Easter Sunday dawned with a slight haze over the city of Porto. While we had plans to see more of Porto including a trip on the Douro River, first we would attend an Easter service. We had decided that instead of going to one of the many older churches down in the historic district of Porto, we would instead attend the service at the local church. It was a few blocks away from our hotel. We arrived a few minutes…
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On our second full day in Porto, Portugal we would see even more of the beautiful blue and white tiles of Portugal, but first we needed to do something more mundane, laundry. One of the issues of a long travel journey is figuring out how to do laundry. Since we were traveling for three weeks, washing our clothes from time to time was important. In Brussels the hotel had laundry on site, even on our floor so we did laundry…
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Our first full morning dawned in the Portuguese city of Porto. Port is north of Lisbon at the mouth of the Douro River. It is the ancestral home of my wife whose roots go back to Porto on her father’s side. It is an old city and also hilly. Over the next few days we would be doing a lot of walking up and down those hills. Porto also has many churches. Sometimes it seems that the churches are right…
Continue Reading “Wandering the Hills and Riverfront of Porto on Good Friday”
With only a few days in Paris and a wedding taking up a lot of time, we certainly couldn’t see everything Paris has to offer. However, besides the Eiffel Tower, the one other must see location is the Louvre. We headed there Wednesday morning. The Louvre is one of those places one could spend hours, even days going through. Filled with a variety of art from different eras, locations, and styles, it is an art lover’s dream location. We didn’t…
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After struggling through three days of cold and rain in Belgium, it was a relief to wake up on Monday morning and see it was not raining. In fact there was actually some spots of blue sky. It was a great day to travel by train to Paris and see some sights including St. Chappel and the Arc de Triomphe. The train to Paris leaves from the Midi train station in Brussels. We didn’t want to miss the train so…
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Last year my daughter Andrea and I visited Bruges as part of our trip to see the tulips in The Netherlands. We had a fun and interesting time in this old city. This year as my wife and I were deciding where to visit in Europe, I felt like it would be good to take Silvette to Bruges as it had been such an interesting place to see. Originally I had thought we would go Friday, but the rain was…
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For many people the main reasons to visit Arizona are the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Others may come for baseball’s spring training. Of course other folks come just for the sunshine and warmth, especially in the winter. My parents spent time in Yuma, Arizona for that very reason the winter before my mom died. However, like most states, there are actually quite a few unique and different places to enjoy in Arizona beyond the Grand Canyon and the baseball fields.…
I recently saw a blog post where the photographer shared his favorite photos from the previous year. It dawned on me that I should do that. The point is not so much to say, “Look at these great photos,” but it gives me the opportunity to share about specific photos, and what I like about them. When I started this blog, the photos were always intended to be a major part of each post. However, I know that as one…
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After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we were ready to begin our second day around Death Valley. It was another clear blue-sky day which started out cold, but quickly warmed up with the sun. Our first experience when we arrived in Death Valley was a drive through the hills on the east side of the Black Mountains. The drive is called Twenty Mule Team Canyon Road. Those of you who are older might be…
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I realized recently that I have been to almost all of the national parks in California. Only two remained, Death Valley and Sequoia & Kings Canyon. I had tried for a few year to make it to Death Valley, but no one would go with me. Finally I convinced my wife to go, and so we began to plan our adventure. Death Valley has hit 130 degrees twice in the last few years. This of course was during the summer…
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