cities, so we couldn’t miss Paris, Brussels, or London, even though we have visited them before.

So….new to us is Perugia, in Umbria. It is less than 20 miles from Assisi, which we loved, but wanted to stretch and explore a new place. In the 16th century, Perugia was described as one of the loveliest cities in Europe. It was graced with 70 imposing family towers, a massive circuit of Etruscan walls, and had many noble places and elegant churches. For 120 years, the city was home to the papacy, with four different popes presiding from Perugia. There is a rich history here, as there is an ancient Roman aqueduct that is now a pedestrian walkway, an Etruscan well (still functional!) dating to the 3rd century BC, ancient Etruscan towers/arches/walls that are still standing, and lively restaurants, bars, street musicians, and chocolate-chocolate shops every few feet. It is really fun, really Italian (want something other than Italian cuisine? The best of luck!), really beautiful.

We had a heck of a time finding a restaurant, any restaurant, for dinner our first night. Even though dining places are all over the place, we like to eat between 5-6 pm. Starting at 5:00 pm, the first four restaurants we tried opened at 7:30. The next several were only serving cocktails, as their kitchens had closed. Some that were open had cold slices of pizza. Some that we looked up on Google Maps, and verified that they were open – were closed, with no explanation. It seems that 3 pm to 7 pm is for cocktails or drinks only, with the kitchen staff taking a break, and then reopening for dinner later. But nobody says that, they just advertise “Open all day.” Then when you sit and get cozy and find exactly what you want, they tell you they are not serving food! Exasperating! We have been through this before of course, but it has been a while since we have been to Europe, so we forgot. A funny ending, though – we walked around from 5-7 looking for food, and at the end, it was 7 pm and all the places were opening for dinner! We eventually ended up eating at the place we had originally planned. So we got what we wanted, just not at the time we wanted it!

As we walked through the area near our hotel, we came upon the ancient Etruscan Well, dating to the 3rd century BC. Our first view of the top of the well was of a new friend, Eduardo, stretched out and peering into the well…see the photo! Eduardo is a very nice guy, and as we talked, discovered that he studies theology in Rome as a seminarian. We also discovered that he lived in Pasadena, just 40 miles from our old home. He is 27, and has been in the seminary since age 12! He has studied in Northern California, Mexico City, and Rome. You can see the genuineness in his face and demeanor. Even though his friends were leaving, he was happy to chat with us for a few extra minutes. He was an extraordinary person to meet, and we are so happy we laughed at his antics, he laughed back, and it gave us the opening to talk with him for a while.

Outside of walking around the city and just enjoying people-watching and finding photos for this post, we visited the ancient Etruscan Well museum, walked the Via Appia (the old Roman aqueduct), and visited a church with which we are smitten, St. Michael the Archangel. It was all new, very interesting, and truly a few steps back in time. The people were friendly and quick to smile. We are fully embracing Italy. There is nothing that we don’t love here.

Mahahual is a little diving and fishing village a few miles away from the port we blogged yesterday, Costa Maya. It is amazing what a little distance does, in terms of being more authentic sans the glitz! It is a gorgeous day. This area, known as the Mayan Riviera, is very warm, very windy, and always filled with beautiful, dramatic clouds due to its windiness. Mike went diving today in Mahahual, and early in the morning walked the two and a half miles to the dive shop. Along the way, he did a photo journal of his walk. Here it is! This is more what the coastal, non-touristy area of the Yucatán Peninsula looks like.

Mahahual is close to the Belize border, which is just across the Bay of Chetumal. And it is just 450 miles from Havana, Cuba. Even though is is just about 200 miles south of one of Mexico’s most famous resort cities, Cancun, it has none of the hotels, resorts, and bars that Cancun is famous for. This is the quiet life. The water is pale blue and crystal clear, which was great for a diving trip. As it ended up, Mike saw a few manta rays, a barracuda, and the largest turtle he had ever seen diving, which was towing two remora. The dive master speared two lion fish, which is an invasive species throughout the Caribbean. They were too small to be made into ceviche, so he left them for the lobster.

Mike met several workers at the dive shop. One woman was from Norway, another from Italy. One of the dive guides was from Melbourne, Australia, and another was from France. The owner, Alex, grew up in Texas. The waters of Mexico draw people from everywhere.

Like other “manufactured” tourist ports in Mexico, we didn’t really visit Costa Maya at this cruise stop. We visited a shopping mall, made to look like a Mayan village, but with a swimming pool, retail shops, bars, and fake sculptures and statues. It was fun to walk around and get some shots, but it isn’t as though there was anything historical or cultural about it. So, all we can say is…enjoy the photos and a little trip around an area of Mexico consisting of some fun ideas!

