Day Two Milano to Bergamo (Forgot to say in last blog that we saw much marble being cut in the mountains coming in from Switzerland.) This morning, we walked in the light rain to the Duomo. On the way we stopped coffee and a chocolate brioche in very modern café where I got locked in the bathroom! We arrived at the Duomo, where we paid to climb the 250 steps to the wet marble roof, where one can walk around and view the stonework up close and look over the city of Milan. We took a quick look inside the cathedral and visited one the oldest shopping arcades in the world, before taking the subway back to our hotel. Before picking up our bags we ate at a small restaurant with a set menu of 7euros ... read more

Hello Everyone, We are off to Italy in a week...it will be a real change for us and a return to the travels of our youth. After having spent all of our travel time recently (except for the trip to Canada) in Hispanic (or in Lynn's case, Kenyan) cultures, this will be a different sort of trip. Of course, with the heavy Italian influence in Argentina, we have built in a bit of a segue.... Please unsubscribe if you are not interested! Here are few recent photos...... read more

We decided to take a short road trip to British Columbia, a western province of Canada. Upon a friend's recommendation, we headed to the turn of the century town of Nelson. We drove from LaConner across Steven's Pass (the North Cascades Highway is still closed due to snow), and then north through Coulee City and Grand Coulee. The basalt cliffs along Banks Lake were spectacular! We then cut across the Colville Indian Reservation (on a mountain road that the GPS pretended not to recognize for several miles) and then north, this time to the Canadian border, crossing at Danville, a very small town. The US and Canadian houses were only several yards apart, but one cannot walk across the invisible border without being arrested! This was a very unpleasant start to the Canadian part of the ... read more

Our last day here...and it has rained and poured all day....but it´s warm...and LaConner won´t be... We packed up, and left our luggage in the hotel office..and set off for the first of three museums we wanted to visit today. 1. Architecture Museum Close by, but closed with no explaination 2. Malba (Museum of Latin American Art) Open, half price today. Excellent museum full of Americans and Euros. 3. Museum of Popular Arts Found this on our walk to the next museum. Cost .25 each...and there wasn´t much to see...some cool horse ornaments and mate cups in silver. 4. Museum of Xul Solar, a famous painter who invented his own world. Walked there in a downpour. Closed still for summer vacation. At least there was a note... 5. Museum of Foreign Debt Housed in the U ... read more

We are nearing the end of this trip....and doing some of the things we missed at the beginning of the trip here... Yesterday, we walked arcross the city from our hotel through St. Telmo (where BA originated) to La Boca (where immigrants arrived, and tango grew famous, along with soccer) for about 7 hours, stopping for meals and sights. We strolled through antique markets, got caught in a thunderstorm, walked into La Boca (where looking at poverty painted bright colors is a tourist attraction), walked with the crowds waiting to to get into the Boca Juniors game (where Maradona played...) and decided not to join them (a good idea it turned since the thunderstorms increased as the gane time neared), and watched tango finally.... The day before, we spent time with Silvina and Enders, the couple ... read more