Where we stayed: Continental Hotel Budapest: It was an average hotel that left something to be desired. The room was not a small room by European standards but the hotel crammed too much furniture into the too small space leaving little to no room for maneuvering for two people. We also had a problem with…
Budapest and Prague comprise the epicenter of a twentieth century gone mad having endured World Wars I and II and then the forced usurpation and subjugation of the populace by the communists following the Second World War. Unimaginable but very real historical horrors abound. In 1939, 125,000 Jews, as “defined” under the Nuremberg Race Laws…
April 25th is a holiday in Italy celebrating the liberation of the country from Fascism and Nazism. One April 25th, a thousand years ago, an earlier version of myself at nineteen turned a corner in Florence and ran head-long into a parade marching toward me, with what my memory tells me held at least a…
Reputationally, a visit to Paris is rife with rudeness: the maitre d’hotel looking askance at you over the rooftops of his European-sourced eyeglasses, the apron-bedecked waiter ignoring your pleas for service, the elderly, compression-stockinged resident, baguette clenched firmly in hand, contemptuously turning her back as you ask for directions. The reputation is inaccurate. Paris is…
Steve and I made a deal when we married. We promised each other we would travel. We promised ourselves one major trip a year and then smaller short getaways throughout the year with the goal of traveling once each quarter, if possible. I know what you are thinking – you make promises, you have high…
The ubiquitous stories of the eclipse are now behind us. But the memories live on. We saw the eclipse from Tacoma, Washington, laying out a blanket on a portion of the golf course abutting my in-laws home. We were asked to move only once by a groundskeeper so he could mow beside us and once…