Roatan, Honduras is a small island in the Caribbean, about 35 miles off the mainland. It is known for its beaches, diving, and snorkeling. We were here four years ago, and we ended up renting a car and driving the one road to its end point. Roatan is only 28 miles long and 3 miles wide, so it normally would not have taken very long. HOWEVER, the road had the most potholes we have ever encountered in our lifetimes. Our ride was a wild zigzag all over the road to try to avoid damaging the car. In colder cities, potholes usually develop over the winter as cars maneuver through snow and ice. But this is a tropical island, warm every day of the year. And, as we have already said – the entire island has only one road! Fixing it for the tourist trade would be logical. But logic doesn’t exist in the Caribbean.

Just as yesterday in Cozumel, the area immediately off the ship was a manufactured tourist shopping village. There were bars and lots of retail shops. We walked along a pretty path to leave the port, where everyone wanted to sell us a tour, an excursion, a taxi ride, an adventure. We just walked along the road for 30 minutes or so and then turned back. There are photos of some of the homes and businesses we saw along the main road. Apparently, Roatan’s sloths and monkeys are a big draw here. We declined a tour to see them, as the monkeys are given sunflower seeds by their trainers to sit on your shoulder, jump on your head, and steal any loose items you are carrying. You must surrender your suntan lotion before entering the park, as one monkey mama took it, sprayed it all over her newborn, and killed it. They love Velcro, and if your hat has a strip on the back for sizing, they will open and close it a hundred times, just to hear the sound it makes.

All in all, Roatan didn’t do much for us as a destination. We left the ship, we took photos, and we returned within an hour to write this blog for your enjoyment. It was very humid and hot, and we were glad to return to air conditioning, cold drinks, and lunch!

Wellll….okay, this port, technically, IS Cozumel, but it is not really the city. It a little village manufactured for cruise ships – bars, restaurants, and retail (overwhelmingly jewelry). Jan couldn’t find a way to get out onto the street to see the “real” place, as every exit from the port to the outside world said “Taxis only” or “Excursions only.” Mike went on a diving trip, and had to argue with (and then ignore) a security guard to exit the port area through a “taxi exit.” It was very “Twilight Zone.”

Interestingly, we normally go through security when we are boarding the ship again so that they can ensure nothing illegal is being brought on board. But as we entered the port area of Cozumel, for the first time ever, there was a dog checking out every single passenger headed into the country, most likely for fruits, vegetables, and plants, as insects on them can decimate a country’s crops. We had to wait in line so that everyone entered in single file. It was a unique experience. Anyway, these photos show our time in Cozumel. The first photo shows the three – yes, three – monster ships in port on the same day, two Royal Caribbean and one Carnival. This means that somewhere around 10,000 people were entering Cozumel just from cruise ships!

All sorts of things were for sale, as you will see. We loved the varying prices on Mexican blankets. Forty years ago, when Jan first moved to California, she and a group of friends took a trip to Tijuana. They walked over the land bridge, and at the first booth, Jan looked through the Mexican blankets to see the various colors. The shopkeeper approached and told her they were $10. It sounded reasonable, but Jan told him she had just arrived and wanted to see what other places had. She turned to walk away, and he said, “Okay, $8.” Jan was embarrassed that he thought she was bargaining with him, and she apologized and said, “Oh, no, no, I wasn’t looking to get it cheaper; I just want to look around.” As she turned again, he said, “$6.” Once again, she tried to explain that she wanted to look around, horrified that he thought she was being cheap. As she left, he yelled after her, “$3!” She turned around, sighed, and said, “Okay, I’ll take the red one.” As you will see in the photos, the price for the Mexican blanket hasn’t changed much in 40 years!

We did a few posts on San Diego a few years ago – and here is one more! It is a fun town, fresh, vibrant, warm, and sunny! What’s not to like? We realized that we had never really explored the famous, historic Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, but had just driven by it and through it. So we set off for a walk from the cruise ship to visit this area, and liked it an awful lot.

We know NOTHING about major spectator sports, and we started talking with each other about how the San Diego Padres had moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, and how frustrating that must have been for the local fans. We kept seeing “San Diego Padres” signs all around the Gaslamp area, though! We thought, wow, they really miss their baseball team! So we stopped a 30-something guy, asked if he was a local, and said, “So, the Padres moved to LA, right?” NO, he answered – “It was the San Diego Chargers, and it still hurts my heart after five years!! TODAY is the Padres’ Opening Day; the baseball diamond is just down the street.” So much information in these two sentences, as we literally had no idea about any of it.

