07/27 Bruges, Belgium

We found ourselves a small room above a bar not far off the main square of Brugge, claimed ourselves bed, dropped off our stuff and hit the local canals for a little sightseeing.  We roamed among the flower vendors, chocolate shops, lingered behind a cup of coffee and smoked a cigarette while standing on a humped-backed bridge.  I enjoyed the mood of the weeping willows and gazed endlessly at the reflections painted by the water.   …

11/30 Ushisar, Turkey

We had planned on seeing Urgup and the Goreme Valley and headed out into the streets in search for the tourist office.  It was still very cold but it was like a reversed microwave, my bones were colder than my skin.  We located what we believed was the tourist office but there were no brochures or posters to confirm that we had found the right place.  Everybody inside was huddled around a small stove trying to keep warm.  They explained there were no buses or organized tours this late in the year and suggested we find ourselves a taxi driver.  …

09/08 Monte Carlo

I woke with that taste of too many cigarettes and one too many beers and wandered toward a morning coffee before it was back on the road again. We started down the coast searching for another room, kind of back tracking over the previous day’s plans but we ended up in Monte Carlo instead.  It had just begun raining as we headed up one of the steep hills looking for shelter and a cup of coffee.  We sat down alongside a window and while we sipped our coffee I noticed a motorcyclist get hit from behind.  …

06/02 South Wales

We had purchased a train pass for the British railway that provided a few consecutive days on a train and then the use of a car.  Our plan was to more or less travel north by train until we reached Inverness Scotland, from there we would rent a car and travel the West Coast of Scotland southward until we reached Liverpool.  …

11/11 Bethlehem, Israel

I wasn’t sure if our bus could make the trip but luckily Bethlehem was not that far of a ride.  Bethlehem was rather small and unexpectedly vacant.  Typically I liked to walk around the outskirts and then worked my way back toward my destination.  That gives me a better feeling of where I am.  The church was also empty and there was nobody inside its wall but the two of us.  It was kind of a shell of a church with an altar at the far end.   …

09/28 Baden-Baden, Germany

I woke up with a serious problem.  I don’t know if it was the combination of the exercise the other day, the consumption of alcohol or both but my arms had stiffened to the point where I could not extend them beyond a forty five degree angle.  I tried carried my bags first in one hand and then the other using the weight of the bags to help stretch out my muscles, very scary. …

07/26 Hamburg, Germany

We 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.   …

06/11 Island of Skye, Scotland

The West Coast of Scotland was absolutely gorgeous and we still hadn’t seen any bad weather.  Trekking along the coastal cliffs and the Island of Skye can only be described as a religious experience.  This is God’s country.  Gardens touched by the finger of God.  A clouded island littered with crofts and memories of the day before Culloden.  …

10/18 Cefalu, Italy

The storm passed through very quickly.  When the sun rose I gathered up my things and without even saying goodbye I headed down the volcano like I was escaping.  I had just come out of a sulfur cloud, was coated in mud and must have smelled like shit.  I sure felt like shit.  When I finally made it back down to the residence below they too were cover in mud.  I’m glad somebody could laugh at this.  The first two people I saw were in the process of shoveling themselves out of the mud.   …

06/22 Cherbourg, France

Like a bunch of cattle we were herded from the boat to the train station.  It was in this company we met a group of young ladies from Costa Mesa California on their way to a concert in Paris.  We were scheduled to see U2 in Dublin but that plan kinda got left behind with a bunch of stuffed animals.  …

10/22 Corfu, Greece

Even though all the other guys had paid for a room joining the ladies outside became a priority.  Good looking women typically have that effect over men.  We all traded stories and passed around a few bottles of alcohol.  By the time we reached Corfu we had assembled into an interesting group of travelers.  Once we hit Corfu’s dock an elderly lady persuaded us to check out her hotel.  I used our group’s size as a bargaining chip and obtained a better rate for the group.   …

05/30 Stonehenge, England

Like a string of pearls, one complaint began to lead into another.  One minute it’s the weather, next minute it’s the price of food, carrying too much shit and then it was his feet.  “I’m not walking any further, maybe I’ll just fly home”, confronted Jim.  I reminded him that I was not his mother and if he thought I wanted to hear this shit, he had bigger problems than just his feet.  “Nobody’s putting a gun to your head and you don’t need my permission to make choices”.  I explained that I was not budgeted for repeating every other step and had a plan of what I wanted to see and experience and sometimes those things aren’t at the end of a train line.  “I’m committed to go forward and if you find it in your best interest to detour, I’m more than willing to meet you anywhere else on the map”.  “There’s no rule that says we have to do everything together”.  I provided an example of picking up women.  “I expect this to happen along the way and when we reach that fork in the road I’m sure you’re not going to be wanting me hanging around as a third wheel or vice versa.  We’ll just meet up someplace down the road”.  I tried to be a good person and attempt to avoid confrontations but traveling together has a tendency to bring these things to the surface.  Conflicts start and end with words.

Surely I dreamt today, or did I see. I wandered in this forest thoughtlessly
the clever boy that I once knew; with pebbles white and bread crumbs too
left no trail and lost my way, where all my pictures were thrown away

Through the forest, in the middle of a glade, forever nagging to persuade
no plank or bridge was placed in sight, only fists clinched as if to fight
the wind, the wind has caused me harm; you pulled too many false alarms.

05/20 London, England

The clouds had parted and the wings of our plane began to dry.  The very first thing I noticed was that “I wasn’t in Kansas anymore”.  Gatwick Airport had green pastures on both sides of the runway.  Unconcerned cows looked up at our passing plane.  This was a total contrast to the cement landscape we left behind in LA. …

06/15 Dublin, Ireland

The clouds were telling no lies, this time they opened up and delivered rain.  Bicycles were now out of the question, so we planned on thumbing our way south.  We were hardly out of town when Jim started whining again.  He’s like one of those thimble banging monkeys.  Once his key gets turned there’s no way to turn him off, until his springs loosen.  …