Author: Bill

This year we decided to do something different for Thanksgiving. If you have not read my book “Us Vs The World” you do not know that Thanksgiving is the only holiday that Nancy and I have not been separated from each other for some reason or other. We have missed birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, New Years, all of them, except Thanksgiving. It’s a long story, buy my book on Amazon and you can read all about it.

This year we decided to take a cruise and have someone else do the cooking, and … the cleanup. In the past we have have enjoyed Thanksgiving at other people houses (Friends, relatives, work mates, etc), we have had these same groups of people to our house for Thanksgiving, one year we spent it in Hawaii, one year we invited our German Landlord and her family to this “American” holiday, and we have enjoyed Thanksgiving in fine restaurants. One year (last year) we rented an Airbnb in Haysville, North Carolina and we packed and hauled all the parts of the traditional dinner there. Nancy made a superb dinner but it was a lot of work.

So this year we opted for the no work, no clean up, and a good meal plan. Cruises are noted for their fine cuisine so we decided to go that route. We found a short five day cruise out of Jacksonville, Florida on Carnival and booked that. What follows is a few pictures of the ship and where we went. It was not a overly interesting trip as it went only to Nassau and a private Island but it did serve a great Thanksgiving meal. I was even able to have a double portion just so I could once again, over eat on Thanksgiving. Here are the pictures:

That’s it. I didn’t take many pictures. It was a trip to give Thanks for all we have and have a Thanksgiving diner. No picture of the dinner … you will have to take my word for it that it was good.

It was a good Thanksgiving. We met new friends, had a few drinks, enjoyed some entertainment, and we were together.

For the last several years the Wurstfest in Bad Durkheim was cancelled due to COVID 19. This year the fest will return and it is our intent to be there and enjoy it once again. Although it is called a “Wurstfest”, it is actually the Octoberfest of the German Wine industry where all the Vintners from the central region of Germany set up tents, bring in a big carnival, and host two weeks of food, wine, and fun. To explain the Wurstmart handle I am inserting an excerpt from their website.

• Why is the festival called “Wurstmarkt”?An invoice for delivered leather from the year 1417 is (until today) the first documented mention of the Michaelismarkt in Dürkheim – the actual origin of the Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt. The Michaelismarkt, since the beginning of the 19th century probably because of the immense sausage consumption in the vernacular more and more called Wurstmarkt, was originally a medieval consumer fair to supply the pilgrims on the patron saint’s day of St. Michael around the chapel of the same name. As the space there soon became insufficient, the market activities shifted more and more to the Brühlwiesen. With over 600,000 visitors and around 300 wines, the Michaelmas Market has today become the largest wine festival in the world.

If you wish to know more about the fest. Here is the website: https://www.bad-duerkheim.de/kultur-tourismus/veranstaltungen-feste/duerkheimer-wurstmarkt/faq-wurstmarkt-english/#accordion-1-16

Then, as long as we are in Europe, we will spend some time there and see some places we have enjoyed in the past and some we have not seen but always wanted to. Come on along, we have a seat for you in our car and a setting at our table.

16 Sept 2022 – After a successful escape from Tampa and the Florida heat, ten plus hours in airport terminals and on airplanes, and a ten kilometer hike from one end of Terminal One in Frankfurt to the other where the car rental agencies are, we made it to Germany. All went smoothly actually and it appears most of the COVID distractions to travel are a part of history. We climbed into our trusty rental and were off from Frankfurt to Deidesheim. Deidesheim is a sleepy little town along the Deutches Wine Strasse (German Wine Road or route) that caters to the city folk from the surrounding larger cities in the area as they seek relaxation and scenery during their weekends. They drive their Mercedes’, BMW’s, and Audi’s to smaller towns that have posh hotels, walking paths, bicycle routes, and vineyards to sooth their tortured souls and exercise their tired bodies. They eat, walk, exercise, enjoy good wine, spend some time in a spa, and go back to work the next week. A good way to spend the weekend. We came here because it is just a short walk to the train station from our hotel, and a short train ride to Bad Durkheim and the Wurstmarkt.

Arrival day is a rugged day for us because we left Tampa at seven in the evening and arrived in Frankfurt at nine in this morning. I don’t sleep much on airplanes and Nancy sleeps just a bit more so, as usual, we are tired that first day. In order to get adjusted and sleep our first night here, we stay up all day and go to bed after dinner and some exercise.

We spent the day getting to Deidesheim, checking into our hotel, and touring the local area. A small town nearby, Saint Martin, is one of our favorite little towns because it has out favorite little vintner, Alte Schlosschen. It is a small winery that produces excellent wine. We always stop by to sample a few of their wines (a process called ‘probing'”) and purchase a few bottles to take back home. In addition to the winery, the town of St Martin is the epitome of what you would imagine a small German village to look like. Here are some pictures taken during our time there.

We left St Martin and drove back to Deidesheim. Parked the car and walked downtown to find dinner.

For our post dinner exercise we walked back to the hotel. We stopped by the lobby for a glass of wine and some conversation with the bartender, then we turned in for the evening. Long day but good. Nice to be back in Germany and Europe. Tomorrow we have a leisurely start, breakfast at the hotel, then the train to Bad Durkheim.

17 September – This is Wurstfest day for us. We slept in a bit trying to recover from the long day of travel. Had a very nice breakfast in the hotel. German Hotels often provide breakfast and some of them are very extensive, and free. The hotel we stayed at, The MAXX by Steigenberger is one of the nicer hotels in Deidesheim and they had a very impressive breakfast which we enjoyed immensely. Around one we decided to walk to the train station and catch the train to Bad Durkheim. We stay in Deidesheim and take the train for three very important reasons; First, there are no hotels rooms to be had in Bad Durkheim during the Wurstmart. Secondly, if you drive there you cannot find a place to park within a couple miles, and third, No DUIs driving back to the hotel. German police are everywhere and drinking and driving is not acceptable. So, a ten minute train ride for $2.50 each way for each person solves all three problems; Nice hotel, no parking problems, no DUI’s.

Speaking of three things … That’s what there is to do at the Wurstfest. One, tasting wine; two, eating; and three, the rides. We have kind of evolved out of the rides. The last ride I did at the Wurstfest was about twelve years ago when I rode this slingshot thing straight up into the air and free fell back to the ground. Our nephew Michael and his fiancé (at that time, his wife now) Rachelle, were visiting us and Rachelle wanted to ride the slingshot thing. Mike didn’t want to nor did Nancy so I went. Picture to follow. So, that is what we did at the Wurstmart this year, we tasted some wine, ate some bratwurst, and didn’t do any rides. Here’s some photo’s:

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So that was Bad Durkheim and the Wurstfest. We had a nice day. A bit cool and windy but nice. Tomorrow we head south to Ulm, a city south of Stuttgart where we will be spending the night. Not sure what’s there but we’ll see. Hope you enjoyed the Wurstfest as much as we did!

18 September – Today we drove to Ulm. Left Deidesheim after a nice breakfast and had a leisurely drive to Ulm. Hit a couple traffic jams (called Staus in German) but made it through. The weather is quite cool which is a nice reprieve from the heat of Florida. Ulm has about 128,000 folks that live here, it’s located on the Danube River, has a big university, was first recorded historically in 850 A.D. and hosts a huge cathedral that claims the highest steeple on earth. If you would like to know more about Ulm, Google will put you to sleep! We got here in early afternoon, checked into our hotel, vegged out for a while, then went to an Irish Pub for dinner. After dinner was walked about town looking at the interesting buildings. Because it was bombed in World War II there is a mix of very old, kinda old, and new modern buildings throughout the city. (The Brits bombed it not the Yanks!) Fortunately, during our walk I took a few pictures. Here they are:

Ok, that’s it. Tomorrow we are off to Innsbruck, Austria. I’ll check in when we get there.