There were Padres t-shirts and signs all over the streets as we wandered along, with people heading in the direction of Opening Day at the baseball field. There was even a live radio broadcast on Fifth Avenue about the game.

Since the Gaslamp Quarter is the historic center of San Diego, there is also some fantastic architecture, with buildings dating from the late 1800s, and you can see the dates on some of the terrific buildings we photographed. Mostly, though, you will see a lot of whimsy and fun. We were in a cute candy store, passed lots of bars and restaurants, saw some fun retail stores, and walked by many outdoor dining stalls, just like other big cities across the US have. They certainly have changed the look of main streets in our cities.

Santa Barbara proclaims itself the “American Riviera,” with one section of the city actually referred to as the Riviera area. It is known for its mild and pleasant Mediterranean climate year-round.

We decided to take a ship excursion, since we had free money from the cruise line on our account. A 90-minute trolley ride took us through the main street of next-door Montecito first, where we heard more celebrity names than ever before, all people who currently live, or formerly lived, in the city. We saw lots of Spanish architecture in Santa Barbara and toured several neighborhoods, first of the bungalows that cost $1 million, and then the neighborhood that started with $5 million houses. They all looked pretty modest and normal to us. We had heard years ago that many people who worked in Santa Barbara couldn’t afford to live there, and thus had long commutes to work.

We had a stop at the Mission, which was built on a hill up from the beach because there were water sources there. It was founded by the Spanish in 1786, and the current building dates to 1820, as the original was destroyed in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in 1812. The Spanish also constructed a Presidio in 1782 (defense first, church second). It is one of four California Presidios built to defend cities on the California coast (also in San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego).

All in all, the weather was beautiful, with a little breeze, full sunshine, about 70 degrees – a picture-perfect day. Our trolley tour was very informative and light-hearted. We met two new friends, Julie and Steve, and talked with them late into the evening. There was lots of laughter, lots of stories shared. The ship, the Majestic Princess, has been a great home for almost two weeks.

Located just across the Gulf of California from Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan was a surprise for a coastal Mexican town. It was likely the cleanest city we have ever seen. We couldn’t see any trash anywhere, and we saw at least three people with a bucket of water and broom cleaning their sidewalks. Most of the houses and shops were modest, but freshly painted and well kept up. It was quite amazing, as we walked a few miles through the city, to notice over and over again that nothing was degraded – and there was no trash to be seen.

One thing we like about the city is that Uber is cheap and legal. It can’t take you to and from the airport (neither can a regular taxi), but it should be fine everywhere else. Mike wishes Uber was available the last time he visited Mazatlan (44 years ago). At least some things in the world are getting better.

After walking through residential neighborhoods for quite some time, we came to several parks, a retail area, and the Mazatlan Cathedral, located on the Plaza de la Republica. It is beautiful inside, with tiling on the ceiling vaults and new paint. It was apparent that the church was old (it opened its doors in 1899), but it felt fresh and sort of modern.

The first photo is of an interesting sculpture we saw in the first park we came to. All over the world, regardless of wealth or prominence, cities invest in artwork to elevate your mind and encourage you to think differently, in new ways. We enjoyed Mazatlan!

Traveling again! Hooray! Cabo San Lucas is a typical port town, with the area around the cruise ship terminal as busy as can be. After about two years with no passengers, everyone was trying to make a buck (or a peso). Cabo sits on the southerly tip of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, and it was warm and sunny. Mike went on a diving trip and Jan wandered around the busy streets, having involved conversations with a Moroccan woman and an Israeli woman, both working the crowd.

It is lovely to be traveling internationally again, outside of the US for the first time in two years. We used some of the Spanish phrases that we have been studying our entire lives, but more intensively on our Duolingo app during the pandemic, keeping our minds engaged and all. We are having a great time, just relaxing and being somewhere other than a hotel room! Everyone working on the cruise ship is happy to be working and sailing again. We have about 3,300 passengers on board the Majestic Princess, which began service in 2017. It is like new, since it hasn’t been used for the past two years. Cabin doors are opened with a plastic imbedded “medallion” worn around your neck – as you approach your door, it detects the medallion, knows it is you, and unlocks the door. It is also how you pay for anything on board, and how you exit and reenter the ship. A quick tap on a sensor is all you need.

