Where in the World are Mike and Jan?

Day trip!….to Segovia, which made our heads spin. Located a little more than an hour north of Madrid, you drive into the city center and encounter the gigantic structure in the first photo. This famous Roman aqueduct, built around 50 AD with no mortar and having more than 170 arches, is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The two-tiered aqueduct slices through the middle of the city. It is huge, and imposing, and we were amazed that the locals casually read papers or looked at their phones as they passed under the arches. We stared and stared and couldn’t get enough of this giant local “character.” It’s just amazing and beautiful and…..how in the world have its relatively slender columns lasted for almost 2,000 years, without breaking or losing some stones??? And…how is it possible that it still delivers drinking water to the city?! It has been called the most impressive Roman structure in Spain. We included four shots, as we were just mesmerized.

Following the aqueduct is a photo of another giant of the city, its cathedral. Considered a masterpiece of Basque-Castilian Gothic architecture, it was consecrated in 1768 and is known as The Lady of Cathedrals. Following that photo is one of Segovia’s Plaza Mayor and a cute small arched passageway.

The next church you see is Iglesias de San Martin, built in the 12th century. We liked the sandy color, the spire, and the arched colonnade. Following that are street scenes of Segovia, some beautifully decorated retail shops, a gorgeous ice cream cone (not!), another old church, and a poor suckling pig that looks like she is trying to boogie-board her way out of the frying pan.

Next we drove a short distance outside of Segovia to the town of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, where Spain’s much smaller version of Versailles is located, but it is still mighty impressive! Called Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso, the Royal Farm Palace of San Ildefonso, it was built between 1721-24 by King Philip V, whose grandfather, Louis XIV, built Versailles. You can see the palace, the gardens, and a fabulous tiered fountain that isn’t currently running, as it is being restored. We saw several female “sphinxes” both here and in Segovia. These are the Greek version of a sphinx, the more famous Egyptian version being male. Both are considered ferocious.

It has taken until now to see autumn leaves! In the south of Spain, all the trees were stubbornly green, but here in the middle of the country, the leaves were in full color, finally! And it is October 30! The last photo was taken just in time, before the sun went into hiding for the day!

It is hard to believe, but look at these gorgeous, elaborate buildings in Madrid….and then we will tell you this: they were all taken in a half-hour aimless walk! We saw building after building that was amazing and calling out to be photographed. For several, following the first photo, we have included a closeup of the rich detail on top of the building. There is also a photo of the main gate and entrance to Buen Retiro Park (Park of the Pleasant Retreat), which we will explore more in the next few days. It has several different theme gardens, a puppet theater, monuments, and a lake for boating…and it is completely surrounded by the City of Madrid!

We love the building with a team of horses atop it, as well as the one with two nude women lounging way up high! More to come on Madrid…after all, this is just the first 30 minutes!

Una gran ciudad espanola…A great Spanish city – Toledo. It is the city of El Greco, the “Imperial City,” as it held the royal court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and “the City of the Three Cultures,” as its main cultural influences were Muslim, Jewish, and Christian. Toledo is known worldwide for its bladed weapons, particularly swords, and many shops were selling them. (By the way, the one thing we both remembered from being in Toledo 12 years ago, for one day, was the many sword shops and the great number of knights in armor inside them for taking pictures.) The city is located on a mountain top with a 150-degree view, and has a very long and varied history. We visited churches and synagogues with obvious Muslim influences…around the city, all three cultures are casually mixed together. It feels ancient, very “old school” Spanish, and really wasn’t at all like the other cities we visited and photographed.

The first four photos are of the Alcazar, the city’s military fortress, which dominates the skyline. As you enter the city from any direction, your eye is drawn to the highest point and the four proud spires of the Alcazar. Because we were atop the building, we couldn’t photograph all of them, so multiply by four the single one seen in the first photo! There is also a military museum in the complex with displays of the knight and horse in armor and the army of men in armor. After that are two lovely shots of the countryside from the highest point in the Alcazar. The castle seen is San Servando, which is now a hostel. After those photos is one of the cathedral, but it was not open to visitors.

The next stop was the El Greco Museum in the Jewish Quarter, which we thought would have some of his paintings….nope! But, it was his restored home…no, again! It was bought and restored by the Marquis de la Vega Inclan, who thought it was El Greco’s house, but he was mistaken. Fortunately, he purchased the remains of an elegant 14th century palace, whose vaulted galleries over two floors raised the palace so that it became a landmark in the city when it was built. The three photos are one of the underground vaults and two of the pretty gardens.

If you read our blogs about the Alhambra in Granada and the Alcazar in Seville, you will recognize the architecture in the Synagogue of El Transito, dating from 1356. It started as a synagogue, then was a church, followed by military headquarters during the Napoleonic wars, then a national monument, and now a museum. The two photos show the Great Prayer Room, its arches with detailed carvings and elaborate plasterwork surrounding them, and a closeup of the top rank of arched windows.

Almost looking like the same building…next up is the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca. Erected in 1180, it is the oldest synagogue in Europe still standing, and is owned and preserved by the Catholic Church. Its elegant construction is considered Mudejar (there is that word again!), built by Moorish architects for non-Islamic purposes. It was turned into a church in the early 15th century. We have included six photos of this interior…the glorious pillars with Moorish arches repeated, the golden half dome, and the final shot of the magnificent ceiling dome.

After the ceiling dome are eight photos of the Monastery of St. John of the Monarchs, the monarchs being Isabella and Ferdinand. It was originally dedicated in 1504, and you can see the motto Tanto Monta – Monta Tanto on the stained glass windows, which is also on the ceiling and columns. It refers to the equality of power between Ferdinand and Isabella. Most of the original complex was destroyed in 1808-1809 by Napoleon’s army, which also included an impressive library. Restoration started in 1883 after a period of abandonment, but wasn’t completed until 1967! You can see in the photo of one of the lonely-looking four arched walkways that surround a courtyard that there are saints positioned on either side. At first, we saw the usual male saints and thought, Of course, this was built as a monastery…all we see is men. But then, as we turned a corner, to our surprise we started seeing more and more women saints, so we included a closeup of one of them. Following a photo of a chandeliered dome in a stairwell is one photo of the exterior of the Jesuit church, St. Ildephonse.

The last photos are various buildings as we walked the city, streets, retail shops (including a sword shop!), statues, walkways, and a covered upper passageway. We saved the best for last, though. In the museum of the Synagogue of El Transito was this lovely set of Pinza y Cuchillo, translated as….pliers and knife….for circumcision! All the men’s faces around us looked a little pained.

We wanted to focus on newer places and things in Part 2 of this fascinating city. The City of Arts and Sciences was constructed between 1998 and 2005, and is a marvelous city within the city. It is a series of huge buildings, and is on a list as one of the 12 Treasures of Spain. You can walk on a path along the buildings and just gape at their architecture, or, farther over, you can walk through a beautiful park while looking. These are just “some” of the buildings, including a science museum, concert hall, oceanarium…all unique, and all in a row. You may not be able to tell, but the exterior facades are covered in millions of tiny mosaic pieces. The man atop the building in Photo 3, also shown in Photo 4, didn’t seem to be tethered from where we stood! He most likely was, but we couldn’t tell.

Following those photos are some cute retail shops we saw, statues, an urban walkway, some hanging glass scapes, and a restaurant tile. We came across a lot of green space, parks, and hundreds of palm trees, which of course make the city cooler but also make it so pleasant for walking. Following those are some photos of the wide, sandy beach, the Mediterranean, and the Promenade walkway that stretches a long, long distance. The last photo was taken from the outdoor restaurant patio of our hotel where we enjoyed breakfast this morning. We were delighted that a large sand castle was right in front of us. Nobody was around (yet) on the beach, and it was so quiet and calm…a perfect breakfast!

Dear Valencia: We would love to return to you, for a much longer time, at a future date…if you will have us. What a great city! Being a port on the Mediterranean, Valencia was once the largest and most important city in Spain. It was founded by the Romans in 138 BC and conquered by the Moors in 714 AD, who introduced their language, customs, culture, and architecture. Five hundred years later, the Christian king James I of Aragon reconquered the land.

First up in the photos is the magnificent city gate, Torres de Quart, a tower that was part of the old town walls, which are long gone. Why are there holes all over the facade, you may ask? Believe it or not, they have been there since the Napoleonic invasion in the early 19th century…they are where the cannonballs hit the tower! We both remembered that we had been to a city in Spain with a tower like this one, but simply didn’t remember which city it was! We were glad to come upon it once again. The second and third photos are of its sister gate, Torres de Serranos, which looks newer, but in fact is older than the poor besieged one. Following that is the Torre de Micalet, an octagonal bell tower with a spiral staircase.

The next two photos are floors in the Silk Museum, housed in a building that dates to the mid-1700s. We had to wear booties over our shoes in order to walk on them! What treasures…aren’t they so pretty? After that, the three photos of the gorgeous building with stained glass and even a dome is the Mercat Central…the Central Market. As usual, up for sale were fish, cheeses, meat, fruits, vegetables, flowers…all the usual market commodities. The exterior and interior of the church that follows the market’s dome is the Royal Parish of Saints Johns, and it is in fact adjacent to the market. It is being lovingly restored to its Baroque splendor, which is why the half dome over the main altar is currently one color. Viewing the rest of the church, we are sure it will be an eye-opener when completed!

The four photos after the church are of the magnificent La Lonja, originally Valencia’s silk commodity and exchange building. Construction began 10 years before Columbus began his journey into the history books, in 1482, and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The outside of the building was built to resemble a castle, and the other photos are of its incredible ceiling and the columned traders’ room, where deals for silk were made and money exchanged. Valencia was part of the Silk Road, and caterpillars with mulberry leaves were brought to Valencia from China to initiate its silk business. They learned to make velvet silk, and about half of the city population was employed doing so.

The next four photos are of the ceiling of the Church of San Nicolas, often referred to as the Valencian Sistine Chapel. Just run your eyes over the detailed work…it is quite lush and really beautiful. Following those photos, we end Part 1 of Valencia with some interesting buildings we saw as we walked the city. Many of them are now on narrow streets that are practically alleys, so the view up is quite steep. But they were too pretty to ignore and just walk by! Part 2, with some of the newer attractions, will follow.

Alicante is a gorgeous Spanish Mediterranean port city, with marinas, a coastal esplanade, lots of sun, and loads of people walking around and eating/drinking at the many outdoor cafes. Today was all about rain until late afternoon, however, so the photos are a little…darker than usual. But the rain didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for this beautiful place.

Dominating the city, high atop Mount Benacantil, is Santa Barbara Castle. Its oldest sections date to the 14th century, while other parts were added in the 16th and 18th centuries. An elevator takes you to the top for just under $3 US round trip, a real bargain for saving you from hiking up the mountain you see in the first photo! The views were incredible, as you can see. So, the first photo is the castle from down below in the city, while the following ones are of the castle close up.

Next up: the Explanada de Espana (the Esplanade) is lined with palm trees, and its walkway consists of 6.5 million tiles in a wavy configuration, as you can see in the photo after all of the castle pictures. Following this photo is another walkway just past the first, which looks like an Escher drawing, like you are going from block to block. The third most important “character” in the story of stunning Alicante is the Mediterranean. Look at the magnificent marina and ocean shots, both from sea level and from high up in the castle. The first of the ocean shots, with closed umbrellas and a lone sailboat, looks very lonely and cold..almost as though the umbrellas are icicles lining the beach. The marina seemed to have thousands of boats docked. Since it was rainy and later in the afternoon on a weekday, most were probably “home” for the day.

Following all of those are various sights around town, mostly statues and artwork. After the angel on the building, our favorite statues are the well-dressed man at the cafe, the dueling knights, the lovely welcome to a traveling person with suitcases, the nude (of course, as it has such a sensuous shape!), the surfer coming in from his day of fun, and the last one…a striking monument to Jose Canalejas, known as the Protector of Alicante. Just to the right of the statue is our beautiful hotel, Casa Alberola, newly opened, just sparkling, with the friendliest staff we have encountered thus far. We got to stay in one of the round tower rooms that you can see, with views of the promenade and marina. It is glorious!

Granada. Pomegranate. Hand grenade. What do they all have in common? Well, it’s all mixed up! Granada’s Arabic name was originally Garnata, meaning “hill of strangers.” It was corrupted into Granada, which is the Spanish word for pomegranate. In turn, grenade came from Old French, pomme granate, pomegranate. They are all related..sort of. Granada’s heraldic imagery uses the pomegranate as a symbol of the city, and in the Alhambra, for example, quite a few pomegranate trees are planted and are producing fruit.

Today we have photos from several days of walking around. There are many churches, towers, domes, and magnificent buildings. The narrow shopping street is part of the old city market fashioned after a Middle Eastern souk, the Alcaiceria. Following it is the Granada Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Inside are buried Columbus’ patrons, Isabella and Ferdinand, but no photos are allowed of the interior. Too bad! It is filled with gold leaf and a gorgeous dome.

The city’s ancient Arabic quarter is called the Albaicin, which is where the photo of all the tea and spices for sale was taken (notice the Cannabis Infusion!). Two days in a row, we ate at a terrific Moroccan restaurant, Palacio Andalusia Almona. We had harira soup, hummus, Arabic salad, Moroccan carrots, beans, eggplant, and tomatoes, tajines with plums and chicken, and couscous with dates, almonds, and plums. It was all fabulous. Lions are everywhere in the city and in the Alhambra, as you can see in the fountain photo. They are symbolic of past ruling monarchs. The arch is what remains of the Puerta Elvira, the Gate of Elvira. It was once the main gate into Granada, but Napoleon destroyed the gate and adjacent fort, leaving just this arch.

The pretty translucent polygonal-sided lamp is one of the street lights found all along the Gran Via, the main boulevard in the city. Very unusual, in that it looks so Art Deco (for a hanging street lantern!), yet so lovely. We end with a symbol on a building, a globe adorned with the letters BHA. But what we loved was the two faces of dismay on the globe bearers on each side. We don’t know if was all too much for them, or if something is ready to attack! We only attacked with our camera, so it wasn’t so bad.

Give him alms, woman, because there is nothing sadder in life than being blind in Granada. ~ Francisco de Icaza

Did you ever read James Hilton’s book, Lost Horizon, or see the 1937 movie of the same name? It has something in common with Granada, Spain, our current location. Both included a search for a “paradise on earth” – in the book and movie, it was Shangri-La (the original name of Camp David, by the way); in Granada, Spain, it is called the Alhambra. Every building, fountain, and garden was built on the theme, Paradise on Earth. Most of the current buildings were constructed beginning in the 13th century, but a small fortress was built there in 889, then forgotten until the 13th century renovation and enlargement. The Alhambra, meaning “the red one” due to its red clay walls, was a fortress complex comprised of the Alcazaba, the military component; the Alcazar, palaces for the sultan; and the Medina, the city center.

You can see just about the whole complex in the first photo, taken from the gardens across the way. The gardens fulfill their purpose of helping to make paradise on earth very well! There are fountains, pools, shrubs with cut-out arches, flowers galore, flowering vines, lookouts onto the buildings and over the city, trellises, and walking paths in and around all the aforementioned. Just as there are arches found all over the buildings’ architecture, so there are arches found in a lot of the shrubbery and hedges!

In one photo you will see Roman ruins. Sadly, this is modern, willful destruction. When France invaded Spain, Napoleon purposely targeted the Alhambra, and a lot of the older sections were lost. There are a bunch of ceiling photos…while many rooms of the three palaces look the same, with arches all around, the ceilings set the rooms apart. Some are stucco (albeit stucco like you’ve never seen!), and some are wood. Some of the wood is coated in gold. In their construction, Muslims use materials that will deteriorate and that have finite lives, as they feel that God is the only one that endures through the centuries, not anything human made.

The closeups of tile work in the last six photos are interesting to see for their intricacy and age. This work is 600 years old! The first one is inscribed with the words, “Plus Ultra,” which is the national motto of Spain. It is a reversal of an earlier warning placed on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibralter, when they thought that was the end of the world: Non terrae plus ultra, No land further beyond. Once the New World was discovered by Columbus, the motto became Plus Ultra, More Beyond, and the phrase has become a metaphor for taking risks….stretch and go beyond what is known. We also saw this phrase in artwork in the Seville Cathedral and Alcazar.

As you may know, Arabic is read from right to left. In the last photo, the sentence shown means “Allah (God) is the Winner.” The Arabic symbol for Allah is the “W” you see at the left, which is actually the end of the sentence. There were depictions in the Alhambra of Jews, Christians, and Muslims sitting at the same table. It symbolized peace between the three religions, and they said that the God of all three religions was the same God, depicting that we can all get along. We hope that comes to pass!

Dr. Seuss wrote a book titled, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” We thought about that today as we wandered around stunning Seville in the south of Spain. What gorgeous, remarkable stuff they have! Did you know that it was from Seville that Ferdinand Magellan departed for the first circumnavigation of the earth? Did you know that Christopher Columbus is buried in Seville Cathedral? Did you know that Seville has the only river port in all of Spain? Did you know that Seville is 2,200 years old? The Moors from Northern Africa invaded in the early 8th century, and as with most of southern Spain, their influence, particularly in architecture, is ubiquitous. When you see striped arches, keyhole windows, Arabic letters, and of course, Islamic features such as minarets, you begin to recognize how influential another culture can be.

There are three parts to today’s photos. Part 1 is the Seville Alcazar (in Arabic, al-qasr), meaning “the palace,” which is why there are Alcazars in more than one Spanish city. Part 2 is Seville Cathedral and its bell tower, called the Giralda. Part 3 is various photographs from around the city.

The Alcazar’s current buildings were constructed in the 14 century under Peter of Castile, interestingly called both The Just One and The Cruel One. The former Moorish fortress was destroyed with the exception of some of the outer walls. The style of architecture on the “new” palace is called Mudejar, a mix of Christian and Moorish features. One place above a doorway has “Allah is great” in Arabic, surrounded by Christian crosses. It is really an unusual palace. So, we start with the Alcazar gardens because they are so calm and beautiful, and they relax us by just looking at them and walking through them. You can see courtyards, fountains, palm trees, flowers, arches (even in the tall shrubs!), buildings, and towers. Heading inside, you can see more arches, intricate wall designs, elaborate ceilings (we made a quartet of four of them), balconies, and tile work. The tile work is interesting. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused a lot of damage to the Alcazar, and heaps of tiles were found all over the floors. You can see that the tiles form pictures. The workers didn’t quite know how to work jigsaw puzzles and put everything together again. In the first of the three tile photos, look closely at the deer at the bottom. His antlers match his head and his head mostly matches the tile below, but notice the tile of his back leg. It is, at the least, upside down, and more likely, didn’t belong to him! The middle tile is a grouping of five of the human(ish) tiles. The third is really funny, as you can see that it is a hodgepodge of leftover tiles that don’t fit together and don’t make any sense…the worker just gave up and put any tile anywhere he wished.

Seville Cathedral is a world in itself. It is the third-largest church in the world, but since the other two aren’t cathedrals, it is in fact the world’s largest cathedral. It is immense and it is incredible to behold. Look at the photos and then come back here to read a few stories. The large altarpiece, which looks like brown wood with hundreds of statues, is in fact all wood, but covered with 24 carat gold. It is the most expensive altar in the world. Since many people were illiterate when the cathedral was built, many of these depictions are biblical scenes to help them learn about their faith. Do you see the gigantic, floor-to-ceiling painting of St. Anthony’s vision? It was commissioned in 1656, but in 1874 two bright robbers went in late at night to steal the painting! It is mounted to the wall, so…a formidable task, indeed! When they finally realized it was too large for two men to carry out (!), they thought they would just cut the canvas from the frame. But that, too, was too large and would be too difficult a task as well as too bulky. So what did they do to this priceless painting? They cut out just the figure of St. Anthony and sold it. It was purchased for $50, and the buyer immediately realized what it was. He gave it back to the cathedral, where they restored St. Anthony to his rightful place in the painting. If you look carefully, you can see a dark line over his head and dark lines down either side of him, showing where it was masterfully pieced back together!

The photo of a statue where you can see three of four of Spain’s rulers is the kings surrounding and guarding the burial place of Christopher Columbus. It was claimed that he had been buried in several places in the Caribbean, but recent DNA tests confirmed that these remains are actually those of Columbus. The third of the cathedral photos is the bell tower, called the Giralda, taken from the Spanish word girar, to turn, as the weather vane atop the tower spins. There are no steps inside to climb, just ramps, as donkeys and horses were used to take people to the top, and ramps are easier than stairs for all creatures! There are a total of 34 ramps. The last two cathedral photos were taken from the lookout at the top, one of the bells and one of the top of the church and surrounding buildings.

Part 3, around town, starts with the most famous barber shop in Seville! It is followed by a store that sells only decorative fans, which we have never seen before. Then come some buildings and street scenes that we liked, including a very severely cut box tree! The last two photos are of a Mexican tapas restaurant where we stopped for a late lunch…highly decorated, isn’t it? The food wasn’t too bad, either. And as for the last photo, we just laughed. A…..corseteria? For your girlfriend? We thought it was very funny.

When you see these photos of the ancient Roman city of Italica, you will marvel that structures and mosaic floors built from 117-138 BC still have intact remnants, being so old. But keep this one fact in mind: this Italica is the New City! The Old City is another century older, but is inaccessible, as the current city of Santiponce is built over it. The feeling here is very much like the cities of Pompei and Herculaneum in Italy, except that those two cities were covered by the ash of Vesuvius for almost 2,000 years. The birthplace of three Roman emperors (Trajan, Hadrian, and possibly Theodosius), Italica simply fell into disuse, likely due to a problem with its port and poor soil. Its ruins were used as a source of building materials, and it was forgotten until it was “rediscovered” in the 19th century.

It is fantastic. The amphitheater was used as a filming location in the last season of Game of Thrones, and it truly looks its age. You can see the outside of the amphitheater, and some of the inside colonnade, in the first dozen photos. It seated 25,000, but Italica had a population of only 10,000 people, indicating that gladiator games attracted attendees from neighboring towns. There was a bestiary below, like Rome’s Coliseum, and the animals were sometimes allowed into the arena with the combatants just for fun. You may remember scenes in the Russell Crowe movie Gladiator, where animals would suddenly appear in the middle of the arena (and the action) when introduced from below ground. Everything you see is original stonework, of course. As we touched some of the stones, and looked at the mosaic floors in the remaining photos, we wondered about all the workers it took to build homes and roads and amphitheaters, thinking they would be so awed that their work would be somewhat intact and on view 2,000 years in the future.

Homes here were named by archaeologists based on some feature that had been uncovered, or what the mosaic floors depicted. You can see the gods of the sun, moon, and planets shown on one floor, so this is the “Planetarium House.” The floor showing 33 species of birds is the Bird House. Believe it or not, the third mosaic floor is part of the latrine, as depictions of pygmies fighting and riding upon cranes (??!!!?) is typical of latrines, for comedic effect! In the photo after that are four of the communal toilets, which had been built in stone against a wall, with a running water sewer underneath. We wondered how it came to be that the Romans knew how to build a system of underground sewers, yet 1,000 years later, waste from chamber pots was simply thrown onto village roads from an upper window!

The closeup of the flagstones is what is left of the original, ancient road. Much of it is gone, replaced with gravel or cement. But again, what a job to line all the streets with large flagstones and try to make them even for walking. After that are two bakeries, one still in beautiful condition with two ovens, the other only half there. And we end with a few statues that were found mostly intact. The last one is of Diana, the goddess of the hunt. It was a great day wandering around the grounds and enjoying all of these ancient wonders. Santiponce is just outside the city of Seville, a beautiful area. It is sunny and warm, as it must have been back then when people actually lived here, decorated with mosaics, threw dinner parties, and enjoyed life in this lovely part of the world.

The UK’s Playground. Sunny, warm beaches all through most of the the winter. Gorgeous, blue water and a gentle surf. The Algarve. Sounds exotic, and it is! It was named by the Moors (in Arabic: Al-Gharb), which means “the west,” as in its westernmost possession. The most southwesterly place in continental Europe, it is dotted with beautiful estates, huge resorts, sprawling hotels, trees, flowering shrubs, restaurants and cafes galore, and marinas filled with everything from huge yachts to small fishing boats. It reminded us of Newport Beach in California, the French Riviera, and the Croatian Riviera, all equally vibrant and interesting to see. Simply put, it is a lovely place for some R&R.

The next-to-last photo is a lifeguard station..wouldn’t that be a great job? Check out the cute hut, chair, surfboard, life preserver, and some sort of giant hook resting atop the hut. The creature in the last photo was put out by a man hoping to make some money from people looking and photographing. Interesting, as he didn’t have to perform, sing, do acrobatics, wear a costume..nothing that other buskers do. He just stood there, talking to passersby! Not much else to say, except enjoy the beach and promenade photos, especially if it is chilly where you are! You will warm up just looking at them.

More climbing! The Castelo dos Mouros, Castle of the Moors, being a defensive castle overlooking Sintra, and being able to observe the Atlantic Ocean, naturally was built on a mountain, on the highest peak in the area. It takes about 15-20 minutes of driving up a steep winding road filled with switchbacks to get here. After you park, you hike uphill to the ticket office. After you pay, you hike uphill to the castle. After you enter the castle grounds, you hike up a billion steps to see what’s at the top, and the views are breathtaking. It is hard to believe it was built in the 10th century, as it is still standing and still looking magnificent. The giant stones that helped in its construction were “broken” way back then by finding a natural fissure in the rock, inserting wooden planks and wetting them, then waiting for the wood to expand, thus splitting the boulders. All the way up to all of the turrets, the walkway is cobblestone. We wonder who fashioned all those tiny pieces of rock to make paths that we can still walk on today! You can also see, toward the end of the castle photos, a photo of the town taken from the castle, as well as a photo of the castle way up on the hill, taken from the town. Almost adjacent to this castle is Pena Palace, which we also wanted to visit. As we drove up, there were many buses and just throngs of people, as well as several groups of school children. We kept driving, and will visit there next time!

After the castle photos is an image of one of the many statues around the town. It is titled “The Imaginary Man,” but it must have lost its plaque…as you can see in the photo that follows it, somebody wrote out the name and description on pieces of ripped masking tape. We have never seen that on artwork before. After that are photos around the city, including one of the prettiest floral apartment buildings ever! There are also some tiled homes, and the castle you see with the two tall white chimneys in several photos is the National Palace of Sintra. The chimneys have become a symbol of the city. There are also some retail window models. Since they aren’t wearing anything, we don’t know if the clothing was sold off of their backs or if the owner was too busy with the sale to dress them!

The last two photos are from the Doubletree Hotel in Lisbon. The first of the two is remarkable in that breakfast is from 7-10:30, and around 8:30 am, a singer/guitarist started to serenade us! At breakfast! In a hotel! The last picture…you may ask, why did you include a prison? It is the hallway of our hotel. Yep, believe it or not. The hotel used to be an old ironworks factory, so they decided to go for a black iron look. As we rode in the elevator with another couple this morning, the woman remarked, “time to return to our cells.” We laughed, as that was exactly what we thought it looked like. Most. Depressing. Hotel. Corridor. Ever.

Sintra! Magical Sintra! It is a Disneyland for history buffs, not to be believed, and if you are ever in Portugal, NOT to be missed! Of all the places we have traveled during our time together, Sintra is the place we have talked about more than any other, and we remembered so much of what we saw here, 12 years ago. It was very familiar to us, even though it has been a long time.

This is Part 1 of Glorious Sintra. When we tried to load all the photos that we wanted to share with you, the site crashed several times. So, a divided day it will be.

Sintra…the city, not just a site in it….is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has four castles/palaces, numerous estates, a beautiful Old Town, gardens, villas, and 19th century Romanticist architecture. Everywhere you turn, there is something to photograph. This first section is one of our favorite places on earth, Quinta da Regaleira, a palace built between 1904 and 1910 by a wealthy merchant named Carvalho Monteiro. He wanted a lush, bewildering place where he could include items reflecting his ideologies, and a place that was romantic. The many buildings hold symbols relating to alchemy, Masonry, the Rosicrucians, and the Knights Templar.

