2026–Turkey and Sicily

I really appreciate all of you for following along on our trip. We fly out tomorrow and are looking forward to being back–and yet also will miss the adventure of traveling. We connected with so many people, saw cool places, had thought about time and the human condition. I love the expansion of my brain… Read more: Thank you for hanging out

Max got a shave and a haircut: Howard and I walked up to the old (1170) Castle. I think this would make a great wedding venu. One last day tomorrow.. Love Barbara

We decided to stay a couple of days in Milazzo because this is where you depart to go to the Aleutian Islands, which are supposed to be pretty cool. BUT its too windy for the boats running to the islands. This is a beautiful seaside town with no real big attractions so no tourists. We… Read more: Milazzo

We didn’t know much about this town, but it is a cute beach front town with a kick-ass Cathedral. The cathedral has this amazing Byzantine Mosaic. Christ’s hand is 9 meters long!. The mosaic is HUGE. I need to get more pictures tomorrow. Love. Barbara

So we skipped Pamukkule in Turkey–white steps–for good reasons… BUT when we heard we were 20 minuies from the Turkish Steps we decided we had to go. it was perfect weather and a perfect excursion. Here when you are being stupid the guard blows his/her whistle at you. (Don’t climb on the castle wall that… Read more: Turkish Steps (in Sicily)

In 400 BC there was a city of 200,000 Greeks living in this area. They had enough money (and slaves) to build 13 temples in a row. The largest was HUGE (but gone now. This gem was totally coverted into a church until King Ferdinand II took away the church part and left the Temple… Read more: Valley of the Temples

Well..Modico was charming as well. AND I didn’t love our B&B but then I looked at my notes are realized we only paid $100 to stay there. It was wonderful for that price!! Their church looked so simple from the outside And was so gorgeous inside. Tomorrow is the Valley of the Temples! love Barbara

We wanted to see the Baroque Church in Noto, so drove there for lunch. It was SO beautiful I literally cried. Then there was this bigger church, but I loved this Virgin Mary as well We are just spending one night in Modico–this may have been a mistake. We shall see when everyone is finished… Read more: Noto and Modico

The Big Church here in Siracusa was built on a site that had a Temple to Athena. The architect intentionally incorporated some of the existing columns both inside and outside. . Some of my favorite pictures: I’m going to make a quilt of the floor pattern! Somehow! love, Barbara

We are in Sicily. And loving the food and churches and outside eating. The Pizza and cannoli, the Aperol Spritzs. The winding streets and balconies. It is beautiful and magical. BUT Siracusa is ALSO the birthplace of Archimedes. And he lived here in 200BC except when he went to Alexandria for “college”. He is the… Read more: Not what you would expect…

I gues it makes sense, we did live in Sardinia for 2 years. But coming back feels so comfortable. AND Catania has blossomed since we were here 2 years ago. The city “fathers” seem to have embraced tourism BIG TIME! Whole blocks of buildings have been cleaned…More streets are closed to car traffic and it… Read more: Italy feels like home

They say to train big animals you give them treats every time them move in the direction you want them to go. In Turkey they use chocolate. We were treated with a little box of chocolate when we got off of Turkish Airlines, every time we walked into our hotel they gave us a chocolate.… Read more: Training big animals?

It is really NOT fun to move Ola in windy weather. So when we meet Ola we buffer the arrival and departure dates. We arrive a couple of days early and have hotel reservations for a couple of days after they are “supposed” to drop us off. That gives them a couple of days to… Read more: Last day in Turkey

Sorry… after a day at the beach and pool I’m cheating…. I promise I will send resort pictures tomorrow. But here is a bit more of Istanbul! We think we are “so modern”. And then I walk into a museum and see these fabrics and tiles….. from 600AD. loveyou all…B

So the last two days we had no internet or cell service. The first night we were anchored in this cove. That is a ruin from the 400’s. We could just walk around it. That is Ola in the background. Then last night we were in this cove. We spent most of the day swimming.… Read more: We were old school.