One thing new for us is partaking of Specialty Dining, as we were given three free vouchers on this cruise. We normally eat whatever is available in the dining room or buffet, but the upscale menus are not hard to get accustomed to! Filet mignon, lobster, porterhouse steak…what’s not to like??? It all is just so nice to be – somewhere else!

Lights! Cameras! Action! Yes, today it is the world of movies…or, more accurately, the world of motion pictures, visiting Hollywood’s first museum celebrating film history, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. It almost sounds anachronistic, doesn’t it? We never say we are going to see a motion picture, just a movie or a film.

The museum opened in September after being in the planning and construction phases for many years. Our primary reaction after visiting all the floors and wandering through each and every exhibit is – the museum is much, much too small and too limited for such a vast subject. The history of the awards, and films in general, needs several large warehouses to do it justice. (Debbie Reynolds, who had one of the largest collections of movie memorabilia and costumes, stored it all in several huge warehouses. She had even offered the collection to the Academy of Motion Pictures, but they declined. So off to auction the items went, dispersing around the world.) This museum, then, is the merest of peeks. It does take on film’s early history, with some footage from the Lumiere brothers films of 1895 (in fabulous condition and clear as a bell!), and even showed early zoetropes, which were the beginning of animation. Where props, costumes, and innovative idea boards were displayed, they tended to be from the same nine or ten movies featured, a far cry from displaying more than 125 years of history. The museum does do a great job of providing film clips throughout, with numerous places to sit and watch. One of the most interesting was a 26-minute film put that was a compilation of sci-fi films, shown on a curved 180-degree screen.

We are horror and sci-fi fans, so we found that exhibit especially good. The clips were organized to show how different movies handled the same subject matter, such as space travel and the first communication between aliens and humans. In general, they became more sophisticated over time, but some earlier films, such as Metropolis, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The War of the Worlds, were way ahead of their time. Metropolis, by the way, influenced many other films, such as Star Wars and one of our favorites, Blade Runner. That display reminded us of our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where they focused on who influenced who in musical genres. We felt the Academy Museum didn’t show enough of those lines of development.

There are fabulous costumes on display, with some shown below, and an entire room was devoted to the films of Pedro Almodovar, with multiple screens showing his films. So many big stars, past and present, were never mentioned! One room was showing the best of Academy Awards speeches, and while a few were really noteworthy, others were just okay. You have to stand to watch these acceptance speeches (or non-acceptance, as in the case of Sacheen Littlefeather, rejecting the award for Marlon Brando), but oddly, in the next room there are numerous sofas to sit on to look at static, small wall niches containing some older Oscars.

The admission price is $26 for adults, $19 for seniors. Adjacent parking was $18 for the day. Was it worth it? – is a question always asked. We would say yes, but only because we have seen, by our conservative estimate, about 20,000 movies over the past 20 years. This museum visit felt like a quick dip of our toes in the ocean. What was there was good, but not nearly enough. The other factor was the enormous amount of time to drive there, the only option in a mostly public transportation-free region of the world. The museum is located 38 miles from our hotel in Orange County, but took us more than 90 minutes. Where are all the millions of folks working from home??? NOT in California!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens…Brown paper packages tied up with string…These are a few of my favorite things!

FOUR YEARS! Four! – of traveling the world! 1,461 days! Uh – that is, minus two years for a global pandemic that has prevented us, and most people, from traveling outside their home countries. So, let’s say – four years of being homeless and possessionless (outside of necessities). February 1, 2018, is the date we started our mad experiment, our dream of being less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population, to give up our home and all possessions outside of what will fit in a backpack – and go for it! We had a great and packed first two years, and completely circumnavigated the globe. BUT – when we walked out of our hotel in Barcelona on March 14, 2020, and all the stores were closed, and the streets devoid of cars and people, we sadly realized we likely should return to the US, as the Covid pandemic had parked itself on our doorstep.

If we can travel again soon – and it seems likely – we have set plans for 2022 and 2023. We know what we would like to do in 2024, but are just waiting to see what the world is like. Like most of our traveling friends around the world, we are just waiting for the green light to move ahead.

So, being in California for a tiny bit longer, we have no new place to post. But we wanted to commemorate our four-year anniversary today, so we are posting some photos of our favorite places. We have many more than these, of course, and we can even make the case that everywhere we have been have had places, and memories, that would put them at the top. Almost anywhere in Europe would make The List, as well as almost every island we have explored. But we have now given two presentations on our weird and wonderful lifestyle, and one of the first questions is always, “What is your favorite place in the world?” The places below almost always come up, and we find it interesting that in looking through them, most involve oceans, rivers, lakes, and fountains! While we have many, many favorite places in the US, we are only listing international destinations so that this post isn’t too cumbersome.

