Dear Family and Friends: As you may have noticed, a few portions of our last blog entry came through as gobblely gook. This was the fault of the computer we were using in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, and a sample of the many techological problems we have encountered! Thankfully, not much was missing, although the funniest part of the visit to our guide's home was lost...all photos are there. In the beginning of the original message, we recommended that, if short on time, you simply read about the bathrooms and the visit to our guide's home (further down in the text). With regard to the visit to our guide's home...the text got bad just when we were describing the back yard of farm animals. It was an incredible number of animals in a very small ... read more

Subtitles: Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But we Visited it in a Day! Kate Denied Entry to the Vatican! Dear Friends and Family: NOTE: We cannot believe it has been 11 days since we posted an entry! This is our longest one yet, so if you are pressed for time, be sure to read at least the sections labeled "ＢＡＴＨＲＯＯＭＳ," and "AＮ IＮＣＲＥＤＩＢＬＥ CＵＬＴＵＲＡＬ EＸＰＥＲＩＥＮＣＥ."　　Ｎｏ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｔｉｍｅ，　ｂｕｔ　ｗｅ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｗｒｉｔｅ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ｔｒａｎｓｐｏｒｔａｔｉｏｎ　ｎｅｘｔ　ｅｎｔｒｙ　（ａｋａ＂ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ａｍａｚｉｎｇ　ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ａｌｉｖｅ！）． ROME IN 20 HOURS! Backing up one day, we spent 20 hours in Rome, after our cruise ended in Venice. We stayed at a great hotel just 2 blocks from the Colloseum and across the street from the Forum. We hadn't planned to visit, but our flight schedule on Egypt Air took us through Rome, so we decided to stop. We arrived in the late afternoon, so walked over to ... read more

SUBTITLES: "The Coolest 13th Birthday Ever" and "Who Knew Dobrovnik,Croatia, was so Cool?" Dear Family and Friends: Two lingering thoughts about Venice....1) the sight of the vendors/delivery people rolling their carts up and then down the stairs of each pedestrian bridge....2) the calendars featuring 12 "hot" gondeliers and 12 "hot" priests! We must confess that the cruise which followed Venice was a welcome change for us, in terms of knowing where each night's lodging and food was coming from....still had major language barriers, since Costa is an Italian cruise line and at least 50% of the announcements were only in Italian (we could only hope that none were telling us to grab life jackets and meet at Muster Station A!). But the 21 hours of unlimited food and twicea-day housekeeping service made up for it! 3,600 ... read more

Dear Family & Friends: Switzerland was so amazing, and the weather so wonderful, that it was a sad and tearful departure when we had to say goodbye to both the country and to Ken's mother, Marilyn, on June 29. Marilyn went on to visit friends in Germany while we took a series of trains south from Interlaken to Milan, Italy, and then east to Descenzano, which is on the southernmost tip of lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. We arrived on a Sunday, which meant that everyone in town had the day off and was out enjoying the restaurants, gelato shops, boating, and swimming. There was definitely a party atmosphere in this lakeside town and it was a great introduction for our family to Italy. This was the one town, out of our entire trip, ... read more

Dear Family & Friends, We are so behind in our blog entries, but having such a great time everywhere we go....this quick entry is about the day we (and Marilyn) took the cograil train up through the mountain at the base of the Monch and Jungfrau above Wengen, Switzerland, to arrive at "the top of Europe," as it is billed - the Jungfraujoch, elevation 11,333 feet. It is about an hour train ride, much of it through a tunnel as high up as they could get and then you take an elevator the rest of the way, emerging on a vast world of snow and ice. The weather was spectacular, as was the view. We walked outside, first where the kids and Ken did a zip line over the glacier and then we all walked up ... read more