Sunday 8/29 Paris I gave Beth a kiss goodbye and left her sitting on the train station bench in Colmar and boarded my train. I was on the high speed TGV train with a reserved seat on car 18. Nearing my seat number, I could see they were occupied by an older couple. When I showed them my ticket they asked if they could stay where they were, because the lady had some sort of neck problem. I didn’t mind switching to a seat that faced backwards to the direction of travel, but I find these European seat reservation schemes don’t work very well for me. On our train from Frankfurt to Colmar (three connections) we were told by our ticket agent in Frankfurt that none of our trains required reservations. But on one of our ... read more

We spent the last three days in the Alsace region of France near the German border in a town called Colmar. This region is known for its white wines, German style food and architecture style. Our first stop was the Unterlinden Museum. Rick Steves, the travel book writer, says that this is one of the best museums in France and it is certainly very interesting. An audioguide comes with the entry fee and is very well done. The museum itself is at least 150 years old; some of the audioguide entries mention that a particular painting was donated in 1850. It is also a very eclectic collection…everything from medieval paintings to furniture to suits of armour to modern art. They even moved the interiors of a couple of buildings into the museum. The centerpiece is a ... read more

Stellenbosch The town of Stellenbosch is an hour northeast of Cape Town and, along with Franschhoek, is the heart of the SA Winelands. It is also a lovely college town hosting the University of Stellenbosch. We spent two nights sleeping and the intervening day wine tasting. Since we did not have a car, we decided to take an all day tour that visited four wineries for wine tasting, one for cheese tasting and also served lunch. Over breakfast a German couple warned that, for some, the tasting tour is a drink fest so we were pleasantly surprised by the people who were also on the tour. There were two American cousins, two women from Bermuda, a couple from Ireland and a couple from Germany. We were, however, the oldest by about 20 years. At the first ... read more

One of the reasons I travel is to try new foods. Usually they are unique and tasty but I can’t really say that for SA. The food, in general, is very similar to England and so, pretty dull. The African food, where we can get it, is unusual and tasty. Breakfast is either muesli or eggs, bacon, grilled tomatoes and toast. Africans usually eat either pap or porridge which is a hot cereal made from corn or wheat respectively. Lunch and dinner are pretty standard English or American fare…John often has pizza. The few African meals we have had are memorable. First, in Lesotho we went to dinner in the home of a local named Teboha. He met us at the lodge and walked us to his home. It was after sunset but before moonrise so ... read more

We spent the last week in Lesotho which is a small kingdom embedded in South Africa. It is roughly circular, about 150 miles in diameter. Although independent, it is closely tied to South Africa; for instance, its currency (called a loti) is tied one for one with the rand, and inside Lesotho rands are used interchangeably with maloti (maloti is the plural of loti). Journey to Losotho It has been said that getting there is half the adventure and that was certainly true of our journey to Lesotho. We arose at 5am and quickly dressed and packed; our taxi was waiting for us at 5:30. The taxi driver knew exactly what bus we needed and dropped us off in the right place. We went up to the bus departure point and there were very many buses. ... read more