The actual residential palace is festooned with gargoyles, spires, pinnacles, an octagonal tower, carved stone, and “gingerbread” features around all the windows and doorways, as you can see in the first photo. But….the palace is by no means the most memorable part of the estate. It is the rest of the property that you remember most vividly. Imagination, whimsy, and imagery are everything here. Photos 2-5 are from the interior of the palace, to give you an idea of how the theme of “over-the-top” is carried out. Each ceiling was made of carved wood or decorated plaster. In the maroon-colored room, that is not wallpaper; each decoration, in rows, is glued to the wall and is three-dimensional.

But then the fun starts! Out to the gardens! Built on a hill that you can climb via wide walking paths or small winding paths through the shrubs, in the garden you come upon many items built just to be whimsical. There are many fountains, as well as small caves with standing water, which we made into a quartet photo. Likewise, there is a photo quartet of stone benches, carved from the rock itself. There is a full chapel…pretty large for one family! At most levels on the way uphill are mosaic-decorated fountains and covered sitting areas, and all over are tiny castles and towers with staircases, turrets, windows, and ways to climb and enjoy them. You are free to do anything here, climb anywhere. No place is roped off, and there are zero prohibitions!

The dark picture is a labyrinth, which winds around and uphill in complete blackness for quite some distance. When you take a wrong branch, you wind up in a dead end! It was a lot of fun, but was built out of the mountain, so it was all rock and was a bit damp inside. The first circular well you see is called the Initiation Well, and there is an entry at the top to make your way down inside, in a circle, poking your head out of all of those arches. The second well is similar, but is a little cruder. It is called the Imperfect Well, and likewise you can enter at the top and walk to the bottom, passing by all the cut-out stone “windows” and waving like crazy! They are both very imaginative. There are lots of carvings, and the entire place is just a “Wow!” experience. You can hardly believe your eyes, due to the “too-muchness.”

We will say, that when we were here in 2007, we had the grounds almost to ourselves. Word about Sintra hadn’t yet gotten out. Neither of us can remember paying an entrance fee, but we remarked that every castle and palace in Sintra should charge something, or a little more than they do, so that the fee can be used as a preservation fee. This time, we had to wait in the ticket line for about 30 minutes! We were amazed at all the buses, cars, and people. After all, this is shoulder season, not the middle of summer. There is an outdoor cafe for lunch and coffee, and it was filled with visitors. It is in the mid-70s here, so a beautiful day for exploring the Quinta Palace. Part 2 of Sintra is yet to come!

We’re on the edge of the world! At least, that is what Europeans thought when they reached the western end of the continent, right here in Portugal. We were last in Lisbon 12 years ago, and it has been fun rediscovering places we had visited at that time. Much of the city looks the same, though…nothing new…the old buildings look old, and the new buildings are beautiful. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the second-oldest European capital after Athens, predating other capitals by centuries! Iron Age people lived here from the 8th to 6th centuries BC.

On the banks of the Tagus River is the Praca do Comercio, a huge historic square, complete with a gorgeous arch, statue, and arched colonnades in the city’s best-known yellow square, as seen in the first five photos. Exquisite, and cars used to park all around the statues..there is an old photo on display showing many VW Beetles parked there.

After those is Belem Tower, a 16th century fortification that acted as both a ceremonial gateway to the city and a fortress. The area was very busy with photos and selfies galore being taken. Following that, a short distance away, is one of the city’s most-visited landmarks, Jeronimos Monastery, now a museum and covered in towers, spires, gargoyles, and gingerbread! It is magnificent to see. It was the site for the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, forming the constitutional basis of the European Union.

Following the photos of Jeronimos are three shots of the Lisbon Cathedral. The cathedral is a mix of different architectural styles, as it has gone through many earthquakes and each time was rebuilt and remodeled. Next up is Santa Justa Lift, established at the turn of the 20th century because Lisbon is a city of hills! Everyone huffs and puffs when going UP, so the elevator was designed to ease the strain, with exits onto different levels at the rear. As you can see, it is also used as an observation deck, with views of the city and the Tagus River.

After the lift is a photo with two attractions in one. The Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge spans the Tagus River and reminds most people of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. At the end you can see a monument in honor of the death of Henry the Navigator of Portugal, erected in 1960. The picture following that is another of the Tagus River. In closing, there are two photos of buildings covered in tiles, Portuguese azulejos. Most buildings are! Some buildings have been stripped of their tiles, and they look very nude and sad. Others have not been kept up, and are quite dingy and moldy. These two are shining examples, however, of the beauty of tile!

This is on a list of “Places to See Before You Die,” since Braga is known as the Portuguese Rome. It is good to be back in Portugal once again! Braga was founded by the Romans over 2,000 years ago and was known as Bracara Augusta. There are still archaeological remains of Roman baths and settlements in the middle of the city. It is very beautiful and charming. There are churches every few feet, it seems, along with many plazas, official buildings with towers and turrets, and houses covered in gorgeous azulejos, Portuguese decorative tile that is a hallmark of the country’s architecture. You can see them on buildings in every city here.

First up in our photos, and usually first on every tourist’s list, is Bom Jesus da Monte. Located about two miles outside of Braga, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and simply put….there are no words to describe it. The first photo shows only a fraction of the 640 steps to get to the church! Before this, there are switchback stairs that wind through woods. Every staircase unit of about 30 steps had chapels on either side depicting Biblical scenes….the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Virgin Mary ascending to heaven, St. Peter assuming leadership of the church, etc. There are what seems like hundreds of statues leading up to, and then surrounding, the various upper plazas of the church. The third photo is a shot downhill of some of the statues and the city below. Following that is the ornate interior of the church, with a magnificent chandeliered dome and lots of gold. There is a side altar with busts of too many saints to count! And, there is a glass case with the remains of St. Clement. The funicular you see is one of very few in the world, and runs up the entire mountain. The cars run at the same time, one going up the hill while the other goes down. The one coming down is weighted with water, powering the lighter one up the tracks.

After the funicular is Braga Cathedral, followed by the coffins of some of its beloved ancestors. Then, there is the Garden of St. Barbara with arches left from the old Archbishop’s Palace. We don’t know why two angel statues are sleeping on the ground.

After those are all the rest of the photos: some walkways and streets we passed; the Arco da Porto Nova, an old city gate designed by a Braga-based sculptor in the 18th century; a whimsical sculpture; many churches; the tower of the old castle; some azulejo-tiled houses, a gorgeous fountain in one of the squares. The final photo is one with the letters spelling Braga, and our magnificent hotel is behind it. The building started out as a convent, and inside, looks like one, with many arched colonnades and porticos. It was then converted to a hospital, and became a hotel/restaurant in 2011. It is such a unique city. It follows Spanish tradition, though: everything is open, then closes for part of the afternoon (except Asian restaurants!), then reopens late, and stays open past midnight. At our last hotel, the man checking us in said that 99 percent of Westerners say that it is very difficult for them not to eat dinner until 8:00 pm or later. We agree!

It is said that in the year 1214, St. Francis of Assisi made a pilgrimage from Italy to Santiago de Compostela to visit the grave and Church of St. James (Santiago), known as “the one whom Jesus loved.” It had already been a Catholic pilgrimage route for 400 years, so St. Francis was just following along in so many other footsteps. This city is one of the world’s top five pilgrimage sites. People walk the “Camino de Santiago” for many miles, and celebrate when they arrive – most restaurants serve a Pilgrim’s Meal, simple but hearty meals made from ancient recipes. Many people have t-shirts outlining the route they took to walk here, and most of them have walking sticks in hand as they approach the cathedral. A friend of ours hiked 100 miles several years ago on the Camino.

In the beginning of the 9th century, a hermit found a grave that was later proclaimed to be that of St. James, and pilgrims came from all over Europe to visit and honor the tomb. The site also became a symbol in the Spanish Christians’ struggle against Islam invaders, who destroyed the city at the end of the 10th century, only to have the Spaniards rebuilt it in the following century. Thus, it is not only an important religious site, but an important historical site as well.

So…today, Monday, October 7. The streets, plazas, churches, cafes, restaurants, and shops were just jammed with tourists! It was surprising to us to see so many visitors on a Monday in October. There were lots of tour groups, as well. Our first two photos had to be the Cathedral, which dominates its plaza, but the plaza has other huge, impressive, old structures, as well. In fact, the entire Casco Historico (historic Old Town) has so many churches, towers, spires, bells, monasteries, convents, and decorative buildings that our eyes were spinning! It is one of the most amazing cities we have seen…and is NOT a world capital, just a city in northwest Spain. It is magnificent. You might wonder why the second photo looks so…incomplete. We were disappointed that the entire inside of the cathedral is under reconstruction. It was all scaffolding and paint and cleaning. So we are only sharing one photo of one area in the church that could be seen.

Photos 3-10 are from the Monastery of St. Martin Pinario, which is just behind the cathedral. Pretty magnificent, huh? This current building dates to the 1500s, and after the exterior, you can see the ornate, gold main altar followed by one of the colorful doors, then one of several side altars, original choir stalls from the cathedral, and one of the many domes we photographed today. There is a museum inside the building, but not very much commentary. The strange man and the two dressed nuns were on display. Oddly enough, there was also an extensive collection of taxidermy animals from around the world. They were creepy, and we simply don’t know why they were in a museum in a monastery with a magnificent church!

After that are three photos of pretty Alameda Park, at the end of the Old Town. Then, from the winding, narrow cobblestone streets are a few photos, including a machine dressed as a pilgrim holding a staff that imprints a medallion for 3 euros, followed by a shop window filled with (small, wooden) pilgrims for sale! Then there is a small courtyard where we took a break, and we commented on how, just sitting there, we could see church towers along with a fountain, flowers, and a cafe. Across the street was the elaborate arched facade in the next photo, followed by what the charming courtyard housed.

The Silver Woman had been standing on a pedestal, waiting for photos and donations, but she came to sit down and take a smoking break. There are still many more people smoking around the world than in the US, but we have found fewer Europeans smoking than on our previous trips. The man costumed as a pilgrim has next to him the famous Santiago Botafumeiro, a replica of the cathedral’s incense burner that takes eight people to carry when it is used for Mass! After him is the beautiful stained glass hanging from a small bakery that says, “Bread is the Staff of Life.” Then there are various buildings and closeups of architectural details, along with a composite of domes that we saw today that Mike put together.

Following the four domes are three photos of the Church of St. Francis, San Francisco. The first of the three is the old Benedictine “refectory” (dining hall) adjoining the church. It is now a great restaurant (and boutique hotel), BUT the restaurant serves pilgrim meals and traditional meals from the days of its occupancy by monks. Each meal, the menu notes, is “served with bread and water.” They weren’t kidding….a bottle of premium water and luscious bread. The 3-course lunch menu was a true bargain, 21 euros for a starter, main dish, and dessert trio, each a generous portion and just delicious. The menu follows the photo of the restaurant. We tried white asparagus (a regional delicacy), sautéed vegetables, Benedictine cod, stewed veal jaws, and all three desserts came as tasters on a single plate.

On to the modern! The last seven photos are from the City of Culture. The city has built a complex at the edge of town with rolling, undulating buildings on rolling, undulating hills that include a museum, music hall, library, literary walk, canteen, a forest, a lake, and a very modern playground. There are great lawns to walk on and beautiful sights from the top of the mountain. The project has run into some funding problems, but it was fun to walk and discover and try to figure it all out. We even partially walked up the sloping wall of the first building…as everyone did! We thought the object in the last photo was just a fun sculpture until we drew closer and discovered that it had both form and function. It is a children’s tube slide! Very imaginative and creative, a good example of what architects can do when allowed to dream.

“Where are all the people?” we wondered as we started walking through Oviedo at 10:00 am this morning. Wouldn’t it be a busy day in the capital city of the region of Asturias on a Saturday morning? The third photo shows the square where the Cathedral of San Salvador is situated…almost empty. We found out the answer to our question when we hit the Mercado El Fontan, the weekend farmer’s market, with some of the outside booths shown below. It was jammed with locals buying seafood, meat, cheese, and produce. One hour later, after everyone was done at the market, the plazas were all full of people drinking coffee, beer, and wine. It looked like a city again!

The building in the first three photos, however, is located in the mountains just north of the city. It is the beautiful Palacio de Santa Maria del Naranco, built in 848 by King Ramiro I as a palace but later converted to a church. It has lasted almost 1200 years!! It sits by itself surrounded by a sloping lawn, and really is very pretty. It seems small for a palace, but that likely is due to its age and location. After that are two photos of the cathedral, in the heart of the medieval city. Following the cathedral photos are several of a storefront we liked, interesting equine sculptures, folk dancers taking a break, the market, a plaza, and a hilltop glimpse of Oviedo below.

Next up are some of the buildings and architecture that make up the city’s character and mood. Notice how many have domes, towers, and spires. We wonder who they were built for originally, and who got to sleep in the interestingly shaped rooms at the top! The last three are food photos. The first of them is Fabada Asturiana o Pote, an Asturias bean stew made with huge white beans. We saw the dry beans at the market and didn’t know what they were, as they were so long. The stew was delicious. From top to bottom, the meats in the stew are chorizo, bacon, and blood pudding sausage. The next dish is Merluza a la Sidra…fish fillet and potatoes in local cider. It was also very good. This region of Spain is famous for its homemade cider, cider bars (yes, alcoholic), and cider restaurants. We have read that some restaurants are very smelly with cider because it tends to spill all over when being poured, eaten, and drunk all day long. This was the first time on this trip that we had the Menu in a restaurant. A menu is a set meal for a fixed price, generally consisting of an appetizer, main dish, and dessert. This one was very good, and was a really great value: the stew was the appetizer (even though it was a full dish on its own), the fish was the main, and dessert was flan, rice pudding, or ice cream. All of this, served with a baguette and a soft drink, cost 10 euros (about $11 US).

Figuring out meals and meal times in Spain is difficult. It all starts with dinner being so late. Spaniards typically eat dinner between 9:00 and 11:00 pm. This means every morning starts late, and breakfast is usually coffee and pastry or croissants. Lunch is fairly popular, and is served between 1:00 and 3:00 pm or so. Many restaurants open at noon or 1:00 pm and are only open until 3:00-4:00 pm (or 2:00 pm). Then, they close, reopening at 8:00 or 9:00 pm. Even restaurants that advertise that they are “open all day,” or “never close,” are closed when we show up at the door. Since we usually have breakfast provided by our hotel, we skip lunch, and are hungry between 5:00-6:00 pm. But there is nowhere to eat! So we find we have to plan ahead. We wind up at the grocery store more often than not in Spain, looking for a salad, sandwich, or rotisserie chicken for dinner. But we even found one grocery store that practiced the afternoon “siesta” tradition and closed from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. So when we think we have it all figured out, Spain can still surprise us with its scheduling. Fast food restaurants are always open, but we are too old for a steady diet of burgers and pizza.

We saved the best for last!…the best photo and a video surprise! The video is of a local Celtic marching band that played and marched for an hour or more…we kept seeing and hearing them wherever we wandered. The two women drummers at the rear of the band are awesome as they twirl their green sticks! Watch for them. The final photo was taken at the Saturday morning market. In looking at the photo, you MUST remember that “manos” means “hands.” And then you will laugh.

…And we thought the only attraction in Bilbao was the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao! Were we wrong! While the museum was wonderful, and worthy of a lot of our time and photos, the city (particularly the Old Town, Casca Viejo) had much to offer.

The museum was opened in October 1997. Designed by Frank Gehry (who was also the architect for Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA), the Guggenheim is situated along the Nervion River and is one of the most admired works of contemporary architecture. The first four photos show different angles of the rounded, twisting, smooth metal that makes up the skin of the Guggenheim. The critic Calvin Tompkins of the The New Yorker called it “a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium.” Its unveiling prompted buildings of a similar design around the world. After that are photos of its outside art…Maman, a spider in tribute of her mother by Louise Bourgeois (with an egg sac!); a floral dog, Puppy, by Jeff Koons; and, Tulips, also by Jeff Koons. Photography was prohibited for the indoor exhibitions, but the real star here is the architecture, the inside a maze of steel, girders, glass, staircases, and elevators, as seen in the photos following the tulips. We felt privileged to be able to wander around inside.

The rest of the photos are from our walk around Bilbao, most in the Old Town. You will see churches, theaters, buildings we liked, details of buildings, narrow cobblestone streets showing typical Spanish residential architecture with balconies for each unit, an Art Nouveau outdoor stage, green space in the city, and the city draped in clouds from up above early in the morning. We saved a fun video for the end. These three “characters” were performing outside the Guggenheim, attracting a lot of attention, laughter, applause, and donations. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Seeing the Atlantic again! The first photo is our first glimpse since August of 2018, when we stayed in Avalon, NJ, with Jan’s cousin, Joe. It is warm and sunny, with people swimming and surfing, as Biarritz has become a favorite surfing destination. Like many resort cities, it is built in layers. First there is the gorgeous blue Atlantic. After that, Grande Plage, the beach, where the sand is soft and warm and people are both walking and laying on blankets, reading. The next level up from the beach is the Promenade, seen in the second and third photos…a walking area with restaurants, bars, retail stores, ice cream, and snacks. Lastly, the next level up is the street, with traffic, but also with more shops and outdoor cafes, as shown in the fourth photo.

The City of Biarritz was first “discovered” by Napoleon III. He bought some property on the dunes of Biarritz in 1854, as it was close to his wife Eugenie’s beloved home country of Spain (which is just 20 miles to the south). He built her a palace, the Villa Eugenie, which was the first version of what is now the Hotel du Palais, seen in the third photo. The original was badly burned in a 1903 fire, but it was rebuilt as a hotel. A frequent visitor was King Edward VII of the UK. After this, Biarritz became a fashionable resort destination for royalty and aristocrats. It became known as “the Queen of Resorts and the Resort of Kings,” and attracted movie stars, gangsters, and politicians, probably because the city also opened a casino on the beach! Beside the hotel, the other landmark seen in most Biarritz photos is its lighthouse, which is in the first photo. It dates to 1834, and its lenses to 1904, with a range of 26 miles.

In the sixth photo is the Rocher de la Vierge, the Virgin’s Rock. For centuries, that rock had been used for whale watching, but Napoleon III had a walkway built out to it, and he topped it with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The walkway is now metal, and you can walk out to the end, but it was closed today, so we could only take photos from the mainland.

The rest of the photos are of the beach with the rain clouds closing in, but that made it all the more dramatic. There are scenes from around town, some buildings we enjoyed, a statue in the middle of the city, and the “Halles,” which is the city’s daily fish, meat, cheese, and produce market. We bought some fabulous strawberries, different than those in the US. They are tastier, more fragile, and much softer to eat.

The fifth photo from the end is a memorial to those who died in the two world wars, which we find in most European cities. The loss is still felt. Fourth from the end is a colorful piece of zebra artwork that we liked. The photo after that was very funny…as we walked back from the beach, this urinal (urinoirs) was built into the side of a mountain, with a little archway, a waist-high wall, and three urinals inside, but no sink or towels…and not much privacy! And we want you to scroll down and see if you can guess what the photo after the urinal might be…it is a close-up of part of the last photo, and is made of actual grass! So unusual on a small street, and it made our day…a painting made of natural material!

The cutest towns always seem to be the ones you discover by accident, in passing. Saint-Girons qualified for that distinction today! It has an advantage in also being one bisected by a river, with pretty bridges connecting the two sides. The town is in an area called the Couserans, a forested area of southern France where the Gascony plains meet the Pyrenees. The river you see In the first few photos is the Salat, but it is joined upstream by the Lez River. There is a family of ducks swimming downstream in the second photo. We sat in a restaurant on the river, watching the ducks, and the sound of the water was the only noise we heard, our view that of the beautiful river on a warm and sunny day. The river was like glass…you can see the reflections of the bridge, buildings, and clouds very clearly! The Church of Saint-Girons was lovely, and bigger (inside and outside) than we imagined for such a small town. The bell tower dates to the 15th century, but the church dates only to the 19th. People were walking across the bridge with packages, but not hurrying. It was that kind of place. You just slow down and enjoy the river, the trees, the bridges, and views of the church.

There a few shots of the bridge, church, a beautiful colonnade of trees, some old buildings, and we found a monument in memory of those who died in the World War II Resistance/Deportation movement. The last photo looked quintessentially French to us, with shutters over the windows. We loved that they were purple!

Such an interesting place! Andorra La Vella is the highest-elevation capital city in Europe, at 3,356 feet. With a population at just over 20,000 people, it is the largest city in Andorra (though very small compared to most capital cities). Andorra, officially, is a principality, as it is a diarchy (no, we never heard that term, either) headed by two Co-Princes: the President of France and the Catholic bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain. Isn’t that so interesting?? The area was first settled in 9500 BC as a passing and resting place between the two sides of the Pyrenees. You can see that reality in many of the photos below: the city buildings have dramatic mountains on all sides. During World War II, Andorra remained neutral and served as an important smuggling route between Vichy France and Francoist Spain, with a black market network of propaganda, culture, and cinematic art. Andorra reminds us a lot of the time we spent in Liechtenstein several years ago. Another small country, its capital of Vaduz was similarly surrounded and nestled by mountains.

First up is a fountain we stumbled upon walking around that even most Andorrans miss: the Font del Cap de la Call. We love that the water spouts come out of their mouths. After that are photos of some of the streets and sights around the city, including a famous sculpture by Salvador Dali that has become one of the city’s most-visited places. Sitting in the Piazza Rotonda Andorra La Vella is the 16-foot-tall Nobility of Time, given to the city in 2010. It is reminiscent of Dali’s melting clocks in his more famous painting, Persistence of Memory. We were astounded that this valuable artwork is out in the open with no security, no prohibition against touching it. Amazing, as it had previously been on display in museums around the world.

There are five photos that we took on a hike into the mountains this morning, seeking out the Sola Irrigation Canal Trail. We walked up a very steep cobblestone path halfway up the mountain! Well, Mike did; Jan gave up about 3/4 of the way there, as her bad knee was feeling the pain, so to speak. You can see the views of the entire city from up above. Along the path are small gardens; we liked the one of the small shed with a pumpkin vine growing over it. A funny thing happened on the trail: we said Hola! to a couple passing us, and they said hi…we found out they were from Chicago! It is a very multicultural location, and the four languages that are the most spoken are Catalan, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The last two photos made us laugh. Kokosnot doesn’t really sound like a restaurant you would want to patronize, but it is high-end and one of the most expensive in the city. And look at the menu from a small snack bar in the last photo…a bikini for lunch, anyone??

Road trip! … to Andorra. Nope, not Tabitha’s grandmother on Bewitched (that’s Endora), but to the 17th smallest country in the world, sandwiched between Spain and France at an elevation of 3,356 feet in the Pyrenees. The Pyrenees extend for a length of about 305 miles to the Mediterranean.

You won’t believe this: the entire journey from hotel door to hotel door today was 122 miles. Easy trip, we thought, probably 2.5-3 hours with a stop for coffee and gas. Well, we left at 9:00 am and got into Andorra La Vella at 3:00 pm sharp! Six hours were eaten up by mountain roads, slow-moving traffic ahead of us, a 30-minute complete stop due to a crash up ahead, and an hour or more of creeping along as we went through immigration at the Spain-Andorra border. The border surprise? We drove right through…even though the immigration booths were staffed, nobody stopped us. We believe they were doing random stops. But traffic was slow once we entered Andorra, all the way to the center of the city.

We wouldn’t change a thing if we had to do it over, as driving through the Pyrenees was spectacular. We drove through numerous villages on a curvy, winding two-lane road. In some, there were Saturday markets, with stands overflowing with fruit and vegetables, and people everywhere. We passed lots of old stone farmhouses, still being used and cared for, and a million trees. It was glorious. The first two photos are from our first stop, as we spied this unusual bridge driving through the town of St. Joan de les Abedesses. We have never seen a bridge with a large central arch with two smaller arched “windows” on either side of the main arch. The trees obscure the right side of the bridge, but it is identical to the left. All of the other photos were taken along the way to give you an idea of what a road through the Pyrenees looks like. The last photo looked like the house was built just over the edge of a cliff! We found it very similar to driving through the Alps and the Rockies. A great day!

Sunny Spain! (We gained 35 degrees F with a four-hour flight!) Warm, green, welcoming, beautiful Spain…our first stop: Girona. Just 65 miles northeast of Barcelona, it is a medieval gem, so much so that Game of Thrones filmed Season 6 here, and the crew didn’t have very much to modify to make it look ancient. Founded in 79 BC at the confluence of three rivers, Girona has undergone 25 sieges and has been captured seven times. It has been occupied by the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Moors, among others, so its history is rather complicated. You would never know this looking at the first photo, though! It looks like tranquillity itself. We took a wonderful free tour today with Christian, of GuruWalk, seen below describing a wall in the old Jewish Quarter. He told us that the area in the first photo is filled with flowers during a spring floral festival, although we think it is perfect as it is.

Next up is the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Girona, with its magnificent 90 steps, gorgeous facade, and a bell tower with the oldest bell dating to 1574, still ringing today. We like the southern entrance, with those multiple arches emanating from the niches where the 12 apostles once stood, now lost for various reasons. The photo after the arch is interesting, as you can see Movie Magic at work. We were at the doors of the cathedral, looking down the 90 steps, and Christian is holding a photo from Game of Thrones, also looking down. You can see, in reality, that the bottom of the stairs meets a courtyard surrounded by buildings, but the series needed it to look like the stairs led to the sea. So, the buildings were photoshopped out, and the sea was photoshopped in! The next photo shows a photo of the same location, on the steps, where not much modification is necessary because the city setting is just about perfect. While this was not a film tour, there were many of those happening around us for fans of the series. The Old Town was shut down for two weeks during filming, which did not please a lot of the residents, but it means there is a treasure trove of locations to visit.

The three photos after that one are most interesting, as they are from the ancient Jewish Quarter, also known as the Call. There was a thriving Jewish population in Girona in the 12th century, but it all came to an abrupt end in 1492, when Jews were given the ultimatum: convert to Christianity, or be expelled from Spain. Most chose to leave, trying to sell their homes to Christians (who didn’t want to buy a home in the Call, as they feared being thought of as secret Jews). Others boarded up their doors and windows, thinking they might return some day. But Jews were threatened with execution if found in Spain! So in the first of these photos of the Call, you can see several stories of a building, while in the second, many steps lead up to the next area. All of this level of buildings was under the city for hundreds of years! The area, filled with cobbled streets and plazas, was gradually developed with people building on top and around it, and the residents eventually forgot that there had ever been a Jewish area/population there! The Call was lost until it was discovered in the 19th century, when excavations for a railroad to France unearthed a whole underground sector. In the last of this trio of photos, Christian is showing us a part of the wall that used to be a residential doorway, but was sealed over.

After those are some photos we liked from around the Old Town…a flowered shop, some narrow streets, a terrific chair outside a store (looking closely, you can see that it is chained to prevent theft), and then you see a red bridge. It is the Pont de les Peixateries Velles, the Old Fisherman’s Bridge. Dating to 1877, it was built 10 years earlier than another, more famous landmark by a man named Eiffel. Sound familiar? You can see construction similar to his other work inFrance, with all that ironwork and rivets. Then there are more city sights that we liked, including a building being used as a residence by a pigeon. The pool with the columns flooded by light from above is in the old Arab Baths, and the gorgeous colonnade walkway you see runs for three sides along the Placa de la Independencia. The giant foot with a better pedicure than ours is of St. Narcis, and you attract good luck if you touch the back of his foot. The photo after that (featuring Winnie and Stephen from Washington, DC), honors Girona as the city of flies (true!), and if you touch it you will receive a miracle of your choice…a very superstitious city!

We HAD to put in two photos of the Catalan separation/independence movement… many buildings and apartments were adorned with the Catalan flag, yellow ribbons, and various mottos and signs. Then there is the gelateria, Rocambolesc, a less expensive way to enjoy the wares of the Brothers Roca. Their restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, is considered the best in the world, is fully booked for the next 14 months, and a tasting menu begins at about $200 per person. So, their ice cream tops out at around $5, and it is heavenly. They sell lollipops honoring Game of Thrones and Darth Vader, among others. Their soft-serve ice cream is some of the best in the world. And, following the sign of their popsicles is a photo of their most expensive ice cream treat: panet. Start with a brioche bun, fill with your choice of ice cream and three toppings, lay it on a panini press for 20-30 seconds, and out comes an embossed treat that is hot and crispy on the outside, cold and creamy on the inside. Heavenly.