wrap up today and send it to each of you! Karen and Steve decided to go Mountain Biking, so after PE and a sea salt bath Max and I went into to town to see what groceries we could find. We docked the dinghy and walked over to Rosemary’s (where we had a wonderful dinner… Read more: I wish I could

It’s a rainy day here… Turkey people love animals. We have heard that from all of our guides. There are pet ambulances in Istanbul and there health care is coverd by the government (as are people’s health care). They have a national program that spayeds the stray animals…And there are strays everywhere that people just… Read more: CATS

Today we are hanging in this cove. It is so beautiful and so peaceful! We are here an extra day because the stove stopped working. Luckily Steve can fix ANYTHING.. so we just chill and exercise and eat and nap! Here is Steve working: We don’t interrupt when he is in the middle of fixing… Read more: A day in a Cove…

Oh. It feels so good to be back on Ola and with Karen and Steve. You have all asked for pictures, so here they are! This is us waiting at the Municipal harbor for Steve. Our taxi driver almost lost his mind…he really thought we were going on a Cruise ship.. and it was VERY… Read more: OLA

We are waiting in our hotel room. In 30 minutes a “transports car” will come to pick up our 4 suitcases , 2 carry-on bags and 3 bags of groceries to take us to a location that Steve and Karen are currently trying to find. They are in the dinghy… dropped some trash and are… Read more: Gotta try this…

Well for a week. After 11 hours of sleep I felt GREAT and we wandered around this seaside town. Went to a castle, saw peacocks. And maybe OLA–they pulled into town today after a windy hard sail here. We looked over the castle ramparts and could see catamarans out there. Max had his head shaved… Read more: Last day on land.

We are here! We will meet the Catamaran (Ola) the day after tomorrow. Boy, have they had an adventure getting here. Right now they are still out in the ocean trying to sail fast enough to moor here tonight. Today we saw 3 ruins. We walked a lot, listened carefully and enjoyed b eing off… Read more: Bodrum!

We walked down to the little town. It is now a destination for Cruise ship Tours…but has somehow retained a lot of its charm. The lady is actually our chef.. I am unsure how she ended up clearing trees! We had a REALLY good meal here (to be honest, maybe our first since we got… Read more: Sirince

We had a tour guide today! Started at Virgin Mary’s House. These places where thousands of people have prayed always feel embedded with a spirit. Here is the wall with people’s prayers written on paper. Then off to Ephesus (Efes)–A Roman City of 250,000. lots has been excavated…lots more to dig up! Absolutely an amazing… Read more: Religion and Ruins

I usually don’t post about lodging…but this is incredible. We were supposed to be in a Seaside Resort Hotel, but since we are going to be AT SEA for a week, that seemed redundant. So about 3 weeks ago our amazing tour company changed us to this one. I checked the reviews and every one… Read more: Heaven?

It was our last day in Istanbul and we decided to go to the Turkish Baths (Hamman) right by the Blue Mosque. They have been upgraded I am sure since 1500, but they felt very Royal and they made us feel very special. This was the entry shot from my changing room! Here is the… Read more: Hamman—yummm!

This is the iconic mosque of Istanbul. It did not disappoint. Enjoy!

Our guide likes to talk about the 3 parts of Istanbul. We are in the old European side (settled by the Romans, lots of stuff from 500AD, walled city). Then there is the Asian side of Istanbul (literally IN Asia) which is more like suburbs (I think). Lastly is what we saw today… its across… Read more: On the “New” European Side

OK– I usually do enough research that I am never completely blown away by a site when we are traveling. Well.. today I was awe struck. We went into one of the water storage cisterns left from the ROMAN times. (maybe 500AD). This is not mirrors: Then they added some modern art. Just a wonderful… Read more: Cisterns

Overall we love it. Our hotel is comfy and very Turkish. Vibrant city and very different feeling! They have Rooftop restaurants here everywhere which are delightful… these pictures are from our breakfast and lunch places. It is going to be VERY hard to convey Mosques in pictures. I will keep trying. Tomorrow is our BIG… Read more: First impressions of Istanbul

WOW! So impressed about everything with Turkish Airlines,, The Americans in front and behind us used them to go to Rome and Spain. Though, oddly for me, I didn’t sleep much, but read most of “Project Hail Mary”. Which I recommend unless the ending sucks. So oft to bed ( it’s 6 pm here )… Read more: Huge plug for Turkish Airlines!

