Back in Edinburgh after our highlands tour, we have already seen some of the highlights (see previous blogs), so now it's time for some quirkier activities. Also, we're just hitting the first day of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, so we attended two comedy shows - hard to choose from among the (literally) hundreds of plays, concerts, and other acts listed in the phone-book-sized Fringe guide. We chose well in Erich McElroy's "Imperfect Guide to Picking the Perfect President," an hour-long routine illustrated with short video clips of some of our illustrious candidates "finer" moments. With Donald Trump as the current Republican front-runner, there was plenty of material to work with, and it was quite hilarious. Also, we got a bit of education about the differences in our two countries' electoral practices. Other activities highly recommended were ... read more

We have arrived in Edinburgh from Massachusetts with just a couple of minor mishaps on the way. Landing at Heathrow for our London stopover last night was a little rough as we teetered on one wheel before thumping down on the other and rocking side to side a fair bit. Hadn't experienced that before. A long wait for a "Hotel Hoppa" bus ensued, but as we had plenty of time, we decided to be proactive and get directions to the terminal we would need the following morning. "Virgin Atlantic to Edinburgh departs from terminal 3." Wrong! This morning we arrived at terminal 3, waited for 20 minutes or so in the Virgin Atlantic bag check line only to be told we should have gone to terminal 2, since it was a domestic flight. Fortunately we could ... read more

Switzerland - Wengen, July 8-11, 2014 Our good luck with the weather finally gave out as we awoke to heavy rain in Zermatt on the 8th, reinforcing our appreciation of the great views we had enjoyed. We had five legs of train travel to reach Wengen near the scenic attractions of the Jungfrau. Our plans for the day kept evolving in consideration of the wet weather. One intermediate stop was Interlaken, and on the spur of the moment we decided to visit Jungfrau park there instead of going directly to Wengen. There were convenient lockers large enough to hold our big suitcases at the station, so we could proceed relatively unencumbered. Also convenient was the fact that bus 103 to Jungfrau Park left right from the train station. With the Swiss Flexi Pass, bus tickets are ... read more

Switzerland - Geneva & Lutry, July 2-5 The kind proprietors of our AirBnB in Geneva, Jean-Philippe & Xuong, were most understanding about our late arrival, due to having to change planes in Vienna. We didn't get to the Geneva airport until after 10 pm. Fortunately, they had told us about the free train ticket that tourists can get in the baggage area. This gives you a seven-minute ride to Geneva Centre, and that in turn was only three blocks from the apartment - very convenient. At 11:30 pm J-P & X gave us a snack and a quick tutorial on Switzerland along with advice for catching our boat the next morning. Great hosts! So far, experiences with AirBnB have been positive. Hosts advertise their apartments or rooms online, and you arrange your stay with them through ... read more

Istanbul June 29, 2014 Today we caught up on work after breakfast and didn't leave the room until 11:30, but my feet were glad for the extra rest. Today is our day to go to Asia! That sounds more adventurous than it actually is. Asia is a ten-minute ferry ride ($2.50) across the Bosphorus (Kabatas to Uskudar). Another 70-degree day with a nice breeze made it very enjoyable to walk the half-mile or so along the water to the view of Maiden's Tower which is on a rocky island just off the shore. You can eat in a restaurant in the tower if you have reservations and don't mind the expense. We opted for the very attractive Filizler Restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking the tower and waterfront. New dishes we tried were lentil soup, a staple ... read more