The last three photos show an interesting Catalan version of No Junk Mail; an unusual model wearing a hat; and the Spanish obsession: Ham. This was taken in a neighborhood grocery store. You can see four clamped pig legs, each costing a different amount depending on the quality of the ham, with their hooves still attached. The desired amount of ham is shaved off. There are hundreds more on the wall behind and on either side. It is prized by many, but we ordered a dinner on a previous trip to Barcelona, and we were chagrined that each slice was 60 percent fat to 40 percent meat, which is exactly what the Spaniards love about their beloved ham. We carefully cut off all the fat and ate only the meat, which probably drove the staff mad when they cleared our plates!

Art Nouveau. It was a style of art and architecture that lasted a short time, from about 1890 to 1914, ending with the start of World War I. You would recognize the style from Tiffany lamps, for example…lots of flowers, curved lines, nude sensuous women. There will never be another Art Nouveau building or item made, as art periods are defined by their dates of origin. You could create something in “Art Nouveau style,” or “Impressionism style,” but their dates define the real thing. Yet, in just over 20 years of Art Nouveau, the then-wealthy city of Riga had more than 800 Art Nouveau buildings constructed, mostly between 1904 and 1914! Its most prolific designer, as seen in the breathtaking building in the first photo, was Mikhail Eisenstein, a civil engineer (not an architect) who created about half of the 800 Art Nouveau buildings in Riga.

After showing each building in its totality, we tried to get closeups of the detail. It was hard, as some of these gorgeous buildings are on narrow streets; no matter how far back we stood, it wasn’t always far enough to shoot the entire building. The neat thing about Eisenstein’s buildings is that, as an engineer, he used a lot of decoration that looked like bolts and rivets…items of his trade! We commented that the world is so fortunate to have these buildings still there, sitting like gifts after 100 years. Luckily, only one of the Art Nouveau buildings was destroyed in World War II.

Something we learned on our tour is that Art Nouveau attempted to create buildings based on their function (you’ve heard of form follows function?), designing from the inside out. Rather than a building having exactly similar windows on the outside, an Art Nouveau building might have a very large window for the living room, to include a lot of sunlight, while a bathroom or bedroom might have a small, or high, window. After each room was designed, the artwork was the frosting on the cake, so to speak.

There is a closeup below of a building we showed in our last post, with flowers, a sun, green vines, and lots of gold around a doorway. We were told that this is very un-Latvian. They are not a colorful, outgoing, sunny, happy people…rather, they are introverted, they like dark plain colors, and they always expect it to be cold and rainy. This was said proudly, by the way. That colorful building is up for sale in the Old Town, which you might think would command a hefty price, but not in Latvia. People would rather buy, and live, in houses away from the tourists and the noise. So, at the asking price of 1.5 million euros, the building has sat unsold for quite some time. Do you see the brown, dreary, Gothic-looking building below that needs a facelift and some paint??? Believe it or not, THAT is an Art Nouveau building designed by a native Latvian, and they believe it is more of an example of their culture and mindset.

After all these gorgeous buildings and details are some other pictures from walking around the city…the Powder Tower, Riga Nativity of Christ Orthodox Cathedral, and the Freedom Monument. The last three photos are from Bastejkalna parks, across the street from Old Town and right on the middle of the city. Isn’t it peaceful and pretty? It is hard to imagine that it is surrounded by traffic, roads, tour groups, noise, and daily life. It must be exactly as it looked 100 years ago, prior to modern life.

After rain. After rain, everything seems to take on a poignancy and tenderness, as if…yay!…we survived! And so, our first picture of Riga, below, is our favorite, taken about 5:00 pm after raining all day, and it looks ageless, like it could have been taken in almost any of the past decades. Because it is so far north, soon 5:00 pm will be total darkness, all through the winter. However, it does mean that in summer, the sun lasts until about midnight.

Riga is wonderful! It is the largest of all the cities in the Baltics, and has become one of our favorites…you can see from the photos why that is so. There are still a lot of tourists out and about, even though when we began our free city tour this morning, it was 42 degrees F (5 degrees C)…and, as usual, Mike was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Nobody else in the entire city was without long pants and a jacket, and our young, robust tour guide said he couldn’t even look at Mike! By the way, Mike was never cold and said the weather temperature was just fine.

Riga feels very youthful, very alive…there are tons of cafes, bars, clubs, and restaurants in its Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are many Guild Halls around the Old Town, as Riga was a founding member of the Hanseatic League. There are also medieval churches and many small cobblestone streets that lead directly to the next church or plaza. The architecture is stunning, as Riga had many wealthy residents from the late 1800s into the early 1900s – right at the height of Art Nouveau. As they built their homes and businesses, they had enough money to design them with the most stylish artwork of the day. The city has more than 800 Art Nouveau buildings, more than any other city in the world. There are a few mixed in with today’s photos, but we are taking a specialized tour tomorrow focusing on those buildings, so look for them in our next blog.

The cream-colored building straight ahead in the first photo is shown in a closeup in the second, and again in the third. It was used in the 1930s for political speeches and rallies, but the entire plaza you see in the third photo was filled with buildings. After the 1934 coup, the autocrat Karlis Ulmanis had the ancient buildings removed so that people could gather for his speeches. The bricks in the plaza all are set in different patterns, denoting the building they replaced. The upside of this is, it is now a city gathering space for spring concerts, summer beach volleyball (yes, they bring in sand!), and Christmas markets complete with a community Christmas tree.

The fourth photo is the take-your-breath-away moment you experience when you turn the corner from a side street and enter Town Hall Square. It is the House of the Blackheads, first built in 1334, modified a few times, destroyed in a German bombing raid in 1941, and rebuilt slowly over the years, finally completed in 1999. Some locals object to the inscription on the top of the building, “Renovated 1999,” as it isn’t a renovation, but a complete reconstruction. Only the archaeological ruins in the basement are original. Nonetheless, it is magnificent. The closeups following it are of the Madonna and Child, gracing the entrance on the left, and then St. Mauritius (the martyr…the literal black head after whom the guild was named, as an honor in the 1330s) on the right. Following St. Mauritius is Town Hall, which sits across from the Blackheads House, beautiful in its own right but overshadowed by its neighbor.

Okay, so what else is here? Well, next up are some narrow streets opening into views of medieval spires on churches and other buildings, followed by some neat statues and a relief. The first statue is called The Ghost, by Ieva Rubeze, commissioned in 2015 as a public art work. The armadillo walking up a staircase was meant to be a whimsical part of an urban playground for kids. Our tour guide asked if anyone was from Texas before saying, “This is the most American story I have. After talking about the armadillo statue, a woman said, ‘I am from Texas, and armadillos are very destructive…they come into our backyards and root through our trash cans. And even if you shoot them, the bullets just bounce off of their shells…you can’t even kill them!'”

Following the sculptures are some of our favorite buildings from around Old Town, including churches, storefronts, and residential, which are all just so lovely. In that bunch is a photo of the old city wall, cut off mid-arch. Our guide said that the houses and buildings in the city were built over, and incorporating, the ancient city walls into them. Archaeologists would love to do a comprehensive survey of the city walls to assess what remains, but they would have to access most of the homes and dig in everyone’s basement, so sadly, it is not doable.

After all the building photos, we hit the river…the Daugava River, which comes in directly from the Baltic Sea, bisects Riga, and helped the city become so prosperous as an important trade center, since it runs through Belarus and into Russia. Doesn’t the boat cruise look so peaceful, with the ducks in its wake? Then we came to the Central Market, which had everything! There was a hall with many food stands, as well as large meat, cheese, and bread venues. Next up was a hall filled with vegetable vendors, followed by a hall with meat and seafood, but being on the Baltic, there was much more fish…and caviar!….for sale than there was meat. We were looking for blueberries, as we always are, and were disappointed until we went outside and discovered the fresh fruit market. We bought gorgeous, large, sweet, local blueberries for just $2.50 for a good-sized container.

The hall shown in the photo was the first one, with cheese and breads for sale. If you can see the writing and drawing on the colored glass window straight ahead, it says Riga Central Market and shows a zeppelin. The market is a re-purposing of old 1920s German zeppelin hangars, and works wonderfully as a vibrant, clean, and modern-looking market, attracting 100,000 shoppers per day. Following that photo are some of the foods and food signs we found there. The first is a bread oven, where you can see the bread cooking on the side walls! The worker was starting to remove those that were done. Next up, some dumplings, or Russian pelmenyi (the same as pierogi or potstickers)…but look at the varieties: duck confit with chestnut cream; multi-color rabbit meat; matcha sturgeon; and, black seafood. Then there is popcorn soup, followed by traditional Latvian rye bread parfait with cranberry sauce…yes, that is a chunk of rye bread on the bottom as the dessert base. Next is traditional Latvian cream pea soup in a rye bread bowl. Bread is sacred in the Baltics. At the market, we must have seen 40-50 varieties of just rye bread in just one vendor’s offerings, and there was a long line of people waiting to purchase it. The bread was in long cases, some sliced, wrapped in plastic wrap, and it looked like a deli, as that is also how they keep deli meat fresh. The last photo is to make you have a smile on your face when you finish reading this post!

Klaipeda, Lithuania is a port city on the Baltic Sea and is close to many large cities and world capitals. It is just south of Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia; around the corner from Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia; and just across the Baltic from Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Shipping and trading over the centuries ensured that ports in each country were available all along the sea.

We have only a few photos, as there was a bit of rain on and off while we were here. The photos are of the Drama Theater and the square it is in, along with two shots of one of the canals along the Baltic and a shot along one of the major streets in Old Town. We caught a woman wearing skeleton garb crossing the street, but we think it is her everyday coat, not in anticipation of Halloween. It is quite cold here in the northern parts of Europe, and has been since we entered Poland two weeks ago. Everyone is wearing long pants, sweaters, and jackets, even though it was technically summer until two days ago!

The second and third pictures from the end are from breakfast yesterday. One of several items we ordered was scrambled eggs. You can see the menu entry for scrambled eggs for 2.5 euros, along with what you can order with it. When the eggs came, they were as shown in the following photo. We told the server that they were not scrambled eggs. Startled, she asked what they were, as nobody had ever told her that. We told her they would be called fried eggs, or sunny side up. She burst out laughing and said….what??? We explained how the yolk looked like a sun, and it hit her. She ran to get some paper and a pen so that she could write down all these wonderful (crazy?) American terms and present them to her boss so that he could fix the menu!

The last picture is in the Klaipeda Central Bus Station…get your ice milky shake here…except, if you look closely at the offerings, it is all types of coffee drinks and one water!

Today we decided to get away from history and seriousness and just enjoy looking at creepy objects, so we visited – get ready for a mouthful! – the Zmuidzinavicius Museum. It is much better known as the Devil’s Museum. We had heard that Kaunas has a lot of quirky museums, and this one was close to our hotel, as well as something fun for us, as we so enjoy horror movies. Antanas Zmuidzinavicius lived from 1876 to 1966. He had been collecting devil statues and images during his lifetime, and upon his death in 1966 left 260 devil objects. A museum was opened in his home to display them, but people began to donate to the museum, and today it has more than 3,000 items. Worldwide, more than 5,000 legends and folk tales mention the devil. In Lithuania, there are about 400 places named for the devil, such as Devil’s Hole, Devil’s Bog, and Devil’s Swamp.

The devil with two legs crushing him in the third photo is especially noteworthy, as it is from Holy Trinity Church in Laizuva, a Lithuanian city near the Latvian border. Sculpted in the late 18th century, it is taken from the Altar of Michael the Archangel, ordered by God to trample the rebellious devil into hell. It was given to Mr. Zmuidzinavicius by the parson of the church in 1914, who sawed off the legs and the trampled devil from the rest of the large sculpture, as it couldn’t be taken to Kaunas by train in its entirety.

We will let you just look at many depictions in the photos that follow, although in the museum they were arranged broadly by subject matter, country, or folklore stories, which were most amusing. You will see sculptures and masks; the devil caught in the act of killing, as well as, once again, being killed by Michael the Archangel; devils made of wood, glass, ceramic, and fibers; devils made to be cups; part of a 1958 devil dinnerware set; devils playing the accordion…hmmmm, what does that tell us?….but no offense to polka bands or Cousin Joe; devils on the restroom doors; and finally, we end with a cute devil sign on the front lawn….we are not sure what the prohibition is, do you know?

We had been told by several Lithuanians that the Old Town in Kaunas was quite different than that in Vilnius – older, more intact, more medieval, just “different” – and it is! The stone streets are extremely bumpy and uneven, with some areas sinking in, feeling like they have been there for centuries. Buildings have both Dutch and German ornamentation. There are lots of flowers everywhere, and naturally, lots of churches. The city was founded at the confluence of the Neris and Neman Rivers. Jan’s maternal grandfather was born here in 1889, and left with his father for the US in 1900, so we wondered if he had walked on the same streets and would recognize the older buildings if he were still alive. It is a good feeling to think of sharing those memories of the past in the present day.

The churches! First up is the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, first mentioned in the year 1413. It doesn’t look like there is room for one more statue or one more speck of gold….quite a feast for the eyes! The second photo is of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Church of Vytautus the Great, consecrated in the year 1400, and an important example of classic Gothic architecture in Lithuania. The third photo is St. Francis Xavier Church, dating to 1722, and a stone’s throw away across Town Hall Square from the cathedral! Its spires are the ones you see in subsequent photos of the Old Town.

The fourth church is St. Michael the Archangel, dating to 1895. Built as an Orthodox Church, during the Soviet years it was used as an art gallery, and today it is a Roman Catholic Church. It is at the beginning – or end – of a very long pedestrian walkway, some of which is presently under construction. The walkway (and church) can be seen below in the photos from around town. The fifth photo is not a church, but is Kaunas City Hall, known as “the white swan,” set in between two of the Old Town churches!

Following Town Hall is a gorgeous Gothic brick building, Perkunas House. Read the description in the following photo as to the house’s importance. After that is a courtyard at the College of St. Ignatius of Loyola with beautiful, unusual planters backed up by Angels’ Trumpet flowers, followed by several photos from around the city, including some of the flowers along our route. The weather alternated between very dark and cloudy and sunshine! It finally rained as we walked back to our hotel, but alternated all day long.

There is a photo of the Neman River with the sentiment, “Together, We Love Kaunas.” That is followed by…???…we don’t know! It is a large stone with a wheel on one side, sitting on a corner in Old Town. Several people had gathered around, asking what it was. There was no sign and no information we could find on the internet, so we are not sure. Following that is a photo that looks mighty strange. Can you guess what it is? Black coconut ice cream with raspberry sauce and berries! It tasted great…lots of coconut, but made our lips and tongues black for a few hours. We end with – ahem – a famous Shakespeare quotation. You surely will recognize it.

The Motherland….Lithuania…..at least for Jan, whose grandparents were born in Lithuania and immigrated to the United States around 1900. So many things are making more sense about the foods she ate growing up, about talking with her grandparents and learning various Lithuanian words, and about other family traditions. When you are a child, you accept everything as normal until you find out that what is normal for you is not necessarily so for everybody!

So our first stop is Vilnius, the capital city, which was founded near the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia Rivers. The city’s history is long and complicated. At one time, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. But you know all about attacks, occupations by other countries, and takeovers….they happen. The country has had historical affiliations with Russia, Poland, the German Empire, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany, among others. Lithuania celebrates two dates of independence: February 16, 1918 was Restoration of the State Day, and March 11, 1990 is the Restoration of Independence Day. Lithuania was the first former Soviet country to break away in 1990, and all the others followed as the Soviet Union disintegrated.

There are a LOT of photos today, and we won’t get to describe all of them or tell all the stories, or this will be a book! But we are starting with buildings, and the first three are noteworthy. First up is the National Library, which looks so proud and regal, and the Lithuanian flag and EU flag are flying alongside it. Next up is Gothic St. Anne’s Church, with a great story. When Napoleon visited Vilnius in 1812, legend says that he was so taken with the church that he said he wanted to carry it in his palm back to Paris, as it was so beautiful. There is no historical documentation of that, however, but he did actually write to his wife that Vilnius was very beautiful. The third photo is the former Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Consolation, an Augustinian Catholic Church. Of the many churches in Old Town, only four escaped closure during the Soviet occupation. Not only did Masses cease, but the remaining churches were ransacked, desecrated, and put to other uses such as warehouses, sports halls, and museums. So now the city is still figuring out how to either restore these former churches or re-purpose them. So, this church in the third photo has a chapel on the top floor, used for Mass; a meeting hall for AA and other meetings; and the plans are for a coffee shop/music venue in the basement staffed by disabled people. They don’t need as many churches as previously, and the only other option is the wrecking ball, so they are trying to preserve their heritage by keeping the churches in operation somehow.

After the many photos of churches, we come to the Republic (Res Publika) of Uzupis, a bohemian artists’ area smack in the middle of Old Town Vilnius that means the other side of the river, meaning the Vilnia River. It is quite the place, huh? They couldn’t really call themselves a government entity such as republic, so they broke the word in half, and it means “a public thing.” The symbols on the sign mean you must always smile in Uzupis; the speed limit is 20 kph; it is for artists; and, be careful not to drive into the river! After that are photos of some of the artwork and Backpacker Jesus, or, as others claim, Parachuter Jesus. Do you love the swing over the Vilnia River? We wondered if anyone had ever used it, and how they got on it!

The yellow sign means No Parking, and do you see the car being run over with a tank on the bottom? That came from a viral video in 2011, where it looked like the mayor of Vilnius at the time ran over illegally parked cars with a tank. It was reported as serious news until it was found that it was a doctored video made for a TV show. But, 8 years later, the symbol is still being used as a tongue-in-cheek reminder of no parking. The set of teeth you see was mounted on a wall with many other objects, and is meant to remind us not to be “bitten” by criticism from others.

The photo after the metal pig is of Ieva, our fabulous Old Town guide on a Free Walking Tour, which we have joined in several cities. She was probably the most interesting, and best, that we have ever had. The photo is of restaurant tables purposely set out on the street so that cars can’t drive through, making the street a pedestrian walkway. She told us that Lithuanians are mad about their cars and will drive them down any small, winding alley, no matter how impossible. It was nice walking there without worrying about cars coming up behind us.

After that are squares, statues, shops, and street scenes so that we could just give you a sense of the city. Then you see a storefront with a model wearing a shirt with…Los Angeles, California??? They are wild for US items here. We put it in because we have noticed in every single country we have been to…all 101 of them!…we have yet to see a t-shirt or hoodie in any language except English! Especially popular are sports teams…in English, even if the team is in Japan or South Korea! Amazing. Most of the music in restaurants and malls is also in English.

The third photo from the end is Lithuania’s most famous soup, cold red beet soup with hot potatoes on the side, or what many travelers call “that good pink soup.” It is sweet/vinegary, with sour cream in it, and so far we have had it every day…it is that good!…AND Jan’s Mom always made it, but Jan thought it was something her mom invented, not knowing it was practically the national soup of Lithuania. Second to last photo: in Snekutis Pub, where we had the soup and four other ethnic delights, there is a breathalyzer machine at the exit. Yes, for one euro, you can discover how drunk you are! If you were very drunk, however, it probably wouldn’t occur to you to test your breath. Just sayin’. The last photo is also a machine, seen in the Vilnius Bus Station. You can buy soft contact lenses from a vending machine! One pair for 5 euros, or 6 pairs for 20 euros. It seems that here, you don’t need a prescription for contact lenses. We were astonished. At a bus station. Bausch and Lomb. Yikes. We ♥️ Lithuania!

That famous city, Bialystok, you have heard of it? Not so much? It is the tenth-largest city in Poland and is second in terms of population density. Located on the Biala River, it is close to Poland’s border with Belarus and Lithuania. In fact, we had to be sure to schedule a bus from here to Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, that did NOT go to Grodno in Belarus, even though the route is more direct by cutting through the northwest corner of Belarus. Americans may only enter the country through its international airport, as we read in several different places, so we don’t know what would happen if we were mindlessly on a bus or train that traveled through Belarus. Anyway, we are only here overnight to break up the long journey between Warsaw and Vilnius. But we have been surprised, as the city has an old town area and some very charming sights.

First up in the photos is Branicki Palace, completed in the early 18th century by a wealthy nobleman. Like so many places in Poland, the original building was burned to the ground by the retreating Germans in 1944, but the exterior was faithfully restored to its former glory. The second picture is of the entryway, the Griffin Gate, followed by a statue of Hercules fighting a dragon at the entrance. Next up is a glimpse of the (get ready, it’s a mouthful) Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seen from Branicki Palace, followed by a full frontal shot of its facade in all its magnificence. And of course, after that is a shot of its beautiful interior and one of the stained glass windows.

Afar the church photos is one of a pretty yellow and white building that we thought was probably Town Hall, as it was on the square and looked very historic. We don’t know what it was originally (the text was all in Polish), but it is now a kindergarten. The photo following that one, at the end of the square, is the actual Town Hall, with its pretty orange roof and spire. Next up is a frame in the middle of the square to take a fun photo of the old town. We are seeing these in more and more cities, and they make for a good photo. That is followed by some buildings we liked around the town as we walked, and we end with flowers, as they were everywhere. The white-flowered shrub was about 5 feet tall and looked really nice in front of the cathedral. The last two were across the street from one another. We don’t know who inspired who, but it made for a nice surprise when we looked up to see all that color!

There used to be a Polish restaurant in Santa Monica/LA, California called Warsawa. It is how we discovered that Warsawa is the Polish word for their capital city, Warsaw. Jan’s favorite food on earth is pierogi, a pillow of soft dough filled with potatoes and cheese, boiled, and topped with onions. Last night’s version here in the “original place” are shown in the first photo, and it cost $4 US for nine pierogi. At the CA restaurant, today called Solidarity, it costs $6 for two. We also had stuffed cabbage for $5 and a bowl of borscht for $2. Do you see where we are going with this? Poland is a very inexpensive place to live. We also want to a movie at the Kinoteka, shown in the second photo. It is inside the Palace of Culture and Science, not necessarily because movies can be cultural, but rather, we guess that there was money to be made by renting out portions of the “Palace.” Anyway, we spent $8 US at the theater, and do you know what we got for that amount? Two movie tickets, a large popcorn, and a Diet Coke. In the US, those items would amount to almost $40! By the way, if you are traveling extensively and speak English, it is really nice to relax with a current American movie every once in a while. In most countries, the movie will play in its original English with subtitles in a country’s native language. The box office folks always know a movie’s primary language.

The third photo is the front of the building as seen from across the street. Great looking building. After that are two views of the Royal Castle, which fronts Castle Square. It is now a museum. Having been looted and burned to the ground by the Nazis in 1944 after the failed Warsaw Uprising, it was rebuilt during the 1970s and early 1980s. After those photos are a few of Old Town Market Square, which was pretty lively both during the day and at night. Up and down the streets of Old Town were groups of musicians, sometimes with singers, but always with at least one accordion, competing for attention and some zloty. We heard several polkas!

The church shown after the Lighted Balloon Man is St. John’s Archcathedral, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, and is immediately adjacent to Warsaw’s Jesuit Church. In the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans rammed a tank filled with explosives into the cathedral and blew it up, destroying most of it. In the parts that were still standing, they drilled holes in the walls and placed explosives to essentially finish off the cathedral. Rebuilt after WWII, the unusual design of the top is based on how the original 14th century church looked. The inside has soaring brick ribs along with numerous chapels that are quite modern, as shown. We were there for a noon organ recital today, which was excellent. The pipe organ dates to 1987 and has 4,301 pipes.

As usual, following the church are buildings whose design, artwork, or statues we liked. The citadel is Fort Legionow, near one end of Old Town. The last two photos were fun to see….dressing up in period dress so that their friends could take photos, and another guy hanging out at the Castle Inn!

Here we go again! We are a little obsessed with Prague, mostly because we wish we had scheduled more time here. But we will return for a longer period of time in the future and indulge our Czech obsession.

There are two famous towers in Prague, and they are shown in the first two photos. The Powder Tower at night is most dramatic and imposing, as shown in the first photo. Henry’s Tower, with the clock, shown in the second photo during the day, is equally dramatic. Both have those famous Prague spires! The third photo is a repeat of yesterday’s first photo, but shown at night…realize that there are no lights on the spires; the gold “helmets” gleaming are just reflecting the light. Pretty nice, huh?

The next two photos are of St. Giles Church, where we attended a concert last night of famous organ toccatas (by Bach, Boellmann, and Widor) along with a string quartet playing some audience favorites such as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Ravel’s Bolero. If you love movies, and have a really sharp eye, you will recognize St. Giles as the setting for Mozart’s wedding in Amadeus! After the church is a shot of the National Museum, which sits at the end of Wenceslas Square, which really is just a grand avenue of shops, parks with benches, and restaurants, as seen in context in the photo that follows it.

And, of course, what else could follow all of that except some gorgeous buildings from around the city that caught our eyes? And the last photo, which is usually our favorite due to subject matter or playfulness, is one of this guy hanging around as we approached the church for last night’s concert.

Praha. Prague. “City of Spires.” And it certainly is, as you can see in many of the photos! Prague has been settled since the Paleolithic Age. Its extensive historic center has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1992. Incredibly, it is the fourth most-visited European city after London, Paris, and Rome! That means it receives more visitors than…Madrid, Barcelona, Dublin, Berlin, Florence, Vienna… places that are historic and also very memorable. But, we must say, we are not surprised, as there were hordes of tourists wherever we went over the past few days. We did a long tour through Europe in 2015, and Prague was near or at the top of our favorites, precisely because it is so beautiful, grand, and historic. The Old Town has cobblestone streets and sidewalks, and as we walked, we talked about the workers who placed the cobblestones so very many years ago. It must have been backbreaking work, as there are many miles of stonework. There are shops, restaurants, and cafes along all the streets, main routes and alleyways alike. We came across many puppet shops, a Czech specialty, as well as lots of Bohemia glasswork and amber jewelry. Popular Czech foods are local goulash, grilled meats with vegetables, and of course, hamburgers and pizza. We had some fairly good Mexican food last night with some spicy salsa, which reminded us of California. And everywhere, as you will see below, there are “chimney cakes” for dessert. Dough is wrapped around a cone-shaped piece of metal and deep fried, then rolled in cinnamon sugar. It used to be eaten just like that, as a donut, which you could peel off in strips. But they have upped their game today. It is now used as a better-than-a-waffle ice cream cone, filled with soft-serve or hard-packed ice cream. Or, you can get it filled with strawberries, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream; apples and whipped cream; with chocolate sauce over ice cream or berries, or both….you get the picture! The more you pile on, the more you pay, but everybody was walking around eating one of the versions, and taking a photo with the poster, as you can see in one of our photos.

The magnificent first photo looks like a Gothic castle out of Grimm’s fairy tales, but it is a church that looms over the Old Town Square: Church of Our Lady before Tyn, sporting soaring 260-foot medieval towers. The church dates from the 14th century, and not only has amazing towers; architecturally speaking, the exterior also has octagonal helmets, galleries, four corner turrets, gables, and rows of phial tops. Its name comes from its location just before the Tyn courtyard. It, along with St. Nicholas Church and Old Town Hall, now dominates the Old Town Square. The second and third photos are of St. Nicholas Church, followed by four of the square’s activity. The eighth is of the Prague Orloj, the oldest astronomical clock still operating in the world, dating from 1410. The photo after that is of the clock’s home, Old Town Hall, still a magnificent tower building. After that are a few buildings that we just really liked. The giant panda and gorilla (wearing a sash that naughtily says Miss Prague 2019) are staples in the square, and their faces are actually in the mesh on the costumes’ chests, which means they are top-heavy; as they stand there, they gently sway back and forth. Yes, it was hot and they must have been roasting inside, but yes, also, there was a donation box in front of each of them. We must note that the activity, hustle, bustle, and variety of things happening in Old Town Square are just amazing. First, there are hundreds of people. Then there are many more people sitting in cafes drinking, eating, and observing. And, in addition to the costumed animals, there are several people with giant wands blowing soap bubbles all over; street buskers playing accordions, a violin trio, a Big Band singer; people sitting wherever they can and just enjoying the scene; everyone is taking photos; and some people are taking videos of it all. It is busy, and wild, and wonderful!

