The American Bar, Prague CZ

Large room in basement of the Municipal Building, Prague

Stained Glass Window detail in the American Bar.

 

California's Central Valley

 Once covered by Live Oak trees, the Central Valley of California is now the most productive agricultural valley in the world. It is an amazing place and I have lived there over 60 years. That one oak in the center of the photo stands along the frontage road north of Sacramento. The camera is pointed East toward the Sierra Nevada mountains (hidden by the clouds). Photo by Mike McLellan from an auto at 70 miles per hour with a Samsung Smartphone. 

On my walk in Multnomah Village, Portland, Oregon

Rock wall where dog and I turn up the street.

 

Amsterdam Window Boxes

 The center of Amsterdam is built up leaving little space for gardens. This means window boxes are just about everywhere. The city is built on a series of canals serving as streets and each canal has a narrow roadway for ground access. There is very little jay-walking in Amsterdam.

The Kalahari, Africa

Beautiful

Dangerous

The Cape Buffalo seems slow, lazy and relaxed -NO- the guys are one of the MOST DANGEROUS ANIMALS in Africa.

 

Kensington Gardens, London

     I often recommend taking the path in Kensington Gardens (from the Albert Memorial to the animal cemetery). When walking along the water you will actually be on the Princess Diana memorial pathway. It goes along such things as the Peter Pan statue and the bridge above. If you buy Hop On Hop Off tickets you can get off the the memorial and catch another bus back from the other end.

    If you are a mind to give a speech, at the end you will be close to Hyde Park's famous Speaker's Corner. When I was there I gave an address (my e-mail address.)

Cheetah (photo from Safari Vehicle in Reserve)

 

Power Plant in Johannesburg, South Africa

 

Nearly across from the huge football (soccer) stadium in Johannesburg, these two parts of a power plant manage the horizon. They contain advertising. They are not that close to the motorway, so I used a

long lens. The lens and Photoshop washed the color out.  

Why live in California?

 

    There are many myths about California and even more wrong information posted about it. My state is not any more liberal/conservative than other states.  It actually does rain in California.  Our coastline is prettier than Wyoming's. It has great mountains, It has the world's ninth largest economy. It has lots of poor people and not everyone is an actor.

    I can see why people like living in Arkansas and Vermont. I am just used to California. It is no better or worse than any other state.

Last of big birds

 

 

     Our preferred airline is Air France with a favored plane being an A380. This is a double level, two aisle airliner with great room and space in  Premium. I am not sure how many flights we have taken with this plane, but Airbus is no longer building them. The companies seem to be returning to the single aisle, wide body jets. This is likely a cost cutting effort in a day that planes are not full. We have flown one aircraft from Munich to SFO that had a lower level reserved for toilets on Lufthansa.

Details of Gaudi: Barcelona, Spain

 Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona, including his main work, the church of the Sagrada Família.

Closeups of Vienna, Austria

 Vienna is art, music, food and architecture. 

Surprises, Doctor, The dream...

      This is one of several windmills just off the main highway from Granada to Madrid, Spain. The Co-pilot saw this in a guide book.Otherwise it would be hard to find. We turned off and in a village had lunch ordering in smiles and hand signals. There is also a fort on this hill.

      We have a doctor that does a good amount of traveling and he takes his own photos and has them enlarged for his office walls. We have been to most of the same places and talk about how we got our own photos of the places.  Last week I ended up in his office and alas he has a rendering of this very spot on his wall. A good surprise for me. 

     These are grain mills, not the water pumps of the Netherlands.

Memories: France and Scotland

As we were walking in to see the Bayeux tapestry in France, we walked by this old mill that was turning and potentially grinding something. A lovely place, I still thought about the Millhouse north of Newton-Stewart in the south of Scotland. They look alike and exist for the same reason. it is fun for me to allow experiences to trigger memories. 
 

Trying things on for size

 Top: Grandson Lucas in Viking gear (Brussels). Bottom: Lucas tries on wooden shoes (Amsterdam)

SAFARI DRIVES: BOTSWANA, ZAMBIA, AND SOUTH AFRICA

 Our trip to Southern Africa included seven nations, three of which were in Europe (which have different wild animals). When my grandson chose Africa as his trip, I was not sure about it. When I added European stops on the way it complicated it, but all turned out great.

Our African drives are done without guns and with cameras. The idea is to see animals. We soon found that they like to see us too. Check out the zebra on the left. We did a variety of things on this trip. It included a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River. We visited a native village and met the workers there. We visited a school where our grandson had a pen-pal and saw their needs for computers and books (we brought school supplies and books with us in their language English). We took an evening cocktail hour cruise on the Zambezi as well as a day cruise on the Chobe. We visited a cheetah rehabilitation reserve. We had safaris out of resorts and out of tents along the Chobe River.

