Arrived in Rio after an overnight flight courtesy of Delta. Obtained a few winks, but the comfort level of Delta, which I consider the best U.S. airline, did not compare to the Virgin Atlantic flight we took last summer, at least not on their Boeing 767. Nonetheless, we spent much of the day with Marcio, our tour guide, being ferried about the city. And this is a very large town with some thirteen million calling it home. Not infrequently, we find the traffic in Atlanta atrocious. Well, it cannot hold a candle to this place. Driving is a hazardous sport. Motorbikes move about the lanes much as they do in Italy, except more cavalierly, producing curses from Marcio. He labels these folks "organ donors" as an average of two are killed in the city each day. ... read more

Winding down to exiting temps in the 60's including a fair amount of rain for those in the 90's. Not sure which we prefer at this point. This post will contain pictures from Dingle, Inishmore in the Aran Islands and Portrush in Northern Ireland. Seems the star of this group is Inishmore courtesy of Dun Aengus and the accompanying cliffs with the Cliffs of Moher running a close second. Dun Aengus is a Bronze Age Fortress constructed for a reason we are unable to discern. As you will see the area around the Fortress is largely barren limestone offering little inducement for cultivation. Nonetheless, the fortress was built on the edge of seaside cliffs with stacked limestone. Aside from the sights we engaged in another lengthy conversation, on this occasion, with a couple on holiday from ... read more

One shinning day in July 2022 Bird and HP hopped abord a boat for a one hour ride to Skellig Michael that mystic home of ancient monks and puffins. Monks arrived at Michael during the sixth century, not long after the remnants of the Western Roman Empire were extinguished. They scratched out a meager existence until the early 12th century, eventually being driven ashore where another monastery was established boasting only meager remains. But Michael's are impressive, and all are at least one thousand years old, Landing upon the island apparently can be something of an acrobatic act with our guidebook likening it to "jumping off a trampoline onto an ice ring". In fact boat captains report they are able to affect successful landings on only five days per week, which created no small amount of ... read more

The travelers rolled into Dublin after a horrendous day (okay, an exaggeration, but it wasn't good) at Heathrow. Dropped car at 13:15 (1:15 for US types), finally escaping security at 15:30. We boarded an hour late, and continuing our downward spiral, after arriving in line for take off, the captain elected to taxi around a bit to "cool off the brakes". Things took a decided upturn thereafter. A bit before arriving at our hotel we received a message from Baby Bird informing us seats awaited for dinner...beside them! Dinner good, but markedly superior was seeing BB and Walt three days before our 50th anniversary. Can life get any better? Well, yes it can as Doozer and Erin arrived the next day. The six of us spent four of the most wonderful days in Bird's or my ... read more

Thought we had completed Durham until breakfast when fellow inn mates (actually their son had graduated from Durham University yesterday and is on the way to the continent for the next three months) informed us the cathedral may be open today. Really! This was confirmed between their taking an additional look at the website and our innkeeper. Super! William, the innkeeper had insisted on driving us to the cathedral area yesterday, we steadfastly declined another ride. This guy does not stop; yes he took us again. Furthermore, that constant complainer HP had lamented the fact the only cottage pie he has seen on a menu was at a Costco. Yeah, the sap ate it, but really? So, that morning our innkeeper informed us he had prepared a cottage pie and our presence was required after the ... read more