After the giant animals is a closeup of one of the towers flanking the end of the Charles Bridge, arguably Prague’s most famous and most beloved landmark, followed by one of 30 statues that line the route along the bridge from Old Town to the Lesser Quarter (which, by the way, looks just like more of the old town). You can see by the size of the statue that these are immense, not dainty small sculptures. Crossing the bridge is like walking on a wide street. Completed at the beginning of the 15th century, Charles Bridge’s construction began under King Charles IV. It spans the Vltava River, but has only been called Charles Bridge since 1870. After the statue is the bridge from upriver, and a view of Prague Castle, which survived WWII along with the bridge. The two following photos are approaching the Lesser Quarter through a wonderful arch, opening into more shops.

The next photo is called the Narrowest Street in Prague, as noted on tourist sites and even Google Maps. But as we photographed it and waited to enter, a tour guide told his group that it was actually just an entryway into a restaurant, cleverly promoted by the owner to get people to come! And…it worked! We had to wait for two huge tour groups to move along before we could get close. The last five photos are the fun ones….a puppet shop, a beautiful toy store, a whipped cream chimney cake (as described above), and….what is that next to last photo? Looks weird, huh? Actually, it is from a candy store and is of silver candy-covered almonds. The last photo was too good not to post. It is a Mexican restaurant menu….look at what they call an “Outstanding exotic meal!” and “Recommended to eat by hands!” You might think the year was 1919, not 2019!

Where to start? Vienna is magical, beautiful, fun, classic, classy, sophisticated, cozy….anything you want it to be, you will find here! The buildings are astounding, the taxis, Ubers, and subways easy to find and use, the food is absolutely delicious (think Wiener schnitzel and apple strudel!), the people warm and charming. It is everything you hope for when you travel. Known as the City of Music, there are posters for concerts everywhere you look, and even many people in Mozart costumes hawking tickets as you pass by them!

Evidence indicates that Vienna has been inhabited since 500 BC, when Celts settled on the Danube River. The city was heavily bombed in early 1945 by the Allies, destroying most of the Opera House and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, both proud symbols of the city and both seen in our photos. A total of 80,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Vienna in February and March, 1945, destroying more than 12,000 buildings and leaving 270,000 people homeless. But it has been rebuilt, of course, and most buildings look as if they have been nestled in for centuries.

The first seven photos are of the Opera House. We have been in Vienna several times over the last few years and always seek out sights we missed on previous visits. So, this time we were going to tour the Opera House. To our chagrin, the only days it was closed for tours this month were the five days we are here! When we mentioned that to our friends Filip and Milada, Filip said he would take us in and give us a tour, as he is a musician in the Vienna Philharmonic and had rehearsal there this morning. And so, we were the only ones in the concert hall! It was amazing, as we got to stand in the orchestra pit and walk to all the levels to take photos. So, you can see the beauty and grandeur of the building in the first three photos, and then the small plywood room with a chair and monitor, where someone sits to provide help for singers if they forget the words of a song! This is just behind the orchestra, under the stage. The room with the five chandeliers is where potential members of the orchestra audition. The jury is behind the wall at the very end, so they are only listening for technique, precision, etc., and not judging by who the person is. We asked Filip, “Were you very nervous when you auditioned?” He answered, “Of course, yes!”

After the Opera photos are several of the Votivkirche…the Votive Church, which is also known as a Thank You Church, constructed around the world as thanks to God for some terrible event being thwarted. In this instance, it was thanks for the life of the Emperor Franz Joseph I following an unsuccessful assassination attempt. It is quite startling, approaching the church from down the street, to think you see a gigantic beer advertisement over the front facade of the church, and then to get closer and realize that you are not crazy…it is a beer ad! But then, walking around the side, you notice the gargoyles and the gorgeous Baroque gingerbread decoration on the top of the church. The inside is magnificent, too…a high vaulted ceiling with paintings, statues, and older stained glass windows, with new richly colored windows below.

After the church, off to the amusement park, Prater Park. It is one of the remaining parks that are free to enter (as Disneyland was, at one time), and you buy tickets for the rides that you wish to enjoy. It has two Ferris wheels, so we all went on the higher, bigger one on a cloudy day so that from the top we could get that iconic shot of the Riesenrad, the 1897-ish Ferris wheel featured in several movies, most notably, Orson Welles’ The Third Man. We say 1897-ish because the original was bombed and destroyed in WW II, but was such a beloved sight in the city that it was rebuilt and reopened in 1947, albeit with fewer cars. The cars can be rented for parties or romantic dinners! Always a new way to make a buck…. The photo following it is one of the weird sculptures around the park. Every building seemed to be decorated with statues that were freaky, scary, or unusual. But it didn’t seem to faze the children too much, as even though it was cloudy and rainy with creepy sculptures, there were many children around! We had dinner at the Rollercoaster Restaurant, a giant room with (small) roller coaster tracks overhead. You order your food on an iPad (no servers present), and it is made and packed in the kitchen and sent to your table on tiny roller coaster cars that careen down from the ceiling, right to your table! The children delighted in that aspect, as well as the frequent light/music shows, but we old folks also found it to be fun.

After the Prater Park photos is the another Vienna icon, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, in the heart of the city. Known around the world as Stephandom, it was first built in the 10th century, burned down in a fire, and was rebuilt with various towers and additions over the centuries. As you can see, it is impressive both inside and outside. As we mentioned previously, it was bombed and caught fire in WWII, destroying the roof and much of the building. By 1952, it had been restored and reopened. It is known for its tiled roof, and inside, look at those columns! They are also carved and decorated, making them both functional and beautiful.

Following the photos of St. Stephen’s are just an array of gorgeous buildings we noticed as we walked around Vienna. As we said in a previous post, we are always looking UP, and we see buildings topped with statues, paintings, mosaics, gold detail….stunning stuff that we would otherwise miss. We don’t know what all the buildings are, we just like them. Let them wash over you as you just enjoy the sights. The last photo is of Karlskirche, the church of St. Charles Borromeo, completed in 1737. Considered the most outstanding baroque church in Vienna, it also is a Votive Church, built by Charles VI after a plague epidemic, as St. Charles was considered the patron saint and healer of plague sufferers. It is most impressive, set on a large square with a fountain, and benches ringing the fountain. It was really nice to be able to sit and enjoy the people and sights for a while. In traveling full time, we often have the need for somewhere to sit, but more often than not, public seating is not provided by cities. We assume it is because they want us to patronize a business and buy a drink and a seat, so it is a very welcome treat when benches invite us in!

Czech Republic, you say? Where is that? There is a Czechia on the map, but no Czech Republic! Well….there are disagreements over the country’s official name dating to 1992, when in the so-called velvet divorce, Czechoslovakia divided into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Czechia was put forth as a name, but rejected as sounding too much like Chechnya. But in April 2016, the country’s president pushed through a bill officially changing the name to…Czechia. The only problem is, citizens still call it the Czech Republic, or, like our Czech friends Filip and Milada, just call it Czech. The president’s own website, more than three years later, still refers to the Czech Republic! So, we felt entitled to use it in our title, too!

Our friend Filip picked us up on Saturday morning and drove us to his family’s summer/weekend home, just over the Austrian border in….well, Czech! They bought a former pension, a small hotel with a few apartments, but only for their own use. It is in the town of Slup, and has several apartment buildings and barn in addition to their home, a huge courtyard, and lots of acreage, with peach and apricot trees (they just made a batch of apricot schnapps that was quite powerful!), and two resident wild boars who are very friendly and calm. In fact, the boars tend to run when they see the two older children, as they like to jump on, and ride their backs!

So, first up in the photos is the idyllic back of the family’s property, with a small pond, bench, and part of the fence whose posts are topped with hundreds of upside-down mugs! It is also the area where the boars reside, and they forage food for themselves when the family is back in Vienna, where their main residence is. After these first two photos is an ancient water mill in the town of Slup, built in 1512 in the Renaissance style. Also shown are three of its four undershot water wheels. It is built on the Dyje River, also shown in the pretty scene following the shots of the mill.

The beautiful church, up next, is St. Nicholas in the city of Znojmo, built high up on the bluff a short distance across from Znojmo Castle. It contains what is said to be the remains of St. Boniface, excavated from the Roman catacombs, and they have dressed the skeleton in bejeweled period clothing. The photo following the full glass casket is a closeup of his skull. After that is a unique painting, that of a pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary, which is seldom depicted in art. The photo after that is of the adjacent St. Wenceslas Chapel (St. Wenceslas is the patron saint of the Czech Republic). On the ceiling are actual statues, not paintings – you can see that they cast a shadow! And the highly stylized date is there, 1602. From a walkway along the right side of the chapel are breathtaking views of the mountainside covered with houses and vineyards, looking down to the Dyje River.

The last nine photos are just typical scenes of the city that we enjoyed…buildings, streets, flower-filled homes and windows, walkways, a male angel looking over his kingdom, a fountain honoring St. Wenceslas with the clearest water we have ever seen, and a checkered eagle that is part of the Czech Republic’s coat of arms, depicting the Moravian eagle. After 10 months away from the US, it was a very special day with a great family showing us around and allowing us a day of play and laughter with their three children, who never once cried, whined, or complained. It was one of our most delightful days of travel so far, sheer delight.

So, there used to be cities called Pest, Obuda, and Buda in Hungary. They combined to become Budapest in November 1873…but everybody knows that, right? The city is bisected by the beautiful Danube River, although today it is green, not blue. But it is still a vibrant part of the area’s history and beauty. There are dinner, lunch, wine, and coffee cruises! Hungary is the country of paprika, Magyars, half of the Austro-Hungarian Dynasty (1867-1918), Zsa Zsa Gabor, wines, specialized meats…the country is very proud of its contribution to the world.

The photos begin with the the heart of the city…St. Stephen’s Basilica, right in the middle of the action on the east bank. Completed in 1905, it is named after the first king of Hungary. You can see the beautiful dome inside, as well as some of the 302 steps in the spiral staircase leading to the observation deck near the top of the basilica. The four photos after the staircase were taken from the deck, a panoramic view of Budapest.

Next up is the local “funicolare” – the funicular tram that runs up and down Castle Hill on the east bank of the Danube. At the top is the castle and, a short walk away, what is called Halaszbastya, the Fisherman’s Bastion, built in the 20th century. The pointed turrets, statues, and columns look very medieval. In the middle of these photo is one of Matthias Church, with its distinctive red tile/mosaic tower, which just seems to beam! After that is a beautiful maiden statue and some views of the Danube and one of its many bridges that unite the two sides of Budapest. The stunning building across the river is the Hungarian Parliament Building, which straddles the Danube and is one of the city’s most magnificent buildings.

Next comes the Central Market Hall, a beautiful Hall often called “a symphony in iron,” giving off vibes similar to the Eiffel Tower with all the gorgeous ironwork. If you look closely at the roof in the shot of the interior, you will see the same Zsolnay tiles that make that one tower of Matthias Church stand out. Inside, they were filming a commercial of one of the fruit and vegetables stands! And, there is a closeup of some Hungarian paprika, the national spice. We heard a story that for centuries, cooks in Hungary would sauté onions in lard, add fresh paprika until it softened…and only THEN decide what to cook for dinner!

Following the paprika photo is the Hungarian State Opera House, but in one respect, it is a fake, as it is a photo of a photo! The outside is sheathed in scaffolding, and the facade can’t be seen. We took a tour, understanding that the Opera House is being restored, but we didn’t realize that all we would see would be hallways and smoking rooms, with three other tour guides also in the same area giving a tour in another language. It was most disappointing. We couldn’t hear the tour guide very well, and we essentially saw nothing of value. She did say the renovations were to have been completed by now, but now the contractors are saying two more years, and she recommended waiting three more years “to be sure.” So, after the photo of the photo is another photo of a photo depicting the rich red interior of the main concert hall. Only the third photo was taken by us, and it is of a staircase!

After the Opera House photos is one of the top of the Turkish Bank Building, noted as a tourist attraction on maps because it is so unusual. Isn’t it inspiring, how they decorated building facades many years ago? We love it. Then there is the pedestrian walkway, with many restaurants, cafes, and retail stores. After that are some buildings we just liked, including that of the Lounging Man we saw on top of a building as we were crossing the street to go to the Opera House. This is quality art that almost no one will ever see. It is hard to imagine a structure built today that would include that sort of detail.

The sign in the last photo gave us a good laugh and put us in a cheery mood as we did our laundry this morning in a place called Laundromate. The sign outside doesn’t announce its name or function; it simply says, “Laundry today, or naked tomorrow.”

Serbia is the 100th country/territory that we have visited together! We had a full day of walking and exploring the city. First up was St. Sava Temple (named after the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church), whose construction began in 1935 and is still ongoing. Its work was interrupted several times by invasions, bombings, and wars, but started again in 1985. Today’s adults used to play inside the shell of the church, thinking at that time (since there was no internet to explain it to them) that it was an old palace. We were not allowed in the main upstairs church, as intricate mosaic work is being undertaken on the 4,000-ton dome. But the photos are from the crypt, which are impressive enough! You may not give the beautiful chandelier in the first photo much notice, but it is the first we have seen in the world, after many years of travel, in which every single bulb was in place and lit, with none needing replacement! That is truly remarkable, in our book. Following is a photo of the church’s exterior and several others from the pristine, clean, beautiful crypt.

Next up was the Belgrade Fortress, built in 279 BC. For many centuries, the city’s population lived inside the fortress’s walls, so the oldest history of Belgrade is here. After the fortress is a shot from the battlement walls, and the next shows why the fortress was strategically built here: you can see the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. After that is a famous statue in Belgrade’s biggest park called Fontana Ribar. It dates to 1906 and is dedicated to the fishermen of Belgrade. It looks sort of horrific, but is apparently very popular!

Following that are some shots of the busy pedestrian area that leads down to the river and the fortress. There were pretty flowers and fountains everywhere, and in looking UP, beautiful old turn of the 19th century buildings, all with statues and beautiful carvings. But you don’t see them, really, if you don’t look for them.

The last six photos are from a pretty residential street, along with a traffic circle with fountains and George Clooney advertising Omega watches, but he doesn’t look particularly happy doing so. There are some gourds laying on a sidewalk that look as though they were set up for a still life painting. There were some cute llamas (or alpacas?) in a shop window, and we end with an image on the front of a residential building. It says, “Danger…Police.” Does that mean an officer lives there? That you are in danger? Or that there are frequent shootings there, on a quiet residential street? Or what? A mystery, for sure.

Question: What do you get when you combine midday on a weekend + 15 full buses + ONE Passport Control agent for all of the buses?

Answer: 4.5 hours of agony and anger, waiting endlessly on a bus.

Our bus bound for Belgrade, Serbia from Sofia, Bulgaria was scheduled to depart at 9:00 am and arrive in Belgrade at 2:00 pm, but we had learned on a walking tour that Bulgaria’s favorite motto is “It’s great to be late.” So, accordingly, our bus departed about 9:20 am. We hit the border in about an hour, with a long, long line of cars, buses, and trucks. People jumped off the buses to stretch their legs and use the restroom. Then, that turned into multiple stretches and multiple restroom breaks as the clock changed to 11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm. When our bus finally got to the front of the line a little after 2:00 pm, we had been told the agents would come on board to check our passports, but no….we all had to get off and stand in a line in a small office as one woman tediously processed each person very slowly. We all piled back on the bus, finally. BUT….we found out THAT stop was only to get a departure stamp out of Bulgaria! We then drove a few hundred yards, only to be forced off the bus again to stand in yet another line to get a Serbian entrance stamp! And here, there were cafes, stores, and money exchanges, so once people were processed, they went shopping for food and snacks and stood in more long lines to exchange their money. There were no instructions to get right back on the bus, so most of us had to wait until it dawned on the stragglers that the bus was ready to go. More pain. Our 2:00 pm scheduled arrival in Belgrade turned into 6:30 pm. Our hotel was a 20-minute walk away, which we were willing to do if we had arrived in the afternoon, but after 9.5 hours on a bus, we decided to take a taxi. Not one taxi driver would drive us to our hotel with their meter on….you know, what taxi drivers are supposed to do??? We were told by locals that a taxi to our hotel should cost $2 to $3, but each driver we approached wanted either $10 or $20 and refused to take us on the meter. So we walked (it did indeed only take about 20 minutes), and they sat at the bus station, not making money. All in all, this was the most painful day of travel so far. We are not looking forward to crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border next week.

Most of the European Union countries are a part of the Schengen Area, 26 European countries that have agreed to abolish passport controls at their borders for ease of travel. Neither Bulgaria nor Serbia are parties to the agreement, so their border is often overwhelmed by a lot of travelers with few agents. It is likely a financial decision by these countries not to employ sufficient agents for the number of people passing through. But it is said that you have to spend money in order to make money. We, and our fellow bus travelers (people from all over the world), were pretty disgusted by waiting 4.5 hours in the heat. Those we talked to readily agreed that their future travel through these countries’ borders would be unlikely. That means a loss in tourist dollars for hotels, restaurants, tours, museums, public transportation, and all other travel-related purchases. The discomfort and outrage simply is not worth traveling here again, which is sad, as there is so much history here, with so many beautiful buildings, parks, and culture. Bulgaria has a major emigration problem, and has the fastest decreasing population of any country in the world. Most refugees from war-torn countries just pass through for better opportunities elsewhere. The country is a prime example of how a government can turn lemonade into lemons. Our experience at the border was a glaring demonstration of that ability.

No pretty photos today, just long lines of vehicles and people waiting in the sun!

Back in Europe! We have been traveling around Asia for about the last six months and have really enjoyed it. But yesterday we arrived from Dubai and we are starting our journey across the continent. We haven’t been in Europe since 2017, and we are looking forward to seeing some different sights. Ironically, both of us sunburned a little today because it was too hot to go outside in Dubai, and so we haven’t gotten any sun for a while.

We spent our first day in Europe walking around Sofia for 7 hours, the beautiful capital city of Bulgaria. As we walked, we were most impressed by the number of parks, fountains, and statues, several of which are included in this entry. It is also a city of flowers, flowers everywhere we looked, which we adored. Quite lovely!

Sofia has been inhabited since at least 7000 BC. The city is located in the center of the Balkans, roughly midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, while being closest to the Aegean Sea to the south. The recorded history of the city is sad, as it is one of many invasions and conquests. Beginning in 29 BC and through the end of WW II, it was conquered by the Roman Republic, the Huns, the Visigoths, the Avars and Slavs, the Byzantines, the Pechenegs, the Magyars and Serbs, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, and the Soviet Union. Today it is one of the 10 best places for start-up businesses in the world, particularly in information technologies.

So we begin with statues…first up, the ferocious-looking Tsar Samuil, one of the great Bulgarian rulers. His eyes are made of a special material so that they shine in the dark, but we were here in the afternoon, so we missed that. Next up is Stefan Stambolov, also looking quite stern. He was Prime Minister from 1887 to 1894, and was known as the Bulgarian Bismarck. In 1895, he died when four assassins attacked him, shooting at him and stabbing him. Because he wore a protective vest, they stabbed at his head and fractured his skull….thus, the statue’s slashed cheek and head fracture on the left side! After that are various statues that we liked, followed by the fountains leading up to the National Palace of Culture. After walking by the fountains, we saw what looked like a tiny, cute chapel. It is the Temple of Bulgarian Martyrs, and the photo after that shows a peek at the very small interior.

The beautiful Russian Orthodox Church that you see next is known as the Russian Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, built in 1914. It was built as what was known as a diplomatic church, adjacent to the Russian Embassy at the time. As was the custom then, it was named after the ruling tsar, Nicholas II. The two photos following those of the exterior were taken inside. It was small but beautifully decorated with icons.

Next up is the most famous attraction in Sofia, St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It was primarily built between 1904 and 1912, and until the year 2000 was the world’s largest finished Orthodox Cathedral, being the Cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria. The three photos are of the outside and inside. The interior is decorated with Italian marble in various colors, Brazilian onyx, alabaster, and gold. You can see the beautifully painted dome and walls of the interior, along with some very impressive chandeliers.

The next two photos are of the origin of the city’s name…the Basilica of St. Sophia. It looks very plain, just a brick building, right? But its history is astounding. It was erected amidst the ancient necropolis of the city, above 50 burial structures dating from the 3-5th centuries AD. The earliest temple was constructed in 311 AD, with mosaic tile work depicting the Garden of Eden and other biblical motifs. For several centuries, more temples were constructed over the original one, and the present basilica is the product of the fifth building period, in the 6th century AD. During the Ottoman occupation, the building was transformed into a mosque, but since 1930 it has been an Orthodox Cathedral, its original function.

After that are photos of a beautiful building we liked, a manhole decorated with colorful lions, and the main pedestrian street, Vitosha Street. After all of that, we took a food tour, but this one was unique…a FREE food tour! Called Balkan Bites, we walked and ate for two hours. We thought we might just get small samples of food, but the portions were generous at the 5-6 stops we made, and it was equal to food tours we have taken around the world costing, usually, $40 to $80 or so per person. We learned a lot about the city and its history, as well as a lot about Sofia’s foods….always, it is yogurt and cheese, first! We had fabulous yogurt/dill/cucumber soup, cheese nibbles, Bulgarian wine, local donuts, and more. The last five photos are from the food tour, including one of the cheese dishes on small rounds of bread that were so tasty! We end with a short video of some participants learning a Bulgarian dance! We must say….in just two hours, we felt very comfortable with all 11 of the very nicest people we met on the tour. They were from Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, and Israel, and couldn’t have been kinder about offering to show their countries and culture if we ever visit. Hospitality lives!

Road trip! Today we rented a car for the day and drove to Abu Dhabi, another of the seven Emirates that make up the UAE. It is the capital city of the UAE and accounts for about two-thirds of the $400 billion UAE economy. Before the seven emirates combined to form the UAE, they were chiefly fishing villages. Sheik Zayed, after whom major roads and buildings are named, is revered for bringing the country into global and technological prominence, uniting the Emirates almost 50 years ago.

Abu Dhabi felt so much smaller than Dubai, although it took some time to drive through the city. The first photo is of Sheik Zayed (remember him?) Mosque, and was completed in 2007. It stands out as you enter the city from the north, looks huge, and has many employees sitting in the 110-degree heat to motion you to the parking structure. Signs would work just as well, but were not utilized. We did not venture inside the mosque, as there is a strict dress code, and we were wearing shorts. You enter through a Visitor’s Center, the dome building shown in the second photo. It has a mall and food court! The dome as seen from the inside is shown in the third photo.

The next three photos are of the Emirates Palace…pretty impressive entry arch, huh? But, it is just a hotel. We saw the sign, and thought we were at the real palace. Not! After that, the two beach photos are of the area along the Gulf that is called the Corniche. But as we noted in our last post, it looks like a ghost town. Nobody was out, even though the beach was wide and the sand was blindingly white. It is just too hot.

Next up are just two buildings we liked, both hotels. The first is the Bab Al Qasr Hotel, and the next is the Fairmont Marina. Getting great shots was pretty difficult, so what you see is what you get. And the last photo was taken from the car along the eight-lane freeway from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. We had heard there was “nothing” along the road, which made us think of the drive from California to Las Vegas, and this photo seems to support that assertion (even though most of the palm trees are brown and droopy, suffering from a weevil infestation). But, there were frequent gas stations, mosques, strip malls, and loads of trees to keep our attention along the 85-mile drive.

We want to note that we have been here in Dubai for almost three weeks, and we have yet to speak to a native Emirati. We read that only 10 percent of the UAE’s population are citizens, with the other 90 percent being ex-pats and foreign workers. Everyone working at the hotel and in the malls are from somewhere else. In fact, the hotel staff told us that they are provided housing by the hotel, but it is about 45 minutes away (land is too expensive near the hotel itself). In addition, the hotel has a buffet just for its workers all day long. These are the necessary incentives to lure workers away from their home countries. And, since nobody is ever seen outside, the only place we have seen men and women in Arab dress (robes) is in the malls, where they seem to live. You can’t find a seat in the food court around 3-4 pm, as it is just jammed with families with many children. The children will stare at us, and when we wave and smile, they shyly wave back…but they keep on staring. Maybe it is the blonde hair? Or maybe, just that we are westerners? In any case, we are always treated kindly.

Several years ago, we were playing trivia on a cruise when the question was posed: Name the tallest building in the world. We were stumped. When we heard the answer, the Burj Khalifa, we wondered how anyone could have known that! Yet, here we are in Dubai, home to the tallest building in the world…2,722 feet tall, opened in 2010, and seen in the first photo. You can see it from many places in the city, and it is adjacent to the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world, which makes it convenient to see and visit. This is a city of many firsts and many largests.

Today we hired a taxi to drive us around for a few hours to see more of Dubai, as not all of it is accessible by the metro. In the heat, walking is out of the question, so any sort of organized tour was unthinkable. We drove by the Burj Al Arab Hotel, seen in the second photo, which is another landmark building in this very modern city. It is the fifth-tallest hotel in the world, with its architecture meant to resemble a sailing ship. Adjacent to it, seen in the next photo, is the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, whose exterior resembles a large descending staircase. Next up was the Nasser Rashed Lootah Masjid Mosque, or Grand Mosque, of Dubai. We couldn’t find a way in, so we only have an exterior shot. After the mosque is a photo of the beautiful white sand beach along the Persian Gulf. Speaking of the Gulf, the UAE is in a very interesting location in the Middle East. It is bounded on the west by its huge neighbor, Saudi Arabia. One hundred forty miles east across the Strait of Hormuz is Iran, and Afghanistan is just beyond that. To the south, across the Persian Gulf, are Pakistan and India, and a bit to the north is Iraq. Having heard news about these countries for our entire adult lives, it is most interesting to be within their cultural spheres and see what their landscapes, environments, and weather are like.

After that, things got very interesting, as we drove onto the artificial archipelago that everyone has seen in photos, the Palm Jumeirah, which extends into the Persian Gulf and resembles a palm tree (from the air). The Palm Jumeirah opened its first residential buildings in 2006, and today has a population of about 11,000 people. Each “frond” of the Palm tree gives businesses, residences, and hotels views of the Gulf and beach access, so it is highly desirable real estate in Dubai. Of course, driving on it, it is quite large, and all you really see are buildings. Our destination was the outermost edge, where the Atlantis The Palm Hotel/Restaurant Complex is located. As you get near to it, the road goes into an underground tunnel, under the Gulf, just like the Chunnel! It was pretty neat. Public transportation is available onto the archipelago via a very modern-looking monorail zooming overhead, although the locals call it the tram (to distinguish it from the metro/subway). There are a series of photos of the outside and inside of Atlantis, which follows the story of Atlantis but also contains Arabic themes. The main glass “tree” you see upon entering the hotel is made of Venetian Murano glass, also used in the lobby of the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. We have read that the largest suite in the Atlantis goes for $18,000 per night! After the Atlantis photo is one of the residential areas we passed on the archipelago, which resembles an Arab fortress.

Next up is the Dubai Marina, with a photo of the still-in-progress Ferris wheel that will be…you guessed it!….the LARGEST in the world when it is completed next year in time for the 2020 World Expo. The other photo is of some beach cabanas and beach lounging areas. We must note, however, that almost everywhere we traveled today…in all the outdoor tourist areas….there is almost nobody outside other than a few workers here and there. Air conditioning is the Middle East’s lifeblood in the summer. It is even almost as hot at night as it is during the day. It was 110 F again today, and it hard to be outdoors for more than 10 minutes, maximum. So nobody is currently enjoying the beach cabanas or beaches! All the hotels have doormen and parking/taxi attendants, all wearing suits and long-sleeved shirts. We have asked them how they can be outside dressed that way, but they all smile, shrug, and brush it off. We get it, it is their job and their uniform, but we have trouble in shorts and tank tops!

The last two photos are also from the Atlantis, in the luxury coffee shop. These desserts look unreal. The one on the extreme right in the next-to-last photo is labeled “Coffee Lemon,” but doesn’t it look like porcelain? They all cost 26 dirhams each, about $7. Aren’t they beautiful? And wouldn’t you hate to ruin the illusion and bite into any one of them????

