Category Travel

Walking Into Vernazza

Fifteen years ago I visited Italy for the first time. Having taken Latin in school, I really wanted to see Rome. My wife wasn’t that interested – she’d been there before. She suggested we go to the Cinque Terre region, a place she had heard of but never visited. We had time, so we did […]

Quite The View

It’s Flashback Friday. Today’s post first ran on January 12, 2015. Standing on the ramparts of Caen Castle in Normandy gave us a good view of the town. Today rather than hearing from me, I thought perhaps the pictures should tell the story.  I must confess I have no idea what any of these buildings […]

The Check-In

It’s Flashback Friday. Today’s post first ran on January 5, 2015. Technology, when it works, is a blessing. It makes our lives easier and more efficient and provides all sorts of benefits. When it doesn’t work it can be a major frustration. Traveling is so much more pleasant when you can check into a flight […]

Keeping Time

It’s an iconic timepiece, possibly the best known in the world. Looked to me like the paint job had been touched up for the coronation. Everyone calls it Big Ben, but that’s not it’s formal name. It’s actually the Great Clock of Westminster. And the Great Bell is what makes the memorable sound. The tower, […]

Not The Lego Version

They’re on everyone’s bucket list, one of the most visited tourist sites in the world. And they look like the world’s biggest Lego structure. Well, maybe that Is an unfair description of the pyramids in the Cairo suburb of Giza. They certainly are an impressive site/sight. Seeing them once should be enough. It isn’t as […]

The Birthday Party

My daughter wanted to do something a bit different for her birthday last year. Usually we invite family members over for birthday cake, This time she wanted to change the routine. With our family, getting together can be easier said than done. We don’t all live in the same community, or even the same continent. […]

The Grasshopper

I went to a flower show. Not the sort of thing I normally do. I took lots of pictures to share here. But somehow, in the 18 months since attending the event, I haven’t gotten around to those posts. Maybe I’ll make a New Year’s resolution to post only from my unfinished file for January. Does […]

Toiling In Anonymity

I first posted this in November 2020 and thought it was worth revisiting. One of the delights about visiting someplace new is learning bits of local history, things you don’t read in history books. I, for example, had never heard of Saint Arbogast. Had you? Walking through Dottingen one afternoon, I visited St. Arbogast’s Chapel […]

Definitely Not Disney

Today’s intended post seemed a little heavy for a Sunday, so I thought I’d repost this from 2017 instead I’m not a big fan of theme parks. Never have been. I’ve never traveled to the various Disney or Universal Studios offerings in Florida. I’m told they are a great experience, but they aren’t the experience […]

The Famous Poem

“In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place,” – John McCrae In the days leading up to Remembrance Day, I am reposting some past thoughts on war that were stirred up by visits to European battlefields. The names of the battlefields are different, but nothing else seems to have […]