Page 8 of TED46 Travel Blog Posts


North America » United States » Georgia » Dunwoody August 13th 2010

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

North America » United States » Georgia » Atlanta October 18th 2009

Are you familiar with whale sharks? Well, I can say without hesitation that I am. I have actually been bumped by a large male shark in the flesh and lived to talk about it. Where, you say? Where else - the Georgia Aquarium. My three daughters joined together to buy me the opportunity as a Christmas gift in 2008. I decided to wait for the summer to do my swim. Summer came and summer went and I still did not have a reservation. So, now that school was back in session, I realized that I needed to move quickly to avoid expiration. I booked for Sunday, October 18th. Since all the grandkids live here in the Atlanta area, I was hoping that they could all come down to watch. Unfortunately, a few could not come due ... read more
Georgia Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium

North America » United States » Georgia » Atlanta October 9th 2009

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
Grandparents' Day at Lakeview
Grandparents' Day at Lakeview
Visit to see Marmee and Papa

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte September 26th 2009

Saturday Well, Friday night I was visited by the ghost of Montezuma. I can only think of one reason, the salad that I ate in Ouro Preto. I was already not feeling great at dinner and maybe that is another reason why I did not spend enough time checking the dinner bill. This is the only day on our trip that I did not take a single photo. I took many on Sunday so I have decided to do a double day blog. Since I was not feeling well we waited until late morning before leaving the hotel. We walked over to the mall Patio Savassi to do some final shopping. Jackie found some nice earrings for the daughters and herself. Later, we took a taxi to Maria’s for lunch. There we met Maria, Gilberto, Ester ... read more
Hippy Fair
Hippy Fair
Hippy Fair

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Ouro Preto September 25th 2009

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
Window view of Belo Horizonte
Ouro Preto
Ouro Preto

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte September 24th 2009

Thursday Nothing much on this day. We slept late and then went to the tennis club. There was no one around. The men's spa opened at 3:30pm so we just took in the sun, read and waited. I chose a different masseuse. I was glad that I did since the first one just about killed me. After Minas we returned to the hotel for a little rest and then met Maria and Gilberto at 68 La Pizzeria. This is a hot spot for the chic and we had to add it to our list. Maria ran into many of her friends from her work. That's it. As I said above...nothing much on this day. Stay tuned for tomorrow, however, it was loaded.... read more
mini-IMG 7378a
mini-IMG 7379a

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte September 23rd 2009

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
Restaurant Contemporanea
Restaurant Contemporanea
Restaurant Contemporanea

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte September 22nd 2009

Tuesday I hear that it has rained a little in Atlanta while we have been gone. I guess the drought is over there. Maybe the lake will finally get filled and people will be able to water their grass. But you need to know that we had rain too. It rained for about one hour on Monday afternoon. Then on Tuesday the day started out with a few clouds and stayed that way most of the day. It didn’t actually rain but it threatened to and that put a damper on our plans to spend the day at Minas Tenis. So, instead, we did what anyone would do, we went to the ‘maos and pes’ spa to have our fingernails and toenails manicured. This manicure only cost $25US for both of us! Jackie had planned to ... read more
Tom learning how nice it is
Festival of Flamenco
Guitarissimo

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais September 21st 2009

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
Laundromat
Laundromat
Restaurant Vecchio Sogno

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte September 19th 2009

Saturday & Sunday Wow, we had a great weekend. I have lots to report and pictures to share. On Saturday we took a taxi to Minas Tenis about 9:30am. We thought that would be early enough to find nice a place to set up for a few hours with lawn chairs, table and umbrella. Wrong! On the weekends, you really need to arrive about one hour earlier to claim a spot. That‘s something that we knew before but forgot. Tomorrow when we go we’ll get there earlier. The club is spectacular. It has over 20,000 members and four locations. The club that we attend is Minas 1, the oldest and finest in my opinion, particularly with the new building. It is more about leisure than tennis, however. We stayed for a couple of hours and then ... read more
Minas Tenis Clube
Minas Tenis Clube
Minas Tenis Clube




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