Our lips uttered the words, “No, thank you,” about 500 times this morning. Dubai is the only one of the seven Emirates that made its fortune through trading rather than oil. By the 19th century, it was well known by traders around the world. We walked through several of the city souks (markets) and were delighted by the colors, varieties, textures, and quantities of what we saw. Offered for sale were cinnamon, saffron, cloves, cardamom, ginger, paprika, turmeric, nutmeg, pomegranate, various flowers, dried fruit, tea, frankincense, pashminas, scarves, shoes, dinnerware, souvenirs…the list goes on. We were approached by each and every stall owner, invited to smell, touch, and/or guess what was in front of us. We recognized very little. One item resembled a sleek dark rock that didn’t look at all useful; we were told it was for men to use, as it acted like Viagra! We also didn’t know the black item in the photo below that I am holding between my fingers; it is a dried lemon! When asked its use, the salesman became oddly quiet for the first time.

I couldn’t imagine wearing any of the shoes in the photo, but the owner was insistent that he could find my size. Since we don’t have a home, and can’t buy souvenirs, we were only there to browse and take in the scene, so we said no to everything presented to us. When the watch salesmen noticed Mike wasn’t wearing a watch, they approached with their idea of what he needed on his wrist. But we have told vendors for 10 years now, “nobody wears watches any more; we have our phones.” They always seem a little deflated by that, but accepting. We went out today right after breakfast, as it was “only” 100 degrees F early, but this afternoon will rise to 108-110. We have not wanted to venture out in the afternoons, and the first few days felt trapped in the hotel. So our compromise is to do whatever we are going to do early, getting back before the highest temperatures hit. Even so, we were quite hot and sweaty. Dubai in the summer!

We love the photo of the properly dressed Arab family of mannequins. The poor little boy lost a hand but somehow grew a mustache and beard! After the Spice, Herbs, and Utensils Souks, we arrived at the Gold Souk. There we found gold, silver, and precious gems, some quite elaborate, as you will see in the photos. We don’t know who would wear the full-body gold “armor” other than entertainers or someone in costume. It was all quite heavy and cumbersome. And look at that ring! It holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest ring, the Star of Taiba. The ring itself weighs 141 lbs! We also loved the Gelato sign, ice cream made with camel’s milk, dates, and saffron, and oh yes…Gelato makes gold better.

The last photo is not from the souks, but from the other day at the Dubai Mall….there is a Waterfall Promenade, and these neat sculptures are a part of it! Enjoy!

Quite the buzz here about so many things! The World Expo (World’s Fair) will be held here in Dubai next year, starting in October and continuing until April 2021. The first photo is of the Museum of the Future, still under construction, and slated to open next year. It is in a torus shape and is encased in stainless steel with Arabic calligraphy. Unbelievably, it has already won design awards! The museum will serve as a base for exploration of the future’s greatest challenges and technologies, from climate change to medical breakthroughs. It is stunning to look at, and is already being called the new iconic symbol of Dubai. We can just imagine that being inside will be a great experience as well. The city also has many stunning skyscrapers, and we are showing just a few. We flew here from Bangkok on Emirates Airline, and we were way impressed! For us to be impressed by an airline is almost unthinkable, as they are all so mindlessly similar and, usually, unremarkable. We flew in an Airbus A380, with an upstairs area. We had more legroom than usual, and all meals, snacks, alcohol, and other drinks were FREE. They gave us a menu from which to order lunch! And the menu noted that if you get hungry at any time, you can order a free cup of noodles! Headphones were free, and we had a choice of 1,000 movies…so we watched two! We were in Economy class, but the Airbus also has private suites and…get this!….private showers! It was all too much. The flight attendants were genuinely friendly and never lost their smiles. It was like an alternate universe. When we got into Dubai, it was the only place for which we did not have to turn in an immigration card; we did not have to prove that we had booked a hotel; we did not have to prove that we had a flight OUT; and, we did not have a long line for passport control, as we did in Bali, Bangkok, Malaysia, and Cambodia, in particular: plenty of passport control agents, no line, done in 1 minute. It was fabulous beyond words! A truly modern country!

After that is a photo from the Mall of the Emirates, where we went to see a movie. It is very modern and has many American restaurant chains inside. Interestingly, most public buildings, including the mall and the airport, have Prayer Rooms. We have heard the Call to Prayer (Adhan) called out by a muezzin (chanter) in Istanbul and Casablanca, as it is mandatory five times a day in Muslim countries. Normally, it is presented from the minaret of a mosque. We were quite startled, therefore, to hear it chanted in the mall! We weren’t sure if we should stop, or stop talking, or do anything at all, so we observed what everyone else was doing. They continued walking and talking, so we did the same. It is mandatory worship if you are Muslim. The “weekend” here is Friday and Saturday, with the first work day of the week on Sunday. In the US, “hump day” is on Wednesday – the middle work day of the week. In the Middle East, hump day is Tuesday! It can get quite confusing as our brains try to pry away from what we have always known and learn new ways of thinking about time and about cultural norms.

The next photo is, of course, a ski slope with real snow and real people walking around with winter coats! This takes up a huge section of the mall, and is the only place you can ski in the UAE! And the temperature outside is 110 degrees Fahrenheit! After that is a photo of the stops on the segment of the metro we rode. If the stops don’t tell you this is a city for business, nothing will: World Trade Center, Financial Center, Business Bay, Noor Bank, and First Abu Dhabi Bank. The other two stops are mega-malls! The next photo just cracked us up. Every morning in the gym, the televisions are set either to news or some international sporting event. But what is on here? Camel races!! The last photo was taken just 3 minutes ago…the city getting ready for the evening. You can see all the way out to the Persian Gulf.

The food at the breakfast buffet here is nothing short of amazing. It is Middle Eastern, and always includes hummus, baba ganoush, laban (yogurt dip), shakshouka (eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chilies, garlic, nutmeg, cumin, and other rich spices), foul (a terrific bean stew with olive oil, parsley, tomatoes, onions, hummus, and lemon), Arabic breads, a dosa stand (rice batter spread thin and cooked into a crispy crepe, then filled with veggies or potatoes or cheese and eaten with any of the items already listed above), and Indian foods. It is fabulous. We were mourning leaving Asia a little, as breakfast had so many different and delicious items other than eggs, pancakes, and waffles. But this more than compensates!

Another thing we have found in this amazing city is its technological advancement, as we find it similar to Singapore. The metro is new and shiny, quite extensive, and runs aboveground rather than underground. Airports, malls, subway stations, and even office complexes have moving sidewalks. Escalators do not run constantly, but start up when a person gets within a foot or two, thus saving all that energy of running continuously.

Angkor Wat. The largest temple complex on earth. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built over 30 years in the 12th century by Khmer King Suryavarman II as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. It is considered an archaeological and artistic masterpiece. There are causeways, elevated towers, five main towers, covered colonnades, chambers, courtyards, and walkways on different levels linked by staircases. Oh, the stairs! It felt like we walked thousands of steps, but it was probably only a few hundred. The tropical heat made it quite uncomfortable. Everywhere you looked on this vast complex, you saw etchings and artwork and repeating scrolls and statues and deities. Not a single piece of stone was left undecorated. That is saying something on a site that covers over 400 acres!

In the first three photos you can see the long approach to the main temple. After that are some photos of the moat surrounding the site….get this: the moat is 650 feet wide and circles a distance of 3.5 miles! It is humanmade, not natural, and is just huge, today filled with fish and turtles. Do you see the bridge across the moat? That shot almost looks like somewhere in Florida, but it is a huge linked-together pontoon bridge! Yep, it bobs up and down with your footsteps as you walk and is kind of spongy, but a great idea for getting across the moat.

The rest of the photos are just various scenes from around Angkor Wat. You will notice a few decapitated statues…many of them were! There were many depictions of goddesses, and a gorgeous bas relief history and mythology of Cambodia that extended on the walls forever along several galleries. There were monkeys there, of course, playing with each other. The original stone staircases up to the top of the temple had deteriorated, so you can see the new staircase…with handrails! Even so, it was quite steep both to ascend and descend. And, even though there were many people there, the complex is so large that you only encountered other people in the most popular places…the rest of the site almost seemed deserted, yet very calm and quiet. Having visited so many museums, castles, and heritage sites, it is incredible to us that once you enter the grounds (the day pass for the area’s temples is $37), you can literally go anywhere, walk anywhere, climb on anything, do what you wish. There are no guards watching or scolding. Amazing!

Beginning with the large stone-faced entrance monument, these seven photos are from nearby Ta Prohm Temple. Because it was not built with the same, stronger stone that built Angkor Wat, many of the walls have fallen into heaps of jumbled stone. As you can also see, trees have grown through the temple over the century. There is even a brace holding up the elevated tree roots!

Our impression of Cambodia is how very, very poor it seems…each store and home is tiny, and most of what you see riding around is agricultural fields and forests, which is typical of most of the country, as 80 percent of the population farms for a living. We were told by a local that it is a very corrupt country. We told him our story upon arrival in the airport yesterday: there were the inevitable long lines for passport control, which we reluctantly joined, but knew we had no choice. The line had barely moved after 10 minutes, but we kept seeing signs about visas. Up until now, in every country we visited, no visa was required for Americans for stays under a month, except Australia, which we had procured online. So, Mike went to ask a uniformed employee if we needed a visa. Sure enough, the man told us to get out of line and “follow him.” We did, walking through the passport area that said, “Diplomats Only.” He told us the visas were $30 per person (oddly, everything is priced in US dollars, even though there is a Cambodian rial), and asked for the money and our passports, instructing to wait right where we were…just behind the customs and passport control desk, saying that we were “VIPs.” Mike gave him a $100 bill. The line we had been in still looked like it hadn’t moved at all. In about 10 minutes, he came back with our passports sporting newly-stamped visas. He was holding up a $20 bill in each hand (our $40 change), and he asked, “Something for ME?” He had saved us about an hour in line, so Mike snatched one of the $20 bills and let him keep the other, and we said thank you and were on our way. As we walked past the passport/visa line to find our tuk tuk (see the last photo) that we had ordered from the Uber-like site, Grab, we noticed that the line still hadn’t appeared to have moved. We thought of the advantages of “gentle corruption.” In a less corrupt country, like the US, Germany, or Singapore, we still would have been in that line and would have ridden to the hotel during the worst of the approaching storm.

When we got out of the building and started looking for our tuk tuk, the driver texted us that he wasn’t allowed to pick up on the airport property and we would have to meet him on the public street. No doubt the taxi union has the government do them the favor of banning rideshare companies from the airports….an altogether different type of corruption, and one that is still present in seemingly “less corrupt” countries.

The Siem Reap Airport is small, so the walk to the street didn’t take long. Our driver met us right at the entrance and were soon on our way, driving through the as-yet light rain, before the torrential downpour. All in all, we would consider the two forms of corruption at the airport a net advantage, $20 and all.

Street Food Tour 2019, via the year 1919! Everything available 100 years ago, and cooked as it was 100 years ago, was on the menu last night as we toured around and in Chinatown. But the first stop was, as with everything in Bangkok, a Buddhist Temple….the Golden Buddha Temple Syelendra. Inside is housed a 6-ton golden Buddha, which was concealed with plaster for 200 years to hide its true value.

After that is a photo down the main drag in Chinatown, with the already-not-very-wide streets cordoned off to set up….food stands. We passed hundreds of them, most involving rice in some form, and lines in front of many of them. Our tour guide, Alex, knew the tastiest and most popular dishes, and deftly guided us through the mobs to attain our Foodie Nirvana. First, though, photos of some of the narrow alleyways of Chinatown, empty markets that bustle in early morning but look forlorn at night, and just before the food photos, an abandoned, moldy-surface hotel where it is said people died from drug overdoses and other…things. Alex said it might be haunted, as women have been seen staring out the windows, and he has been thinking about adding a haunted sites tour to his itinerary. Most of these places sure were creepy, but they are in Alex’s hometown and stomping grounds, so we felt (mostly) safe.

On to the food! In order, you can see excellent satay with peanut sauce; then, a dessert soup, flavorful ginger broth with sesame balls…when bitten into, the balls tasted like exploding peanut butter in your mouth! After that is a surprise!…Michelin-rated Thai donuts with a coconut dipping sauce that was just heavenly – word was out, though, as the line waiting for this delicious treat was extremely long. The photo of what looks like tacos were amazing to taste, as they are called, for lack of a better translation, Thai pancakes. What looks like grated cheese is sweetened pumpkin, and what looks like sour cream is a coconut marshmallow-y cream. The “taco shells” are very very thin and crisp crepe-like pancakes, and it all works together very well. The last of the foods we ate is extremely popular here…sticky rice and mango. The sticky rice has sweetened coconut milk in it, and with the fresh mango, it is simple and so, so good.

Okay, on to the most interesting part of the evening! You can see salted fish being grilled, and then what looks like an attack of alien lobsters! And, oh yes, the stand with insects of all kinds….roasted worms, larvae, grasshoppers, and scorpions on a stick. We watched a couple order a scorpion and proceed to give it to their little girl like they were presenting her with a lollipop. As you can see in the photo, she put it up to and around her mouth while everyone took photos. Then, the vendor asked for it back, ripped off the stinger, and gave it back to her. The girl wasn’t particularly horrified by the scorpion itself…just sort of indifferent. The couple also ordered a bowl of grasshoppers, of which you can see a close-up. I said to the woman, do you like eating them? She made a face and said, they are terrible…they are for my husband! Our guide Alex asked if any of the four of us on the tour wanted to try a grasshopper, and we all declined, grimacing. But then brave Lauren, an ER doctor in New York City, said she was game! She held the roasted grasshopper-on-a-stick, peered at it, gulped a little, and asked if she should bite some off. Alex said, just go for it….ALL of it! She said, so you just want me to eat the whole thing all at once!??? Yes! So you can see the six photos of the evolution of her getting it into her mouth, chewing, and swallowing. In the fourth photo in the sequence, you can see a little bit of grasshopper leg sticking out. What a sport! She said it mostly tasted like soy sauce, was quite crunchy, and wasn’t so bad. We reminded her that she was eating lungs, heart, brains, its digestive tract, etc., and she said….ugh, don’t tell me that before I’ve even swallowed!

It was a fun, and interesting, night. Except for the bugs, everything was “normal” food…chicken, pork, donuts, soup, fruit, lots of rice and coconut, salad. All dishes could be made more or less spicy, depending on taste. We all tried the Thai hot chilies, and they left some burn in your mouth, but weren’t too bad overall. And again, they were present on all the tables so that you could add them as you wished. This was our 25th food tour in cities around the world, and like all of them, the guides really work hard at diversity and local, unique dishes that taste good. A great way to see, and eat your way through, a city.

There are no words. Mind-boggling is too understated. Fantastic, magnificent, stupendous, outstanding…are all too weak. We commented that the Grand Palace in Bangkok makes Liberace look modest, and plain. Everywhere you looked inside the compound, there was (genuine, 24-karat) gold and gold leaf, statues (many repeated a hundred times around the base of a building), glass tiles, roofs with ornamentation, little shrines, small showcases, spires, temples, intricate detail, frescoes, protector gods, mosaics, carved entrance doors, painted porcelain, Chinese cherry tree tiles, color color and more color, and oh, yes, people….thousands of them. What a day! It was a privilege to walk the grounds and gape at everything this site has to offer. Even the trash cans were decorative! There was a graduation class mugging for the many cameras trained on them, thousands of photos, thousands of selfies, life…life…life! It was exhilarating. Just look at the images! Beautiful! Photography was not allowed inside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, but it contained all gold ornamentation and fixtures, and enshrined a Buddha carved from a single piece of jade that dates back to the 14th century. After all the temples and shrines, we came to the actual palace and government buildings. That’s when we started seeing more and more guards.

The palace dates to 1782, and was home to Siamese kings for 150 years. Many of the buildings were not accessible, but the war ministry, department of state, and even the mint was inside the walls of the complex. The site is the spiritual heart of the Thai people and is used today for ceremonial and religious purposes. Several spots were for “Thai people only.”

We actually tried to see the palace yesterday, but found that we were improperly dressed. Shorts, tank tops, tight jeans, and flip flops are not allowed, nor sandals without socks. They send you into a building where you can “rent” proper attire for a few dollars. Instead, we opted to return today, dressed appropriately. Entrance is steep, for Thailand: about $16 per person. This is entirely within the bounds of entrance fees for the world’s major museums and sites, of course, but everything else in Thailand is exceedingly inexpensive.

Yesterday we wound up at Wat Mahathat, wat being the local term for temple. After the photos of the Royal Residence, the first photo from yesterday is the Naga Buddha, where Buddha is being protected by a seven-headed snake (with a cool red mouth!) called Mucilanda. As you can see, we were delighted by the many, many gold Buddhas and the light fixtures…a light is not just a light, it is a work of art! The inside was very quiet, and you can see a monk praying in front of the large Buddha.

We have been experimenting with different forms of transportation. We tried a river taxi yesterday for 50 cents per ride, but it did not announce each stop, was jammed with people, and we never knew what was going on. We tried Asia’s version of Uber, called Grab, and it worked fine the first two times at a good price, but then failed yesterday when they said none were available and this morning, when we had to walk quite a few blocks to where the driver parked. When we tried taxis they didn’t want to turn on their meters, just negotiate a price, but they were on the high side. So, we have ended up with traditional tuk tuks a couple of times, although each time we had to negotiate to not be taken to other attractions and not be taken to a jewelry shop, where, according to the driver, “all you do is look around for 5 minutes and I get free coupons for gas!” In other words, the drivers get kickbacks for bringing in unsuspecting tourists to buy junk. It is said that tuk tuks are the most fun you can have on three wheels! No trip to Bangkok would be complete without trying one. The first time they were quite insistent on the shopping trip….until we walked away. Then they quit pushing the shopping and just negotiated over the direct ride to the hotel. We thought it might be too hot to ride without air conditioning, but the open-air vehicles provided a nice breeze. So today, we walked up to a tuk tuk and said, here is our offer: no shopping stops, just return to our hotel for the same price as we paid for one last night. The driver capitulated immediately. He is shown in the last photo. Of course, the forerunner to the tuk tuks was a rickshaw, then there were rickshaws attached to bicycles, and the motorized tuk tuk was introduced in the 1960s. The best thing is that they can move through heavy traffic much better than a car, as ours occasionally drove on the other side of the road to get around congestion. It didn’t work quite as well as a simple motorcycle, but it was close. If we had gotten into a head-on collision, what a way to go!….having a ball on three wheels!

We thought we would spend our first day in Bangkok just walking around the area of our hotel, getting the lay of the land, and taking it easy, as there is a 2-hour time difference from Seoul, and we are still a little “off.” We walked into the mall next door, ICONSIAM, and were just shocked and delighted by how they had redefined the mall concept. Walk with us through our photos, as we start at a gorgeous teak wood-designed market section, with a low ceiling, fruit stands, lanterns, and an artificial stream with small kiosks that look like floating boats. Street food booths were set up along the walkway with some very, very inexpensive foods. We are talking, food prices from 1950! There were small chicken kabobs for 16 cents each. Most of the meals in restaurants along here were $4-6. Out on the street, they were selling corn dogs on a stick for 15 cents, while styrofoam takeout boxes jammed with rice, chicken, and salad went for 32 cents.

After that portion of the mall, it opened up a bit, starting with the elephants, and here come the upscale retailers: Gucci, Apple, Bally, and local companies. Every floor had something different to gawk at. We both said that this was the sort of retail space we thought we might see in Tokyo, but we didn’t encounter anything this lovely and interesting there. One floor housed a cineplex, and most of the movies were American in their original English, but with Thai subtitles. A lot of people who travel don’t think about seeing movies, just seeing the local sights. But over the years, we have found that you just can’t go all day, every day, You need some rest time. That is where movies are great, as you can sit in the dark for a few hours and rest your feet. The one time we don’t mind paying to see commercials is when they are in a culture foreign to us. The ads are in the local language, of course, and are sometimes hilarious…very simple and innocent, somehow. And they are a great insight into the culture. It is often a mental exercise trying to figure out what they are advertising as you watch it, and sometimes it ends and you still have no idea what they were selling. Blue jeans? Skin cream? Cell phone service? Cars? We have probably seen about a dozen movies in Asia this year, and the price is typically around $6. Popcorn and soda are about $3 each. A bargain!

Following the mall photos are a few views of the Chao Phraya River, taken from a terrace cafe on one of the upper floors. The river runs through the center of Bangkok and certainly is a part of the city’s vivacity. Do you see the skyscraper that looks like it is falling apart? That is the King Power MahaNakhon residential towers, the tallest building in Thailand, at 1,031 feet. Opened in 2016, it was designed with a spiral “helix” cut into the sides, creating many more units with balconies for views of the city. The Ritz Carlton owns 200 units in the building that sell for between US $1.1 and 17 million. The next to last last photo is some very happy ice cream that we encountered! And the last photo is fun…at the airport in Seoul yesterday was this happy robot walking around with gate and flight info on its belly. If you scanned your boarding pass, s/he gave you gate info and the status of your flight. It was neat.

As we walked around, we discovered a Thai massage shop across the street. We had seen a question posed on the Internet, “where can I find cheap Thai massage in Bangkok?” One answer was, “asking THAT is like asking, where can I find some rice in China?” Anyway, massages there are $8 per hour. We joked that we would just go in for 8 hours some day, and let them send in different masseuses as shifts changed and people went to lunch. If you have never had a Thai massage, it is heaven. You don a light shirt and short pants and lay on a mattress on the floor. No oil is involved. Rather, the whole experience is lovely pressure, pressing, stretching, walking on your back (yes, they are very petite and light), elbows being nuzzled into your back and legs, all followed by a scalp massage. A tour guide once described Thai massage as being like yoga, but they do all the work for you. They stretch you in ways you never knew you could be stretched. It is the most relaxing hour of your life. So, yes, we indulged…and made another appointment for tomorrow! We may have one every day, in fact. $8!!!!

Pomp and circumstance! Fabulous costumes! Colorful flags with dragons and tigers! Weapons! A marching band! And, all at a palace….Gyeongbokgung, in northern Seoul. There traditionally were five palaces in Seoul, with Gyeongbokgung being the most northerly and the largest. First built in 1395, it served as home to the kings of the Joseon Empire. The premises were destroyed by fire in the Imjin War of 1592-1598, and the palace was abandoned for two centuries. In the 19th century, some 500 buildings were restored as well as all of the palace’s 7,700 rooms. But, under the Imperial Japanese occupation in the 20th century, almost all of the palace was systematically destroyed. It has only been since 1990 that a 40-year restoration plan has been in place, with all of our photos of the gates and the main palace being of the re-creations.

We were there for the changing of the guard ceremony, which takes place with full pomp and regalia twice a day. There is a photo of the giant drum that announces the commencement of the ceremony, then a marching band and the guards with flags, scimitars, colorful costumes, and bows and arrows. At the end of those photos is a short video of a small part of the ritual.

Many, many people were dressed in traditional Korean period costumes called hanbok. The palace is surrounded by many shops where they can be rented for a few hours fairly cheaply: $5 per hour, with a minimum of 4 hours. You can see people in hanboks in many of our photos. An added bonus: if dressed in one, entrance to the palace is free (although normal admission is only $3).

After all the excitement and color at the palace, we went looking for some traditional Korean chicken. We found it in the alley that you can see…they all seem to have a tangle of overhead wires and cables, although this one had lanterns strung the entire length as well. All of the restaurants and stores were tiny, but look at the decorations and hangings. The one that says PVC on top has miles of PVC elbows and joints, as you can see! We loved the photo of the noodle bowl….the chopsticks filled with noodles move up and down! Oh, and speaking of chopsticks, we want to note that while tables are set with forks and knives, in most places, chopsticks are also available, and everything is eaten with them, including noodle soup, and yesterday at breakfast…a chocolate croissant, sandwiched inside two chopsticks, eaten in many small bites! Every morning at breakfast, there is a station where you can have omelettes and eggs made to order. Can you believe….the chefs make omelettes with chopsticks? They put your requested fillings in the pan with chopsticks, then add the eggs. They then scramble it all very fast with chopsticks, and rather than flipping the omelette, as would be done in the West, they quickly roll it to one side of the omelette pan, so that it is shaped like an omelette due to the rounded edge of the pan. They cook it a while, flip it in the air, cook it some more, and slide it onto your plate….a perfectly shaped omelette, made with chopsticks! So interesting.

The last photo is a little poignant for us…we are 9,645 km (5,993 miles) away from our former home in California. But, we get to be in a new home every few weeks! Of course, now that we know our way around Seoul a bit and found a favorite Mexican restaurant and a favorite BBQ restaurant, it is time to depart, in less than 48 hours. Look for our next post from Thailand!

We present….the unusual, different, sometimes gross, but always interesting sights of Bujeon Market. But it could be almost any market in Asia, where living, once-living, and agricultural products are laid out and sold. It seemed that 80 percent of this market was seafood and more seafood, so the first photos start with once-alive (most likely recently alive) fish, squid, octopus, clams, mussels, crab, shrimp, and sardines. Then we graduate to the still-alive, with living octopi in a basin aerated with a soda bottle’s help and some eels that looked like sea snakes. After that, yummy pig’s feet and a pig’s head, unfortunately caught with a woman’s head, but she was very much alive. My grandfather was a butcher, and a favorite dish back in the day was pig’s feet jelly, eaten with boiled potatoes and vinegar. I was afraid of the pointed hooves as a child, but my grandfather would pick off small pieces of the hooves’ tender pork for me, and it was delicious.

Next….very much alive, wriggling, squirming silkworms! Apparently, they are delicious deep fried with lemon and pepper, taste like roasted almonds, and they help hurting shoulders and necks…so, if you ache….. After that, here comes the garlic! Just look at all the bunches ($10 a bunch) and how they wrap around the corner. What in the world does one do with this much garlic? One bunch would last us the rest of our lives. Ay!

Then we passed a local Dunkin’ Donuts, and were amazed by the local flavors of donuts….Tornado Potato Donut, Ugly Potato Ring, and Black Sugar Chewing Donut. Local branding is so colorful and so much fun to look at! Following the donuts are two overview photos of the market, followed by the subway station closest to us that took us to the downtown area. As you can see, there wasn’t another human being in the entire station. We were alone. It looked like they were ready to film a movie there, having gotten rid of everybody!

We end with our amusing photo of the day…the seat for the pregnant woman. Sounds like there is only one in the entire city, huh? We first sat there until we noticed the sign, then moved. There were two pregnant seats in our subway car for the one pregnant woman, and guess who ended up sitting in them? Of course…an old, old man and an old, old woman!

Can you believe the first two photos are the entrance hallways to our hotel, Hilton Busan, and not sets from Star Trek?? The hotel opened in 2017, and it is so exciting to see some unusual and interesting architecture after staying in so many ordinary hotels over the past 500 days. As seen in the third photo, every floor has two chairs facing the Sea of Japan, while the fourth is a cafe facing the shore that keeps quite busy during the day. Breakfast in Asia continues to amaze us. In addition to the standard American offerings of cereal, sausage, bacon, eggs, and pancakes, this hotel features…two or three kinds of rice, green vitamin (spinach), lentils, stir-fry, dim sum, noodle soup (prepared to order, and marvelous), ox knee soup, seaweed soup, sautéed anchovies, two kinds of spicy Korean pancakes, miso soup, steamed mackerel, smoked salmon, a full salad bar with salad dressings, bulgogi (Korean barbecued meat), and abalone porridge…to name just a few. There is also a fruit and yogurt bar with five kinds of yogurt, and a fabulous dessert bar with apple pie, pecan pie, tiramisu, bread pudding, chocolate cake, and if you can believe it, an eight-tiered chocolate fountain that runs continuously! It is something to see! We get free breakfast, as we are Hilton Diamond members, but for everyone else it is $45 per person. Imagine, if we had to pay for it, our 11 days here would total $990 just for breakfast.

There is a coastal walking path outside the hotel along the coast, and there are three photos taken from the path. You can see a woman who successfully and joyously climbed the rocks, and then two photos of something that delights and fascinates us….Korean stacking rocks. In the Celtic world, they are called “cairns,” and here, people pile rocks, sometimes precariously, on top of each other, making a wish. If the stack remains, it is said your wish will come true, but if it falls…..well, you know. People are welcome to add rocks on top of stacks already made and also make a wish. Aren’t they pretty, though? In some ways, they look like tiny pagodas. It was so delightful to stumble upon them without knowing they would be there.

