The dreaded C-word caught up with me despite seven jabs of the vaccine. Of course I was in a high risk area, a cruise ship. Thank goodness it didn't hit until several days afterwards or I could be writing about cruise quarantine, but no there's doubt as to its origin. We made the decision to…

The trip to California covered the family portion in the last post, this one’s dedicated to the friends who visited this year. First up were our camping pals, Mack and Rika. My favourite part of their visit was our hike on the ladder trail of Painted Canyon, with Mari and KC,  as well as all…

The magic of blogland – the ability to shift back and forth in time. I have yet to figure out my photo issues, so we're off to the more recent past when the entire family was together in California. We always have good intentions to get a family photo and this year is particularly important…

Interrupting the fall Northern European trip coverage due to the inability to upload photos.  After nearly 20 years of posting on the typepad platform, there seem to be technical difficulties with a particular batch of pictures. In the meantime, we'll time travel forward to a couple of weeks ago, January 2024, where we spent two…

Sept 22nd and 23rd   Our first port in Scotland was “Potteresque” Edinburgh, full of history and charming architecture. I appreciate urban areas devoid of high rise buildings.  The ship required a tender to ferry us back and forth to the dock. Then we spent the day on the Hop On Hop Off bus, which…

September 19 and 20, 2023 (once again, catching up). If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium. That was the name of a 1969 movie about a whirlwind 18-day sightseeing tour of Europe. Apparently I’m living the plot of that film, as it’s Tuesday and we are in Belgium for the day. Not a fan of…

September 15 – never say never, I always say. We swore we would NEVER cruise again with NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) after our disastrous sailing in 2019, when we received an "upgrade" to an unacceptable cabin, which was eventually changed, and worse yet, had C's prescription meds stolen from their hiding place in our cabin.…

When we first arrived at the "central" rail station in Vienna from Klosteneuberg we discovered we were nowhere near the "new" station close to our hotel and the train to the airport. Note to self – not all websites contain current information. So we bit the bullet and Ubered. We’re finding as we get older…

Sept 12th – Klosterneuberg to Vienna 14.76 (8.76 miles) It was time to ride the bikes to our final destination. This was definitely urban cycling, some underneath a major roadway. Vienna, is a pristine city on the surface, but down by the river it is a blanket of graffiti, some quite beautiful. Crazy enough, we hit…

Sept 11th – Zwentendorf to Klosterneuberg 44.83 (26.89 miles) We said goodbye to our hosts, packed up our bikes and we headed off along the river, getting closer to the big city of Vienna. Our cycling days are getting shorter, but the biking is a bit more complicated as we get closer to more populated…