Windstar Cruise: Greek Islands and Kusadasi, Turkey We spent a week on the Wind Star visiting locations in Greece as well as Kusadasi/Ephesus in Turkey.  We signed up for tours in Ephesus and Santorini.  In the other four ports, we walked on our own.  The boat anchored at all the ports except in Kusadasi.   Mykonos Like many Greek islands, Mykonos is picture perfect. The houses are all white washed and the doors and windows are painted blue (with some small variations).  It was a delight. The walk along the water was lovely with many shops and restaurants.  We came to an old Orthodox church … Continue reading 56. Greece/Turkey – Part II June 2026

Athens The Acropolis & Parthenon The first time I saw the Acropolis, in 2013, I found it amazing.  It was definitely awe inspiring on my second visit. As I climbed up, the Parthenon and Athena’s temple with the Caryatids beautiful women statues came into view.  It is truly breathtaking. The original Acropolis was inhabited and fortified as early as 1600-1100 BCE.  The temples were built in the 6th Century BCE but were destroyed in 480 by the invading Persians.  The current monuments were constructed around 447 to 406 BCE, after the Persians were defeated. The Parthenon, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (the Virgin) is made entirely … Continue reading 55. Greece: Part I- June 2026

2025 started with a January hip replacement for me. Would I be able to still travel? We held off making any travel plans until I was sure that I was mobile after the operation and then I started to look for a tour. Jerry suggested an opera or classical music tour. I found Great Performance Tours, which was going to Salzburg & Munich (two cities that would be new to me) over Easter for both opera and symphony performances. The timing worked. I could still go to my son, Sean and daughter-in-law, Joy’s house for Passover. Tight but doable. We … Continue reading 54. Salzburg & Munich – 2025

At our travel agent’s suggestion we decided to take Amadeus Cruise Line 11-day, 1200 miles Danube cruise from Bucharest, Romania to Vienna, Austria.  We would get to visit countries that I knew very little about. Vienna: We decided to start (and end) the trip in Vienna instead of Bucharest for three reasons: 1. Round trip tickets to Vienna and then a short flight to Bucharest were about 1/3 of the cost of Florida/Bucharest/Vienna/Florida. 2. I wanted a couple of days in Europe to get accustomed to the time change before the cruise and 3. Vienna is a lovely city to … Continue reading 53. 1200 Miles on the Danube – 2024

The Portugal trip was conceived because my daughter Maggie and her husband, Kevin, were living in Braga, Portugal.  I wanted to visit them but I also wanted another adventure. The Rick Steves 11-day Portugal trip, which began in Lisbon and ended in Porto (45 minutes from Braga) seemed ideal. In addition to Lisbon and Porto, we visited Evora, Obidos, Fatima, Coimbra, a winery and a cork farm.  I had been on 3 previous Rick Steves trips.  I knew that the trips are active, utilize small interesting hotels and that we would have a great guide.  I looked forward to learning more about Portugal and … Continue reading 52. Portugal – 2024

Senegal – a family visit. Senegal does not have the game parks that I enjoyed in Southern and Eastern Africa.  It does not have the culture that Morocco or Egypt are steeped in.  What it has is lovely beaches and beach resorts. But I live in a beach town with easy access to the lovely Gulf.  What drew me to Senegal was family.  The Lobles, my step son, Stefan, his wife, Rachel and grandson, Jules decided to spend two years (starting fall 2022) in Senegal, primarily because they wanted Jules to have a developing country experience.  Jules, 13 years old at the time, had been … Continue reading 51. Senegal – 2024

The Tetons Yellowstone National Park is the oldest National Park and is visited by millions of people.  The Grand Teton Park which lies just south of Yellowstone, is often skipped if the visitor has time limitations.  It should not be skipped.  Although Yellowstone has amazing attractions such as geysers and boiling mud (see below), the Teton mountains are young, therefore, the are impressively high, and full of sharp edges.  They are breathtaking. The Teton Natl Park itself is relatively small with lots of Ranger stations and ranger led walks.  This is the electronic age; therefore, the ranger stations no longer print out maps.  You are expected … Continue reading 50. Tetons & Yellowstone – 2023