The only problem with an animal is that I got blindsided by a baboon who wanted some cookies.

The Eiffel Tower and the skyline: Paris

Looking out  of the tower

Looking up from the second level

The tower & trio in front of our rental Renault

taken by our hired driver.

     The Eiffel Tower dominates much of the city of Paris along with Montemartre in the 18th. It was only going to be placed there for a fair and has become a lasting symbol of Paris. At night it caps the "City of Lights" with its own light show.

     The photo at the bottom (above) was taken by our hired driver who gave us our own top-down tour of Paris. Our granddaughter also chose to take a baking class while the elders watched (sipping wine). I posted a photo of the baking and received (from California) a text from the CEO of our hospital that he and his kids took the same class. (He did not mention the wine.)

     Certainly the museums of Paris, such as the Louvre and the reopened Picasso and Rodin and the d'Orsay, are worth the time. My favorite places are the cafes and people watching.

 

Glacier National Park

      We live in the San Francisco Bay area and often drive to Portland, Oregon which for us is about 12 hours. Anything over that and we are flying. So, to make an extended visit to Glacier we flew Horizon Airlines to Seattle and Horizon to Calgary. We visited Calgary for several days and with a rental car took off for a large loop including Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and the Ice Fields Parkway, Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, Glacier National Park, and the area south of the park in Montana.

     This is a lot to cover, but we take our time and savor the experience. In Waterton we stayed at the Prince of Wales Hotel. Great for high tea, but walls are thin. Do your homework. Jasper is worth the drive as are Flathead Lake and Radium Hot Springs. While we drove the Going To The Sun Road, we also took one of the Red Cars on a tour of it.

We returned by plane from Calgary. This is a pretty town with great public transportation.

Spain by train and rental car

      We flew our regular airline to Europe, Air France, stopped in Paris and then onto Barcelona. There are many reasons why Barcelona is full of tourists; it is pretty and interesting.  We landed four days before our Road Scholar trip was to begin and we took those days to see what the tour would not cover. It gave us beach time, long afternoon Tapas time, and visiting many parks as well as the fort on top of the hill. The tour covered many things and after five days we were on the high speed train to Madrid.

     Madrid is an old/new city and has many things to see. We suggest the English Gardens. While in the city, we took a side trip to Segovia. This is well worth your time. Spend some hours in the Alcazar.

    Then after five days in Madrid we were in a rental car from the airport and out into. the countryside.      We were off to Granada for a few days including The Alhambra. Then it was across Andalusia, The White Cities, to Gibraltar and an English fix. We hired a driver for an all day. all Gibraltar visit. This was worth it and we could not have done this lone. The private tour made the Rock and the rest come alive. This is not cheap but covered all entry fees.

    Now to Seville with lunch in Monte Gordo Portugal just to say we did it. Seville is a great city with a wonderful pedestrian only section. We visited the alcazar and cathedral (Columbus is buried there) and dozens more places  besides walking much of the central city.

     Our trip back to Madrid was primarily through roads less traveled plus a visit to the windmills grinding grain not pumping water. 

     Last stop, Madrid Airport Hilton, shuttle to Airport, plane to Paris, flight to San Francisco. 

Scotland is easy

 

      We find that Scotland is easy to travel around and very welcoming. We have done a variety of stays and visits. In South Scotland along the borders, we suggest taking the train to Carlisle,  England and then renting a car to cover this area. Places like Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Newton Stewart, The Isle of Whithorn, and the rest of Galloway.  Take the train to Edinburgh and no need for a car; it is a liability. Train to Glasgow and then to Stirling and rent a car in Stirling to loop the Highlands.  The motorways are modern and the other roads are well paved although sometimes narrow.  For us, all roads lead to Fort Augustus and Ballater and St. Andrews.

     If in the north, make sure you go out on the research boat on Loch Ness.

On to London

The Tower Bridge as seen from the Tower.

     This was our second trip to London. We stayed at Brewleys near the Dublin Airport with a shuttle back and forth. The car was back to the rental agency and after putting on something like 1300 miles on the left side of the road all was as good as when we rented it. After a good night's sleep we checked some of  our luggage and took the tram to the airport. Aer Lingus is not my favorite, but did the job of getting us to London. Interesting, at Heathrow on the way to the train to Regent Square, there was a sign that said "Coming from Ireland" and we were (not) and we went out of the airport. It turns out that we should have looked at the sign that said, "Coming from the European Union" Or "Republic of Ireland". We did not get our passport stamped and they still let us go back to the Republic.