19 September – Made it to Innsbruck. Forgot how impressive the Alps are. We had a pleasant breakfast in Ulm and departed south to Innsbruck Along the way we side tracked a bit and stopped in Fussen to take a peak at the Neu Schwanstein Castle and the castle the Kings parents lived in across the way. The Neu Schwanstein Castle was built by King Ludwig II and the Disney Castle in Orlando is modeled to resemble it. Fairly new, it was built in the late 1800’s. It is an interesting castle to tour. We have toured it several times in the past so today we just took a couple pictures of it.

Then we started seeing snow capped mountains. The Alps are just kids compared to our Rockies but the Alps are still growing and the Rockies are wearing away. The Alps are 30 – 55 Million years younger than the Rockies. They are smaller now but will someday be larger than the rockies. I can’t wait to go skiing in the Alps then!

As you enter Austria from Germany you come in through a narrow valley. Sitting high on a mountain top on the right is a castle that controlled that valley for many years. Recently a footbridge was built for tourists to cross the valley to get to the castle.

From there on, we drove through the Alps, through Fern Pass, and into Innsbruck.

So that was our trip to Innsbruck. Tomorrow we are driving farther south into Italy and down to Genoa on the Mediterranean coast where we will spend the night. It will be one of our longer legs driving. Tonight we are walking over into old town Innsbruck for dinner.

Okay … Back from a lovely dinner and a very interesting walk around Old Town Innsbruck. An exciting corner of Innsbruck that has revitalized itself. Many shops, restaurants, and places of interest. We walked through it a couple times just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Having the Alps rise up above the buildings while they are capped in snow was quite magnificent. Here are some pictures I took.

Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. See you in Genoa.

20 September – Long day today. We finished our drive through the Austrian Alps, then through the Italian Alps. Once out of the mountains we drove across a large expanse of flat farmland. Interesting but not picturesque. After the flat lands we came to another set of smaller Alps known as the Ligurian Alps which push Genoa right into the Mediterranean Sea. That is how Genoa has become known as the city between the mountains and the sea … those Italians are clever people. Here’s a few pictures from the trip from Innsbruck to Genoa. I didn’t repeat a lot of mountain shots as we had enough of those yesterday.

Then we got to Genoa! Italy is an excessively busy, chaotic place. No one follows the traffic rules, people drive all over the place, scooters, and motorbikes are everywhere and swerve in and out of traffic. We found out hotel, right on the water, checked in and found a safe place to leave the car. We decided to walk about a little to stretch our legs and find something to eat for dinner.

That was it for the evening in Genoa. Our room had air conditioning so we had a pleasant, cool night of sleep.

21 September – The drive from Genoa (After a nice breakfast) was interesting. It was a fairly new highway that was either crossing a bridge or going through a tunnel. There were no non-tunnel or non-bridge segments to the highway for nearly 60 miles. Then we left that highway and descended into Monaco.

We drove through Monaco. many Italian plates, many French plates, and some Monaco plates. Mostly all buildings, big buildings for apartments and condos.

So then on to Marseille. A bigger city by the sea. The French Rivera. First visited by the Greeks in 800 B.C. (They are still making payments on their time shares here!) A very big, and very busy center. We are traveling in the middle of the week, in late September and people are out in droves. Crowds everywhere, traffic is heavy, and there must be a bijillian motor scooters! Have a look.

We had an early dinner and and are turning in early. Two long traffic days and too many scooters.

22 September – Here we are in Dijon, France. Yup, mustard capitol of the gourmet world. You would think it’s French’s but it’s Dijon. Had a good breakfast in Marseille and fought our way out of town. I have come to hate city driving in southern European cities because of the chaos. The scooters, the speeding, the dodging in and out of traffic (I fear I am sounding like an old man but if you are not accustomed to driving here, it is a challenge, regardless of your age). Anyhow, we made it out running over a minimum of scooters and pedestrians and headed north along the western side of the French Alps to Dijon. A fairly boring drive as most of it is farm land. First vegetables and fruits then dairy and cow food type farms. Traffic varied from very heavy to moderate. As we passed by Lyon, it was fairly heavy but then dropped off to just irritable. Couple pictures from along the way.

Eventually we made it to Dijon. We were here once before, many years ago. I think we just passed through and took a picture by the city name. Now, we have penetrated the cities outer protective layer and are checked into our hotel in the city center. A very impressive place. Well refurbished with pedestrian traffic areas, restaurants, shops, and local attractions. We checked into our hotel and went exploring.

So that was Dijon. Tomorrow we leave France and stop at the American Military Cemetery where Gen Patton and thousands of American soldiers from World War II are buried, then on to Trier. See you then.

23 September – Three countries today. France, Luxembourg, and Germany. We left Dijon and drove north to Luxembourg. We passed by Nancy’s place.

Then we went past one of the many diverts we encountered during our trip.

After several hours we arrived at the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. We stopped for a while to say “Hello” and “Thanks” to the five thousand one hundred Americans buried there from World War II. Many are from the Army Air Corps because they were shot down flying over this area on trips into Germany. There are also many soldiers from the 3rd Army that served under Patton. This cemetery is always a very sobering place to visit. There are so many graves, lined perfectly in rows, of Americans who will never return to their native lands let alone their home towns, families, girl friends, wives, children, what ever. When we lived here in Europe, Nancy and I used to visit the American Cemeteries in France mostly on Memorial day and Veteran’s Day. We used to talk to the curators who are assigned there to care for the graves and cemeteries. It is amazing how many people from Europe come to pay their respects to the American’s who gave their lives to save them from the tyranny that threatened their lives. Many older people bringing their grandchildren and walking through the graves and explaining what all happened so many years ago. Anyhow, we stopped in Luxembourg to see the American cemetery there. A unique aspect of this cemetery is that General Patton, who was killed in a Jeep accident after the war while he was still in Germany, requested that he be buried with “his troops” and he is buried here.

Unique to this cemetery is the fact that there is a German military cemetery very close by. If you read the photo that explains why you will understand.

So with that we pressed on to Trier. Trier is a special town as it was once a Roman settlement. Still standing in downtown Trier is the “Black Gate” which was the main entrance into the Roman settlement. It is called the Black Gate because of all the algae that has grown on it over the hundreds of years since it was built that gives it a black appearance. We also walked through the pedestrian section of the old city and visited a couple of churches. In case you are wondering. You can’t go anywhere in Europe without visiting old churches. They are the biggest and oldest buildings in each town and are all very impressive. The skill of the masons that built these structures thousands of years ago is amazing.

That ended our day in Trier. We have been here a number of times over the years and always enjoy a walk through history. Tomorrow we follow the Mosel river north to some small town north of Cochem. One of our favorite drives.

4 September – Off to an early start after a pleasant breakfast we left Trier and tried to get a direct route to the Mosel River. To us, the Mosel is the most scenic drive one can take in Germany. The steep hillsides covered with vineyards, the little villages along the way with vintners working thier fields and selling wine. It is almost like visiting an imaginary place something one would expect to see in Epcot (less the woke Baloney). Everything is neatly kept, colorful, and attractive. The boats and barges on the river, the half timber homes and businesses, and the vineyards. Very nice. We went this way last year as well and were frustrated by the COVID requirements to eat or enter a store. Nothing of that remains. Only occasionally do you see a mask and it is logical to assume this is a high risk person trying to shield him/herself. People are out everywhere, like I mentioned before. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, walking, in stores, restaurants, attractions, and bars.