Hong Kong As I said in post 41, the second part of the Japan trip was a Windstar cruise from Hong Kong back to mainland Japan, through a string of islands.  We flew from Kyoto to Hong Kong and were to spend only one night in Hong Kong, therefore, we figured we would just use our charge cards instead of cash. We walked to the taxi stand, only to read signs saying cash in HK$ only – no credit cards.  We went to the ATM and took out enough HK$ for the taxi.  Once in town, we tried to go out to lunch, … Continue reading 49. Japan: Windstar cruise-2023

Windstar Cruises had an intriguing trip to the Japanese Island south of the mainland. We decided that it would be fun to do a land tour of Japan followed by the cruise. Japan was very slow to open up to tourists after Covid. Because the country was closed from March 2020 to December 2022, many tour guides found other jobs. The industry was having a great deal of trouble finding English speaking guides. Our travel agent suggested that we use some English speaking assistants to supplement the guides. We agreed. But even that was an uphill battle. For instance, in … Continue reading 48. Japan: Land Tour-2023

I wrote about some of the Scandinavian and the Balkan countries in earlier posts; therefore, this time, I will write only about special and new experiences in that part of the world.   The cruise left out of Amsterdam, and we flew in the day before to be safe. Our night in the Amsterdam hotel was an interesting experience: I usually book my own hotels, but this time my travel agent (through another travel company) booked a hotel near the Van Gogh Museum. When we arrived, we learned that the “Hotel” was a pod hotel – all the “rooms” were pods.  … Continue reading 47. Fjord/Baltic cruise – 2022

Post Covid travel was opening up but I wasn’t ready to go out of the country yet. The Mississippi Riverboat cruise was a light adventure and a great choice. The cruise started in New Orleans with stops in: Houmas House Plantation Landing, Baton Rouge, Natchez, Vicksburg and Memphis New Orleans I had been to New Orleans before a number of times, but I had never been there right before Mardi Gras.  Although, I did not get to see any of the parades, we were able to walk along the parade route and see lots of people in crazy costumes, hats and … Continue reading 46. Mississippi Riverboat – 2022

The 2 1/2 year gap (from 2018 to 2021) was caused first because we sold the NY Co-op in 2019 and then travel ceased because of Covid. An Alaskan cruise was booked for the summer of 2020, but, of-course, it was canceled.  Tourism had opened up in Alaska by summer 2021 but cruise ships were still not going.  Therefore, we opted for a rail trip through the state.  It was a great choice.  We booked first class rail tickets with dome cars for excellent viewing and were able to enjoy the countryside and mountains.   We flew through Seattle. The original flight was to get … Continue reading 45. Alaska – 2021

We were previously in Southern Africa in 2004 (see post 10). I loved game viewing and always hoped to be able to come back to the wildlife camps. Therefore when Galapagos Travels offered a trip to Tanzania, we jumped at it. I knew it would be a great trip. The main focus of this trip was game viewing and to that end we covered a great deal of territory by land and air and stayed at tented camps right in the parks for 9 of our 17 nights. The tented camps/lodges were basic, most with no electricity in the tent … Continue reading 44. Tanzania – 2018

My daughter, Maggie, wanted to go to Italy with me.  How awesome is that? We found a Rick Steves tour that covered Rome, Volterra, Cinque Terre and Florence.  This would give her some of Italy’s highlights but also hit some new cities for me. We turned out to be very good travel partners, keeping similar hours and having similar energy levels.  It also gave us some precious mother/daughter time. As a bonus, Maggie has a great sense of direction – which I lack. I wrote about Italy a few posts ago, therefore, I will only mention any new experiences that I had on … Continue reading 43. Italy with Maggie – 2018

I went to Tahiti because of Jane Austen. Well, indirectly at least. The Jane Austen Society annual meeting was going to be in Huntington Beach, CA.  Since we were flying from NYC to California, we decided to continue on west to Tahiti.  WindStar Cruise company, which we had taken to Costa Rica/Panama and Athens/Rome, had a 7-day cruise on the 148 passenger Wind Spirit boat, in Tahiti, which worked with our schedule.  Perfect. The Tahiti trip was wonderful but not amazing .  What is the difference between a wonderful and an amazing trip?  A wonderful trip is one where all the arrangements work perfectly; you … Continue reading 42. Tahiti – 2017