Making these bags is like eating potato chips! I felt like the green veggies had their bag, but the yellow and orange veggies needed one. And chocolate….of course!

I asked Karen–the Catamaran Captain–if I could bring her anything. She has a VERY deep freezer which will be full of frozen food when they leave Madiera for their 40 days crossing the Atlantic. Food gets lost in there. She wanted cloth bags with velcro (zippers rust) to store beef, veggies, frozen eggs, hamburger, chicken,… Read more: Can you guess?

I have been watching the weather. And it looked a little sad… but seems to be turning into spring. Maybe I can take a couple of long sleeve shirts out of my (already packed) suitcases!

About 3 weeks before a trip we puill out our suitcases and suddenly–the trip feels real! This time we have a GIGANTIC and a Medium suitcase to deliver to Ola. At the end of this summer they are crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean–they need a bunch of stuff…bolts, switches and other mysterious things.

WOW. Cool party for the niece that got married in Como. Nicely bookended our amazing summer. It’s has meant a lot to me that you would take time out of your day to join me for a minute on our crazy adventure. I have to say I have loved every day.

Took the train This was my favorite picture when I went to school here, never could get my Kodak to catch it. Then took the Green Line to the North End, which was a vibrant Italian community in 1975. They cut away half of it to make an expressway. It’s changed. So many memories!

Michael Corey told us to drive through New Hampshire on our way to Boston. So pretty! Saw 2 covered bridges! In the National Park! And stopped and walked to “waterfalls” Upper and Lower Falls And then just general cuteness

Ferry and Bike ride for our last day in Maine. Road tripping through New Hampshire today.

Ha— did you think we had to shop after buying NOTHING (weight limits) for 3 months? I thought we might want to, and I had heard that the LLBean store was cool. It was. We lasted 12.4 minutes. We are just not shoppers. Cool Maine signs: Cool architect Cool quilt mural Love

The wedding was lovely Today we drove up to an amazing Botanical Garden! And— my favorite—dahlias!

Today we are still getting ourselves back to normal. But did wander some and ate lobster with my brother and sister! Maine looks like Maine! Family! Love

We started this adventure in Lake Como for our niece, Maiya’s wedding… and now her sister is getting married here on Saturday. We are still totally beat, but took a little walk . After 29 hours from hotel to VRBO (lovely) we are smiling!

In the rain. We fly out at 7, so still touting a little! On to Maine!!!

Today we drove through an old (1700) Dutch town. Then onto wine tasting!!! Loving this trip!

Almost felt like home Except Great day!!

We opted out of the tour activities today. Went down to the cute waterfront. And then to a Grain Silo turned into to a Contemporary Art museum. Great show curated and narrated by fellows from the local university. They pulled whatever they wanted from the permanent collection. It felt so personal. And the building was… Read more: Capetown— just cruising

We are now in Capetown, but I wanted to show you a picture of the Falls. It’s really amazing. We choose NOT to do this option. But saw people who were really sitting on the edge of the falls. We had a sunset cruise. And saw the last thing on my wish list… a hippo… Read more: Leaving Victoria Falls

I haven’t posted many videos, but I love seeing the animals move. Here are some of my favorite videos: This next one is of Cape Buffalo, but look carefully for the impala ( I think) that runs through as well! And my spirit animal I know these take a while to download (at least when… Read more: Animals on the Move

We are back in WiFi land. On our way to Victoria Falls . This is the airport we left This was the super moon last night And just a couple safari pictures Love