Anyhow, we made it to the Mosel, However, due to road construction we had to take a detour that took us back out to one of the main highways. We finally made it back to the Mosel just before getting to BernKastle-Kuez. This little town is a must see if you travel the Mosel. Everyone else stops there as well! We go there fairly early so many of the stores were just opening. We parked and walked to the town center. Along the way I was treated to a solution of a problem I had long pondered. How do they get their furniture into those upper partments with such little stairways and elevators. Here’s the answer:

Ok, back to the city. All the stores were just opening so we walked around, I took a few pictures, and we had a coffee and a sweetie before we left. German’s love to bicycle and on weekends they go all out … especially since the introduction of electric assisted bikes. Before it was the fitness people and many of the men. Now, everyone bikes. Biking along the Mosel, where there are specific bike paths close to the river are extremely popular. When we lived here Nancy and I would ride them frequently on weekend outings. Here are some pictures of around town and the way along the Mosel. Because it is grape harvesting time, there was a great deal of activity with that activity as well.

We passed through the city of Cochem then we arrived at our hotel. You can see pictures of Cochem and it’s beautiful castle in my posting from last year’s trip. Here’s our hotel and room, it too was built in the 1740’s.

For dinner tonight we are dining at the hotel and tomorrow we climb out of the Mosel Valley enroute to Brussels, Belgium. Another place we have enjoyed a great deal over the years. See you there.

25 September – Here we are in Brussels. When we lived in Germany we came to Brussels fairly often. Sometimes my work brought me here and Nancy would come along and tour or shop while I was working, other times we just came to enjoy the city. Being Hq for NATO and a number of offices of the EU, Brussels has become very international in it’s ethnic makeup. You see people from all tracks of life and nationality. Everyone seems to get along so it is always an interesting mix. We came here this time just to see the city again and more importantly, have some Brussels Mussels. The Mussels are something we have enjoyed nearly every time we came here. Boiled in a white wine and served in a pot with bits of celery, onions, and some kind of green leafy stuff, they are delicious. So, that’s what we did, we arrived here early, parked the car and stored our bags until we could check in later, and headed out into the town on foot. The Grand Place is a large city square bordered by large old buildings. The square is filled around the sides by restaurants, and shops and there is no end to the activities within the square. I tried to capture the building but they are big so I had a difficult time getting them all in. Some pictures are close-ups of some of the architectural features of the buildings. No churches today!

Now, we are off to Amsterdam … See you there!

26 September – Today it rained most of the day. Visibility was quite low at times due to fog or road mist. Therefore the trip from Brussels to Amsterdam was not particularly scenic. Plus it is mostly flat farmland with herds of cows. It did go off as planned and we made fairly descent time. It was Monday morning and everyone was on their way back to work and the trucks were all back on the road. Trucks are interesting in Europe as they are required to travel at only 48 to 54 miles per hour maximum on the interstate highways. Consequently, the right lane is one steady row of trucks tugging along. The left lanes are filled with cars trying to go faster, speeds up to 60 to 72. Fortunately it all works out. Trucks are also not permitted to drive on Sundays so Sundays have less congestion. Some trucks can get special permits to travel on Sundays, but not many. So, on Monday they launch with vigor! We decided to go to a small seaside town named Volendam. It is quite the tourist attraction as they cater to the rest of Europe and the world that wants to see what the Netherlands are really like. They have all sorts of tours and restaurants, and shops. Quite the place. It was just raining lightly when we got there so we decided to brave it and talk a walk around. We last visited Volendam some fifty years ago when we were in Germany for our first time. It has not changed a great deal. Here’s some pictures:

From Volendam we drove into Amsterdam, found our hotel, and a place to park our car. That took most of the afternoon. We did walk back from the park garage, noted some scenery, had dinner, and made it back to the hotel.

So, that was it or today. We are spending two days in Amsterdam so for once we are not driving anywhere tomorrow. By the way, many people confuse the names Holland and The Netherlands. The Netherlands has twelve provinces. The two biggest ones are North Holland and South Holland. Consequently many times people are speaking of Holland meaning the state. Both are in The Netherlands and anywhere in any of the twelve is in The Netherlands.

27 September – No pictures today and only a short story. Yesterday afternoon we booked a Canal Tour for this afternoon. It was raining yesterday but we were hoping for better weather today. When we got up this morning it was raining. Not real hard but hard enough to not enjoy being out in it. We waited until about 10 PM and made the call. We have been here for twelve days, traveled eleven days in a row, stayed in eleven different hotels and it was time to take a day off. Because it was still raining, we cancelled the canal tour and spent the day vegging out in our hotel room. We had enjoyed a nice breakfast so we just spent the entire day in the hotel room watching it rain, reading, I edited some of my posts and worked on the next of my best seller books. Nancy read and did some puzzles she enjoys. Around five thirty, it had stopped raining around three so around five we wandered out and had a pizza for dinner. We are now back in the hotel room getting ready for our trip back to Germany tomorrow. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. See you tomorrow.

28 September – This morning the sunshine greeted us so we knew it was time to hit the road again. We checked out of the hotel and took and Uber to where we had the car parked. In Amsterdam, and many other European cities, the streets are narrow and there is little parking available. Therefore the cities make it either inconvenient or expensive to drive into the city and stay there. They prefer you use mass trans, which they have plenty of, and leave your car somewhere where it is not so crowded. As we are not familiar with places to leave our car and not sure if we will use it during our stay, we drive into the city. Amsterdam makes it both inconvenient AND expensive to drive into the city. Our hotel was pretty much downtown because we wanted to be able to walk to the downtown activities. Therefore, to park the car for two days, the hotel we stayed at recommended booking three days parking at the central train station and walking back or taking a taxi back. It was about a mile and a half away. We did all that but opted to explore the city on the way back to the hotel so we walked, had dinner along the way (see 26 September). Because we had out bags this morning, we took an Uber to get us back to the car park. We bailed out the car and spent about forty five minutes getting out of town because one of the major tunnels was closed. Good thing it was sunny, I could see half of the cars I nearly hit because the sun was in my eyes!! Anyhow, we made it out of town and headed for Germany. I did get another picture of a windmill but its not much better than the last. Here it is:

Most of the trip from Amsterdam to Germany was fairly mundane. A great number of farms, crops, cows, and a few horses. traffic was amazingly heavy so we kept pressing on.

We stayed in a small town along side the Rhine River. The town’s name was Rhens. Its a small village that has been there a long time. Has some pretty neat buildings. There is also a castle just up the road that Nancy and I walked up to and toured a bit. Before we got there we stopped at a small town that claimed to have the highest geyser in the world. Had to see that so we diverted over to see it. Turns out the geyser was a man made well on an island that does shoot water in the air, about 60 feet. To see it you must attend a ninety minute lecture and tour in a museum on Germany hydrography, then take an hour boat ride to see them set off the geyser. We passed on the geyser but there was an interesting old gate neat the river we enjoyed seeing.

That was our day. We had a great German dinner in a local restaurant and turned in.

29 September – This morning was not so sunny. There was a low hanging fog across the tops of the hills on both sides of the river so it was kinda gloomy. We had a nice breakfast. We loaded up the Open and headed up the river to Rudesheim. The Rhine runs north from southern Germany, joins with the Mosel at Koblenz in Germany, and goes all the way up to the Netherlands and empties into the North Sea. So we were going south and up the Rhein. I took a couple pictures along the way. Then we took a ferry from the Bingen side of the Rhein to the Rudesheim side.

We unloaded, drove into town, and parked. The “more later” caption is about a monument that sits way up over the Rhein. We took a cable car, like a ski lift, up to see it today as well as walked about Rudesheim a bit, then drove to our hotel and checked in for the day..

We are settled in for the night. Will eat dinner at the hotel and leave in the morning. Going to Frankfurt tomorrow and spending our last two days in Europe there.

