Hi Everybody! We enjoyed our stay in Durres. Part of the blog that I wrote there did not print. While we were there, we saw a mosque and a Greek Orthodox Church. I don't know how much of the population is Muslim. We have seen a few women with modest scarves - no black burkas. Many of the older women are dressed completely in black with an occasional white head scarf. They must be Greek Orthodox. Late in the afternoon, they close the main street in Durres to automobile traffic. Families stroll up and down the street together. This morning, we [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! It feels great that we have finally reached one of our targeted destinations. We didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to get around in E. Europe. If we could have entered from farther north, we might have been able to rent a car. There are no rental cars here, no trains between here and Montenegro or Croatia, & no ferry to Croatia (not sure about Montenegro). We are going to investigate buses next. We broke one of our travel rules last night when we arrived here at midnight. It was complete chaos trying to get our [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! Our first stop in Europe was a 2 night stay in Rota, Spain, a small town on the coast near Cadiz. We have been here on 3 previous occasions and didn't really plan this stop. I had a badly infected eye by the time we arrived. I went to ER and got an antibiotic salve which helped enormously. After two nights, we were able to hop to Sicily, Italy. We had visited Sicily on some earlier trips so again, we just tried to get a hop out. After two nights, we gave up and rented a car. We drove [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! I apologize for an error in my last blog. We visited the home of the Virgin Mary and the Basilica of St. John the Apostle. We have not had internet access for days. We have stayed on several occasions in hotels that were on the outskirts of towns. We also have been very busy! We have seen many ruins both Greek and Roman. A few have been reconstructed using the ancient materials. They were impressive = especially at Ephesus. I have to admit that they are not my thing! I enjoy seeing the geological formations and just the land [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! Walt and I have been pleasantly surprised with our experiences so far in Turkey. We feel the country is a step above most of the sites we visited last fall in Asia. We have felt very safe even in the evenings on the streets, and we have found the country to be clean. Turkey reminds us of Eastern Europe. Istanbul is the only city in the world that sprawls across two continents. To the East of the Bosporus Strait lies the city's Asian side. We stayed on the Western, or European side. We only stayed there for one night [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! We are at the Hong Kong Airport ready to end our adventure to the Asia. I haven't felt well for several days. The exhaust fumes and constant cigarette smoke has finally gotten to me. I was really dragging when we went to China and you could probably tell it from reading the blog. I thought in this blog, I would mention some things that we have learned. 1. Always carry lots of brand new dollar bills. Don't take any torn, worn, or bills with ink writing on them. 2. Know the visa requirements, entrance fees, and exit fees for [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! The travel agency came through with our visa and we spent Sunday in Shenzhen. It was not a remarkable trip but we enjoyed the time that we spent with Lyn and Pat, 2 business people with Russell Stover Candy. They were going over to visit a factory that prints paper products for their company. We took a train from Hong Kong to LuWu where we crossed the border. We were limited to visiting Shenzhen since we only had a one day visa. Twenty years ago, Shenzhen was just a fishing village located by the Pearl River and across from [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! We got back to Hong Kong on Friday afternoon and went directly to the travel agency. We wanted to check on the status of our China tour. We found out that we could go over on Sunday, the 12th. We decided to wander around Hong Kong for a few hours. We went to Kowloon Park and found it a wonderful respite from the crowds and traffic. It has a nice Chinese garden, fountains, aviary, sport areas, etc. Next, we walked to St. John's Cathedral, the Far East's oldest Anglican church. The doors on the church were very tall and [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! I thought that Iwas going to have to drag Walt to Myanmar (Burma.) He talked to some Australians last week who told him it was off limits for them to go there. He decided to call the American Embassy in Bangkok to check on the status for U.S. Citizens. They told him it was fine to go. One reason that he was worried was that CNN did a special on one of the leader's daughter's weddings. A guest wore a hidden camera and took pictures of the incredible wealth of the family. The bride had on more and larger [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! WOW!!! Angkor Wat is awesome! I can understand why it is one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. We got up at 4:30 so we could view it at sunrise. Angkor means capital city or holy city. In Camodia, it refers to the capital city of the Khmer Empire thta existed between the 9th and 12 centureies. There are dozens of temple ruins that are remnants of the Angkorian capital when it was at the heighth of its power. At one time, over a million people lived in the area of these temples. The Khmer kings [View Full Entry]

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