Next, there are two food pictures. The first looked so unusual that we took a photo without having any idea what it could be. Do you see the containers with what looks like dried weeds? One whole container costs 10,000 won, about $10. I asked the hotel staff what it was, and the question passed to four people before we arrived at an answer…it is agar, a gelatinous derivative of seaweed, used in soups. We engaged a chef for help, and he told us that a container would feed 20-25 people when boiled, so the true cost is just 50 cents per person. The next photo was at the grocery store bakery. As you can see, sweets are lined up on a table for people to pick out their own. Pastries in Asia are not normally found in glass cases. Those in the forefront are croissants that are very, very liberally loaded with powdered sugar! The woman you see was cutting the pastries so that each different pastry could be sampled.

The last photo is from the Grand Hilton Seoul…rules for the Fitness Center. The way No. 6 is worded, and the fact that it even needs saying……

What a beautiful day! Haedong Yonggungsa Temple is probably the most famous (and as the sign says, the most beautiful) Korean Buddhist Temple, as it sits on the coast on the Sea of Japan, and is about a mile from our hotel, luckily. Tours bring people all the way from Seoul just to see it. Isn’t the first photo of the site from the viewing area just so beautiful? You can see the entrance bridge, the pagodas, some statues, and the Sea of Japan. It was first built in 1376 by the great Buddhist teacher, Naong. In 1970 it underwent some restoration work. We were fascinated by the gorgeous painted roofs, the impressive statues, the 108 (!) stairs going down to the temple (yes, we had to climb back UP), and all the color and vibrancy. The temple complex was free to enter, and even on a cloudy day, was crowded.

We won’t describe each photo, as they are all taken in the temple complex and will wash over you, but we will point out a few things. If you can read the fine print in the third photo, a pagoda as you enter the first of the 108 steps, it is titled Traffic Safety Prayer Pagoda. We suppose that that does not date to 1376! The fifth photo is neat because it evokes the feeling of ancestral benevolence…in Catholic theology, it would be the Communion of Saints, honoring family, friends, and all who have gone before us and are watching over us. People were throwing coins, trying to land them in the lower statue’s basket. Nobody could!

We loved the fat pigs when we saw them, but didn’t realize until we were on our way back that their backsides were also photogenic! There were lots of dragons on site, including one in the Zodiac parade of 12 statues. As you can see from the Zodiac message board, it is noteworthy that these statues have animal heads and human bodies. There are also a number of Buddhas. You can see the one labeled Buddha of Granting a Son, with its well-worn belly. The giant fat gold Buddha is the one for Luck and Prosperity. The Reclining Buddha, which always looks like a woman (from our past viewings in Myanmar and Thailand), is the Buddha of Nirvana. The statue in the photo that is third from the bottom is the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy.

Do you see the statue of the glaring man who looks like an angry Moses? There wasn’t a sign to tell us what it was, so we asked our hotel staff if they could tell us what it says on the bottom of the statue. They were all baffled, until one said, “we can’t read it…it’s in Chinese!” So, wanting our blog to be complete for our readers, we didn’t give up. We installed a scan and translate app that translates photos. It told us that the text said, “I am dizzy.” !! We don’t think so!

The golden Jijang bosal statue is shown next to last in the photos. He is said, in the Korean Buddhist tradition, to help the transition into the afterlife. His name is chanted during funerals. The last photo was a sign we saw in several places on the property. While we can’t read the Korean warning, we know exactly what it signifies!

The sights in the most famous shopping area of Seoul, Myeongdong, are so varied and so fun! The first photo is what most of the streets looked like as we walked past them and looked up and down….they were jammed with shops and local restaurants, often 10 stories of different stores, and people walking, talking, shopping, and eating. It was so vibrant and noisy! Just wonderful.

One of the photos is of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Cathedral. We were surprised to learn that 63 percent of South Koreans are Christian, and 35 percent are Buddhists. All other religions, including Islam and Confucianism, total 2 percent all together. As we have walked around and took bus rides around the city, we saw many, many Christian churches. Speaking of walking around….we have known people who are just paranoid about directions, and afraid of getting lost, even in their own city or county. We walked through these narrow streets today for about 4 hours, with no GPS and no maps, deciding we would just wander and enjoy and figure out how to get back to our bus stop when the time came. So we did, in a country where the alphabet is not one we know or read, and we had a lot of fun just looking and walking. We both had a good sense of which direction to head when we were done for the day, and unerringly crossed streets, found familiar buildings, and got back to the exact spot where we needed to catch the bus….when we had never been on these streets before. You really can do it!

So, in the photos, there are street scenes, some street sculptures, the cathedral, and some goofy characters selling things in the shopping district. We went to a movie, and when we came out, the street outside had been transformed into a pedestrian food fair, so we decided that street food was a better choice than a restaurant. We paid $2-4 for each delight. The first is Korean Egg Bread, with an egg cooked right on top! It was very tasty, slightly sweet, slightly crunchy, but unusual…a Korean favorite, with many stands serving it. The next one is fun…over a foot high, this is a Potato Tornado, a spiral-cut potato that is skewered, deep fried, and rolled in cheese sprinkles. Next is baked cheese on a stick, followed by a wonderful chicken kebab. The last item we tried was the pot stickers, made fresh and grilled in front of us. By now, we were stuffed, so that was it for us. The food pictures after our impromptu dinner are just for fun. You can see the ad for octopus skewer, shell skewer (?), and then they are selling….Self-development. Your guess is as good as ours! After that is skewered squid, but look at their tiny faces…they look like smiling Caribbean Santa Clauses with braided beards, mon! Then there are the corn dogs with what look like measles…that is just diced potatoes in the batter. We also saw battered corn dogs with actual crinkle-cut French fries all over the outside that looked like they had been glued on! The last two photos are ice creams. The first photo is of hand-rolled, hand-packed ice cream cones meant to look like a flower. The one with the outer green “leaf” made of green matcha tea ice cream is the only one completed, but aren’t they beautiful? It seems a shame to eat it. The second is advertised as 32 cm high….13 inches of ice cream that was so pretty! So that was today’s trip into the heart of the most popular Korean area of Seoul. We loved, loved it.

What would a trip to South Korea be without a tour of the infamous Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)? Oh, the barbed wire! Oh, the soldiers! Oh, the security! Oh, the bleakness! If not for South Korean soldiers swinging on children’s swings, the day would have been oh, so serious!

The border between South and North Korea is one of the most militarized frontiers in the world, even though it is named “demilitarized.” Running roughly along the famous 38th Parallel, the DMZ is still loaded with land mines…2 million were installed, and only half that number have been removed. Largely due to the land mines, North Koreans today who defect usually try to get to South Korea via their northern border, through China. Interestingly, it was South Korea who built much of the wire fencing due to aggression from the North. Each side is heavily guarded to thwart any attacks.

We actually thought our tour of the DMZ would be to the strip of land often seen, with soldiers from both sides facing each other, and barracks where conferences are held. But that is called the Joint Security Area, and not included in most tours. In fact, we were told South Koreans are not allowed there, so we do wonder who runs those tours! We read an observation that it is so ironic that South Korea’s main tourist attraction is North Korea. Anyway, we got as close to the DMZ as is possible, and saw into North Korea (not surprisingly, their trees, rivers, and mountains looked just like South Korea!). We went to an observatory, saw the Freedom Bridge, and went into the Third Incursion Tunnel, found in 1978. In total, four tunnels were discovered between 1974 and 1990, with the North Koreans claiming they were for coal mining, but they had obviously been dug for military invasion.

In the first three photos, you can see some of the many miles of barbed wire we saw, but it is just a fraction of the entire 160-mile length of the border, which is all divided by single or double rows of sharp razor wire and barbed wire. In the third photo, taken from the highway, you can see one of the regular guard towers that appear every few hundred yards. Behind it is the Han River, which is only about 1/3 of a mile wide here, with North Korea on the opposite shore. The river is so shallow that some people tried to walk across to defect, but this whole area is dotted with land mines.

The fourth photo shows the Bridge of Freedom, used by soldiers returning from captivity in North Korea. The photo after that shows North Korea from the Dora Observatory, where free binoculars were available to focus in on buildings, etc. A man next to us pointed out a small guard shack with a North Korean soldier present, exclaiming that it had been a long time since soldiers had been seen in this part of the DMZ.

Following that are a few photos taken from the bus of the road into the restricted zone. You can see that the barricades make vehicles slow down and weave in and out so as to prevent a vehicle speeding straight and accelerating. Our passports were scrutinized before entering this area, which we were required to bring. Also, we were asked not to wear shorts or skimpy outfits, as in the past, North Koreans took photos of this common western dress and used it as propaganda, telling their people, “See? They don’t have enough money there to afford full, regular clothing, like you have.” Ditto for even waving to a North Korean soldier, as they would use that as propaganda: Look how much they like us! They want to live in North Korea!

After that are some of the many South Korean soldiers we encountered, followed by photos of the Third Tunnel. It takes 7 minutes to walk down, down, into the tunnel (and even longer to walk back up, with even the in-shape soldiers gasping for air). Hard hats had to be worn, and even though we were careful, as the ceiling got lower and lower, about 5 feet high, we hit our heads on the ceiling about two dozen times! And just in case, there were gas mask instructions posted on the wall, because who knows what can happen from the other side?

And, always wanting to end on a cheery note, or at least a fun note: the last two photos were taken outside the very-serious incursion tunnel. Meant for posing and photo-taking, they are so silly that they take your mind off politics and all things that threaten good people everywhere. So….smile!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Without comment, we present to you….Japan’s Imperial Palace! It is shown in the first two photos. We took a tour of the Palace grounds, and before we went up a small curved driveway that hid it from our view, our guide noted that the Imperial Palace was very simple, but she thought that made it even more beautiful. And we walked up, and saw…the building in the first two photos. After having seen the castles in Nagoya and Osaka, we weren’t quite ready for this view. All the concrete in front of the Palace is a gathering place for the public, about 50 feet deep. Every year on December 23, the Emperor and Empress appear on the balcony to greet the public, which draws tens of thousands of people.

The Palace is in the center of Tokyo, and you can see office buildings in some of the photos of the grounds. Online, the Palace is described as a series of interconnected buildings, one of which looks more like a castle. It was formerly in Kyoto, dismantled, and reconstructed here. That is shown in the fourth photo. We weren’t told that the Palace was several buildings…we were just taken to the building you see in the first two photos and told that was “the Palace.” In the third photo is the Imperial Household Agency, where matters of State take place. It was the first building on our tour, and is adjacent and down the hill from the Palace. Meetings with Heads of State occur here, while banquets and State dinners are held in the Palace.

The fifth photo doesn’t look like much, until we found out that the two half-dome vegetation structures are a cluster of many trees planted close together to form the shape of two turtles, long-lived creatures, symbolizing that same hope for the Emperor. Following that are a few photos from around the grounds, including the “eyeglass” bridge. Under the right circumstances, the arches reflect in the water to create the illusion of a pair of eyeglasses.

The final photo is fun. We are guessing that the woman is employed in child care…she and another woman both were pushing a four-seater cart, each with four children inside, ranging from infants to about 3 years old. They were all getting their sunshine for the day!

So many cities have their very own castles and palaces, and Osaka is one of them. While it looks a lot like Nagoya Castle from last week’s post, set on a stone foundation and surrounded by a moat, this is, indeed, Osaka Castle. It has had much destruction rained upon it and many iterations of renovation. The castle’s construction was begun in 1583. It was destroyed by lightning, by a civil war, and again in WW II. The current building’s renovation was completed in 1997, but as a museum rather than a castle. It is very pretty, with the moat surrounding it, and can be seen from around Osaka (wherever the skyscrapers don’t interfere!).

The photos show a few different angles of the castle, including the moat. And, as you can see, there is even a gold tourist boat that runs through the moat. There was also a train that circled the grounds, for $2 per person, but with all the signage being in Japanese, we couldn’t figure out where the pickup was! There were also many outer buildings up at the castle level, no doubt lookouts and guest houses, as you can see in the one photo. Outside the castle, you can put on armor, for a price, and have your photo taken with samurais and ninjas. The last two photos are our fun cultural glimpses for the day…”Please pay money at the cashier before eat things which you are going to buy!! Thank you!” – and, a very special salon where they don’t cut hair, but…..

Ha! We thought we were going to see the major sites in Kyoto today, just 30 minutes away by train. There are two palaces, and temples, shrines, and a famous forest. We would do it all. Again…ha! We were up early, had a fairly quick breakfast, and then began the travel fun! We couldn’t find the correct train line in the train/subway/shopping complex that sprawls underneath our hotel. After a few inquiries and after following several false leads and signs, we were finally bound for Kyoto…except we boarded the slow train, not the Special Rapid train even though we could both swear that it said Special Rapid on the side when it pulled up. So it took awhile. When we got to Kyoto, we had another learning curve, looking for the correct train line, standing in two different queues, and finally were on our way to the Bamboo Forest, another 20 minutes away. Once we got there, we decided to follow the crowds, as the signage to the forest was all in Japanese. Giant mounted maps along the route didn’t show the bamboo forest, at least not in English. So we followed everyone, and there were scores of people walking toward us, which convinced us that we were headed in the right direction, as they were coming from the forest. A good thought, except when the road split, there were equal numbers of people going two different ways. So we asked a vendor, who pointed back all the way we had just walked and said, “10 minutes, then turn left.” We actually, arrogantly, thought she was wrong! But she wasn’t. We had enjoyed walking through the village, though, and every other shop was soft-serve ice cream: both the wildly popular matcha tea flavor, a new-to-us bamboo flavor (!), and vanilla. By the time we got to the forest after walking back from where we were, it was more than 2.5 hours since we had left our hotel, rather than our assumed 50 minutes. So, no other sights were taken in today, just the forest. But what a forest it is!

Sagano Bamboo Forest is on every list of Famous Forests, Top Sights in Japan, and Places to See Before You Die. The grove was created in the 14 century by the Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk, Muso Soseki, who was a poet and master of garden art. The bamboo species here, Moso Bamboo, originated in China and grows 60 feet in one month! On windy days, it has been said that the forest sounds like gentle wind chimes when the bamboo stalks knock against their neighbors. But today was clear and calm.

So, the first photos, as you can clearly see, are all from a walk through the great, towering, calming bamboo. It is other-worldly. In many ways, it is similar to the experience of walking through Northern California’s Redwood or Sequoia Forests. There is a shared sense of awe and reverence with the other visitors. Also, there are homes around the edges, and small shrines inside the forest, and even a cemetery. You can see a memorial ceremony at the cemetery in one of the photos. After those, you can see one of the many rickshaws in the village with two kimono-clad women riding. It could be a scene from another era, except both women are on their cell phones, and the puller isn’t in any sort of traditional dress. Notice how pretty the women are, though, and how buff the rickshaw puller is! They just run down the street pulling the passengers, and at times are also shouting tour facts and pointing out places. It was interesting to see.

At the end are two (cute) plastic mascots followed by their progeny….the first spawning ice cream creations, the second, baked goods. The Japanese seem to love cartoon and other playful characters, as they are absolutely everywhere. We even saw an older woman traveling on the train today whose luggage had Mickey Mouse all over it! Many young men wear loud prints and even leggings. Women have backpacks, purses, and phone covers with Hello Kitty and cartoon characters. Buildings everywhere display either tv screens or plastic sculptures of cute animals. Along with vending machines, they are everywhere! It is just part of the Japanese landscape.

Can you believe that the city of Osaka instituted urban planning…..in 1621?? To be precise, that is 398 years ago! Oh, my! (US colleges only started offering Urban Planning degrees in the 20th century.) The Dotonbori District was only 12 years old at the time, having been founded by a man named Doton who built a canal (bori) to connect two branches of the Yokobori River. The Tokugawa Shogunate decided that Dotonbori would be designated the Entertainment District in Osaka. And so, many kabuki and bunraku theaters were established here, as well as numerous places with food, food, food! The word most associated with Dotonbori is Kuidaore, meaning “to ruin oneself by extravagance in food.” Osaka is pretty much acknowledged as the Foodie Capital of Japan for this reason.

So….all these crazy photos with “things” on buildings and lights everywhere! We won’t describe each photo…let them just wash over you. It is pretty wild. Many of the photos show quite famous images. Look for these:

There is the beloved Glico Man, 80 years old and still running, which has become one of the unofficial logos of the city. It has been featured in many movies set in Japan…the other day, we watched the movie Black Rain, with Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia. Filmed in Osaka, the action occurred in most of the places we walked this week and showed the Glico Man in several scenes. The second most-famous logo of Osaka is the Kuidaore Clown, playing his drum, who will be 70 years old next year. Then there are the ramen dragon restaurants, the fugu blowfish hanging lantern (yes, the possibly lethal fish), the Kani Doraku’s crab restaurant, the Daruma snarling man. An interesting note about Daruma: the restaurant specializes in deep-fried meat and vegetables on skewers. However, individual dipping sauce is not provided. Rather, there is a large communal sauce pot with a strict rule: no double-dipping! You get one dunk only. The locals understand this very well, and dipping again for them is taboo, but we wonder how many tourists double-dip mindlessly?

We don’t know what the others are, as there aren’t always English translations, but they were fun and they were attached to the outside of buildings, so we photographed them. We just love the capricious men gracing the front of the Plate Dotonbori Hotel Gloria, as they are so cute. We love the lighted crab leg structure (note that crab legs are offered for 4,980 yen…almost $50 US), the happy Japanese family, Crabman (not Spider-Man) climbing up to the clamshell to claim a pearl, and the pedestrian walkway photos with all the signs and lights. The later it got, the more certain we were that every person staying in every hotel in the city was in Dotonbori last night!

The photo of the two young women are two more interviewers! They were promoting travel to Nagano, where the Winter Olympics were held in 1998. Asking us where we were from, we burst out laughing and said, “Wait’ll you hear this!” They were suitably excited to hear that we just travel. They were among the nicest, sweetest people we have met in Japan! The last three photos are left for your puzzlement, and ours. We have no idea what the giant foods displayed on the buildings are. The fish in the styrofoam cooler was a skeleton stripped of its meat, all laid out perfectly, with the full head lying at the top. Normally the head has the most delectable parts for eating and for making soup, so we don’t know why the head was left intact. A mystery in the Entertainment District, the very exciting, very busy, very alive Dotonbori.

Osaka is about 300 miles south of Tokyo on the island of Honshu, Japan’s main island. Its name means “large hill” and dates back to the year 1496. The west side of Osaka is open to Osaka Bay, and the city has many bridges, rivers, and canals that empty into the bay. In fact, by 1925, Osaka had 1,629 bridges! Many of the city’s canals have gradually been filled in, so today there are “only” 872 bridges.

We haven’t yet gone to any major tourist spots or attractions, as we just arrived yesterday afternoon, but we took a walk around the neighborhood today and stopped in a few stores, finding photo opportunities galore. The first is just an archway near some office buildings, but we liked the ribbons dancing in the morning breeze. The next two photos are of a walkway/wall just across from the ribbons, covered in vines and flowers. We thought it very unusual, especially with its peepholes to what lies beyond.

After those photos are some street art and what looks like an entrance gate to a shrine. It was all in Japanese, so we weren’t sure if this was a private home or an institution, but it sure was pretty. Next came the yellow-hatted children, looking like tiny construction workers from afar! We waved to try to get them to smile for the camera, but it was hot, and most of them just weren’t having it. There are two photos from the small park we walked through, then we hit the grocery store! The two photos are from the bakery. The first is clearly a version of a Monte Cristo sandwich called a Croque Monsieur, a grilled or deep-fried sandwich with meat and cheese inside. We have been using the app Google Translate to enter phrases in either English or Japanese to communicate at times. The app also allows us to point the camera at foreign text, and using the phone’s camera, it will translate the text as you look at an item! Mike calls it the Translator app, while Jan calls it the Magic Camera. Anyway….back to the Monte Cristo sandwich. Let’s just say, the app works fine sometimes, and not well at other times. When we pointed it to the Japanese card with the price and description, it translated the text as Lasagna Wind Clock Monsieur. Whaaaaat? Instead of Croque Monsieur, we have a Clock Monsieur, but Lasagna Wind leaves us scratching our heads. For the next photo, which appeared to us to be a strawberry and banana sandwich on white bread (???), it translated the text as Strawberry Banana with Cream. So, it works, sort of, sometimes, and at others, it is a massive failure. It could be due to local dialects, though. We are not sure.

We end with two fun photos….the gigantic green spitting bear, sitting calmly in a water feature outside an office complex (how fun to have your window face Mr. Green!). The second just invited passersby to “Rent me!” – although derision and laughter would be your fate for the day!

Kinshachi. Golden dolphins. A symbol of the feudal lord’s authority, it is the first thing you see in the first photo of Nagoya Castle, IF you run your eye down the photo from top to bottom. The third photo is a close-up replica of the dolphin, but it sure doesn’t look dolphinish to us. What happened to the sweet, playful Flipper face? Oh, well…we guess lords had to look fierce and bellicose, not like happy pacifists. The castle is the iconic building associated with Nagoya, and it is seen everywhere as the City’s unofficial logo. Unfortunately, the inside of the castle closed earlier this month for reconstruction work, but we were able to tour the grounds and the gardens. Isn’t it magnificent?

Construction on the castle began in 1610, during the Odo Period. Many additions and modifications were made over the centuries. The Southwest Turret, built to protect the castle and seen in the front of the fourth photo, was destroyed in the 1891 Great Nobi Earthquake. The castle’s dolphins, keeps, turrets, Honmaru Palace, and other buildings were destroyed in the 1945 World War II aerial bombardments of Japan, and most have been refurbished or replaced.

The fifth photo is of Honmaru Palace, recently rebuilt according to original and traditional construction techniques. It has been open to the public for about a year. It originally was the primary residence of the feudal lords. The following photo is of Kiyomasa’s Pulling Stone. Born in Nagoya, he was tasked with getting the enormous stone foundation wall and moat built for the castle, which you can see in the fourth photo, as well. The foundation wall curves at the top, giving it a graceful look as well as strength. He gave directions from the stone that the statue stands upon, and is credited for getting all of the huge boulders in place, and the wall built, in just 6 months, a remarkable accomplishment for the early 17th century.

After that are various photos from around the grounds….some pretty Japanese artwork, the moat (which was rather impressive and deep, although dry), a man in traditional feudal dress available for photos, and the tranquil gardens. It was a gorgeous day here in Japan, and the grounds very busy with tourists. In cherry blossom time it is even nicer, but we missed the blooming season by a few weeks.

The final photo is from our morning breakfast buffet…yes, breakfast! We are unaware of the “American West Coast Trend” that the sign touts, but they sure are cute and colorful. Many children enjoyed them at the end of breakfast, and, maybe, possibly, a few adults as well, including traveling Americans!

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound he pulls the spitting high-tension wires down! Helpless people on subway trains scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them. He picks up a bus and he throws it back down as he wades through the buildings toward the center of town. OH, NO! They say he’s got to go…Go, go, GODZILLA! OH, NO! There goes Tokyo….Go, go, GODZILLA! ~ Blue Oyster Cult, 1977 ~

It is inevitable…Tokyo HAD to have some sort of tribute to its most famous monster, born in 1954….Godzilla. And we found the site on Google Maps, of all places. Not far from our hotel, there is a place marker on the map that says, “Godzilla Head.” We had to track it down. It is on the 8th floor of the Gracery Hotel, and the first photo is up close and personal, out on the lobby’s terrace, while the second was taken down on the street. If you look at the front left of the third photo, you will see a very serious guard. We said to him, “Is it really your job to guard Godzilla all day long??” He broke into a big grin and nodded vigorously. There was also a mini-museum, with all the Godzilla posters ever and some smaller statues, and, of course, items for sale. What a treasure!

After our photo tribute to Godzilla, you will see some Tokyo street photos, including one of the longest street names we have seen! The three teenagers pictured were quite a treat for us. They wanted to know if they could ask a few questions and interview us. Once we established that they weren’t trying to sell us a timeshare…or anything else….we agreed to talk to them. They inquired whether they could film us, and we agreed. As far as we could ascertain it was a project for school. They smiled the whole time as we told them where we were from (at least, most recently, which drew big gasps and wide eyes), what we thought of Japan, how we liked the people and culture, and did we have any questions. We think they were supposed to be asking us, to practice their English, but they showed us their survey and let us read the questions. The second flurry of excitement on their end came when we offered them our card with our website and then told them we would put them on it! We took a few photos of them with us, as well, and we looked back as they walked away with their “treasure” of our interview. They were hugging each other and patting themselves on the back! It was enormously satisfying because they were so happy to have completed their assignment, and they found the one homeless couple in all of Tokyo for their report!

Following them are a few photos of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a truly peaceful Japanese Garden near a very busy rail and shopping center. It was so green and calm, with lakes and bridges and pretty flowers. There was a Tea House, but we didn’t go in because you had to buy a ticket for green tea in a vending machine before you entered! And when we peeked in, it was just a large empty room with benches. Not what we had in mind, so much.

The last photo is just for fun…Godzilla for sale, but looks who’s whacking him in the nose! But….he could be yours for just $23 US!

Senso-ji Temple is the oldest in Tokyo, first founded in 645 AD and rebuilt several times, the last being after it was bombed in World War II. A Buddhist temple, it is the most-visited religious site in the world, with over 30 million visitors per year. People come to visit dressed ceremonially in kimonos and traditional dress, as you can see in the first two photos. It is the only place in the city where we saw kimonos being worn, although we saw many for sale. There was a note on one kimono on the sidewalk that it was polyester, for $28 US, but you needed to go inside to see the real silk kimonos. These lovely people were more than happy to pose for us when we requested a photo.

So, we thought we were at the temple, and took photos of the structure in the third photo. But this is just the Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, offering entrance to the temple. It is adorned with a red lantern and statues of four gods. Next is the Five-Storied Pagoda, the second-highest in Japan, which houses some of Buddha’s ashes on the top floor, which were given to Tokyo by the government of Sri Lanka as a symbol of friendship with Japan.

After that, at last, is the Senso-ji Temple. A large incense burner is at the front, with a vendor selling bundles of incense for people to burn for their own intentions. Following is a photo of the gold interior of the temple, but it was not open today to the public. After that is a photo of the Chozuya, the purification fountain that is found at all Shinto and Buddhist shrines. There are specific instructions for washing your hands, and you can see that the plaque warns not to drink from the ladle. It is proper to pour water into your hand, swish it in your mouth, and spit it onto the rocks (not back into the fountain). Many people were doing this, mostly locals. The foreigners watched.

The next photos are of Nakamise Shopping Street, which has existed for centuries as the lead-up to the temple. You can buy anything here, mostly snacks and souvenirs. We loved the brightly colored ice cream cones and their flavors/names! You can also buy masks, ice cream burgers (we assume someone looked up the translation for an ice cream sandwich, and the word burger came up….great idea!), vinegar juice…all sorts of enticing sounding delights! There is the pizza and pasta joint that advertised that it has English speaking staffs, but apparently they aren’t the ones who wrote the sign!

Also, take your trash home! We saw gorgeous pink peonies that looked like fragile paper….so very pretty, we had to photograph them. And, all of you guys who are reading…the last photo gives you your perfect pick-up line…or does it? Wait…..Duh.

Japan is the 97th country we have been to….only 131 more to go!….depending on whose list of countries you use, that is. After the sheer calm and quiet of our idyllic beach in Bali, Tokyo is exactly the opposite. It is busy, crowded, expensive, avant garde, contemporary….much like any other metropolitan area. It reminds us a lot of New York City. Tokyo has been the Japanese capital since 1869, and today is the world’s 11th most expensive city. In our experience so far in traveling the world, it seems to be the most expensive city, but we do believe statistics, so we suppose we need to discover the first ten most expensive cities!

The MORI Digital Arts Museum has become one of the premiere destinations in Tokyo. Located toward the edge of the city on Tokyo Bay, in a large warehouse complex, the museum is a series of dark rooms lit up only by projections on the wall, and objects (such as lanterns and giant balloons) lit up by ever-changing colored lights. It may be hard for readers to understand what they are seeing, but look at each photo as if you are standing still, which of course we were. There are lots of mirrors to make the images even more confusing, and many of the floors are reflective, so lights are shining from them, as well. Most of the projections moved across the walls, like a parade. The first three photos are from the installation called the Forest of Resonating Light. We had to wait in a 45-minute line to enter, as only about 25 people at a time were allowed in, unlike the other rooms. Interestingly, as we looked from the outside through a window into the actual room, the lights inside were only, ever, a shade of orange. Once inside and taking pictures, we experienced what you see…many different colors. In the third photo, you can see the two people in the center taking photos, and you can also see their reflection in the floor. The lights are doing the exact same thing…reflecting like crazy.