30 September – Went to Frankfurt today. The day was bright and sunny so we looked forward to a fun day in one of our favorite cities. We were not disappointed. The drive was just over an hour so we slept in, made our own coffee in our hotel room (The hotel had a gucchi coffee maker) and left mid morning. Most of the drive was on autoban and with a fairly heavy flow of traffic but everything went well. Stopped at a Bakery in Rudesheim and had a cup of coffee and a sweetie. Germany still has it’s individual bakeries where they sell bakery and sometimes coffe .. nothing else. But, unlike the supermarket bakeries we have at home, the bakery is frsh, made right there, and in abundant supply and flavor. We arrived at our hotel in Frankfurt just before noon and to our surprise our room was ready so we checked in. We had to take everything to our room because we are doing our final repack for the flight home. Instead of messing around in the room we left everything and went about exploring Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is the financial capitol of Germany and the EU. While they don’t cater to tourism as much as the tourist cities like Munich, it still has a great deal to offer and see. Nancy and I lived here in Frankfurt for two years while I ws in the Air Force. We lived right on the airport on a US base that has since closed. We frequented Frankfurt often by car, bike, bus, and train. It is probably our favorite city in Europe … maybe even the world. Anyhow, we dumped our stuff in our room and set off on foot to rediscover and enjoy Frankfurt. We had no agenda so we just kinda wandered around. That is the way my pictures will be. They are mostly of things we saw that we thought were interesting. Hope you enjoy them:

So that’s it for our day in Frankfurt. More tomorrow before we get ready to leave.

1 October – Happy October and welcome back. Today in Frankfurt it is raining and very cool. The only activity we have seen outside so far today was a demonstration … couldn’t tell if it was for or against the effort in the Ukraine but they were playing Jane Fonda music so it was probably a peace parade.

Fortunately we had a great day yesterday and saw and did most of the things we enjoy here. Therefore, no worries about the rain, we’ll just watch it for a while and maybe venture out later. We went down for breakfast earlier and had a good one. I’ve been catching up on this blog and other endeavors.

Tomorrow we fly home. We were pleased that Ian changed course and did not affect us much. A little rain and some wind, no damage. Our prayers for the folks south of us. So much devastation. It will take a long time for them to recover.

With that I’m closing this puppy out. I doubt I will be taking any more pictures and all we have left is dinner tonight. Might be a sandwich in the room if it keeps raining. We have had a good trip this time and have enjoyed seeing and doing all the places we went and things we did. We had a good friend diagnosed with brain cancer two weeks ago. He had no idea he had it and the Doctor gave him two weeks to live. He made it a week and died peacefully in his sleep under hospice care. You never know when something like that is going to change your life forever. That’s why we travel like we do. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Enough philosophy … good to have you along and see you next time? … Maybe?

After recovering from the loonng trip from Oz and baking in Florida for two months we are going to Alaska. One state we have not been to. I stopped at Anchorage briefly to refuel on my way to Viet Nam in 1971 but neither of us have spent any time there. Rather than take a ship and skip around the outside coastline, we are flying to Anchorage, taking a train to Denali, tour Denali, and then a train to Fairbanks. Then drive a car back across to Valdez and other points south. Many activities along the way, every day.

14 July 2022 – Good Morning …. Happy Birthday Christian!! Hello Everyone!! We made it to Alaska, Anchorage Specifically, at 8 PM Anchorage time. It was a long day with two fairly long flights but everything went well with no delays or cancellations. (Yeahh Delta). We were in Seattle long enough to get a sandwich and a beer, then on to Anchorage. It occurred to us that we had traveled, diagonally, across the North American Continent. Wow!

Only pictures I have so far is of Mt Rainier from the airplane, the snow capped mountains, from the airplane, and the view from our hotel room. We checked into our hotel, unpacked a little, waited until 10:30 PM to call our Grandson Christain in Australia who is celebrating his Sixth Birthday today (yesterday for him). We had a nice chat and watched him open a few pressies.

Today was an extra day we had added to our itinerary to ensure we did not miss part of our planned events due to arriving late. We looked at it as an extra day to explore Anchorage and see what happens in Alaska’a largest city.

First I must apologize for not posting anything for a couple days. Our schedule got the best of us and we are finally taking a break so I can catch up.

We started the day with an Uber ride out to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The center was created to help preserve and promote the culture of Alaska’s native population. We arrived there and spent a several hours watching native dances, a talk about native customs, and listened to some native songs. After that we walked around a nicely presented area that contained native houses, some artifacts, and interesting sculptures. We concluded our time there by walking through their museum and some local artists selling their crafts. All very interesting.

A quick note before we get to the pictures. July is Alaska’s rainiest month. The good part of that is all the flowers are in full bloom and very beautiful. Where they don’t grow wild, they are planted. Very nice. The down side was we ended up with a bit of rain and plenty clouds. It rained part of the day and cleared up in the afternoon. The cultural center was part inside and part outside. We were fortunate that most of the time that it did rain we were doing the inside. Interesting thing about Alaskan rain. It seldom rains hard, it’s mostly just a misty type rain or foggy. Now for some pictures.

After the Cultural Center we Ubered back to downtown Anchorage just to check it out. Lovely City. Downtown is modern but picturesque. Lots of flowers, shops, restaurants, etc. Had lunch at a popular local watering hole called Humpy’s. We had Reindeer Cheeseburgers and a beer. We were going to go out to the site of the Earthquake damage from the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. We asked at the information center and they recommended seeing a movie about it shown at the nearby Federal Building … So we did. No pictures from the movie but was quite the catastrophe. You can google it and there are many pictures and the story on the internet. Funny how we forget these things happening. Anyhow, we bummed around for a wile and ended up at the 49th State Brew Pub, sat way up on the top deck, and had a local brew. We had along day and an early start the next day so we went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. Here are some shots from Anchorage.

15 July 2022 – Leaving Anchorage today via the Alaskan Railroad. We depart Anchorage a little after eight AM and were scheduled to arrive in Danali in mid afternoon. Took an Uber from the hotel to the train station, checked in and had a latte waiting for the train. We departed on time and we were happy we had selected to sit in the “Gold Star Class” because we sat up high with big windows that went right over the top. Train was full but comfortable.

We were escorted down to the dining room for breakfast and later Lunch along the way. Scenery was impressive but a bit redundant (lots of trees). It was an interesting ride, food was good and nicely served. Met some interesting people but didn’t get many good photos. One of the reasons I don’t like public ground transport is you can’t stop to look at or take pictures of stuff. You just hope to see it as it whisks by.

Okay … We arrived in Denali, we were scooped up by our Hotel, and taken to our room. Got to the room about 4:30 and prepared to go on our 6:30 River Raft Adventure.

Our Hotel was way up on this mountain side so every time we went somewhere I had to put on my mountain goat attitude. Anyhow, we met the pick-up bus for the Raft Ride and checked in. Because the rivers here are coming directly from a melting Glacier, the water is about 34 Degrees, Fahrenheit. If you fall in you don’t last long. Consequently, everyone has to wear a dry suit with neoprene cuffs around your neck and arms and your legs are in neoprene boots that are part of the suit. Took a while to get all this stuff on and was very cumbersome. After everyone was suited up we bused over to the Nanana River and jumped into our boats and were off. It was a two and a half hour float and we got started at about 7:30 PM. The float we went on had a number of level two rapids and a couple level three. We were not looking for thrills, just a float trip. The guide was good and the other six people in the raft were pleasant people so it was a nice trip … no one fell in. We got back to the hotel at about 10:30 PM after turning in all our gear and walking back to our hill top cabin. Our Hotel is actually a series of cabins. So … here are the pictures.

Okay then … That was our raft trip. Got finished at about 10:30 PM. walked back to the mountain top cabin (It’s still daylight) and hit the sack because we have a 5:15 pickup for our Tundra wilderness tour (Denali National Park formerly Mt McKinley NP) tomorrow morning.

