I have returned from my Mediterranean Odyssey, having started in Barcelona, boarded a ship and traveled north and east around the south coast of France, west coast of Italy, out to Sicily and Sardinia, then down to Algeria and back up to Spain, winding up after a 300km/h bullet train ride in Madrid before flying home Saturday.
Along the way, I was able to see functioning democracies, met people who sympathized with us for our “leader” and also was a bit surprised when people who I thought might be Trump supporters actually made comments that showed my biases were misplaced. I received positive comments from tour guides in the various countries about my “Peace” button pin that I wore, which basically has a message of piece in several different languages around the outside and a rainbow flag on the interior. I even had a few good comments from fellow travelers, including a woman who had her own “Not My President” pin on.
I was able to sample plenty of delicious foods, wines, learn about many different cultures, see how laws are implemented in many different areas (don’t drive in Europe if Colorado’s drivers make you nervous) and I was able to get a much better feeling for Rome than my last trip a couple years ago when the taxi drivers and shopkeepers were more than happy to take advantage of tourists. One major achievement for my wife was being able to have her set foot on Africa, her fourth continent, and for her to learn that safaris in Africa are not going to be swarmed under by bugs if you plan your seasons correctly. She still has South America, Antarctica and Australia to go — I just have Australia. If you know of Aussies or New Zealanders who we can contact to get more info on what to do upon a visit, please let me know.
Statue in Gaudi garden in BarcelonaMy wife and I took a Viking Ocean Cruise this time and generally enjoyed it, though we enjoyed our river cruise more a few years ago. We have traveled on Norwegian, Carnival and Holland America together; she also had a cruise on Royal Caribbean she enjoyed a great deal about 20 years ago. So far, Holland America is the one we won’t go on again, with Carnival (owned by the same company) a close second. We have the Viking River Cruise on top of our list. I’d love to hear any comments you might have down below.
We did meet a number of people from Colorado, including two who matched the first two flights with us and some more from nearby us in Denver. We exchanged some email addresses and phone numbers to be able to stay in touch later, as well as to share some photos. I’m just now starting to go through the photos — I have about 2000 photos from this 17 day trip. These will be winnowed down to maybe a hundred or so and then I’ll put them into a photo book so my Mrs. ColoTim can have them to browse through at her leisure. She’s never really enjoyed looking at them on a computer screen.
So, I did read LeftCandid’s excellent diaries while onboard ship. Thank you very much for posting those. I’d like to encourage anyone who has something to share to consider posting one of these OpenThread diaries — just let me know and I’ll add you to the calendar. There’s no real requirements to what you say — you can opine about candidates, issues, your life or interests or just introduce yourself to your fellow square staters.
Yachts in Monaco. The one on the right is currently 22nd largest in the world — owned by a Saudi royal. Some guy with rock hard abs, letting it all hang out in Florence. Trevi Fountain — one of the things I missed the first time in Rome A salt evaporation setup on Sicily Monument to the struggle for freedom in Algeria