And so, in no particular order, our favorite international places are:

• The South Pacific (Oceania), represented here in a photo of Moorea
• Anywhere in New Zealand
• Anywhere in Australia
• Singapore
• Bali, Indonesia
• Prague, Czechia
• Riga, Latvia
• Rome, Italy
• Pompeii, Italy
• Anywhere in Spain
• Plitvice National Park, Croatia
• Quebec City, Quebec

A gorgeous, sunny December Day. Downtown Los Angeles. Our friends Chantik and Sol. And…a Food Tour! What riches we were offered yesterday. We took the Sidewalk Food Tour with our very good guide, Scarlet. We learned a lot about the history of downtown, stopped to gawk at some amazing buildings, and had six “tastings” of some of the best food offered there.

We started at Pitchoun!, which is a classic French boulangerie owned by a couple from France. The name is from the Marseilles dialect of French for “kiddo.” It was crowded even early in the morning. Their almond croissant stuffed with frangipane was amazing, as was their strong cappuccino. We arrived early for the tour, sat down, and each ordered a large coffee. They were so big that they were served in bowls!

We then walked by the Biltmore Hotel, now the Millennium Biltmore, which opened in 1923 as the largest hotel west of Chicago. It hosted the first Academy Awards show, and in 1964 the Beatles stayed in the Presidential Suite during their first US tour. Fans crowded the the streets so densely that they had to get to their room via a helicopter landing on the roof.

After walking through Pershing Square, we headed to the Grand Central Market, across from the Angels Flight funicular that takes passengers up to Bunker Hill. There, we tasted Horse Thief BBQ and DTLA Cheese’s grilled cheese sandwich. The BBQ was very tender brisket with a spicy/sweet sauce and pickles, while the grilled cheese was made on brioche with two cheddar cheeses and some mozzarella. Because the brioche is a sweet bread, they crisp it with the oven broiler rather than in a frying pan. It was heavenly – very light, flaky, and tasty. The Grand Central Market is jammed with food, whimsy, color, AND people, as you can see from the photos. It was a lot of fun to see people out again, enjoying life.

In the Broadway Arcade Building we had a good margarita pizza at Pizza Napolita and great tacos at Guisados. The corn tortillas are handmade there, and the three varieties of tacos were all delicious. Our final stop was at Donut Friend, which makes vegan donuts. It is quite remarkable, because all of the donuts taste like “normal” donuts…you couldn’t tell that they didn’t have eggs or dairy in them. The last three photos are of some of the vast array of unusual donuts. It was an amazing place!

All of the tastes we had were in places that you likely wouldn’t discover on your own, which is what makes a really good tour. We normally wouldn’t order a cheese sandwich, for example, but the one we had was surprising and delicious. And a good guide always delights. Scarlet was very knowledgeable and interesting. Not a woman to be daunted, she bravely talked over all the street and truck noises and amid all the pedestrians bobbing through and around our sidewalk tour of 16 people. It really was a remarkable day!

Oh, Boy! OH, GIRL! What a perfect day for driving along, and walking around, the beach! We lived in a house in Huntington Beach for many years before we sold it to travel the world four years ago. It is one of the best areas in the world to live, but we were very happy to be free from owning a house anywhere. Like we did today, we can always go back and enjoy it for a while before we move on to some other spectacular place.

Today felt like the middle of summer, 80 degrees, sunny, and so clear that we could see Catalina Island perfectly. We also saw lots of cargo ships waiting offshore, as reported on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago. The surfers were out, and Main Street was closed for a block. We thought it was for the weekend Farmer’s Market, but it was just for all the extended outdoor patio seating. That is one thing that has changed since we were last here.

We know that most of California is not coastal, as the Central Valley produces much of the fruit and vegetables to feed the US during the winter. But being in California and not being close to the beach and ocean just seems crazy to us. Driving on Pacific Coast Highway is one of the great joys of our traveling life whenever we are back in Southern California. In just a few days we have driven along the ocean several times, and we fall in love with the view – the gloriousness – each and every time.

Funny. Did you know that Albuquerque was famous for things other than being the filming location of Breaking Bad?? It is! It has a long and storied history. It has part of Route 66, the “Mother Road.” It is home to the world’s largest hot-air balloon festival every October, the International Balloon Fiesta. And, it hosts North America’s largest pow wow, the Gathering of Nations.

