travelingfeet

We had a bit of a scare as we tried to fly to the Maldives. When we got to the airport, we found out that there is a difference between the COVID Antigen test and the COVID PCR test and we had gotten the wrong one. So first we went to a place in the airport that offered both and got the right one but it would take 24 hours to get the results back. Since Lyon was such a small airport, there was no Lufthansa Customer Service so we decided to take our flight to Frankfurt. They let us take the Lyon to Frankfurt leg as long as our bags were checked to Frankfurt only so we boarded the plane, disappointed we would not be going to Maldives today and wondering how long it would ... read more

The next phase of our trip was a river cruise on the Rhone River in Provence, France. We were on the Ama Kristina which is one of the ships on Ama Waterways line. We started in Avignon and will finish in Lyon, north of here by about 150 miles. There are twelve locks along this section of the river and that was the major design constraint to the Ama Kristina…it was designed to have eleven inches on either side when it went through the locks along the river. Needless to say, it is a tight fit. The top deck is called the Sun Deck but it is too cold to be out there much. Besides the sundeck, the bow has two passenger levels, the lounge, and the dining room. The midships has three levels of passenger ... read more

It has been 10 1/2 years since "the big trip" as we call our previous year long jaunt. We have traveled since then but never for more than three weeks. But we are now 50-somethings, not 40-somethings, and my Parkinson's Disease continues to increase its hold on my life. I only have a few things left on my bucket list so we decided to attempt to cross off the most difficult...the Green Flash. For those who have never heard of it, the green flash occurs right at sunset (or sunrise), almost always over the ocean and only when the sky is perfectly clear, or so I hear. It is an instance of bright jade green right at the horizon. The only person who has told me they have seen it said they saw it in the ... read more

When planning this trip over a year ago we knew how we wanted to return home; a trans-Atlantic cruise sailing into New York Harbor. Luck was with us because the Queen Mary 2 was making the voyage at the beginning of June. We were coming home in style! We set sail on Friday June 3rd and had six days at sea before arriving in New York on June 10th. During our days at sea we read and napped and I worked on the presentation of the trip that so many people have requested. The ship had many activities available as well including guest lecturers and trivia contests several times a day. We dressed for dinner every night and met lots of interesting people. There is a five hour time change between Southampton and New York but ... read more

The second part of our journey in Ireland took us along the northwestern and northern coasts of the island. We started in Galway. There we saw a rock proclaiming Seattle the sister city of Galway along with a nearby monument stating that Christopher Columbus visited Galway in 1477 researching whether there was land on the other side of the Atlantic. Lastly we visited St Patrick’s Cathedral. It is the newest stone cathedral in Europe, built in the 1960’s and made of limestone. It has beautiful stained glass and mosaics including one where Jesus is serving tea to Joseph while Mary knits. It is a lovely church and since it is very modern it is easy to understand with no need to imagine what it would have looked like. That afternoon we boarded the ferry and sailed ... read more