The next three photos were a “parade” of rabbits and frogs, walking along, following a wheeled cart. When you got close to them, they turned and looked at you, pointing their fingers! After that are two photos of a special carpet…a lizard and a frog, hopping around. If you stepped on any of the animals, they squirmed out from under your shoe and ran away! But then, of course, they reappeared just to tease you again. Then there is the Balloon Room. Balloons were hanging from the ceiling and were tethered to the floor, in a mirrored room of course, so that you could walk through and get lost in the middle of them as they changed colors. All of the rest of the museum photos are in the Flower Garden, a number of interconnected rooms that change patterns and colors. Some areas had irregular ramps to walk up to get closer to the wall and ceiling. Quite challenging for old people in the dark, but the kids loved it. There was even an area where the children could slide down a lighted area, but it was inside a dark room. Overall, a great place to spend an afternoon. The museum was jammed, and at $30 US per adult, they are doing quite a brisk business.

The photos after that are from our day’s shopping trip to the Ginza, Tokyo’s version of Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. Every designer brand we could think of had not only a store there, but entire buildings. We saw at least four Giorgio Armani stores! There was also a normal street that would normally have traffic, but traffic was prohibited and it became a temporary pedestrian walkway, but we don’t know why. There were even people lying down in the middle of the road, taking pictures in glee that there were no vehicles.

The last three photos are unusual. We each only own one pair of shoes, so we are not shoe addicts, but these were so unusual. First is Miss Petite with the heaviest mega-shoes we have ever seen. Second is a pair of canvas shoes that look like they are made for a Two-Toed Monster. And the last photo defies even us. As you can see, it looks like a tennis shoe that a high-top has plummeted into, creating two heels and a boot. Whaaaat!??

/

Over the weekend, we had one of the most special days in all of our travels so far. Our wonderful driver, Agus, who took us to Ubud and all the places we noted yesterday, invited us to his newborn baby’s Tutug Kambuhan ceremony. This Bali Hindu tradition occurs when the baby is 42 days old, and is a purification ceremony for both mother and child.

We arrived at the family “compound” just before 5:00 pm. Many generations ago, families built a wall around their living area with an entrance that looks like a temple. Inside is a large courtyard with several homes, usually the parents’ home surrounded by homes given to their married children. One small structure is a communal kitchen and eating area. In the middle is a type of hut that is used for drying rice. Agus told us that if Indonesians don’t have rice every day, they feel that something is off, just not right.

Agus’ wife’s name is Miles (MEE-liss). She is a beautiful 26-year-old woman, and most of the time she was cuddling the baby, Kirana, looking at her lovingly, and taking care of her every need. She let us hold her, and Kirana was one happy baby, very contented. There were about 20-30 people there, including both sets of grandparents, extended family members, and bunches of excited children, running around and playing like children everywhere. We had bought some toys for the couple’s two older children so that they didn’t feel left out, but we didn’t know there would be so many kids there. Luckily, we bought a beach bucket filled with shovels and molds to make animals and castles out of sand, so everybody had something to play with. We thought everything would be scattered around the courtyard, but were astounded about an hour later to see the bucket filled with each and every item! Agus told us the next day that he took the older boys, Rakrian and Tirta, to the beach to play with the beach toys.

On to the ceremony! As you can see in the photos, the Hindu pemangku, whom Agus and Miles called their “pastor” so that we would understand his role, was dressed in white. He chanted all of the prayers in Sanskrit, and everyone present admitted that they did not understand his words, but they understood that he was praying for them and Kirana. It was so interesting to watch. Like a Christian Baptism, he sprinkled her with water, but did so about 50 times, usually with a plumeria flower but also with a hard-boiled egg, woven bamboo fronds, or leaves. Many times, he broke off a piece of white or red string, and these were tied around her wrist, around her toes, or gently placed on her head. The parents got some of everything the baby did, as well! At one point, uncooked rice was thrown on all of their heads. Several times, incense was burned and everyone fanned the smoke toward Kirana to bless her. To her credit, Kirana never cried or fussed, but calmly accepted 45 minutes of all of this attention, things placed on her, and water sprinkled. During most of it, the pastor rang a bell for long periods of time. This didn’t affect her, either. She was great.

When Agus acted as our driver, he wore a t-shirt and jeans, but for this Hindu ceremony, he dressed in festive ceremonial garb. His head covering, which resembles a turban, is called an udeng. The sarong around his waist is called a kamen. The women all wore bright sashes around their waists called a selendang. Everyone was either barefoot or wearing flip-flops…..except us! We weren’t up on our Balinese ceremonial dress. Neither did we wear sarongs or sashes or head coverings…but everyone was very gracious and eager to welcome us and smile at us….huge smiles!

For the second half of the ceremony, we moved to an altar area with the bale agung… baskets of fruit, flowers, coconut leaves, woven fronds. More chanting in Sanskrit. More sprinkling. More bell ringing. But for this part, the father disappeared…maybe because it was the mother/daughter purification part? We are unclear on the meaning. We did film a little of this part. Note the bell and the roosters crowing!

After the ceremony and all of that praying, chanting, sprinkling, ringing, and purifying, it was time to eat! The last photo is of Agus’ brother-in-law, who did the grilling. We were treated to a feast of fish, chicken, rice, curried eggs, sautéed greens, watermelon, and a salsa-type condiment called sambal matah, which Mike has every morning for breakfast. It is a dish of mostly finely-diced hot chilies…way too spicy for Jan, but perfect for Mike with his fish and chicken. After dinner we talked a bit (Miles works in food service at the Ritz-Carlton, and her English is excellent), we played with the older children, chased them around the courtyard, and enjoyed being part of a family for a few hours. We thanked them profusely for being kind enough to invite us to witness this unique Hindu ceremony. It was certainly a highlight of our travels up until now.

So many ways to make money in tourist spots! The first four photos are from the Tegenungan waterfall in Kemenuh, Bali. Notice the cute frames on two of the photos? They are meant for someone to sit in them, and then deposit 10,000 rupiahs into a small locked box for doing so (about 70 cents). There are many frames and signs like this around the most popular attractions. Some people actually hiked all the way to the bottom to walk in the pool and climb aside the waterfall, but it was too long a trek for us, as we had several other places we wanted to see.

The following three photos are of the Tegalalang Rice Terraces. Once again, you can climb all the way down the mountain and walk among them, but guess what? The only way back is to climb back UP the mountain, and just like with the waterfall, we had other places to go! If you look at the sign that says, I ♥️ Bali, there is a yellow collection box on the left side of the platform, requesting 5,000 rupiahs….only 35 cents to take a photo! It is all on an honor system, of course, but each box was filled with donations.

After that….here comes the Elephant Cave! Known as Goa Gajah, the cave complex was built in the 11th century and contains Hindu and Buddhist imagery, but it was only rediscovered by Dutch archaeologists in 1923. The fountains and bathing pool weren’t unearthed until 1954, and contain statues of seven women holding water jugs with water flowing from them (one was destroyed in an earthquake), which depict the seven holy rivers of India. We both had to don sarongs around our waists to enter, down a long series of steps. As you can see, of the two figures on either side of the actual entrance to the cave, only one survived more or less intact from the 11th century. Inside were some small altars, like the one shown. There was a whole class of children touring the site, and once I asked if I could take their picture, they became quite animated, broke into smiles, and waved at the camera.

The last photo is….special. We wonder how many times per year it is actually used! It was adjacent to restrooms that advertised, “Toilet….2,000 rupiah” (14 cents). BUT then we saw signs that said, “GOOD Toilet…20,000 rupiah,” or $1.40 US. We did not check them out to compare the differences. But, quite pricey, for what it is! Tourism certainly commands hefty tariffs on those essential services….

If you have ever seen the Julia Roberts’ movie, Eat, Pray, Love, you have seen Ubud! It is probably the best-known town on the island of Bali. Promoted as a tourism hub and arts center, its 74,000 residents see 3 million foreign visitors annually. We hired a driver to take us there yesterday (the only way on the island to travel any distance), and it cost $50 US for 10 hours of sightseeing. It was certainly busy and certainly beautiful.

The first three photos are from the vegetarian restaurant where we had a late lunch, Zest. It is perched up on a cliff above the main street, has many unusual items, and everything was delicious. The most expensive item on the menu was about $6! The shades on the groovy guy in the first photo have a sticker on that says, “Ma mu”….”your mama!” (BTW…Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all the great moms reading this!) As you can see from the second and third photos, it was, as usual, an open-air restaurant with fountains and lots of greenery…felt like a temple!

After that are several photos of the Royal Palace, which had quite a few pavilions, hundreds of statues with ferocious faces protecting the grounds, and a large courtyard where events are held. It is the only tourist attraction we entered in all of Indonesia for which there was no admission fee. As you can see, all of the statues are “dressed” – decorated with fabric and headwraps. We were told that the fabric always has to be two colors or designs to represent the yin and yang of life.

In the middle of the photos, or so, is the Ubud Art Market…many items for sale, most made locally in this artists’ colony. Following that are some cute items we saw for sale. Then, it was on to Saraswati Temple. Aren’t the lotus flowers and leave so pretty in front of the temple? And yes, both men and women must wear a sarong around their waist to enter Balinese temples. It is always provided free of cost. It was the second place in one day that we saw, “Menstruating women are prohibited.” There is no way they can tell, of course. I imagine locals comply, but probably not every visitor. (Mike did want me to make clear that HE was not menstruating!)

We really loved walking down the street in the next-to-last photo. It even felt as refreshing as it looked! And the last photo….well, let’s just say….the faces on the artwork look grim. The name of the shop doesn’t match. We laughed out loud as we took the photo.

We love, love, love the first three photos….wild statues of mythical Balinese creatures. The first looks like a model for the Abominable Snowman, while the second just looks insane. The third looks either terrified, or trying to terrify us. All in all…great artwork!

So we are just blogging from Bali with miscellaneous musings and photos, not really from one place, because people have been asking, why the long hiatus from writing blogs? The answer can be found in our previous post…check out the property we are on! We have been relaxing by the pool, on the beach, in the lounge. With our blissful view, all we really want to do is read, listen to music, plan future destinations, and do nothing. It is too hot to do much! The two photos after the monsters are of paragliders being sent into the air and gliding along the coast of Bali, out in the Indian Ocean. We both noted that the owners are sure to crisscross in front of the pool many times over…perhaps to give other people the idea of how much fun it is? We did this in Catalina, and it is one of the best, fun experiences we have had. In the photo after those are some cute cabanas available along the beach, with glass doors if it gets too windy, but made for two people to relax in. There are all sorts of cabanas with “outside beds” to lounge around. So, we do!

Mike bought a package of five diving days…three down and two to go…and goes all day, driving up the coast and to the neighboring island. The farthest was a three-hour drive to Tulamben, on the northeast coast, to dive at the wreck of the US Army Transport ship, Liberty, which was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942 at the neighboring island of Lombok. It was transported to Bali for salvage and situated on the shore. But the 1963 eruption of Mt. Agung pushed the ship offshore about 70 feet, and it created an underwater reef that is rich in sea life. Mt. Agung is still erupting, even while we have been here. All the rest of the photos are from his dive days, including a shot of the crazy small roads and traffic here in Bali. Tulamben is only about 60 miles north of where we are, but on these unpredictable and busy roads, it takes 3 hours to get there! The traffic weaves more than anything, but drivers are patient and gracious with each other. At the dive spot, you can see how many boats are waiting to go out, as Bali is one of the premier diving destinations on the planet. The restaurant area there, as usual, is open-air, as are most restaurants, bars, and businesses here. No reason for walls!

So, Bali is a great place to relax and do nothing. The views are spectacular, the prices are inexpensive, and the people are amazing…always smiling, always kind, always gracious. What’s not to like? We are already trying to figure out ways to return in the next year or so, but for two or three months. No wonder it has so many visitors! The island gently calls your name, saying, “C’mon, come back to me.”

The stuff dreams are made of. Paradise. Any superlative you can think of….this is it!

We were here in Bali for a day last month while on a cruise, and went on an excursion to the Palace of Justice and some other temples. It was a trip to explore Bali’s heritage, and we saw many old beautiful buildings, shrines, and temples. This is a totally different Bali. We are on the southern tip of the island, in an area called Nusa Dua, developed with resorts to appreciate Bali’s coastal beauty. And it is a WOW place.

Hilton took over the Grand Nikko Resort at the end of 2016 and has been upgrading the hotel and grounds ever since. It is set on 28 acres and is just stunning. Rooms are above the beach on a cliff, so every room has a view of the Indian Ocean. It is very much a maze, with walkways, elevators, and staircases everywhere, leading off in so many directions. Just as in Hawaii, the lobby is open-air, no walls, which means it can be either fairly warm or nice and breezy. We have been here over four days, and today is the first day off the property, as Mike went on an all-day diving trip, this time in the ocean. Everything we need or want is here on site, at a cost of just over US $100 per night. Bali’s prices are amazingly low for just about everything.

Bali is well-known for its indigenous monkeys, and even has a forest sanctuary for them with “monkey temples” that look like something out of Indiana Jones. We are happy to report that monkeys also hang out at all of the resorts. In the last two photos, you can see them on the resort walls and on our balcony! The mom in the upper middle of our balcony is holding the tiniest monkey we have ever seen…it surely was born in the last two weeks. They hung out for a while, looking for food, no doubt. Upon check-in, we were told not to leave food out on the balcony, as it would cause a lot of visitors to descend upon our peaceful haven. So we didn’t!…but they came, anyway. We are in Bali for a month, and could easily stay here in Heaven much longer.

Our last few days in KL were both wild and peaceful. The WILD was Mike scuba diving in the KLCC Aquaria with about 20 fiercesome-looking sharks, sea turtles, mantas, and 200 other species of fish. But all we need to talk about are the sharks. Check them out! They were always just a few inches away from Mike and the dive master, sometimes coming around the bend behind them, catching them unawares, and sometimes head on. It was truly a great experience to see these magnificent beasts up close and personal, and Mike would do it again in a heartbeat. He thought at first it might be a cheesy experience, as he has only gone scuba diving in the ocean before, but it was memorable. After all, both humans and creatures are captive in the same area. So you have to interact. The sharks are well fed and the most fiercesome-looking were Sand Tigers, which are prized by aquaria for their tough look and gentle demeanor, so there is really no danger, but it still feels a little exciting, much like the Jungle Cruise Ride at Disneyland, but with live animals rather than animatronic ones. And, you get to get wet. Mike was in the tank for about an hour, and Jan “only” took 267 photos of Mike diving, along with about 15 videos. As most divers would also say, Mike had never seen footage of himself diving before, and has never gotten such clear photos of what he was seeing, as it is difficult underwater without highly sophisticated equipment. When he has tried to do photography underwater, the results have been weak and murky, with the vibrant colors of the fish grayed out. But since Jan was outside the tank, everything was crystal clear. A great experience!

Last week, we did a post on the Petronas Towers, which are the heart of KL. Most everything in the city takes place inside and around the towers. We went to a youth symphony concert, as Philharmonic Hall is inside the towers. The last two photos are the pipe organ and the gorgeous ceiling lighting. The musicians were excellent…we heard some Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Bizet, and a very unusual piece by the contemporary Welsh composer, Gareth Wood. It was Four Pieces for Four Trombones, and was very interesting, as all four trombones took the lead at various times to produce some interesting trombone sounds and passages. It was the peaceful part of our last days in KL. Malaysia was great. We would love to return for more of the Malay culture in the future.

Petronas Twin Towers….at 88 stories, the tallest twin towers in the world! They opened 20 years ago and still look like they first opened this morning. In September 2009, French urban climber Alain “Spider-Man” Robert scaled all 88 stories in two hours using only his bare hands and feet with no safety devices. Two previous attempts ended with his arrest on the 60th floor. Downtown KL is really lovely and modern, with many fountains and interesting skyscrapers. The bottom levels of the towers house a mall (Suria KLCC) and the permanent home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Also in the photos below is one of the mall, and best of all…a class of schoolgirls in matching pink “uniforms”….when they saw us taking a photo of them, we got big smiles and waves! We also liked the three Buddhist monks outside at the fountains, with one photographing the other two with his iPad! We enjoy seeing people and sights that are so different from what we are used to…different cultures, different religious buildings, different foods, different dress, different languages….and we realize that to them, we are the different ones! The last photo was a lunch dish that we watched being made. On high heat with flames, the chef started with the pyramid of rice. Then he threw on a ladle of sauce with meat, added some red chili flakes, cracked an egg on top, and added some more sauce and raw veggies….it all bubbled up, hissed, and was done, served to the woman who ordered it. We have no idea what it was, or what was in it, but it looked wonderful and fresh!

“Muddy Confluence.” Aren’t place names funny? That is what Kuala Lumpur means, as it is located at the meeting point of the Klang and Gombok Rivers. The capital city of Malaysia (locally called KL) is the country’s largest and has a population of about 2 million people. Last year, KL was the 10th most-visited city in the world. Like any large city today, it is very cosmopolitan, has many dozens of skyscrapers (including the famous Petronas Twin Towers), three of the 10 largest malls in the world, and very busy traffic during morning and evening rush hours. The outlying areas (we came by bus from Melaka) are covered with extensive, deep palm tree forests. There would be the usual trees, forests, and fields, and the highway would look just like an American interstate, when suddenly there would just be thousands upon thousands of palm trees, stretching as far as the eye could see. The tropics!

Our journey today was to the Batu Caves, about 30 minutes north via subway (just $1.25 US, round trip). The complex is a series of caves and Hindu Tamil temples. There are 272 steps up to the main cave, called Temple Cave or Cathedral Cave, and yep….we climbed them! It was exercise enough for a week! The huge gold statue in the first photo seems to guard over the cave system. He is the Hindu deity Murugan, and the statue (with the 272 steps just to the left of him) is 140 feet high and covered with about 80 gallons of gold paint. It cost about $400,000 and was installed in 2006. So, what is at the top after you have climbed 272 steps??? MORE STEPS! There were about another 100 to climb after we entered the cave at the top!

Look through the pictures of this fabulous temple. Does the word excess come to mind? Well, yeah, us too! But think of the Vatican or any of the great churches and palaces around the world…excess is a symbol of devotion and love. The shrines in Cathedral Cave are depictions of chapters of the life of Lord Murugan.

As you will notice in some of the photos, there is a troop of macaque monkeys that have the run of the place. They scamper up and down the staircase, eat discarded food, occasionally steal sunglasses and caps, and just live their lives on the temple grounds. The macaque in the photo third from the bottom cracked us up and held our fascination for a good 20 minutes. He leaped onto the handrail in front of us with a full unopened bag of nacho chips, easily ripped it open (from past experience, we are sure), secured it with his feet, and proceeded to eat his chips just like a human….slowly, one at a time, and savoring each one. After 10 or so, he began to rub each chip vigorously between his palms before eating, as we would if a chip were too salty. He calmly watched us watching him eat. Of course, he stole the bag from either a vendor or a tourist, then ran to his perch to enjoy his snack. He would occasionally drop one, and the baby macaques who were staring at each bite would run to pick up the chip, look at him warily, and scamper away to eat their prize. It was hysterical to watch.

The last two photos? The interesting subway! When the train arrived, heading to the Batu Caves, everyone got on, only to be told it was the wrong train and to go to the other platform. We got on and sat down. When we looked down into the other cars, they looked very crowded, even though our car had lots of open seats. Curious. Until, that is, a security guard came through and told us we were sitting in a “Ladies Only” coach, and Mike would have to leave! We hadn’t noticed the pink signs all over the inside and outside of the car saying it was only for women, because it never entered our minds that there were such things. So we moved! And as you can see in the photo of prohibitions on the subway, the only one we succeeded at was Berkelakuan Sumbang….Indecent Behavior. I mean, after seeing we couldn’t kiss while on the subway, we HAD to kiss, right?? But….only five times!

One quarter of the world’s traded goods flow through the long, narrow Strait of Malacca, as well as one quarter of all of the world’s oil that is shipped by sea! That is amazing. Check out the photos…it looks so calm, so serene. Yet it is the busiest strait in the world, with close to 100,000 vessels navigating through annually. It connects the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is the shortest route from China and the Pacific to India and the Middle East. Piracy has been a problem in recent times, and there are shipwrecks in the strait. The maximum size of a vessel that can pass through is referred to as Malaccamax; for the world’s largest ships, mostly oil tankers, the strait is not deep enough, at only 82 feet. These vessels must detour several thousand nautical miles as a result.

The last two photos still show the strait, but with a little swag: trees on the deck of the observation tower, and a great shot from our hotel’s infinity pool, where you can see the strait to the left of, and in between, the two towers of an adjacent hotel!

You can be the judge, but looking at the photos, we believe that seeing Melaka at night is the only way to go! Also known as Malacca (you may have heard of the Strait of Malacca), the government standardized its spelling to the original Malay as Melaka. It lies off the southwest coast of Malaysia, roughly midway between Singapore and the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and across the strait from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its historical importance as a major trade route stop between China and India. Like so many places in this part of the world, the country was occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and Japanese (during WW II) before gaining its independence in 1963. After only a week in Malaysia, we have become very fond of the Malay people. They are gentle, soft-spoken, sweet natured, and smiling, smiling, smiling…all the time. It is very pleasant and calm here. As one of our drivers told us….Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian: we all get along and live in harmony. It feels very safe here, and of course, the prices continue to be exceedingly low for everything. We can get a lunch of chicken and rice with salad for 5 ringgits ($1.25 US). We saw the new movie Pet Sematary on opening day for 8 ringgits ($2 US). Soda AND popcorn cost a total of 10 ringgits ($2.50 US).

So, the photos. They are pretty much divided into two halves, with the first images from Jonker Walk, a night market in Chinatown that is the heart of the city in the evening. It takes between one and two hours to stroll along, try some street food, have coffee, and luxuriate in the sights, smells, chatter, and busyness. We had coffee and a fantastic sugar-free smoothie, along with Portuguese Pastel de Nata, a fabulous egg custard tart that we first tasted in Kauai and also enjoyed in Portugal. Served still warm, here it cost 60 cents US. The most unusual food we encountered was fried squid, but nothing like the squirming scorpions on sticks we saw in Beijing, waiting to be thrust into hot oil for feasting! It was sort of amazing to us that we never saw any pizza, burgers, fries, or soda for sale; at a US fair, there will be American dishes, but also Chinese, Thai, sushi, Indian, and many other foreign cuisines. Yes, we know we are in Asia, but food dishes that were offered many, many times over were fish and meats on sticks, all things durian (ice cream, shakes, fruit slices), smoothies, rice dishes, sausages, pastries made of yams, and various shellfish delicacies still in the shell. And as you can see, there were dried flowers and fruit for sale (used in soup and salad), charcoal ice cream and milk tea (apparently a trend, but it doesn’t bring much in terms of nutrition), squid on a stick (calamari, anyone?), dirty puffs (?? – we don’t know and did not try), and a fun refund/re-do policy for smoothies: feel not tasty, please ask for re-do or fully refund; feel unworthy, please ask for re-do or fully refund. Also at night: here come the trishaws! Unusual during the day, the bicycle rickshaws are decorated with Miss Kitty and Pokémon characters. But it all comes alive at night, with flashing lights and bouncing music from Bollywood and Chinese folk music. They reminded us of Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade. We will try one tomorrow night, when we return to this fun area of town. A 30-minute trishaw ride costs $6 US.

The second half of the photos are from the Night River Cruise, which is the only time to do it. The river route is lit up like Christmas for people to enjoy the serpentine river through the heart of the city. We boarded and eagerly headed to the front so that we could take photos for this blog entry. We were very smugly happy with our seats….UNTIL, as you can see in the second of the cruise photos, the water started splashing into the boat and soaking everyone in the front, just like a log flume ride. It creeped us out a little, as it was getting in our eyes and mouth, and signs along the river requested, “help keep our river clean!” We are still feeling okay, though, so maybe we were worrying needlessly as we – and everyone else – scooted back as far as we all could from the front and the splashing! As you look at the night cruise photos, though, do take a minute to look at the water itself and how the lights shimmer doubly in its reflection. It was so beautiful…45 minutes of many oohs and aahs from the passengers…that is, except for the shrieks when getting hit by splashing water! The last photo is of St. Francis Xavier Church, which kind of rises eerily behind one of the many bridges as you come around a river bend. It was built in 1849 on the site of an old Portuguese church and is based on a cathedral in Southern France.

The light, falling through colored glass, the singular forms of the architecture, unite to give a silent image of that infinite mystery which the soul forever feels, and never comprehends. ~ Madame de Stael ~

Madame de Stael clearly wasn’t speaking about this temple, as she died in Paris in 1817, but her words certainly apply. Arulmigu Sri Rajakaliamman Glass Temple is probably the best reason to visit Johor Bahru and is its shining star. Tours are offered all the way from Singapore to see it, and it is across the street from our hotel. Opened in 2010, it is the first glass temple in the world. It started as a simple shelter on land presented by the Sultan of Johor in 1922.

Guru Bhagawan Sittar had the inspiration to embellish and remodel the temple on a trip to Thailand. While riding in a local open-air tuk-tuk, a gleaming object ahead caught his eye, and he asked the driver to take him there. It was glass artwork on a temple that he had seen, over a mile away! He was determined to likewise use glass in the temple in Johor Bahru…oh, and did he ever. Light from crystal chandeliers is reflected on the walls, doors, ceiling, and floors. Upon entering, the first views are dizzying and stunning. We read that at least 90 percent of the temple is embellished with 300,000 pieces of red, green, blue, yellow, and purple glass mosaics, Rudraksha beads from Nepal. We can’t dispute that number (since it is on Wikipedia!), but it seems to us that there are millions of pieces of glass. One column alone has to have tens of thousands of tiny mosaics, so…. At any rate, it took our breath away.

It is a Hindu temple, and in addition to Hindu gods, there are figures from other religions, including Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. The third photo shows a statue of Mother Teresa. The Guru believed that all of these people were messengers of God, and wanted to include them to exhibit the “Malaysian spirit” of unity with the world. In one of the photos can be seen gold statues near the ceiling. They represent the cycle of life: birth, youth, adulthood, old age, death.

At a quick glance, the walls seem to have an embossed texture. Each Rudraksha bead was hand-imbedded in the walls with a chanted prayer. It is an extraordinary place to visit, a feeling of a most sacred space. The last two photos show our first glimpses of the temple, after walking down a lonely side road and seeing it in front of us….the beautiful exterior of the temple and the massive embellished front doors. It is a place to remember, and has made Johor Bahru very special for us.

We have been wandering around the capital of Johor state, the city of Johor Bahru. It is across the causeway on the north of Singapore and is light years away from the modernness and excitement of Singapore. The distance here was 21 miles, hotel to hotel, yet took us about three hours by subway and bus. Passport control and immigration out of Singapore took 5-10 minutes, but into Malaysia it took about an hour. There were plenty of stations open, but the numbers of people were huge. Another big difference between the two countries is the cost of items, going from the world’s most expensive country to inexpensive Malaysia. Since being here, we have used Asia’s version of Uber, called Grab, three times. Each time, the ride was between 10-20 minutes, and cost US $1.23 to $1.96. Unbelievable!

The first photos are from around a local park across from the Botanic Gardens, our destination today, which was closed. We were quite startled to come across a sink with running water along a sidewalk, until we realized it is in front of a mosque, which requires washing your hands before entering. On to the mall! We thought it quite unusual to see a hijab store…that is, until we walked through more of the mall and found that every fourth store was a hijab store! And we love the idea of a vending machine dispensing a soft-serve ice cream cone, but we didn’t try it to see how well it works. We took a few photos of some of the food prices, as we couldn’t believe the low cost of eating out. You know how much KFC and Subway charge for basic meals, right? Here are Malaysia’s prices, in US dollars: $3.23 for a KFC two-piece chicken meal with fries and a regular drink (13.20 ringgits); and $2.57 for a Subway Everyday Value sandwich with a regular drink (10.90 ringgits).