      London with its plays (we saw "The Mouse Trap") and music and museums and all has been divided in former posts. We stayed at a wonderful B&B across from the British Museum, borrowed a laptop as I was writing for a newspaper then, and got wonderful treatment. A week is not enough just to sample all the food from around the world; and English meat pies!

     Do take the Hop On Hop Off with the boat trip on the Thames. This saves you money in the long run. Do go for a stroll in Kensington Gardens or Hyde Park. By all means go to the Victoria and Albert Museum and have lunch in the cafe (check out the tile work in the loo too!) Harry Potter  fans need to go to King's Cross although it is different from our first visit long ago.

     Back to Ireland and Brewley's and the United States. We are blessed to be able to take a month away.

Ireland and England

 

Wynns B & B, Downtown Dublin a block from the River Liffey

      We flew Aer Lingus from SFO to Dublin and stayed at Wynns, a hotel Bed and Breakfast near the center of the city. Ii is about one block from the River Liffey and Temple Bar. While in Dublin we traveled to Newgrange, saw Irish dancers. spent time roaming the Temple Bar area, visited Trinity College, St. Stephan's Green and the wonderful mall. We walked the pedestrian only streets and visited as many museums as there was time. We watched Hurling on the tele. We were there about five days when we returned to the airport to pick up a rental car. 

     We drove to Kilkenny and helped celebrate their win at Hurling. Kilkenny is a nice town and we spent three nights there.. We then drove to The Rock of Cashel, then down through The Knockmealdown Mountains to Lismore for the night.

     Then it was on to Cobh and around to Kensale. Stayed at the Old Presbytery. Then around the southern coast to Kenmare (interesting and fun place). Continuing to the next night at Castle Gregory and then over the pass into Dingle for two nights where we toured the peninsula and hiked out to the beginning of the harbor to visit the local dolphin. Then it was over the Shannon and up to the Cliffs of Mohr and a stay in Galway. Turning East we visited Clonmoccroise, stayed the night in Trim and returned to Dublin.

     Took a flight to London and will cover that week next.

A trip to Central Europe

Charles Bridge, Prague, at night

     October 2019: We flew Alaska Airlines from San Francisco International Airport to JFK in New York. After staying the night in an airport hotel, we rented a car and drove to New Milford Connecticut. We visited Mike's Sister and family and took a tour of  New England Colors. It was very good to see family. After nearly a week, we drove back to JFK where we had reservations for Business Class on Lufthansa Airlines to Prague (changing planes in Frankfurt).

     We spent five days on our own before joining a Road Scholar Tour which took us around Prague and then down the Danube to five Capitols of Central Europe. After ten days we returned to Munich and set out on our own tour of Bavaria including Neuschwanstein Castle and the Dachau Prison Camp. We concluded on five days in Munich with a direct flight to SFO. If that sounds like most of a month - it is.

     For 2020 we had to cancel trips to China and the Rain Forest of Panama. 

The Dublin Needle from our hotel window

The Irish Republic flag flies over the Post Office -site of a major battle - to the lower left of the Needle in central Dublin. Our hotel was one block from the river and over the bridge from Temple Bar. 

Vienna is civilized

 This is where we went and heard a orchestra and lyric opera concert in Vienna. This photo was taken at intermission. The room cleared out and the audience went into another room and garden to have champagne. Lively conversation and then back for the second half. This was one concert among six or seven we attended in Central Europe on this trip.

Sausage at a sidewalk cafe in Prague - no beer

 In the Plaza Republica in Prague, there are many nice handcrafts and food stalls.  On our arrival we headed over the there for lunch.  Not sure what all was on the roll, but it was excellent.  I had it with a lemonade although great beer was everywhere in Prague. Sat across from a talkative young woman and her husband and great too was their command of English as my Czech is not helpful. 

What's That?

In Johannesburg, my grandson, Lucas, looked up in  the center of a brick monolith memorial to see the photo above. I saw it at the same time. Just an interesting feature of an interesting building. His photo was best. It is a memorial to people who lost their lives in the name of equality.
 

Boats On The Seine, France

The Seine is lined with yachts and boats

that are either weekenders or houseboats.

This river from Paris to Honfleur is similar in size 

to the Sacramento River between Sacramento and

the San Francisco Bay in California.

 

The unplanned collection

 Getting dressed today I looked at my closet and drawers and realized that something happens to the traveler even if unplanned. No matter how you plan or pack, you run out of things when traveling. You go into a store and buy replacements. I have some items like antacids from Slovakia and acetaminophen from Italy.  Now to the business at hand, I put on a sweater from Munich Germany  over a shirt from Granada Spain. I noticed a pair of socks from Bratislava the capital and largest city of Slovakia.  They each were not planned but filled in for something not packed or left somewhere.