It’s really peaceful here. I think these pictures gives you the feeling.. Then we were lucky enough to see Painted African Dogs. They were almost made extinct by the ranchers, but are coming back in this area. And up close with a Cape Buffalo. Our guide said these are one of the most aggressive animals… Read more: Delta Game Drive

Ok. We just flew to Okanaga Delta. As we are leaving the airstrip in this Our guide pulled off the road by the airstrip as our plane took off. I asked our why he pulled off. He said he looks for animals on the airstrip and flashes the jeeps lights if there are any. I… Read more: Landed

We drove along way from our camp…but goodness it was worth it. This was our first group (and only Lion). They had eaten a BIG dinner…look at their tummy’s. Then we were between this leopard and her hyena (dead).. she is snarling at us And some cutie pies Crazy day. To see these animals living… Read more: Big cat day

We had our first drive in the GAME park in Botswana. It felt like my brain had been rewired! BUT. All I wanted to see in Africa were giraffes…so here was the very best part of my day: And a few more animals (we are in Botswana after all!) Just amazing! Loving it

We are on a river and today we went out on the river in the morning a night. We also saw crocodiles, blue balled baboons, a TON of fish, kingfishers, jacana, little bee-eater ( for my birding friends) and baobab trees. And a lot more.

Here is your Map We haven’t actually seen the Falls yet.. just flown in and out. We flew here on a 10 seater plane. Not my favorite mode of transportation!!! I love these tracks we see: This morning we were on the river!

Here is what a safaris looks like: This is what we look like on Safari.

We left Zimbabwe today, but I wanted to show you our tent And an outstanding picture of me!!! Love you all!

OATS (our tour company) emphasizes cultural and community with their tours. Today we visited a homestead. It feels goofy to me at first and then really special at the end. And a local restaurant. Transporting meat. Tomorrow off to Zambia.

Oh my!!! This is really fun! We saw giraffes, elephants , baboons, African quails, hippo, crocodiles, impalas, zebras, eagles,cool bright blue bird and little otter looking things that are actually related to elephants (rock hyraxes)

Long day of travel, but this is what we saw on the way to our (very lovely) lodging! Going to sleep. We are up for a morning game run at 6 am. Love you all.

We went to the Apartheid Museum today. It was extremely well-done. It gave a lot of the history through photographs and they had managed to save a lot of the items from the apartheid era, the protest era and the first real election! Looking at the 10 and 11 year olds that are here for… Read more: Apartheid

We made it here. 10 hours of flying from Frankfort. (Thank you business class!) This is from my brother, Matt. Is that insane!!! There is a competition for the best middle school band of the country happening tomorrow night. ALL the kids are staying here. Great energy!

Looked through my pictures and realized we had done a better job than I thought taking pictures. Just an incredible Museum And we are off to the Airport, South Africa and beyond. I’ll post when I can!

Remember in Copenhagen the Natural History Museum was all apologetic about showing dead animals. Well…..not so much in Vienna. (And we loved it) Last day here. Excited about the Safari, but doing a lot of “saying goodbyes” to this amazing adventure. It was more in every way than we could have imagined. Thank you for… Read more: Natural History Museum

There are two of these. They face each other. They were made by the King to be Museums! The collections are equally stunning, but to be housed in such beauty is just a joy to see! (And the food at the cafe was good and reasonably priced.)

The teenager from Milan said the Palace was her favorite part of Vienna. It’s a 20 minute walk from our apartment..so we went today. I kinda liked it.. The Audio guide gave more history of the people than the things… which I prefer.

We went to the Sammlung Batliner-Albertina main museum. In 2007 Mr Batliner gave his collection to the Albertina. Valued at 1 billion €! He collected amazing works, obviously, but I liked this exhibition because there was a pretty quality to most of the paintings. And I like that. They did the sculpture/painting thing here too.

