10/14 Marina Piccola, Capri Italy

The next morning I took advantage of the locations that I had found the day before.  It was another beautiful day with the sun shining down under a dense curtain of trees.  I lounged around in-between the shade of the trees and the heat of the sun.  At the end of the day I sat down in the harbor and watched the passing faces leaving the island. …

08/30 Granada, Spain

A good shower and I packed up for today’s trek.  Our first stop was to see if we could check our bags at the train station but the area used for this service had been closed down some time ago.  It was suggested that we try a hotel across the way.  Typically hotel won’t check in new customer until around noon but usually will accommodate us early arrivals by watching our bags until check in rolls around.  We have done this enough times to know to take advantage of this hospitality.  …

05/27 Avebury, England

One night at Mik’s place while passing around the pipe, he weaved stories of sprits possessing the trails between the white horse and the many rock circles heading north.  I could almost visualize these images he was painting and hear the pounding of drums in the wind, as I focused in on the flames dancing with the beat.  …

11/19 Lindos, Rhoads Greece

I planned on taking a bus over to the ruins in Lindos but Jenni wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t too motivated to go anywhere.  “I’ll see you tonight” I told her.  The thought of missing something changed her mind and she decided to come along anyway.  It was a nice sunny day with a cool breeze.  A gorgeous little white washed village lodged under a Roman acropolis.   …

09/03 Nargonne, France

I wanted to make an early start and head into Algora but it was a bit out of the way and didn’t poise enough of an attraction to make the detour.  We did manage to make it out early and followed the rails into the Parenoes and eventually made it into Polgceria, La Tour the Carol.  When we reached the border between Spain and France again they were still unwilling to share trains so we were forced to exit and board a new.  We took advantage of this opportunity to gather up some traveling snacks.  I told Jim on two occasions that he ought to pick it up but all I got in return was an attitude.  “I’ll see you on the train then.”  …

06/11 Island of Skye, Scotland

The West Coast of Scotland was absolutely gorgeous and we still hadn’t seen any bad weather.  Trekking along the coastal cliffs and the Island of Skye can only be described as a religious experience.  This is God’s country.  Gardens touched by the finger of God.  A clouded island littered with crofts and memories of the day before Culloden.  …

07/17 Archipelago Stockholm, Sweden

Behind us we towed a small motor boat.  Being an inexperienced sailor, I first thought we brought it along in case the boat began to sink.  But no, when strawberries were needed to complete a meal, we suited up and headed in the small motor boat toward a local port.  I liked to imagine that it was my blue eyes, or my healthy build, rather than just the curiosity of “Who is he?” …

12/03 Belgrade, Yugoslavia

I was told I still had family in Belgrade.  My grandmother had given me addresses of relatives so at one point I considered visiting, but the negative idea of just showing up on somebody’s doorstep crept in.  I ran it by Jenni.  She didn’t have any plans of her own and kind of reluctantly agreed to follow, as long as we were heading north.  We spent the rest of the day seeing some of the sights and roaming the streets.  The one thing I didn’t want to do was to visit another museum.  …

05/20 London, England

The clouds had parted and the wings of our plane began to dry.  The very first thing I noticed was that “I wasn’t in Kansas anymore”.  Gatwick Airport had green pastures on both sides of the runway.  Unconcerned cows looked up at our passing plane.  This was a total contrast to the cement landscape we left behind in LA. …

07/03 Amsterdam, Netherlands

There were no hedges, nor fences, in the bare and uniform countryside leading into the Netherlands.  We were heading back into the crossroads of traffic back into the circus they had named Amsterdam.  I could see no natural boundaries that separated the courtyard from the jester.  …

05/19 Los Angeles, California

Imprisoned by my own curiosity. I felt as if I was looking up through trees that encircled my view, staring at the many branches and the fruits suspended beyond my grasp.  I knew I could no longer be satisfied simply to lie here on my back, closing my eyes and dreaming of things out of my reach.

…

11/01 Crete, Greece

A bunch of us from the night before had agreed to gather for a late breakfast and had earmarked today as a moped day.  We all kinda wandered up at the same time around lunch.  Brad and his sweetheart, Elspeth and Dave were all I managed to convince that it would be a worthwhile experience.  Elspeth had never been on a moped before but wasn’t shy about taking on new challenges.  During her learning phase either Dave or I would tag along side.   …

11/30 Ushisar, Turkey

We had planned on seeing Urgup and the Goreme Valley and headed out into the streets in search for the tourist office.  It was still very cold but it was like a reversed microwave, my bones were colder than my skin.  We located what we believed was the tourist office but there were no brochures or posters to confirm that we had found the right place.  Everybody inside was huddled around a small stove trying to keep warm.  They explained there were no buses or organized tours this late in the year and suggested we find ourselves a taxi driver.  …

09/10 Portofino, Italy

We traveled into Cote D’azur, then into San Remo.  The weather was just perfect.  It couldn’t have been any better with the white sand, blue water and cypresses dancing in the breeze.  Another day beckoned us to swim.  We stopped off in Ventimilia in search for an open bank.  There too we hung around the waterfront and just let the days slip away.  We arrived in Genova late one night and ran into a bit of difficulty locating a room.  This is par for the course.  …