Hello Friends, Jackie and I are about to embark on another European vacation. We leave on Monday, August 16 on a flight to Bucharest, Romania. From there we tour up to Transylvania, over to Ruse and Varna, Bulgaria and next on a 10-day Danube river cruise taking us up to Budapest with lots of stops on the way. After Budapest we will be travel up to Prague, Czech Republic for four days. Then we fly home. On our trip to Europe in 2008 we did a blog for the first time. We did again in 2009 on our return trip to Brazil. For this trip we are not certain that we will have daily access to the web. If so, I'll try to update daily. Otherwise, you will get updates when I get access. I have ... read more

Brazil was great and now we were home again. The Month of October was kicked off with a celebration of the end of our Condo relationship with the original management company and the beginning of a new relationship with Community One Associates. A few of us met in the lobby at midnight to welcome the change. Before hitting the road again, we spent more quality time with our children and grandkids. We attended "Grandparent's Day" at Lakeview where we have six of ours. This was our third or fourth time to attend this event. We also attended Jack's football game in Gainesville. He played great. In fact, he made a game-saving tackle when the opposing team went for two extra points after scoring near the end. Then it was time for a road trip to Birmingham, ... read more

Friday We had planned pretty much the same today as we did on Thursday. But as you would have read, we did nothing on Thursday. So, when we woke today we decided to venture out of town. It was time for me to drive again in Brazil. Up to now we were taxied around or with Maria. So, we headed out to find a rental car agency, which we did by 9:30am. This became another test of my Portuguese but it worked. We rented the car for a day. Then we drove on the 'road to Rio' for about 60 miles south, then east for another 25 or so. We arrived in Ouro Preto ("Black Gold") before noon and toured the area around the square. As usual, once you park your car you are approached by ... read more

Wednesday Today was meant to be a rest day. We have not been doing much lately and that’s worn us out. Actually, our plans were to go to Minas early, get some sun and a massage and lunch. But we seem to have caught the Atlanta disease, rain! Well, not rain but heavy overcast. So, we did not go to Minas at all. We stayed around the hotel until lunch when we walked down to the Restaurant Contemporanea. It is a neat little boutique restaurant with nice a menu. We were surprised to see fruit growing in a courtyard tree. Upon close inspection we discovered that it was a pomegranate tree. The fruit looked like Christmas ornaments hanging on the branches. Our food was some of the best we’ve had for lunch. Jackie had grilled chicken ... read more

Monday The plans for the day were to return to Minas for some sun and another massage. Jackie wanted to have her "maos e pes" done too. That's fingernails and toenails, or a manicure to you. Plus, it was time for a trip to the Laundromat. So, we walked a couple of blocks to a nearby laudromat and washed all of our dirty clothes in 90 minutes. It cost $17BRL or about $9US. Call me cheap. But with the savings I can pay for a full massage every day for the remainder of our trip. Later in the morning we took a taxi to Minas again. For the first day since we have been here it was cloudy. The spa opened at 3:30pm so we had a couple of hours to wait. In the meantime we ... read more