Six or seven years ago, we took the self-driving tour of most of the real-life filming locations from Breaking Bad. The people who bought Walter White’s home have multiple No Trespassing signs, and they sat in lawn chairs inside the open garage, watching that nobody trespassed! It looked exhausting. We looked, and took photos, from across the street. So, this trip, we did not repeat that tour.

Instead, we visited Old Town and took a walking tour. If we didn’t know we were in Albuquerque, we would have thought we were in Santa Fe. There are many very old buildings with second-story balconies and lots of covered sidewalks. There are bunches of dried red chili peppers everywhere, and we mean everywhere! As we walked around, we kept commenting to each other how hard the merchants worked to keep the area clean and interesting. There is a lot of attention to detail.

There is a pretty park in the center of Old Town with leaves the color of sunshine. One of the most notable landmarks is San Felipe de Neri Church (St. Philip Neri), dating to 1793, which replaced the previous structure from 1706 that collapsed. And Old Town has a Breaking Bad store – if we had a home in which to put our favorite things, we would have bought quite a few favorite things! But photos will have to suffice.

Inevitably, there were lots of sugar skull-inspired pieces of art for sale, including full-size statues. These are here year-round, and one was an entire store devoted to all things sugar skulls, rather than a “pop-up”store for Halloween or Dia de Los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead). And there is marvelous New Mexico cuisine here, centering around the hatch chile – it has a unique flavor and spiciness, which could be said of the entire city. It was great walking around and getting more of a sense of the city’s history. (And, if you don’t know what Breaking Bad is, the last three photos from the store won’t mean a thing to you – if there is anyone alive who isn’t familiar with the best television series ever created.)

🎶 Ohhhhh – O!KLAHOMA!….where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain…. You know the song. And now, we know a small part of the capital city, commonly called OKC. Mike’s mom, and her family, were from a small town near here, Anadarko. But we had never spent any time in OKC.

Our hotel was located in the reconverted, trendy area of town called “Bricktown,” which was the old warehouse district, but we didn’t know that when we booked it. There are lots of bars, restaurants, hotels, breweries, and even the National Banjo Museum! Who knew??

We visited the 1995 Oklahoma Bombing Memorial site, and it is quite lovely and peaceful, as you can see. It was constructed on the site of the bombed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was demolished several weeks after the incident. A new federal building was constructed in the next block in 2003 to replace this facility. The set of inscribed empty chairs alongside the reflecting pool, one for each of the 168 people killed, is quite moving and haunting.

Mike’s grandmother and uncle were in downtown Oklahoma City on the day of the bombing, at her doctor’s office. They were not close to the blast site and were unhurt. But it reminds us of what a small world it is and how these incidents can affect any of us, no matter how far removed from us they seem.

The Myriad Botanical Gardens were also very quiet and peaceful as we walked along. The biggest attraction there, the Crystal Bridge Conservatory, is closed for renovations, so we walked around and enjoyed the quiet in the midst of traffic and business. There were murals, sculptures, and statues around the city, as usual. We are displaying a few of them. We were surprised, as we walked through the city, to have several strangers greet us and ask how we were doing. This happens in very small towns, but not usually in larger cities. It was nice. We liked it, we liked it! 🆗

Back in New York, we have had a great time for the past two weeks! But the cold has set in, as we thought it might – November in New York is supposed to be cold, right? But it has gotten into the 40s and 50s over the past several days. Prior to that, it was short sleeves and shorts!

We visited some off-the-beaten-path places as well as the most famous. We attended a total of four Broadway plays and one off-Broadway show. They were all very different and wonderful in their own way. The off-Broadway show was “Tammany Hall,” held in an actual social club used by members of Tammany Hall. The setting was election night, 1929. It was interactive, so we talked with all of the actors throughout and followed them up and down stairs into different settings and rooms. In two of the rooms, you could even buy a drink to sit and chat with them. Mike (the Mike of 1929, that is) expressed his learned opinions on the stock market, that the crash of 1929 was short-term and that happy days would soon be here again; and, also in politics, that New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential ambitions were misplaced and he would never achieve anything further in politics. Only history will determine the quality of Mike’s prognostications. It was lots of fun. We would do it again, now that we are more familiar with interactive theater.

