French Riviera August 30 - Sept 8 Our adventures took us from Cinque Terre, Italy to Cannes, France and to a very nice apartment where we will spend the next week with the family including another son who will join us here. On our way to the French Riviera we stopped in Genoa, Italy for a visit to the very nice aquarium there. This is a great place that is said to be the biggest and best in Europe. Worth a visit for sure. The next week was a very relaxing time with late mornings, lots of cards, a few drinks some great meals and afternoons and evenings snooping around Cannes, Monaco, and Nice. Alice and I have spent some time in the Nice area before but enjoyed the extra time and our stay in Cannes. ... read more

Central Morocco Our travels continued with the drive to Ourika and the beautiful valley that is inhabited mostly by Berber people that live in many small villages scattered about the valley. Berbers have there own language, traditions and a different lifestyle in the mountains. Monday morning we went to the local market for a very interesting visit to a traditional Berber village market. Our timing was great as these markets are not open everyday. You can buy pretty much anything you can imagine at this market. Food for animals and people, a haircut, every part of the cow and sheep you can think of ( and more ), all kinds of fruit and vegetables, or a new or used donkey or mule. If they don’t have it, you don’t need it. Alice particularly liked the open ... read more

Southern / Eastern Africa General Comments This was certainly one of the highlights of our world trip with some very interesting things to do and places to see. With some proper planning, a very nice trip can be organized including Masai Mara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in Kenya and Tanzania. We suspect there are some equally interesting adventures in Kruger Park in South Africa. Johannesburg turned out to be our “home base” for most of our travel here. Quite frankly there is not a lot for tourists in Joburg and in fact there are some security issues they have to deal with. Our accommodation in Joburg was excellent and maybe one of the best Beef Steaks we’ve ever had was enjoyed at The Grillhouse Restaurant in the Rosemont area. ( adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Hotel ... read more

July 25 - July 31 Seychelles Following our relatively painless 4 hour flight from Johannesburg we arrived late evening in the Seychelles, a group of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean south of Dubai and between India and Africa. This is a complicated and expensive place to get to if you are not in the area and are coming just for a holiday in Seychelles. This is a very small country of about 84,000 people total. We are booked into the Le Meridien Barbarons for the next six nights for some relaxing in the sun. Sun ??? What is that ??? We didn’t see the sun for more than five minutes at a time for the entire 6 days except the day we left !! The weather was terrible, period. Wind, rain, rough seas, and cloudy ... read more

July 19, 20, 2008 Garden Route, South Africa “ The Garden Route “ is a favorite travel route in South Africa that basically follows the coast starting east of Cape Town at Mussel Bay and ending at Tsitsikamma National Park east of Plettenberg Bay. This is a beautiful part of the country and there are great camping, hotel and lodge facilities along the route. The countryside is mostly coastal with mountains to the north. This day started with ride out into the bay on a great boat to maybe see Southern Right Whales, Humpback Whales and Dolphins that inhabit these waters this time of year. We were not disappointed. What a great day. We saw everything we were coming to see !! Our 1½ hours on the water included some very good viewing of the huge ... read more