16 July 2022 – Got up at 4:30, (it’s still daylight … or daylight again!) had a coffee, and headed down the mountain to meet our pick up. Got on the bus at 5:30 AM and started our bus tour of Denali. Cars are allowed to drive only thirteen miles into the park, our bus (A National Park Tour Bus driven by a National Park bus Driver/Guide) can go to 43 miles … the end of the drivable roads in the park. Only one road in the park, this was it. Guide was good, knowledgeable, witty, and a good driver. Our tour took five hours and included many stops and much explanation. Good tour, saw lots of stuff. Thing to keep in mind as you enjoy the pictures … we are on a bus, bumping along and everything is far, far away! Many shot s are just views. An incredible place to see.

That ends our time and adventure at Denali. Tomorrow we sleep in a bit, have some coffee, and catch the train to Fairbanks. Had a delightful dinner this evening, going to get some well deserved rest. Next Post from Fairbanks.

17 July 2022 – Today we spent a lot of time waiting to do something. Our checkout out of our mountain top retreat was 11:30 so we checked out. Our train for Fairbanks left at four so we only had four and a half hours to kill. We sat in the lobby, took a shuttle to the station, waited in the station, and finally got on the train. I will admit, the train ride from Denali to Fairbanks, although only taking four hours vice eight from Anchorage to Denali, was far superior to the first leg (Anchorage to Denali). The views of the canyon where we rafted a couple days ago were terrific, then following the Yenana River to Fairbanks was interesting. We had dinner on the train, it was good. Had dinner with a Russian gentleman who spoke no english or german. Very nice guy. Was going to visit his daughter who lives in Fairbanks. Here are some Photos from our train ride.

Once we arrived in Fairbanks we grabbed a hotel shuttle to out hotel, checked in, had a night cap, and went to bed. Early up tomorrow.

18 July 2022 – After an early breakfast we took the airport shuttle to the airport and picked up a rental car which we will be using for the next eight days. So we flew in, rode a couple Ubers, a train, a bus, another train, and now we are going to drive a car … Using many modes of transportation. We had two major events today. One visiting a Gold dredging operation and the other a Steamboat paddle ship ride on Alaskan waterways. Both turned out to be very interesting, informative and fun. We even panned for Gold and Nancy and I, in one scoop of gravel each, panned out forty dollars worth of gold. Here are all the exciting pictures! They will be in three parts. We saw the Alaskan Pipeline (Biden hasn’t shut it down yet but did reduce the flow) A gold dredging operation, and the paddle boat ride.

Then the Gold Dredging Operation

… and our Paddle Ship Cruise

That concluded a very busy day in Fairbanks. Tomorrow we drive on the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks to Valdez. No tours or attractions planned but keeping an eye out for interesting things. See you then.

19 July 2022 – Welcome to Valdez. We got a good night’s sleep, a pleasant breakfast, and an early start for our nearly 400 mile road trip from Fairbanks to Valdez via the famous Richardson Highway. Rain, fog, washouts, and construction filled our day but we had a nice trip, saw many interesting sights, and made it safely to our hotel by just after 3 PM. One of the bridges just south of Delta had washed out a little over a week ago so about 30 miles of the road was one lane and you had to be escorted by a pilot vehicle to get through. We past through several other construction sites, some of which were one way, but we didn’t lose much time overall. Sometimes the stop was a welcome break. Once past the Denali turnoff, about 100 miles from Valdez, we climbed our way through Thompson pass in the Alaska Range and then down through Keystone Canyon. A deep narrow canyon with many waterfalls along the sides from the snowmelt. Very beautiful. The Alaska Pipeline runs kinda along the same route so every so often we would spot it running along beside us like a an old friend. Sometimes it would go under ground or under a river but eventually, there it was on its way to Valdez as well. It passes 35,000 gallons of oil every minute which equates to 500,000 barrels a day. Heres our trip.

See Ya Tomorrow!

20 July 2022 – Incredible day cruising Prince William Sound. An amazing place abound with sea life, islands, ancient forests, and commercial activities. We departed around 8:30 AM. It was quite foggy as we slipped out of the marina into the Sound. There were many commercial fishing boats heading out, some small, some bigger. Today was what the locals call an “opening day”. Some days you can fish, some days you can’t. It’s the way the Department of Natural Resources manages the salmon population to ensure it does not get overfished. As today was an “Open Day” everyone was headed out to make a living catching the Pink Salmon that hatch here and come back two years later to spawn.

The boat was comfortable and not crowded so we could move around, up and down, forward and aft, as much as we wanted. It was also quite cool, breezy, and cloudy but there was promise of nicer weather as the day progressed. The day ended up being quite erratic as the sun would come out occasionally and it would get foggy or rain every so often. We just tried to enjoy as much as we could. It was along trip and included a little breakfast and a bigger lunch. The trip took nearly eight hours but was well worth the time.

Once we got away from the Marina and out into the sound our pilot and guide stopped the ship and we watched while he explained the fishing process. In order to ensure they don’t kill off all their livelihoods, the commercial fishing industry funds several large Salmon hatcheries in the area where millions of small Salmon are hatched. Once they get to be about the size of your little finger they are released and they all head out to the Pacific Ocean. They live, eat, and grow there for about two years, then, guided by nature and their DNA they head back inland, up the same course they followed out, to lay thier eggs, and die. When they are still in the ocean they are large, plump and healthy. As they swim inland, up the streams, they use all their body fat and eventually, by the time they lay their eggs, are skinny and exhausted. Consequently, the sooner you can catch them coming in from the ocean, the better they are to eat. The problem is they are all spread out in the ocean so they are more difficult to net. Once they get into the Sound, they tend to swim close to shore so that’s where the fisherman try to catch them.

The moutains around the Sound are snow capped and incredible.

We came upon a great herd of Stellar Sea Lions enjoying a day at the Beach.

The sea has been lapping at these rock islands for thousands, even millions of years. The edges of the islands are very interesting.

The captain spotted a Pod of Orca Killer Whales. He tried to cruise next to them for a while so we could watch then swim.

Three ladies shared the seat we had. All three were from China. One was a tour operator from Las Vegas, another was a dealer for Harrah’s in Las Vegas, and the third baby sat her grand daughter in San Fransisco. They were an interesting group to spend the day with. Very pleasant ladies.

We also met two couples from Denmark who were traveling together. One of the guys collects Amber on the beaches in Denmark. He gave Nancy a couple rather big pieces. Nice people.

The Islands in Prince William Sound are abundant and interesting. Most have at least a few trees on them, others many. Some are of the Islands are large, some tiny. All Interesting.

Soon we started to see small chunks of ice floating in the water. As we went along they became more abundant, bigger, and some had seals on them.

Our destination was to see Mears Glacier. This Glacier is actually advancing rather than shrinking. It once was way past where it currently is, receded for a couple hundred years, and is now advancing again. A truly impressive sight. While we parked by it, we could hear the ice crack, then a big chunk would tumble into the water ( Calving)

We proceeded back to Valdez from there. The captain told the story of when the Exon Valdez dumped 2 million barrels of crude oil into the sound and all the things they have done since to prevent that from happening again.

The Valdez end of the Alaskan Pipeline was more visible so I took a couple more pictures of it.

So that was it for our tour of Prince William Sound. We had a pleasant dinner and sacked out for the night.

21 July 2022 – A travel Day. We are going from Valdez to Seward. The agancy split the trip into two days so we are spending the night in the Sheep Mountain Lodge near Sutton. Interesting place with several glaciers on one side and impressive mountains (including Sheep mountain) on the other side. All the rooms are little cabins. We’ll spend the night here and drive the rest of the way to Seward tomorrow.

See you tomorrow on our way to Seward.

22 July 2022 – Yeah!!! We made it to Seward. Once again, fog, rain, sunshine, etc. Alaska in July. Good trip though. Saw a bunch of interesting scenery, Nancy spied a couple Sheep on Sheep Mountain, interesting parts of the world.