Speaking of little-known places, the first few photos are of the Morgan Library and Museum, one of the most stunning places we have seen, as you can see for yourself. Speaking of well-known places, these are followed by photos of the World Trade Center memorial. We have been to the memorial twice before. Both times it was still under construction, and we had to get tickets beforehand and undergo three security checks. Today, it is all in a park setting, and you just walk through on your own, as in any park.

We went on a glorious food tour with Nice Guy Tours. The food was great, and Dante truly was…a nice guy. The Museum of the American Indian is housed in a beautiful old building with a great rotunda…see for yourself! We ate in a historic tavern, walked our feet off just wandering and admiring the architecture, and we greatly enjoyed Times Square on Halloween night. It was very, very crowded, though, much more than we like, in these still-pandemic times. Overall, another great visit to New York, a gift that keeps on giving – we find new things and places every time we come here.

A TV journalist turns toward the camera and says, “Now, from Washington this morning….” and you think very seriously: government, lawmakers, lobbyists, infighting. But we discovered a very friendly, whimsical, and sometimes playful side to this amazing city. Every museum guard/greeter, server in a restaurant, and hotel worker enthusiastically greeted us with a smile, spoke to us at length, and thanked us profusely as we left. We found whimsy in restaurant menus (fried chicken with a glazed donut? – who does that?) and swings where there normally would be plain old boring benches! It has been a marvelous week in the country’s capital.

Our first photos are of the National Building Museum, which neither of us had ever heard of. We saw it on Google Maps, on the path from our hotel to the Smithsonian, so we decided to stop and see it. Are we ever glad we did! It is a magnificent room with gigantic brick columns (covered, of course). The room has been used for inaugural parties and political rallies. We passed a woman with two small children, playing on the floor adjacent to one of these towering columns. If she comes here often, what a great memory that will be for her kids! Sitting on a bench in front of the fountain was magical, as it was so quiet in this gorgeous space with few visitors. We also – finally! – got to the top of the Washington Monument! Over the past four visits to Washington, it has been closed for renovation, cleaning, or a special event every single time. We held our breaths as we approached, sure that it would close just as we got there. You must book your tickets online the day before, as only a limited number of visitors are allowed in the elevator at one time. They are still “free,” but with a $1 booking fee. And if you don’t nab your tickets within a few minutes of their 10:00 am availability, you may have to wait another day. We were surprised that the inside doors were actually vault doors!…very thick and heavy. We were also surprised that the elevator was built in from the beginning. It originally hauled freight and stones to the top, then switched to passengers once it opened in 1885, when it was the tallest structure in the world! (The Eiffel Tower eclipsed the monument just three years later, as it was twice as tall.)

There was still a good deal of fencing around the city, and many streets, sidewalks, and access ways were blocked off. In addition, many government buildings had giant planters along the sidewalk so that cars or trucks couldn’t be driven into the buildings. We “only” went to four museums this time (mainly because so many are closed early in the week, but all are open on weekends) – the National Building Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and the Spy Museum. The Spy Museum had lots of interesting information, along with maybe a dozen short films on various spies and missions. There was enough info to keep you in there for an entire day, although we didn’t have that much time!

We enjoyed many of the restaurants we went to, particularly the unusual flavors in two Middle Eastern restaurants. There are photos below from a Mexican restaurant along the waterfront, Mi Vida. It was beautifully decorated, and they take a risk by serving food that is fairly spicy, although we greatly enjoyed it. All in all, it was a most enjoyable week in Washington, and we are left with a good impression, great memories, and satisfied appetites.

Charming. Small Town America. Chagrin Falls and Berea are the definition of friendly, charming small towns. We are here in Chagrin (as the locals call it) for the second time, attending their marvelous documentary film festival. The films we have seen have been powerful and interesting. We have learned a lot! You can see a lot of the town in the photos below. A lot of effort is put into their being so adorable! We have said that it is like stumbling into a charming tourist town like Carmel, California, and you enjoy every second.

The Opening Night film was “War on the Diamond,” about the long-standing rivalry between the local club, the Cleveland Indians, and the NY Yankees. In 1920, Yankees pitcher Carl Mays threw a pitch that hit Ray Chapman in the head. Spectators said it was such a loud crack, they thought the ball had hit the bat. Chapman died the following day, the only baseball player to die as a direct result of playing in a baseball game. It has created a century-old rivalry (but isn’t every team a rival of the Yankees?). So, the first two photos are from opening night, as the film was sponsored by the Cleveland Indians. Next up is a photo of the fabulous Morgan Crawford, never too busy to say hi and help out with questions and problems. She has been a marvelous asset to the festival.

