Fabulous Friday: A few Highlights from the Grand Adventure

 On a trip like this, it is hard to choose favorites, there were so many wonders that all are highlights in their own way. I will do a separate stand alone post on Notre Dame in Paris. I have been there three times, I will find some before and after photos. When it was restored, I feared that I would never see the restored cathedral. It is light and clean inside in ways it has not seen in hundreds of years. 

I had somehow missed Luxembourg Gardens in my previous trips, it is really the outdoor space of thousands of Parisians. You can rent the radio controlled boats to sail in the fountain. 

The other time I was at Versailles it was winter, very cold and windy. This trip was just to see the gardens. I was a little surprised to see admission being charged, but that meant two things, the music was playing and the fountains would be running. (When those things are off for the day, the gardens are free.) We rented an electric golf cart and enabling us to see much more than we would have been able to see on foot. And yes I am bundled up, it was in the 50s (f) with rain sprinkles on and off.  

The Cathedral at Chartres is famous for the stained glass windows.  

Vienna will need a few posts to touch on the highlights, this is the State Hall in the Library. They knew how to build a library. 

The Emperor's Palace in Vienna. SBs grandmothers were born as subjects of Franz Joseph.  

Royal tombs in Vienna. 

Treasury Museum in Vienna. 

The Cathedral in Milan, the elevator goes to the roof, the walk down is stairs, and stairs, and stairs.  

Saint Peter's in Rome. 

The hotel in Rome was selected based on location, it was a five minute walk from the Vatican in a neighborhood that predated the Popes. There were a dozen shops in the neighborhood that sold clerical clothing and church supplies. If you are suddenly appointed as a Bishop and need the outfit, you can buy it off the rack today - with a wide array of fashion choices. 

Roman Amphitheater in Cartagena, Spain. A bit of a long climb, but worth it.  

Travel says stop at this point. I downloaded 4,350 photos from my Nikon, and there are a few hundred more from my phone. This is just a sampling of the adventure. 

The Thursday Ramble: Thoughts on Long Adventures

This is the first new blog post I have written in a month, and I am writing it as we approach the end of a trip that is over 10,000 miles of travel, over 4 weeks and 3 days.  A long trip 

I am glad we did this. We are able, I think both of us feel stronger than we did when we started. I will add up the total cost sometime soon, or maybe I will just pay the bills and leave it at that, paid for. A reward for decades of work, saving and being careful with money.  

Being away for a month is a long time. Long enough to break habits, or form new ones. Long enough to forget, while packing in new memories. 

For the last half of it, I had internet access, and some connection to my network, but only virtual.  And I needed to remember if I sent a text message at 8:00 AM, it was received on the east coast of the United States at 2 or 3 AM, for my friends farther west very much in the wee hours of the morning. Not exactly a good morning text, if it wakes someone in the middle of their night. The flip of that is messages sent to me at 5 PM, came in at 11 PM my time. 

I missed my social network. English is less common in Vienna than other places I have traveled, and I don't speak German. At times I longed for a stranger to have a conversation longer than an elevator ride with. 

Not knowing the language is a special challenge. Even street signs are long strings of letters spelling something, that I can vaguely make out. I struggled with spelling as a child, and learned to attach meaning to a string of letters, even if I couldn't make out what the letters spelled, that is how I navigated Vienna, if part of the pattern of letters matched, that was good enough. 

All in all, I am glad we took the trip, that we had time to stop and smell the roses. That I had time to get lost. And I did, in Barcelona I wandered off in the Gothic Quarter, ended up a couple of miles from where I thought I was, headed in the wrong direction. Google maps on my phone to the rescue. 

Will we do this again? When? Will I do anything this complicated again? We will figure that out over the next few weeks. There are always points in a trip like this when we think, never again, then we start thinking, that was fun, I'd like to spend more time there, maybe next time. 

Edit

There was a fantom post that appeared here, planned for Friday, and the schedule went awry with changes in time zones. A new Friday post has been scheduled. At the moment neither blogger or myself are sure what time it is, or what day it is. 

My World of Wonders May 20, 2026

Where am I? We arrived home safe and sound yesterday. 

What am I up to? Laundry, adjusting to the time zone, a little grocery shopping. 

Regular service will resume soon. 

Travel Tuesday: Airports

I know I am weird on this one, but I enjoy airports. Seeing the planes, reading where the planes are arriving from, and headed off to, fascinates me. If all goes to plan today we will be in, CGD, BOS, DCA. If you can read that, you are well traveled. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Monday Moods: Retirement - Congratulations to Sean

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to Sean, aka Sassybear on being eligible to retire. Having met him, and heard some of the rest of the story, he has been a dedicated government employee for decades. His expertise has made a huge difference in the lives of people in his state. He is a true subject matter expert. He has cared deeply about his work, the people he works with, and who have worked for him. He has earned a future to do what he wants to do. 

Something I stumbled across a couple of years into retirement was the statement to "not just retire from something, but to retire to something." Anyone who retires does the first part, we leave behind the work - the people - the paychecks - the stress and headaches that most work includes. 

The second part is a key to being happy post employment. Retire to something - after a few days or weeks the novelty of an endless vacation wears off - and you need a purpose. You need a plan. I have a few dear friends that retired to provide Grandma and Grandpa nanny service - a few that retired to the golf course, or tennis court, or to ride a bike 200 miles a week. Some retire to a commitment to volunteering. Some retired to traveling the country or the world. 

When I was planning to retire, people asked "what are you going to do?" And being goal and job driven, I wrote myself a job description. The description included getting and staying more physically active, becoming involved in my community, traveling a bit, reading a lot, spending time practicing creative arts and exploring new arts, and enjoying cooking. Like any job description parts of it have been a smashing success, parts of it I am not any good at, but it did fill the need to retire to something. And that something will evolve over time. 

If all is on schedule, we fly home tomorrow from a month long grand adventure, our third since I retired. Being able to travel for more than 13 days in a row, was one of the things I retired to, it was a part of the plan. 

I urge you if you are eligible or soon to be eligible to make a plan to retire to something. 

If you are retired, think about your purpose, your goals, your plan. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in few days. 

The Sunday Five: Inanimate Pets

1: How many stuffed animals do you have? 

2: Do you give them names? 

3: Do you have any from childhood? 

4: When was the last time you gave one as a gift? 

5: Do you have a favorite stuffed animal? 

My Answers: 

1: How many stuffed animals do you have? Dozens of them, I'd need to hire a census taker to count them. 

2: Do you give them names? Most of them. 

3: Do you have any from childhood? No longer. 

4: When was the last time you gave one as a gift? Probably the Highland Cow to my great-nephew. 

5: Do you have a favorite stuffed animal? An over-sized very fluffy sheep. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in few days. 

supplemental post: Versailles

The Saturday Morning Post: It Is About the Journey

One aspect I like about cruises is that in many-many ways the journey, the days getting there are just as important or maybe more important than the destination. Days at sea give me time to explore, to relax, to listen, to read, to think, try new foods, new drinks, to communicate with strangers that I will never see again. By doing this I learn new things, and I learn about myself. 

Making art is very much the same. The process, the journey of creating art, gives us time to explore, to study, to try new things, to  communicate in new ways. Someone asked Thomas Edison how it felt to have failed thousands of times testing filaments for incandescent lights that never glowed or quickly burned out. His response was I have not failed, I have discovered thousands of things what will not work.

Art can be like that, we learn from the experiment, the practice, the journey. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May.