All good things must come to an end sometime. Cheryl and I enjoyed our last week of vacation in Spain, especially the wedding, then returned safely home on Sunday evening. I was graciously given Monday off to recuperate and organize before starting my new position at Grossmont College in East San Diego County TODAY! I plan to upload some of my best photos to accompany the entries of this travel diary soon, so feel free to check back in about a week's time for those. I will also send out notices to check this diary for future trip entries; I figure [View Full Entry]

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Cheryl and I made it through the long and relatively sleepless overnighter-train to San Sebastian--but let me tell you a little story about overnight train travel in Spain! Getting down to the train platform, first of all, was like going through airport security with the X-Rays, line-up to show tickets, and the typical flight routine. Boarding the train, you would think at first glance that it was the Hogwarts Express, with the long tight corridor down one side and compartments along the other, but then you look INSIDE the compartments and realize that it´s anything but the Harry Potter image [View Full Entry]

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I think I am going to be kicked off this "borrowed" computer logon any minute now, so I just wanted to tell you all that Cheryl and I made it to the end of the awesome Nordic cruise, and flew from Copenhagen to Barcelona on Sunday. Walked all over today and will take the 10pm overnight train to San Sebastian, where we will stay one day before going to Bilbao on Wednesday, and Santillana del Mar on Thursday in preparation for my high school friend Heather´s wedding on Friday. Will stay Saturday afternoon for the next-day brunch but unfortunately must take [View Full Entry]

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So after 3 or 4 days in Amsterdam, plus an evening in Rotterdam (went to the famous Kinderdyjk windmills near there; there are 19 all in a clustered area, and a world heritage site), Cheryl and I boarded the MS Rotterdam (in Rotterdam, ha ha!) on Monday. Yesterday was a sea day; first stop was today and we are currently in Oslo--sorta plain city but saw a famous statue park devoted to a late Oslo artist named Vigeland... he only sculpted people and all of them are naked. My favorite was the fetus statue, it was upside-down and curled up and [View Full Entry]

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Yep, you guessed it! I made it to Amsterdam; Cheryl arrives at the Schiphol Airport in about 90 minutes and I will go to meet her there. I have only been here for about three hours and already have a favorable impression of the city. It is like a cleaner version of the nicer neighborhoods in NYC, only there are canals running down every street, even immediately outside the train station! If Brussels was buzzing, Amsterdam is absolutely swirling in activity; I knew it the moment I stepped out of the train station. But the people are nicer here, both compared [View Full Entry]

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I have been in Belgium now for four days and tomorrow leave for Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands tomorrow. Seems only befitting that I will be out of the country on THEIR national holiday, like I did for France (was in Lux; returned to Lille, FR the day-after). Belgium is truly bilingual, and I've got neither French nor Flemish (AKA Dutch for the most part, with a national twist). But this is high tourist season and I have found English speakers in both Bruges/Brugge (that bilingual thing extends to how they name their cities, train stations, and street signs, too) and [View Full Entry]

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Oh my gosh--I was on Brussels 88.8 FM Radio, for a LIVE interview yesterday! I had just barely made it into the town center after getting off the train from Bruges, checking in at the youth hostel, and walking into the very fun "Use-It/Tourist Office for Young Travellers." There was a party going on in there, or at least the four people inside were super jovial and had apparently JUST moved their offices into the formerly-next-door-library's archive storage room (operation was previously headquartered in an out-of-the-way town called Ghent). A young woman working for the radio station was in t [View Full Entry]

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Well, the verdict was that I decided to give Lille a chance, and it turned out to be a very pleasant day (yesterday) indeed. I admit I didn't decide fully until about 11am; the skies were still very gray but I found a movie theater called the Majestic that was playing indie films in their original languages--and to my luck the one I had seen an ad for (Hallam Foe) was British and starring the boy from Billy Elliott, starting in just 15 minutes... so I took that route (plus it was time to find a public restroom!). When I got [View Full Entry]

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I am going to fill in some of the other days esp. the map so check for them...but first... After spending Sunday and Monday in Luxembourg, I returned to northern France for one last stop before I proceed to Belgium. I decided to avoid being in France on the holiday, Monday (Bastille Day), which apparently has a splendid fireworks show in Paris every year--but I have been to Paris before so only new places this trip, ten years later! The train ride through Belgium, and Lille itself has been very gray (skies) and I must admit I am not terribly impressed [View Full Entry]

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So today I took the bus to Echternach and then Beaufort, where the family of Jamie Vosacek (winner of my Crazy Shirts/Pants party, for those of you that were there) live. Actually they have a dairy farm in Beaufort, and last name is Lux which says to me that they are a Luxembourg ESTABLISHMENT of sorts! The Luxs even own the sheep that graze on the grounds of the state-owned ancient castle nearby, so there you go. I had lunch with Jamie's grandma (Bomi in Lux'ish), aunt and uncle, then toured the farm stables complete with adult and baby cows--plus the [View Full Entry]

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