We got to Berea thanks to Gerry Nemeth, who teaches a class on game shows. We attended a documentary on Tiny Tim (which was very good, but all positive, none of the darker chapters!), and got into a conversation with Gerry, who, out of the blue, asked if we ever watch the game show Jeopardy. Since we are missing it this week (and it is killing us!), at that moment we had up a website that gives that day’s scores and statistics. So we told him we were the biggest fans, had met Ken Jennings, and had attended tapings of the show four different times. We then showed him what was on the iPad, and he laughed incredulously. He TEACHES a class on Game Shows in Berea, Ohio, and the next day was doing a class on Jeopardy. So after the movie, he asked what we were doing the next day, and we told him, of course, watching documentaries. He said he wished we could come to his class to talk about our Jeopardy experience of viewing and attending the tapings. We asked what and where, and said we’d love to come!

So we went, and it was a nice class of about 30-40 senior citizens. They played a mock game of Jeopardy, and then he introduced us as nomads that he had met the night before, who sold all their personal belongings to travel the world, blah blah blah. So we got up and talked about Jeopardy tapings, then asked if there were questions. First one: How long have you been homeless, and do you have an RV, or what??? So we answered, and ALL the subsequent questions were concerning our travel and way of life. Jeopardy was left in the dust! Very funny, but they were very interested, excited, and responsive. It was so fun to share our lives and our story! Gerry didn’t mind at all.

Last week, our post was on the Big City, the Big Apple, New York. But all big cities are made up of small communities, areas, and individuals, who are all mostly friendly and down to earth. Chagrin Falls and Berea are likewise made up of very nice folks, so today we are celebrating Small Town America. A toast!

We ♥️ New York! Every single day has been fun! Just walking the streets has been great. The busy-ness, the crowds, the museums, the traffic, the restaurants, the stores, the Time Square billboards, the gorgeous architecture of the late 19th century buildings, the rush….have all been simply marvelous. We can’t get enough of it, so much so that, rather than returning to Chicago later this month, we have rerouted so that we get to spend another 2.5 weeks here in late October/early November. It feels like there is still so much to see and do.

One of our favorite days was a stroll through Greenwich Village, which was delightful beyond words. There are shops beautifully decorated with silk flowers, shops with interesting names, shops selling unusual items, enticing restaurants, etc. It was a fascinating, slow, and thoroughly enjoyable day. We ate dinner at Old Tbilisi Garden, a Georgian (as in the country Georgia, formerly part of Russia, i.e., no black-eyed peas and chitlins) restaurant, which was unusual and good, particularly their borscht, which we had been craving.

The rest of the photos capture little pieces of our walks around Times Square, the East Village, Central Park, Midtown, the Lower East Side, and the Garment District (where our hotel is located). The days were beautiful and weather-perfect. In fact, the only rain we encountered after six weeks on the road was a driving day, from Connecticut through New York. The temperatures here have been in the upper 60s/low 70s, so yeah – perfect. We feel pretty Covid-safe here. Every museum, movie theater, subway ride, live theater, restaurant, retail shop – every enclosed, indoor venue – requires proof of vaccination and that masks be worn. Because sidewalks are crowded, most people wear masks outside, as well. It is a great place to visit right now. We can’t wait to return, even though we haven’t left yet!

Busy, popular, beachy, as cute as can be, and no free parking. That is our assessment of Ogunquit, Maine. We drove through three years ago, on our way south along the coast, with no time to stop and enjoy. So we booked a few days here this time. Ogunquit is the east coast version of Carmel, CA, a quaint village with cottages, B&Bs everywhere, and a cute retail shopping area with unique stores and many restaurants. The only drawback is that street parking is sparse, and only for 30 minutes, so not long enough to have a meal or walk the area. Parking lots charge $10-25 to park for a few hours. The one we parked at warned us to be back by 6 PM or our car would be towed.

We drove all over, randomly, and ended up on a winding coastal road toward York, Maine, which was heavily wooded with huge estates and all the charm you would ever want to encounter. We ended up the first day at the area’s notorious “Scoop Deck” ice cream shoppe. You can see the enormous menu in one of the photos! The funny/silly signs that follow are all from the Scoop Deck! Enjoy them, since you can’t enjoy the ice cream….until you visit Maine! By the way, be sure you visit in the summer. A few of the businesses were already closed for the winter. Those of you from the east coast are probably used to that, but it still seems a little strange for those of us from Southern California, where the air is always warm, the water is always cold, and the only differences between seasons are the decorations.