Odyssey Trip Blogs

As the saying goes, all good things--including this odyssey--must come to an end, so today we packed our suitcases for tomorrow's flight from Paris to Orlando. Our direct flight departs Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport at 2:40 PM local time, and is scheduled to land in Orlando around 6:30 PM. During the past sixty-four days we've traveled thousands of miles (with over a hundred of them on foot), taken almost 1,100 photos, and blogged more than 32,000 words. Of course, we suffered our fair share of aches, pains, and bumps in the road during our journey this year, but the memories of so many amazing sights--and especially the moments spent with dear friends--more than compensated for any setbacks and disappointments we encountered along the way. This final blog entry is mostly an attempt to highlight some ... read more

The weather since our arrival in Paris has been unseasonably mild, with temperatures hovering between 60- and 70-degrees during the day, with partly cloudy skies, and a few light, intermittent showers--quite a contrast from two years ago at this time, when we sweltered in 90-degree-heat! Today we decided to make a short outing to visit the Rodin museum, which is located adjacent to Les Invalides, the complex of buildings that includes the Dôme des Invalides where Napoleon Bonaparte is entombed. With the assistance of a bus ride as far as Les Invalides, the total walking distance would be less than a mile roundtrip, so the strain on Dee's sore foot would be minimal. After our lunch at a friendly little Italian restaurant down the street, we caught the bus as far as Les Invalides, where the ... read more

This morning we decided to witness, with our own eyes, the damage suffered by the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral as a result of the recent fire. We learned of that tragic event just before we began this year's odyssey, while staying with our daughter and son-in-law in Orlando prior to our departure the following day. Since it was nearing lunchtime, we stopped first at the Café Constant, hoping to find an indoor table open, but instead had to settle for a cramped sidewalk table. This tiny café on rue Saint-Dominique, owned by the celebrated French chef Christian Constant, has become so popular that it's difficult to find seating--no reservations are accepted. I thought I recognized the young waiter from our last visit two years ago, when he served us and our granddaughter, and confirmed this later with ... read more

Our time in Munich is rapidly coming to an end, as tomorrow morning we fly to Paris, which will be the final stop on our journey this year. So today we decided to visit a few more sights with Peter and Rosita, who have graciously volunteered to act as our private tour guides for the last ten days! We met them at 10:00 AM on the Königsplatz ("King's Square"), a sprawling square on the western side of Munich that was built in the style of European Neoclassicism in the 19th-century. Today it's a focal point of the city's cultural life, with the surrounding area home to many museums and galleries. As we popped-up from the U-bahn station, the monumental size of the Königsplatz became apparent, with blue skies and grassy fields serving as backdrop for three ... read more

The mercury reached the mid-80s today, which marked the first time since we began our trip 50 days ago that we've experienced warm weather. Fortunately, there was a light breeze blowing most of the day, but by mid-afternoon we chose the shady sides of streets for walking, and were looking for park benches under shade trees. We left our apartment around 10:00 AM with the intention of returning to the sprawling Viktualienmarkt, the daily food market and square where friends Peter and Rosita had taken us last week, but which had been mostly closed for the Ascension Day holiday. We chose a route which led us through the Gärtnerplatz, a peaceful little square--actually a circle--that is anchored by the Gärtnerplatztheater, an opera house and opera company that opened in 1865 as Munich's second major theater (after ... read more