23 July 2022 – Today we are going on a cruise that includes Kenai Fjords National Park. OK … Got’er done! Cruised the Kenai Fjords National Park. It was a cold, windy, rainy cruise but interesting. Much like our cruise out of Valdez. Saw a few more hump back whales and a mountain goat (not a Dall Sheep). The glacier was big, but not as impressive as the Mears Glacier in Valdez. Guess once you’ve seen one they all kinda look alike. Here’s my photo’s. Alibi here … taking pictures of things a long ways off using max telescopic is like trying to find something looking through a straw. Then, with the ship biobbing up and down it gets really interesting. To placate the fussy I have added some pictures I have taken of posters, pictures, and other photograph’s that are a bit more impressive. They are of things we have seen but I just didn’t get a picture, at least a good one, of the subject. Enjoy.

We shared our seating spot with a couple from Isreal … interesting people, enjoyed their company. One of the better parts of traveling is meeting people from different places and different walks of life.

I know the pictures are pretty underwhelming. Like I said .. the boat was bobbing up and down and shooting a distance was tough. Here are some good pictures of things we saw that some professional photographer shot. Enjoy.

That wraps up the day. Was one of the coldest and wettest so far. Tomorrow we drive back to Anchorage to start our return to home.

24 July 2022 – Driving back to anchorage today .. Sunny day, temps supposed to reach the 70’s. Go figure! Just a few shots from along the way.

We arrived in Anchorage with no problems, went downtown for dinner, and ended our trip. Flying back to Tampa tomorrow. Thanks for coming along. Next trip will be to Europe. See you then.

After 26 months of trying to convince the Australian government that we should be able to visit our family, the government relented and started allowing parents of people who live in Australia visit them. Wheeeeww!!! ** A note: Oz is Australian for Australia. They shorten everything they say to one syllable, then they add an “ie” to the end of the abbreviated word. For example, Breakfast would be Brekie. So, Australia would be “Ausie” but it’s cooler to say “Oz”.

So it was that on the 25th of February we arrived in Brisbane after two fifteen hour legs from Miami to Doha, Qatar, to Brisbane. We arrived in the early evening to a heavy rain and nearly deserted terminal. We had all our paperwork in order so we were through immigration before our bags came out. We didn’t look suspicious so the Customs folks waived us through and we were on our way to the rental counter. There we found the counter was closed due to lack of business and that we were to proceed, by airport shuttle, to the domestic terminal where there was another rental car counter. We nearly drowned dragging our four bags through the heavy rain but did find the bus, did get to the domestic terminal, and did find the rental counter. No worries there, we got our car and drove from Brisbane to Coomera (about 40 miles) in a heavy rain … at night … on the wrong side of the road … with the steering wheel on the right side of the car … all while hanging upside down on the underside of the Earth.

When we left back in Jan 2020 Australia was on fire. There were, major fires all along the east coast killing thousands of animals, destroying hundreds of homes, and causing severe damage. Now, in Feb 2022, they had epic rains that were killing thousands of animals, destroying hundreds of homes, and causing severe damage. Even the roads where we stayed were closed in some places where the creeks and rivers overflowed over the road.

The rain eventually stopped and now only downpours on occasion. The creeks returned to their banks, the bridges opened, and the mud dried up. Best part of all is that we were back with Andy, Candice, Samantha, Cathy, and Christian (our Family) again. Samantha had graduated from St Stephan’s College last November and she was leaving for Uni in Perth in a week so we were pleased we got to spend some time with her. She was selected to attend Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts. It is a well noted university that specializes in the performing arts. Hugh Jackman and Frances O’Conner are a couple of their alumni. **Note: Colleges, in Australia, are private schools that educate children (and young men and women) from Kindergarten through High School. Post High School education is at establishments called Universities … Unies.

So far we have settled in for our stay in Oz at the “Folly”. The famous bungalow in Willow Vale, Australia which is close to where our family lives. I have had pictures from previous trips in this blog but here are a few of and around the Folly.

We have also attended a very cute and well performed “Grandparents Day” at St Stephan’s College, the School where Christian is now in Kindergarten and Cathy is in year nine. Grandparents Day was put on by grades Pre-Kindy through year six. The Pre-Kindy and and Kindy students presented an Easter Hat parade and the year one, two, three, four, five, and six students performed songs in the auditorium in groups of two grades at a time.

One weekend we went to a big tent display of Dinosaurs. It was mostly for the kids but was interesting to see.

School years start in Late January and end in early December with their Summer vacation being over December and January. Christian and Cathy had their first quarter break in early April so we rented a Houseboat and spent five days sailing around the “Broadwater” area. Coomera is right on the east coast of Australia and is near the Pacific Ocean. Between Coomer and the Pacific are several long off shore islands that create a shelter from the ocean much like our “Outer Banks” in Virginia and North Carolina. Several major rivers flow into this area and create a shallow but peaceful body of water called “The Broadwater”. That is where we sailed.

Raining this week but more activities to come. Check back and see what’s happening in OZ.

Welcome back. It’s now the last day of April and we are preparing to leave Oz and return home. I’m sorry to report that we did not take any rel exciting tripd or do over the top exciting things. It has been a long time since we saw our family so we are just spending time and doing things with them. Following are several set of photos about things here in Oz that I have found interesting or at least different. Although Australia is a very modern western country, it has a heavy European flavor and is still inhibited by a number of British customs. Regardless, it is a very interesting place to visit. The people are very friendly and polite. Customer service in just about any store is exceptional with clerks, waiters, bar tenders, cooks, etc all being very helpful and friendly. For the most part, except perhaps when they are driving, Australians are very polite and will seldom call someone out or challenge someone. They are very tolerant for the most part.

Because of the heavy European influence much of the architecture is European and most mechanical things are heavily heavily over engineered. Frames on anything are normally twice as big and/or strong as they need to be, machinery is heavy to the point of being clumsy, and home additions like steps, patios, etc are all very heavy and over done with beams and struts. That all comes from Europe … same thing there. The difference is in Europe they keep these old things and use them for centuries, here, Australians like new stuff and much of the old, built to last forever, is left behind. I think that is due much to the high number of other nationalities that live here. Here’s a breakdown of their population. Ethnic Groups: English 25.9%, Australian 25.4%, Irish 7.5%, Scottish 6.4%, Italian 3.3%, German 3.2%, Chinese 3.1%, Indian 1.4%, Greek 1.4%, Dutch 1.2%, other 15.8% (includes Australian aboriginal) … I think the Chinese numbers are a he soccer player’s parents.little low as well as there are a significant number of people from the Philippines and New Zealand that live here. Actually, based on what we have observed the many times we have been here, there are many more Aisians here in Australia than these numbers reflect. That is one of the main reasons that the old European buildings and traditions are lousing ground fast. To illustrate my point, Nancy and I were recently invited to the home of some friends we have here. They are nearing retirement so they sold their big home and have moved to a Condo near the beach. They had a little, informal, house party for some of their friends. Here they are: I will not bother with their names but from the front left going around the table is; The lady is a Medical Doctor who came here from the Phillipines long ago. The guy behind her is from Portugal, the Doctor’s partner. Next to and behind him is a gentleman from Nigeria. He is a Catholic Priest who immigrated here to attend the Seminary. Behind him is a young lad who is the best soccer player in Queensland, he was born here but his parents are from Sri Lanka. Next are two Americans (do they look familiar?), they don’t do much of anything but loaf around. Next is our host, the guy standing in front of the mirror. He and his wife (the photographer and our hostess, not in the picture) immigrated from South Africa and they are of Indian decent. They are both educators at local high schools. The front right couple are both from Sri Lanka, they are the soccer player’s parents. The lady owns a beauty shop in Brisbane and he runs an automotive store in Brisbane. It is very common to find mixes of this type anywhere in Australia where regular people get together. Missing from this picture are is a Lady from England and her husband. He was an airline pilot and they moved to Spain recently. Also missing is a couple from New Zealand. They are not there because the husband is in advance stages of Altheimers. Pictured but not mentioned is all the awesome, authentic South African food with an Indian twist.

