I’ll blog about Barcelona another day, but today we walked around lovely, calm Lisbon. When we checked into our hotel last night, the front-desk receptionist showed us a city map and pointed to the Alfama neighborhood, saying that it has the oldest buildings because it wasn’t damaged by the earthquake. Earthquake? Laurel knew what she…
We’re in Barcelona now, but I wanted to add more info about our Rome trip. I can’t get on the wifi for some reason at our Barcelona apartment (found on Expedia, not Airbnb – It’s large and wonderful, but I digress.) and my phone doesn’t have a fast cell connection. I think I’ll just have…
The Pantheon: Fontana di Trevi that’s undergoing major repairs 😦 : The Vatican and a bridge on the way: At the recommendation of the hotel receptionist, I bought online, timed-entry tickets for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We went through the security line once inside Vatican City and went where we were funneled which…
I took this photo in Rome this evening. We were in Paris yesterday but unfortunately couldn’t go to the candlelight vigil at Place de la Republique.
I can’t get that stupid camp song out of my head. We took a 3-hour train ride here from Paris Saturday morning and will reverse the trip Tuesday evening. Amsterdam architecture and history are definitely distinctive – no confusing it with any other European city. Saturday we visited the fabulous Rijks Museum which includes paintings…
We had second-to-last-row seats at the Opera Garnier to see La Source ballet on Christmas Eve. Â The building, which we’d previously toured, as well as the ballet were magnificent. Â I felt so fortunate to be there. Â Laurel loved seeing a ballet that was not The Nutcracker. Â (She was sick of The Nutcracker after rehearsing it…
We (Ok, “I”) wanted to see The Sound of Music sites in Salzburg but had limited time.  We also wanted to walk around the old town a bit more and see the house where Mozart was born.  We enjoyed looking in the store windows and seeing traditional Austrian clothes – the dresses like you see women…
We stayed in an apartment in Vienna (Wien – Did you know Wiener just means someone or something from Vienna? Â How did I never know that? Â It doesn’t seem quite so snicker-worthy now…actually, yes it does.) from December 19-22, having taken a taxi there from Budapest. Â We liked it, but in hindsight I would have…
Above: Chain Bridge over the Danube River on December 17 Below: We took the funicular up the hill and happened to arrive just in time to watch the changing of the guard at Buda Palace. Â (The people in the crowd are attempting to keep the sun out of their eyes; they’re not saluting.)…
On Monday, December 15, our same taxi driver from the day before picked us up at our 17th century, Krakow townhouse and drove us a few miles outside the city limits to the town of Wieliczka where a salt mine has been in operation for 700 years, ceasing most activity about 15 years ago. Â Since…
Travels with Charlie and Laurel 