Following the food court photos are a few from our breakfast buffet, one of the largest and most diverse we have ever encountered. There is an Indian Kitchen, a Chinese Kitchen, and a Malay Kitchen that includes Malaysian and Indonesian dishes. The Cold Kitchen is mostly American and European favorites, with pancakes, waffles, fruit, pastries, breads, donuts, cold cuts, cheeses, cereal, and of course, ice cream! There are at least eight different kinds of rice scattered about (steamed, boiled, fried, in coconut milk, vegetarian, meat, and seafood!), and about 20 different kinds of noodles, both of which are a big thing here. Savory dumplings, egg rolls, and wontons are everywhere. There are about 100 little bowls in the buffet, as you can see, with condiments, chilies, spices, vegetables, seaweed, black mackerel, anchovies, and all sorts of other additions for your rice, noodles, and main dishes. Not all are marked, and most that are, are in the Malay language. Most everything we try blindly is at least fairly spicy if not all-out fiery hot. Mike tried hard-boiled quail eggs, as you can see in his hand…one peeled, one still in the shell. They are tiny. He said they tasted like normal hard-boiled eggs. There is a tea station and a smoothie bar and far, far more food than we can sample even over the five days we are in Johor Bahru. A bonus for us here: our hotel room is free on Hilton points, we were upgraded to a suite, and daily we have that amazing breakfast for free as well as an evening reception for free: four daily hot dishes, sandwiches, salads, cold cuts, cheese, garnishes, fresh fruit, soup, breads, soft drinks, beer, wine, and four different desserts. We find that the Hilton Honors program gives us amazing benefits and rewards.

We liked the messages depicted in the final two photos: Buy now or cry later, and Own your style or stay naked. The latter seems very funny when women are covered head to toe and men mostly don’t even wear shorts…other than Mike!

A fun and complex complex!!….Marina Bay Sands, that is! We used to always call it a hotel, but it just goes by Marina Bay Sands, as it is more than a hotel, and includes a designer shopping mall, casino, convention center, museum, two performing arts theaters, several (very) high-priced restaurants, a skating rink, and entrance to the Gardens by the Bay. It costs more to stay there than most other hotels in the city, from US $400-600, but a stay includes free entrance to the observation deck and the infinity pool/bar on the cantilevered top “surfboard.” We returned today to ride up to the top observation deck….US $17. The views were great!

Opened in 2011, the complex quickly became the de facto symbol of Singapore, with its iconic three towers topped by a surfboard! Actually, the top is called SkyPark, and it can hold 3,900 people. It is the world’s largest public cantilevered platform. Marina Bay Sands was developed and is owned by Las Vegas Sands. The cost? About US $6 billion. Year opened? 2010, partial opening; full opening in 2011. Number of rooms in the hotel? 2,561. First photo? It looks like an Escher drawing, but it was taken from the lobby of one of the towers and just shows floors of the hotel. A different side, but the same ceiling shot, is shown in the second photo. Yes, the mall inside has a boat ride down the center! If you don’t feel like walking, you can be rowed down to the other end!

In the photos you can see some of the views from the observation deck, including the Singapore Flyer (every large city now has its required Ferris wheel, doncha know?); the non-busy freeways (can you ever imagine so few cars on any street in Manhattan?); the domed conservatories; the ships just waiting in the harbor; and the skyscrapers that look like they are standing guard over Marina Bay. The hotel is sleek glass on one side, as you can see, but on the other side, they are growing a garden! Flowers and shrubs are planted on each balcony, reaching up, up to the sky.

We included some photos the other day of the supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay, and one from today. There are 18 of them, 75 to 150 feet tall, that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, and collecting rainwater. To generate electricity, 11 of them are fitted with solar photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into energy. Each supertree features vines and tropical flowers (orchids and bromeliads among them) that grow inside and around the structure.

The last photo? We loved the name of the store, even though it was just selling designer eyeglasses. And no, we have no idea what the display in the front depicts or means…we just like the name! Can you imagine answering the phone if you worked there? “Hello, thank you for calling___________!”

So many large cities have a Chinatown district, and Singapore is no different. We found temples locked away on small streets, market stalls, and gorgeous colonial architecture here dating to the 18th/19th centuries. In the first few photos you will see a stunning Buddhist temple (shoes off before entering!) and some of the typical streets and architecture dating to England’s rule of 144 years in Singapore. Check out the top of the third photo, Park Royal Hotel….it has several floors with trees and vegetation interspersed with rooms! So pretty!

Then, of course, you can see the “usual” Chinatown offerings….dried squid, a particularly frightening mask, whole roasted suckling pigs, whole roasted ducks (beaks and all), roasted wings, and double boiled silver fungus in rock sugar…? (sometimes you are better off not knowing!).

The last two photos play on a loop on the subway monitors. In general, the videos play helpful info on what to do in a terrorist attack and run a reminder to give up your seat to elderly persons. But we saw the video referred to in the photos three years ago, and it is still playing! A woman is ascending on an escalator when a man reaches up and pinches her backside. Then, he starts running once he gets off the escalator. The police chase, tackle, and cuff him. They say, “Sir, you are under arrest for Outrage of Modesty.” The next screen says, “Molest is a crime.” It is funny that the wording is so awkward, since English is one of Singapore’s official languages!

Spectacular Singapore…should be the city motto! It is one gorgeous, advanced city. All of the escalators use an energy saving mode, meaning they don’t move until you are ready to step onto them. The subways are controlled by computers. It is landscaped, genteel, and gentle. It is safe. Amazingly, it was cooler than our last visit. We remember sweat just rolling down our faces three years ago, but this week there have been some breezes, and it was hot the way Las Vegas can be hot, but not too excessively.

It was a busy several days! The first photo is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which has become the unofficial logo of the city on weather and news reports. It looks like a surfboard casually resting on three towers. On the very top is a bar and an infinity pool that is three football fields long, looking very much like you are about to swim off the edge and over the side. After that is window washers from inside the Flower Dome. The outdoor gardens are free, but entrance to the domes is by admission. They are fabulous, and at night there is a free laser light show where everything is lit up.

Following those photos are just two of the Botanic Gardens, as there were too many photos to share. There is a bromeliad garden, many waterfalls, an orchid garden, and a palm garden. Almost all free, of course, as this is Singapore! There was a charge of a few dollars to enter the Orchid Garden.

Then we headed to Orchard Road, Singapore’s version of Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. As you can see, the entire street is a No Smoking Zone! We caught a photo of a smoking area…every single person there was smoking, and it was across a driveway from retail buildings where they were quite isolated from anyone else. On Orchard Road, we found every designer retailer you can name. There was a mall on every block. There were cafes and restaurants, taxis, buses….very busy and, as you can see, very landscaped! There are trees, flowers, and shrubs everywhere, fulfilling Singapore’s desire to be a garden with a city in it. We found those cute yellow emojis on the street, and as usual, two windows with fun models. Great city!

Spotless. Immaculate. Clean-clean. City pride. When we first visited Singapore three years ago, we read that Singapore didn’t strive to be a city with gardens; rather, it wanted to be a garden that happened to have a city within it. They are succeeding! There are trees and flowers everywhere, along with botanic gardens, a fabulous orchid garden, gardens by the bay, and 75, yes, 75 parks! It is small, but vibrant. The Economist magazine refers to Singapore as the world’s only functioning city-state. One out of every six Singaporeans is a millionaire. It is forbidden to bring into the country both chewing gum and cigarettes. Vehicles pay a toll for every mile driven here, so as to encourage use of public transportation. We have ridden the subway several times, and it shines. You can eat off of the floors. No graffiti, as you will be fined and/or jailed. Ditto for every infraction against society. It feels very safe and very welcoming.

Due to its small size, Singapore tries to limit vehicles so as to ease both congestion and pollution. You must first obtain a Certificate of Entitlement before purchasing a vehicle. The wait for approval to purchase can be up to 10 years, and the cost of the certificate ranges from $49,000 to $100,000. As you can see, it is good and necessary to be a millionaire in Singapore!

On to the photos! The first three were taken from our hotel room…Singapore at night is quite vivacious and pretty. The sparkles in the sky in the second photo are the sky pods of the sky ride, floating along on their cables, and going straight into a skyscraper, as you can see in the fourth photo. We had seen the ride going through a building last time we were here, and watched it again the other day from the ground. So we had to give it a whirl. It was very fun, and is quite the system, as your ticket covers two different rides in different directions. Buying tickets online is the way to go, as it was $10 cheaper ($16 vs $26). It took us to Sentosa Island, which also includes Siloso Beach, the pretty beach in the photos. And a Merlion statue is also over there, long the symbol of Singapore, but it is much smaller than the one in the harbor. Merlion means a sea lion…the body of a fish and the head of a lion, and the name Singapore means Lion City, so the Merlion symbolizes the importance of water and the harbor to Lion City. In many of the photos you will see a host of boats just sitting out in the harbor. Since Singapore is one of the busiest ports on the planet, they are waiting their turn to load and offload.

After that are some whimsical photos that we took at Suntec City mall and around the city. Cheese tea?? And us, believe it or not, our hotel, the Conrad Hilton, has an ice cream bar in the morning at breakfast…six flavors!! And a signature of the Conrad is that you are given a free rubber ducky to play with in the bath and a free stuffed bear to cuddle at night. Now, the last two photos had us laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. They are photos of the public toilet…and it’s command center….in the hotel. For sure, this was hilarity at its best. When you enter the single-user restroom and approach the toilet, the lid slowly rises. Startled, my first instinct was to look around to see who was in the room with me! And, the seat is heated…it felt like someone had just finished using it. Mike was getting ready to use it when the lid started to lower on him! A disaster was averted when he grabbed the lid and pushed it up again! THEN came the trauma of….how do I flush??? There is no flush handle. Do you see the blue buttons on the toilet? We both thought that one of them would flush the toilet, but after hitting each one multiple times, not really! So, then, how do we do it? On the wall next to us was the command center (for a toilet, no less), but we couldn’t read the commands without glasses! So we each whipped out our reading glasses (thank God they were in our pockets!), but even then, had a hard time figuring it all out. Along the side, it says…STOP, REAR/SOFT, FRONT/WIDE, PRESSURE ( – or + ), POSITION (🔺 🔻), USER ( 1 2). Wow! Really? What the heck is all that?? Our imaginations ran wild. Then, along the top, it says FLUSH (but pushing it did nothing), OSCILLATE, PULSATE, DRYER, and an unfamiliar, unrecognizable symbol (NOT the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, though). What is all that??? Thoroughly befuddled, I just started hitting every button. Nothing. Then I hit all over the command center, and something caused it to flush, and my relief was immense, but with the relief came another hysterical bout of laughter. When Mike and I told each other of our individual experiences with using and flushing the toilet, we had had the exact same experience, and then laughed until we cried. Who knew the bathroom could be so hysterically funny??!?

Our last port in Indonesia, Semarang on the island of Java is an eclectic mix of cultures due to its strategic position along major trade routes. Its first foreign occupiers were the Chinese, who arrived in the 15th Century. At the beginning of the 18th Century, Semarang became part of the Dutch East India Company (the first corporation to be listed on an official stock exchange), which dominated Asian trade for two centuries. It was an early form of a corporate conglomerate, and the worth of this one company ($7.9 trillion) was equal to today’s 20 largest companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. The Dutch East India Company was more like a country than a company in many ways, such as having its own military forces and fortifications. It began to build up the infrastructure in Java, constructing roads and railroads to make the area even more accessible for trading.

The Dutch dominated Indonesia for about 350 years, and then during WW II the Japanese occupied the country. Driving around the city with our fabulous hosts, Agung and Irma, we saw evidence of many different cultures. We first visited Lawang Sewu, headquarters of the railroad company dating back to the Dutch colonial days, and seen in the first three photos. It is known as the Building of 1,000 Doors and has a beautiful courtyard with benches. Following that, seen in the next six photos, we went to Sam Poo Kong Chinese temple, the foundation of which was built in the year 1400. Next up was Pagoda Avalokitesvara, a Buddhist temple built in 1955. After the photo of the pagoda are some random photos from around the city…a pretty pink decorated bicycle conveyance, some folks lined up for a colorful photo, and some street food (literally!).

Agung is quite special. We met him on a Holland America cruise last summer, and he diligently kept in correspondence with us since then, insisting that he would drive 10 hours from his home to meet us and spend the day with us. This is mind-boggling enough, BUT…he got married four days before meeting us! He is one of the truly good people on earth, so nice, and very hospitable. He and Irma paid for all of our admissions to the historical buildings as well as parking! And at the end of the day, he thanked us for visiting his country! We did manage to treat the newlyweds to lunch. We went to a floating restaurant, built over water, and had quite the feast. It is shown in the photo that is third from the bottom. We asked Agung and Irma to order everything, and we had a table heaping with enormous portions of fish lip soup, two kinds of fried rice, coconut chicken, fried shrimp, shrimp and crab with salted egg, and steamed broccoli. Fish lip soup??? you ask. Why yes, although Agung told us that it was just a name, not really fish lips. We looked it up, and recipes do indeed call for dried fish lips. However, it was delicious, and we were glad we didn’t know in advance! Anyway, the bill totaled 468,600 Indonesian rupiahs. Sounds like a lot, but that equals just $33.20……$8 US each for great variety and enormous portions, and yes, that also includes 6 drinks! The most expensive dish, shrimp and crab with salted egg and rice, was $5.70! Such a great meal for so little.

After lunch, we visited Blenduk Protestant Church, where we saw the gorgeous, elaborate pipe organ in the photo below, dating from the 1700s. So, quite the eclectic day! Many cultures, different styles of architecture, all in one very diverse city. And we end with a great quote we saw on a coffee shop window as we concluded the day’s many stops and sights. A fabulous day that we will always remember.

Legendary Bali…..Island of the Gods. More than 20,000 temples are here, a mixture of both Buddhism and Hinduism. In addition to its deeply spiritual reputation, or maybe in part because of it, Bali has become synonymous with paradise, a mystical island with so much to offer.

Everyone talks about going to Bali, seeing Bali, relaxing in Bali, celebrating the culture of Bali. But, as we have heard in answers on Jeopardy, for example, some people think it is in the Caribbean or off the coast of Africa or in Japan. Australians vacation in Bali as their favorite vacation spot, but when asked if they have ever been to Indonesia, they will often answer, “no.” Amazing.

We traveled to Klungkung Kertagosa, a building compound designed and built in 1710 in the city of Semarapura. The compound contains the Bale Kambang floating pavilion and the Hall of Justice, with its elaborate ceiling murals, still in great condition after more than 300 years. After that, it was on to the Pura Kehen temple complex, built in the 11th century. A series of stairs leads to the gold entrance door, where the demonic face of Kala Makara stands guard over the temple grounds. The Balinese believe there are spirits everywhere….both benign and malicious. You will see a lot of statues and gods scattered among the photos. Families live behind arched gated entrances, built to resemble temples. Behind each of these entrances are screens called aling aling, intended to keep evil spirits away. Since the Hindu must pray each day, in a temple, they are built all over compounds to make praying more accessible. Families tend to live in a compound, with grandparents in one dwelling, parents in the next, and yet again, children in the next. Their homes are passed down ancestrally…we were told that to sell a family compound was unthinkable. The Balinese also leave daily appeasements for the gods, incense and food wrapped in banana leaves. We were wondering why our tour guide wasn’t telling us what all of these hundreds of temples were that we passed, only to realize they were residences, and really nothing special to anyone, except us.

Lunch was a delicious Indonesian buffet in an open-air pavilion, with fried rice, chicken, shrimp, corn cakes, tropical fruit salad, mixed vegetables, and spring rolls, with coconut crepes, lime crumble, and fresh fruit for dessert. The pavilion was situated next to rice paddies, and there are photos of the pavilion and a worker with water buffalo harvesting rice in the paddy. Our final stop was Puri Agung, a royal palace built around 1600.

The first two photos are the floating pavilion at Klungkung, and the third is the old entrance to the presidential palace. In the fourth photo is an example of one of the street roundabouts, all of which seemed to have an elaborate carved statue in the middle. Traffic doesn’t look too terrible in the photo, but it was wild. The traffic weaves and dances more than it moves. Everyone eases around cars, trucks, buses, and scooters in front of them in a single lane; accordingly, the vehicle being passed moves over a bit toward the shoulder to allow passage. Nobody ever slows down when someone is stopped ahead…they just ease around, in front of someone else, and keep going. Since this all takes place in one lane, we often passed with oh, like a whole inch to spare! It is something to witness! No accidents, of course.

After that are the photos of Kala Makara, standing guard, and the steep stairway to reach the top and view the leaflike stepped temple inside, which we found so unusual. You’ll notice that in a few photos, the statues are draped in checked fabric. This is to indicate the Hindu belief in yin and yang, good and evil, black and white….we, and all of nature, exist with both dualities.

The ceiling panel photos just before the last photo are done in the Kamasan style and depict punishments by the gods for human behaviors. The first is a dragon sculpture standing guard. Following that is a depiction of someone being boiled in a pot, with their feet and buttocks exposed, all for the infraction of lying. After that are punishments for various sexual infractions, with angry gods doing the cutting and burning…yuck.

And, so appropriate, you are thinking…they end with a gorgeous view of sunset. Nope. It is sunrise, and we really liked the way the clouds resemble a dragon and its breath, trailing up toward the heavens…a link with the Komodo dragons from the previous day!

Here be dragons. (Hunt-Lenox Globe, 1503).

This phrase has been used for hundreds of years to denote danger, but on Komodo Island, it is absolutely true…AND it denotes danger! Just look at the first photo…after lazing in the sun when we first saw him, this Komodo dragon started flicking his tongue and lumbering toward us. They use their tongues to locate prey and can smell it up to six miles away. He was soon right where we had been standing, and crawled off into the bushes. The dragons are not fed, and they are free to roam around and kill and eat whatever they can find. They are the undisputed kings of the island. They measure around 8 feet long, and their tails make up about half their length. Adults weigh between 150-200 pounds. They take down, and devour, deer, pictured near the end of the photos, as well as huge water buffalo and wild boar (which we saw in the distance as we walked on the forest path). The dragons eat up to 80% of their body weight at one time and can live on just one meal per month.

This was our first time in Indonesia, and it was humid and beautiful. As for the dragons…there are only about 2,000 dragons on Komodo Island itself, with the other 4,000 divided among three other small islands. It is a national park, and we were only allowed to exit the ship if we had purchased an excursion. You may not visit on your own, as it is much too dangerous. Our group was led by, and backed up by, men with Komodo dragon “forks” – which you can see in the fourth photo and in all the photos with multiple dragons. They put the stick around its neck to push it in a different direction if it starts approaching people. We saw video of a dragon pursuing a deer, and it can move! It runs at a maximum of 12 mph. And, when unheeding tourists wander away from their group, thus making themselves vulnerable, the dragons may attack them. They have sharp serrated teeth and a venom that courses through a victim and eventually causes paralysis. Their faces look evil, don’t they? Conniving and sly. More like a Great White Shark, not cute and cuddly like smiling dolphins!

The second photo is sunrise on Komodo Island, taken from the ship. Just look at the gorgeous clouds! The park is very pretty to walk through, as you can see. We heard many birds, saw wild orchids, spotted some stunning (but poisonous) orange mushrooms, and bright yellow snails in one area were eating holes in the vegetation. The last photo was sort of funny. Being a huge cruise ship, we really do rule the sea. All the little fishing boats were sitting out in the bay, minding their own business. But as we approached, they suddenly realized they needed to scurry out of our path.

This is a purely visual post as we try to depict the unusual waters we are encountering in the Timor Sea. We watch the ocean day after day, and it has been calm and “normal.” But everybody on the ship was looking at, commenting on, and photographing the ocean today. The waves were big and lush and quiet, softly rolling around. They looked like they were doing a sensuous dance. Even the ship’s wake looked different…not white foam, just gentle lapping. It was quite an experience for everyone. So…enough said. The photos give just a little hint of what it was like.

So. We are in the Timor Sea, just west of the Arafura Sea and just south of the Banda Sea. We are in Darwin, the largest city in the state called Northern Territory. It is closer to five other world capitals than it is to its own capital of Sydney. Darwin and the surrounding area is one of the lightning capitals of the world due to its humid tropical conditions. In 2002, a line of thunderstorms produced 5,000 lightning strikes in one light show! Also, Darwin is the beginning point (or terminus) of The Ghan, a luxury train in the Great Southern Railway fleet, through Alice Springs to Adelaide on the southern coast. Ready for the price? In the high season, for four days and three nights, the price ranges from $3,689 to $5,999 per person. The distance is 1,851 miles, so the cost is about $3 per mile. Australian dollars, that is….but still…..

So, we start with a photo of the harbor from the ship and then several photos from around town. Our original plan was to ride a local bus as far as it would go, see a bit of the city and suburbs, and ride back. To our chagrin, the price was more than the little bit of cash we had on hand, and credit cards were not accepted. We hadn’t taken our ATM cards with us, and couldn’t withdraw any more cash, so that idea was kaput. We still found some interesting spots around town. You can see the sign about the first talkie in Darwin in 1933, followed by its accompanying picture. Can you find the several people hiding their faces?

Then we stopped in the local Anglican cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral. We thought it so interesting that Jesus is portrayed with aboriginal features. And the glorious stained glass window? It represents fishing nets and the upsurge of waves during a cyclone, so of course it was constructed of a beautiful array of blue glass. Then, we found a mob of kangaroos, each by a different artist. As usual, we end with the funnest (or funniest) photo of the day. We felt sorry for poor Nemo!

Goodbye, Australia! Goodbye, New Zealand! (It is hard to think of one without the other when we enjoyed them both so much.) We arrived in Sydney on December 13 and, both on land and cruises, have been in and out of the two countries over the past three months. We very much enjoyed the friendly, fabulous people and all of the beautiful sights. We want to return soon and spend even more time in this part of the world.

It is pronounced CANS. It is spelled C-A-I-R-N-S. Whatever the spelling and pronunciation, it is beautiful and magical, as it is the jumping-off point for all the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef. But, there was a lot of rain again today, so water sports were limited. Mike wanted to do some diving, but it was not to be with the rain and lightning. So our memories of several days of snorkeling in the Reef, many years ago, will have to suffice. And, it means we will have to return for a longer time and wait for a sunny day.

Cairns was created over a sea slug fishing camp when gold was discovered to the north in 1876. It is home to the world’s largest lava tubes, which are 190,000 years old. It is also home to the largest moth in Australia, the Hercules moth, which has a wingspan of 10 inches! Today, as you can see in the first photo, the city is home to lots and lots of boats, many available for charter to fish, snorkel, swim, and dive in the Great Barrier Reef. After snorkeling here, we told people that it was like the Australian Tourism Board dumped buckets of orange paint next to red next to blue next to green….the coral was truly that vibrant and colorful. We understand it has “grayed out” or bleached out in the years since, but it is slowly reviving.

The photos are from around the downtown and the port, both before and after two short, but heavy, rain storms. In the photo with the turtle sculpture, I thought she was kissing him. Mike was incredulous: “Can’t you see that she is biting him? The flesh is clearly being pulled!” Sigh. One thinks, love; the other thinks, attack. Quite funny.

All around the port were dock posts with aboriginal legends on them. We took a photo of the legend of Guyalla. We like it because of the idea that everything you do should not be easy. The last photo is fun, as usual. We saw a restaurant advertising “Bush Tucker” on its awning, meaning that it is a thing here, something everyone would know. We didn’t. We found out that it is bush food, native foods used by the aboriginal natives for sustenance. We leave it to you to drool over the menu items of kangaroo, crocodile, emu, barramundi. Are you hankering for some Aussie treats yet???

The Sunshine Coast wasn’t so sunshiny today! Rain, rain, and more rain! We had planned to take the 20-minute ferry across Cleveland Bay to Magnetic Island, as our friend Stella in Sydney had recommended. But it rained, and thunderstorms were predicted, so we stayed on the mainland. But we took a photo of the Magnetic House! Actually, Magnetic Island was named because Captain James Cook’s instruments acted funny around Magnetic Island, and he and the crew thought it was due to a magnetic effect. They were wrong…it was just a navigation error, but the name has endured.

Photos are from The Strand, the street that runs along the ocean, filled with gardens and beach entries; from the ship, showing the breakwater that is unusual in that it makes a 90-degree angle; the gazebo in ANZAC Park (named in honor of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers of World War I…we encountered many ANZAC memorials in both countries); a giant spider hovering over the street in front of a children’s museum; some glorious flowers; two old buildings that are still beautiful today; and our final, head-scratching photo of a…….well, we don’t know. We laugh every time we look at it, and it truly can only be called bizarre. That’s Townsville!

Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana, kia tere te karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi. ~ Maori Proverb

– May the calm be widespread, may the sea glisten like the greenstone, and may the shimmer of light dance across your pathway. –

A beautiful sentiment. That is our wish for all of our readers, as well. And so we spent our last day in the country of the indigenous Maori, in the gorgeous, utterly charming vacation port of Picton. It is 40 miles across the Cook Strait from Wellington, with a population of about 4,500. Today, though, there were two cruise ships in port, roughly doubling the town’s population. Every store, restaurant, and cafe was in a you-could-barely-squeeze-by state.

The first two photos were taken from the stern of the ship, and show Cook Strait and beyond. Then, the picture-perfect town, including the front and back of the welcome arch that is also a World War I Memorial. The Interislander ferry is huge, as you can see, and takes both foot passengers and vehicles back and forth between the North and South Islands. And do you know what a “trundler” is? We didn’t know, either, but when you see the photo, all is instantly revealed. Our word for the same item is half as long….a four-letter word! And the last photo?…..well, one of the signs that we love. Some women might ask, ONLY 10 am until 1 am???

“Nice buns!” we said as we passed this grave marker in the Bolton Street Cemetery after strolling through the Wellington Botanic Gardens (Photo 1). THIS is the side that faces the main path as you walk down the hill back into the city. Intrigued, tongue in cheek, we asked whether, possibly, the other side….??? We didn’t think it likely, but the other side shows full frontal nudity. It isn’t a big deal today, but this was dedicated in 1937, so….props to New Zealand!

Following are a bazillion photos of the Botanic Gardens, as there were so many colors and different types of woodlands and vegetation. The gardens were founded in 1868, and we saw a few conifers that were imported from California in that year and are among the oldest trees in New Zealand. As we walked through, there was a loud buzzing, or chirping. It was tens of thousands of cicadas…a little creepy, as they are quite large. Then one dive-bombed directly into my neck, and just like a forlorn scared woman in a horror movie, I screamed! Everyone looked. Super-embarrassed, we just walked on nonchalantly, as if I scream all the time.

Intermixed in those photos is one of the Wellington Cable Car (which started in 1902), which is actually a funicular that runs up the side of the mountain, from downtown to the upper level where the gardens begin (or end; but most people ride up and walk down, not vice-versa). It has one track and one car, so…not really a cable car, like those in San Francisco. We walked through the Rose Garden, as well….the close-up of the purple rose bush is a variety whose name we loved….Honky Tonk Blues. Following that is a strange art installation for an extensive garden…one of six wire trees! The last photo is interesting. It is part of the Government Buildings, and believe it or not, it is entirely made of timber, apparently to stand up against earthquakes better than heavier, less flexible materials. It was completed in 1876, and resembles an Italian stone palace. Even close up, it is hard to tell that it is wood!

Queenstown to Cromwell to Alexandra to Palmerston to Oamaru to Timaru to Christchurch. Seven hours, but what a terrific seven hours! To tell the truth, we weren’t expecting this route to be as good as the “inland route,” which we found to be like driving through Switzerland and Austria. We had been told it was just okay. Au contraire! It was magnificent! We passed through hours of beautiful farmland and what looked like The Wrinkled Mountains (as we called them)….many folds and crevices. Lots of sheep. Everything as neat as a pin (in fact, NZ is one of the cleanest countries we have ever visited!). We laughed about so many distant mountains looking like Hobbitville. It was charming and lovely and peaceful. We hardly passed a dozen cars in several hours. THEN we hit the coast north of Palmerston, and as you can see, more idyllic coastal scenes and photos. Earlier in the week, there was talk of a cyclone hitting the country, with predictions of lots of rain over the weekend. We went through some patches of rain, but only toward the end of our journey. It was a great…and sunny…day for traveling. Our advice if you are ever in this glorious country: drive, just to drive. The scenery is so amazing, and the journey is the destination. Thanks, New Zealand!