Anyhow, here are some of the areas we have found interesting so I’ll just post the pictures and fill in captions to explain. Enjoy! The first ones are more from around the place we stay at.

Nancy and I have some favorite things we do to pass the time. Time here is the same as at home in Florida. The hours of the day need to be filled with something. We spend as much time as we can with the family but they go to work, school, etc, have their own lives and activities so we too have ours. We usually get up between seven thirty and eight and have coffee, review the news, emails, send out jokes, do puzzles etc until around ten or so. Then we do what chores and other activities we need to do until noon or so. Some days we go out for lunch, some days we go to a local coffee shop for a Latte and and some sort of sweetie. The afternoons are spent walking, shopping, touring, or whatever. Sometimes we just stay home and read, or write, or nap. Not the most exciting life but then, we are retired and to me it sure beats working half days (Six Am to Six PM). Here are some random shots of some of our activities.

However, before the thrilling pictures, let me tell you about some of the way things are around here. Restaurants: There are not many, just plain restaurants. Those that are are fairly fancy and expensive. People go to them on special occasions. Where most people eat is at taverns. Most taverns have three parts. A bar where you can quench your thirst or eat snacky things, like we do in the US. They also have a dining area the is seperate from the bar. There you are usually seated by a host or hostess and provided menus or the digitl menu is available on a q-code thingy on the table. Once everyone decides what they one, one or more members of the table walk up to a counter and order what everyone would like, pay for it, collect the required number of utinsels, napkins, and seasonings and sauces and return to the table with a number on a stick. Some places have their tables numbered and instead of a number on a stick you give your table number. You then proceed to a bar (not the tavern bar) and get your drinks (both alcoholic and non). Then go back to the table and enjoy your drinks and table partners until your food comes out. The meals are brought to the table. If you use the q-code thingy it all happens right there at the table on your phone. (Menu, order, pay, drinks, pay, q-code knows what table you are at) and it all comes out by server. While this does seem a bit more hands on, it does eliminate waiting for a waiter to take your order or a waiter getting your order wrong. You then enjoy your meal and when your done, you leave (you already paid for your meal when you ordered it). No waiting for the waiter to bring the bill, come back and get your credit card, bring back your payment, etc. One last thing. There is no tipping in Australia. Wait staff are paid around twenty five dollars an hour. They do excellent work because they want to keep their jobs. Yes, the cost of a meal is higher but you no longer need to decide if and how much to tip, etc. No one can short a waiter because they are cheap or didn’t like their service etc. I kinda like it. I’m tired of service businesses expecting me to pay their employees and employees not reporting their income Anyhow, back to the third part of a tavern. The Pokies. The pokies area separate room where there are all kinds of slot machines and para-mutual betting. They call them “Pokies” because you poke money into them. How clever is that?

Anyhow, that’s taverns. In addition to taverns there are all kinds of take out places that sell just about any kind of food or meal you can imagine. They also have bakeries (big and little), butcher shops, and grocery stores where you can get food. The taverns all have basically the same food but some are a little better than the others. Chicken Parmies are the big thing. That’s a big ole chicken breast, breaded, fried, and covered with some kind of sauce. French fries of course (they call them chips here) and a dab of some salad (whatever they can pick along the road side). In my humble opinion, there is very little good food in Australia. I’m sure some place has good food but we have not found it yet. Some of the little coffee/pastry shops have interesting food, and the fancy restaurants have better than average food, but for the most part their food is just like what you get in England. Bland, mostly carbs, and covered with some kind of gravy or sauce to kill the taste. My favorite food here to date is a chocolate muffin from Zarraffa’s (a coffee shop). Pizza is pizza here .. a good work around as is some of the ethnic foods. Much Asian and Indian cuisine available. So here are the random shots:

That’s about it for now. We won’t be here much longer so I don’t know if I will post more or not. No big exciting plans.

Australia is a very interesting and unique place. I can’t imagine coming here for a week and trying to experience it all. I will say, experiencing any part of it is interesting so should not be missed. We wil continue coming here as long as we can. Have trips to Tasmania planned and other parts of the country. Enjoy.

We have talked about doing a cruise through the Panama Canal for quite a while. We had it scheduled for last year but it was cancelled by the Cruise line due to COVID restrictions. We booked this one in hopes we would be able to go by now, and we were. So, off we went. The cruise was from Ft Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles. Here is a map of the cruise and stops.

A week or so before we left we were notified that the stop in Nicaragua was cancelled due to COVID restrictions. Oh well. The day before we left home, we took COVID tests via the internet, passed, and packed. The next day we rented a car and drove to Ft Lauderdale and turned in the car at the airport and spent the night near the port. The port, airport, and hotels are all fairly close together. We walked to a pleasant dinner that evening near the hotel, spent a quiet evening, had a nice breakfast the next morning, then caught a shuttle to the port. The first thing they did at the port was to take our luggage, confirm our tickets, and give us another COVID test. Once we passed that we were processed onto the ship. Not sure what they would have done if we had failed the test to get our luggage back but that didn’t become an issue. Anyhow, we got on board the ship around one O’clock, and started our vacation. The boat was supposed to leave around four but was delayed, for some reason, until after six. No worries though. Nancy and I explored, tasted, tested, rested, relaxed, and snooped until we got the lay of the boat.

We finally got under way. We were informed that our stop in Columbia had been cancelled due to new COVID rules the country had come out with. (We were disappointed with this news because Nicaragua and Columbia were the two countries on the cruise where we had not been yet. We were looking forward to seeing them. Not much we could do about it now and we were still going to do the Panama Canal, the primary reason for the cruise.) Because we were not going to Columbia we would be at sea for four days before we got to the Panama Canal. So, for four days we cruised doing ship board activities. There were plenty and we had good weather and a nice time. Got some sun, met some people, you know, old people cruise stuff!

After the sea days we got to Cartagena, Columbia. I know, I told you it was cancelled, but for some complex reason the ship had to stop there for a day to qualify for a certain kind of voyage. That’s what the captain said anyhow. So we pulled in, never docked, several little boats went back and forth, then we sailed in a circle for a while and finally we left.

We left Columbia and headed towards the Panama Canal. I’ll show you some of the inside of our ship while we are underway.

We were going to go through the new locks because the cruise ship was too large for the old ones. Both still operate. The Panama Canal is actually two set of locks. One set on the East side of Panama from the Atlantic, and one set on the west side from the Pacific. The area in between these two sets of locks is now a huge, man made, lake that allows the ships to travel across Panama. The two sets of locks, one east and one west (Actually, the canal runs northwest to southeast because of the curl of Central America. I will call everything east to west just to keep our directions straight.) are like big dams that hold the lake there. The boats go through the locks to get to the gate, then across Panama on the lake, and out the locks on the other side. This takes a fair amount of time so some shipping companies unload on one side and truck their cargo to a ship on the other side. At each end there are many, many boats waiting to go through. The canal operates from east to west in the morning and west to east in the afternoon to avoid collisions on the lake. The lake, being man made on a mountain valley has many islands that were once ridges. Three towns were covered by the lake. The lake is about 80 feet above the two oceans it connects.

The locks raise the ships about 80 feet from sea level to the lake. Instead of having one large chamber, they use three so three ships can be raised at one time, each about 25 -30 feet per chamber. That allows the locks to use water from one chamber to pow er the next.

Congratulations! You have just passed out of the Atlantic Ocean into Lake Gatun. We will spend most of the day meandering through the lake to get to the Pacific Locks.

