On this trip we were in London for only two nights. During that time, we visited with friends, stopped at the BBC, and enjoyed walking around Westminster. We walked there because we were meeting Julia from the BBC at the … Continue reading Too Short a Time in London
London is an expensive city. Finding lodging at an affordable price is not easy. In the early days we stayed at the Y, either the YMCA on Great Russell Street or the nearby YWCA Queen’s Club hostel that had family … Continue reading Finding Digs in London
Peter, a security guard, approached us in the BBC Piazza. Perhaps we were looking at things too closely, but after talking a little he realized that I was just trying to decipher the different artwork around the plaza. We had … Continue reading A Cone of Silence.
Several of you have asked me about the flamingo revolution and asked if we saw the protests. Every night since late May protesters have gathered outside the Prime Ministry to protest a land deal between the government and an organization … Continue reading Protests and Sunsets
In my first blog post from Tirana, I remarked about how different it looked, new buildings, modern and shiny, new highways, lots more cars. It looked like a modern European Capital. I did note some of the funkiness still around, … Continue reading Albania Still Seems Familiar
Back before the country collapsed into chaos one of the travel magazines, I think it was Conde Nast Traveler, touted Albania as “The Next Place.” Those of us living here got a good chuckle, the next place with sporadic electricity, … Continue reading Albania, the Next Place?
For decades Albania was officially an atheist country. Not only was religion persecuted but it was outright banned. When we first came to Tirana in 1993 it had become the great religious bazaar, with missionaries of all stripes trying to … Continue reading Religious Albania.
“If you visit a country for a week, you can write a book. If you visit for a month, you can write an article. If you visit for a year, you can write nothing at all.” This is one of … Continue reading Back to Albania!
We lived in Bratislava (B’lava) for 27 months. And while it is not as touristed as nearby Vienna or neighbors Prague or Budapest, it is beginning to attract tourists dutifully following a flag that looks like it’s suspended from a … Continue reading From Blava with Love
While we were walking through Bratislava’s St. George Courtyard, I looked up and saw a familiar face. “Mickey!” He looked at me blankly but then noticed Suzi and a light went on. Suzi has changed less than I, I no … Continue reading A Tinker by Trade
Throughout history Slovakia has been in the shadow of a larger, more powerful, neighbor. It was under Austria, Hungary, a puppet German state and then the junior partner in Czechoslovakia. Yet Slovakia has its own history and a rich cultural … Continue reading Bratislava’s Master Craftsmen Days
Austrian Airlines is bureaucratic. Although my CPAP machine fits into my carry on Austrian needs to know the make, model, weight, dimensions and for a while I was afraid they would ask for the serial number. I also had to … Continue reading Getting to Bratislava
Conversation is one of the joys of the Belgrade Coffee Culture. One of the things people are talking about is the elections that may or may not happen in October. Politics are never far from the surface in Belgrade. While … Continue reading Belgrade Conversations
Бeoгрaд (Belgrade, Serbia) has lost none of its edge. When we were first there during the 1997 demonstrations the streets were alive with edgy humor and a party atmosphere, even with the serious intent of the demonstrations (to bring down … Continue reading Бeoгрaд!
I went into this cruise with two questions. Would we like back to back collector cruises as much as we like the longer world cruises? And. How appropriate is HAL cruising for our multi-generational family ranging in age from 7 … Continue reading A Family Cruise Coda
This is a final post from Athens designed to show off some of the more colorful and curious aspect of our visit to Athens. We will start off at the Athens Acropolis Museum. If Greek history or mythology will not … Continue reading Athens’ Colorful Curiosities
On our third day in Athens, we took a day off from the heat to take a day long cruise around some of the Saronic Islands in the Aegean close to Athens. We were on the sailboat Angelique, although we … Continue reading A Mini Aegean Cruise.
Athens is where our cruise ends, our final port of call with a 6 night port stay, at least for for most of us. For Kevin, Shannon, and Elias, a 4 night port call. The Grandkids are into Rick Riordan … Continue reading Our Final Port of Call, Athens
My experience living in Montenegro is that sometimes things don’t work. We got off the ship and the van I booked to take all nine of us to the Lovćen cable car was not waiting. I texted and called. It … Continue reading Flying Low in a Cable Car.
In my last post I referred to our retreat from Kotor before the NATO bombing campaign. From 1998 to 2004 we spent part of our summers in Kotor either running or teaching at a journalism summer school that had attendees … Continue reading Summer Memories, Kotor
Tuesday was another sea day where Brian, Liam and Fiona were recovering. Liam went into quarantine while we were in Rome. Both Fiona and Brian were out of quarantine Tuesday. On Wednesday we arrived in Bari, Italy at 11 AM. … Continue reading Bari, Pasta Town
Our next stop on this cruise was Civitavecchia, the port for Rome. Rome is a bit far from the post, up to 90 minutes with traffic. Kevin, Shannon and Elias went into Rome and took the hop on hop off … Continue reading We Pass on the Vatican so Lightning Strikes.
Had Napoleon been born any earlier he would have been Italian and not French. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica’s capital, in 1769. Corsica had been ruled by the Italian state of Genoa from 1284 to 1755 when it became … Continue reading Corsica, Can We Claim a New Country?
We are in Barcelona for two days. On day on Kevin, Shannon, Elias and Fiona went to the beach. Brian and Liam stayed on the ship. The pace of their travel around the world caught up with them. Suzi, Liz … Continue reading Barcelona Walkabout