We woke to another picturesque day and it wasn’t till we began driving the Ring of Kerry that we realized it was also a lucky day. We were heading clockwise, south to north and every possible tourist and circus was traveling in the other direction. This gave us the ability to stop and enjoy the scenery and not second guess our place in line or force us to let others dictate our pace. …
Continue ReadingA trip to Zermatt was next on my agenda, so the next day was nothing but train travel. When I finally reached Visp I hit a fork in the road and needed to make a decision on whether to fork out an extra nineteen dollars for a round trip train ticket or to thumb my way into Zermatt. The rail to Zermatt was a private railroad and not covered under my rail pass. I looked around and since there was not a single car heading in that direction my decision was made easily. …
Continue ReadingWe rolled early into Hamburg. Since we had reduced our load to just the essentials, we could now fit all of our belongings into a single locker. We wandered about Hamburg searching for a suitable place to put down some breakfast and a few early morning beers. That day had been earmarked as a day to relax, to kick back and enjoy the city’s parks and its many bridges. …
Continue ReadingI was out at first light and headed toward Bologna. While standing in the train station in front of an electronic schedule I noticed three young ladies behind me looking over my shoulder. They were three young Americans also looking for the train to Florence, so I introduced myself. Since the four of us had three hours to burn until our train departed, I accompanied one of the young ladies through the streets in search of a sweater. Her mother had purchased her father a sweater from Bologna years ago that he had always enjoyed. …
Continue ReadingWhen we finally reached Villach and obtained some currency, sugar was on the menu. I found a dream of bakeries and was operating on the ‘try everything once’ premise, but we cut that short for some real food. We spent the rest of the day checking out shop windows. Jenni expressed a passion for shop windows. I suggested that she get herself a nice camera and perhaps someday she would publish a book. …
Continue ReadingOur rail passes provided free passage on numerous lake cruises, so we decided to take advantage. We gathered up the ingredients for a day out on Lake Zurich. Opened up a cold beer, claimed a table with a view and broke out the cards to continue the cribbage marathon from the night before. What a perfect day it was to be out on a lake. There was just the right mixture between the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the breeze and the temperature of the beer. Man some of these homes that line the lake with their manicured yards and adornments screams money. …
Continue ReadingWith the birth of a new day we began to head back to fetch our bags from the hotel. Beyond all odds we managed to fit all of us and all the baggage into one cab. Two of us had to lie across laps in the back seat. Our taxi driver slid in an eight-track and we were off to the airport. I found it odd that the stewardess confiscated only the US passports and then forced us to sit in specific seats, “the American” section. I guess in case of hijacking that would better protect the locals. I believed my eyes closed for just a second but when they opened we were landing in Crete. …
Continue ReadingI wanted to make an early start and head into Algora but it was a bit out of the way and didn’t poise enough of an attraction to make the detour. We did manage to make it out early and followed the rails into the Parenoes and eventually made it into Polgceria, La Tour the Carol. When we reached the border between Spain and France again they were still unwilling to share trains so we were forced to exit and board a new. We took advantage of this opportunity to gather up some traveling snacks. I told Jim on two occasions that he ought to pick it up but all I got in return was an attitude. “I’ll see you on the train then.” …
Continue ReadingWe continued munching on nuts up to the entrance to the Topkapi Palace, the heart of the Ottoman Empire. I naturally avoided the circumcision room. I was very impressed with the jewels on display. The sultan’s armor had diamonds and emeralds the size of baseballs. I have a lot of respect for somebody who can step on battle field with jewelry of that value and not get raped. We crammed a lot into one day and I was dead on my feet so we didn’t wander far from our hotel to find food. …
Continue ReadingToday’s plan was to wander around the city in an attempt to locate our choir from home. After another walk along the river, around the castle and up and down the many streets, I got the feeling we had taken the wrong approach to find our choir. I began thinking it a better approach to let them find me. That would at least reduce the walking. In the middle of the squares in-between the castle and the church sat a large chess set, with pieces about two and a half feet in height. …
Continue ReadingWhen I woke I could not shake that dirty feeling. I had felt cleaner waking up on the floor of train stations. It was early. The sun hadn’t come up yet and Jenni was planning on sleeping in, so I headed off to the ruins of Ephesus. That trek started out as a long dark walk. Luckily I eventually hitched a ride. When I reached the front gate the sun began casting long shadows but it was still very cold. …
Continue ReadingI was disappointed that Jim didn’t have the same level of interest in seeing these local sites. I started referring to Jim as “Stationary”, because literally, he’d stay in the train station and read a book while waiting for me to return from my trek. Wasting opportunities like these between the pages of some romantic novel seemed foolish to me when this is all new. …
Continue ReadingIt was raining a bit and we had a couple of open containers. The roads were narrow with no extra space to speak about. I knew if we got stuck behind another logging truck we could be here for weeks. Once we managed to pass a couple of these trucks we began to make up for some lost time. Jim began complaining that his bladder couldn’t take much more of this abuse but before I was willing to pull over, I wanted to put enough distance between ourselves and the logging trucks. …
Continue ReadingThe clouds parted when we reached Haifa’s harbor. It was impressive passing right up next to aircraft carriers and battleships. That time they passed me right through customs but not Jenni. They couldn’t pin point why somebody would travel from New Zealand to Moscow, to Cyprus, to Israel and detained her for about forty-five minutes while the rest of us waited outside. We read travel paraphernalia for ideas and to pass the time. Once she got released we all wandered the waterfront in search of the train station and discovered that if we wanted to exchange currency we would need to find ourselves a bank. …
Continue ReadingTracking down each of the antiquities had the feeling of a treasure hunt and we never felt lost because we could always find signs of life behind the pub door. One of these nights while wandering I discovered the pub door was locked, so I entered an old grave yard across the way seeking the unknown. It was dark at eye level, even darker after gazing up at the million of stars looking down upon me. …
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I HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THAT ………………we now come to know the nature of change through Cognition ……… …
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I knew we had reached the Netherlands when the standard blue or green trains turned multi-colored. Two guys had hit us up in the train station soliciting us to take a room on their boat. I preferred being in the heart of the city where access was easier and I could be closer to the coffee shop I decide to write in, but Jenni kind of liked the idea of being on a boat. I was leaving in a few days and felt that getting her acquainted with another group of people was also a priority. …
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These rules are in no particular order.
A REAL MAN ……
1. Don’t lie to Doctors
2. Will fake peeing at the urinal or will wait on a toilet before walking out in tandem with another guy.
3. Never talk about their privates or name any appendage of their body. That’s just weird.
4. Know how to Spit. A pouhhhhh is unacceptable. If it takes practice, practice.
5. Never park in front of a bar. …
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Together we searched, above it all, as clouds, we wandered free but when us two, came to be one, we parted company. It’s a lonely road that comes to an end. I’m sorry my love but I must head home.
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I HAVE BEEN TAUGHT THAT ………………we now come to know the nature of change through Cognition ………
“Cognition”, is defined as the mental process or facility by which that knowledge is acquired. …
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Where went the loveliness ……. I know you by, do I know the place
lost in all perfection ……. no longer shy, a dance without that grace
Pretty little dance ……. around we use to spin, a subtle touch ……. our eyes were one, we wandered like the wind