We are now anchored at Panama City. We have a day ashore here. We booked a tour that takes us to the old locks and the downtown area. The tour included about 40 people so it was kinda unorganized. We did get to see the old locks and down town though so here they are.

So that was Panama City and the canal. In case you were wondering they have different price scemes for a ship going through the canal. Cruise boats are charged by the rooms they have. It cost our ship just a little over $500,000.00 to go through!

The tour was too big for the one guide we had. He spent more time trying to keep track of everyone than guiding and seemed overwhelmed most of the time. Traffic and lost people used up more of our time on the ground than seeing interesting things. It was interesting, just frustrating … and HOT!

So we went back out to sea and motored up to Costa Rica. The ship offered a number of cruises there but Nancy and I were in Costa Rica just last year and had nothing we wanted to redo. We just walked off the boat and into the “Trade” area in the harbor. Checked out a bunch of souvenirs, listened to a band, had a couple beers, and went back to the ship. Quite relaxing.

Off we go again. Another day or two at sea. Then ashore at Hautulco, Mexico. This little fishing village is a hidden jewel. Far enough from California that all the pretty people haven’t been there yet. They have devoted a lot of time and effort to making the place pleasant and it has a lot to offer. We had booked a full day tour. The harbor and ocean then a tour of the old city. The tour of the harbor and sea was first.;

I think, if I ever wanted to drop out of society, I would go to Huatulco, buy a small home on a hill, a small motor bike, and a medium sized (30 – 45Ft) sailboat, and a small dingy type motorboat and live there. The people are friendly and welcome people that want see or live in their city. It is only eight hours or so from a bigger city, and it has an airport so you can really get to anywhere n the world you would want to go to. The weather is mostly pleasant with low humidity and moderate temperatures and the ocean is very pleasant there.

Enough dreaming. So we set sail again and our next stop is Porto Vallarta, Mexico. This place WAS found by the pretty people of California and is over ran by tourists, both transit and time sharing types. It even has a Walmart and a Sam’s! All the major fast food outlets and many of the chain stores we have right here in the US.

Nancy and I had booked a tour here but after our experiences in the last two tours we had we cancelled it and decided to just take a cab to what was called the Malecon (Seaside Promenade) and walk around and see what there was to see. So that’s what we did. Had a great time. Here’s some pics:

We took a taxi back to the ship and called it a day. Our next stop was our last stop at Los Angeles. Busy place but the boat people made it work well. It was the Saturday before the Superbowl in LA so everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was busy. We did get out, were delayed and nearly missed our connection in Atlanta … we made it but our luggage didn’t (it was delivered to our house the next day). A couple pictures from the port in LA. (They are blue because the pictures were taken through a window on the ship.

That was our Panama Canal Cruise. Like I mentioned in some of my blather about us in the intro to this website, we don’t like big tours, crowds, or lots of people. The cruise had them all but we did have a good time, met some wonderful people, and got to see the Panama canal.

This was our last stop for our time in Peru. We flew into Lima from Cusco and spent the night in a hotel at the airport. We stored out luggage there, packed a couple of backpacks and some “Jungle” clothes and took a flight out the next morning to Iquitos.

Iquitos is far in the Northeastern part of Peru and is accessible by air and river only. There have been no roads cut through the mountains and the Amazon Jungle to reach it. The city was established long ago as a trading center for the huge rubber plantations that existed in that area. Being unable to hire enough local people to work the rubber plantations, owners brought in boat loads of Chinese laborers to do the work. Recognizing the value of the product and the climate it grew in, the workers smuggled home seeds and clippings of the rubber plants and started growing them in China. After a while the Chinese market for rubber outgrew the Peruvian market and the Peruvian market collapsed.

Iquitos is now a old town with residents that make a living doing the things everyone else in Peru do. They farm, have shops, and have trades. The primary mode of transportation in Iquitos is the motorized bicycle of various sizes.

We landed in Iquitos at the airport and were taken to a hotel downtown. It was claimed to be the best hotel in town but was a little rough around the edges. Everyone was very friendly and helpful so Nancy and I had a pleasant evening in restaurant. Nancy even taught the bartender how to make Gin & Tonics even thought Nancy speaks no Spanish and the bar tender spoke no English. We had a fun time.

A little about the trip. The next morning we were picked up and taken to an outfitters shop. We were fitted for and provided with a pair of heavy rubber walking boots that came up to our knees. We each got a pair. We were also briefed on the trip to where we were going, what our camp would be like and that we would be four hours from the nearest civilization and there was no phone or medical service where we were camped. The boat we went down the river on was a long (about twenty to twenty four feet long) and narrow with a canopy over the passenger section. There was one seat on each side with a narrow aisle down the middle. Soon we were ready to go so they loaded us up in a pickup and took us to our boat. The boat was at the bottom of a set of stairs off of one of the streets. It was not a harbor but just a place to tie up your boat when you came to town. We passed our gear down and helped them load supplies for the camp. There was the guy who drove the boat, his assistant, and our guide, Moises. The driver again briefed us the trip would take about four hours but assured us there was a “rest area” along the way. Off we went.

We were on the Amazon for five days including our arrival and departure days. We spent four days and three nights in the camp. Each day at the camp we would get up and have breakfast. Our guide would brief us on the day and we would go out for our morning trip. The trips would last two to four hours and we would get back for lunch. After lunch we would again go out and return around sunset for dinner. After dinner we would do a night time activity. We were busy but it was fun. Some of the trips were on land and some were in boats … some were both. I’m not going to do this day by day but rather just show you most of the tings we did. Enjoy!

So we made it back to Iquitos, turned in our boots and gear, and they took us to the airport. A most interesting trip.

We made it back Lima, picked up our luggage and spent the night at the airport hotel. Next day we flew home with many, many fond memories. Super trip.

From Cusco we took a ride to a small resort where we spent the night before being taking an early train that would take us to Agua Caliente at the base of Manchu Picchu. The train had a viewing deck so we enjoyed that. We arrived in Agua Caliente early, had a coffee, and hopped a thrilling bus ride to Manchu Picchu. There we met a guide and spent the day touring the mountain. That night we spent in an interesting hotel in Agua Caliente. The next morning we went back up to Manchu Picchu and explored for much of the day. We came back down and caught a train back to Cusco.

You can hike into Manchu Picchu from where the train starts but it is a four day hike, you need porters and you cross 12,000 and 13,000 foot mountains. We opted not to do that. We didn’t know it until the train stopped where you get off but there is a one day hike you take from that train stop. It takes nearly a full day but you don’t need porters and lots of camping gear. Both trails end at a point above and looking down at Manchu Picchu called The Sun Gate. It is on the east side so that’s where the sun appears each day. We also had a pass to climb a steep mountain in the middle of Manchu Picchu but it was raining the day were had the permit for and we didn’t want to risk slipping and getting injured. I know that sounds whoosy but we had a lot of stuff planned and doing it on crutches was not an option.

That was Mancu Picchu. Pictures just don’t do it justice. It is one of the most impressive works of man that I have seen anywhere. The story of it’s discovery by an English Explorer in the late 1800’s and the work to restore it is an amazing story. Check it out.

That was our two days and three nights in Paracas. We were then picked up the next morning and rode the bus back to Lima to the airport. There we were to fly to Cusco. Cusco is a large city in the mountains of Peru. It is considered a stepping stone to Manchu Picchu because it gives you a chance to get accustomed to the altitude. Cusco is at 11, 150 feet MSL. We were taken to our hotel and told to rest for the rest of the day to get used to the environment. We were accustomed to this altitude because our Cabin in Colorado is at 11,500 feet so instead of resting we walked about Cusco.

We were in Cusco a couple times during this trip. Once on the way to Manchu Picchu and once on the way back. Each time we did walk abouts and tours. I will label the highlights.