We went there last night. It had several things I did NOT like..ask me when I see you so I can rant! But they did thoughtfully combine pictures and sculpture. More so than I have seen before. I really liked that. I felt like each piece got more interesting next to the other piece. Love,… Read more: Albertina Modern

We have tried to watch movies filmed in our city. “Before Sunrise” had the Vienna Ferris wheel in it. Shared our car with a family from Milan. The 15 year old girl was so delighted she could actually speak English with me…really fun!,,

Decided to read about our safari. They said “Don’t wear black clothes” Today’s adventure What we look like when we buy two special exhibition tickets: Cigarettes machines!!

Three museums here have showcased a movement called Secessions. They included Klimt (now known as “my boy”] Here are self-portraits of a lot of them.

I’m always fascinated by these painters, I know the last thing they want to do is chat…..but I have a million questions for them.

Wandered into this museum and found this piece Here is my quilt Then… found this room at another museum Still obsessed with Klimt.. and there is more to see here! Loving life

In this park There were rose bushes And a temple Which had this installation inside: Why I love traveling!

Today made us remember why we fell in love with it. One of my favorite delights when we travel is to see the interpretation of “American” food. I love the energy of someone trying and the cross cultural expression that occurs. I ordered Avocado toast with tomatoes. It was GREAT with the pickled cabbage (?)… Read more: Ahhh, Vienna

I have loved Klimt for a long time, THEN there was quilt fabric made using some of his art AND a puzzle of “Woman in Gold”…click here to see trailer. There are Klimt’s at every museum here. I can’t wait. We were proud of ourselves, took the Metro, a tram, found the BIG grocery store… Read more: KLIMTland

And one of my favorite pictures Oh. The flowers here are beautiful

For our last day here, we both wanted to see the second half of the Design Museum. It started with explaining the elements of design…and then illustrated it with FABRIC! And then the chair exhibit! So glad we went back!

I’ve gotten progressively better at biking And it was so beautiful today we raw dogged it —no umbrella or sweater! Biked a big circle around Copenhagen.

Ok., it’s a gorgeous day here. So we went out to the canal and shared a bottle of wine. Spell check is working overtime for me, Lovely BIG installation Us And the cute family I promised you. Love you all.

45% of Copenhagen commute on bikes. And a lot on the Metro. This is what the “traffic” looks like at 9 am on a Thursday. On the other hand.. this is what the bike racks look like. Interestingly, the most upscale area has managed to prohibit parking bikes on their sidewalks. (there just isn’t enough… Read more: Bikes

Modern art museum conceived of by one industrialist. We took a train there (SO easy..paid on our phones) My favorite guys: There was a huge exhibition of Roni Horn’s work. (I’ve never heard of her. Not by her, but my favorite picture Ok.. I have to write this. It rained off and on, all day..sometimes… Read more: Louisiana

We made it to the big Art Museum here. This building was build in1896 to be an Art Museum. They added on to the back side 100 years later. The contemporary art was cool. YES… I’m totally seeing quilts!

This is a “thing” in Europe. We went to the Tavoli Gardens…sort of like those old Amusement Parks when I was little. Remember Frontier Village or Santa’s Village? But it is smack in the center of Copenhagen. Then to the Workers Museum. (I don’t know what I was thinking). No pictures. Then to a museum… Read more: It’s Monday…Museums are closed

Back on our bikes to the Danish Design Museum. My favorite exhibit was a fashion designer who was commissioned to make an outfit for different areas of Denmark. Click here to see better pictures and, if you are interested in the artistic process watch the video in the end. I loved it. hhttps://designmuseum.dk/en/exhibition/proud/ One example… Read more: Danish Design

It’s a really rainy day here, so we are doing laundry, reading and napping. Hoping for a walk around dinner when it should stop. Here are pictures from the last couple of days. The Natural History Museum made an exhibition of things in storage. They don’t like that a polar bear was skinned and stuffed,… Read more: Rainy Day

Started the day We had palms, butterflies and a lake. Suns out, so we ate on a boat.

We are here during the Jazz Festival! Listened to a Danish Dixieland Band today! Then walked over to a 1600’s castle. Cool town. After 2 months in the South where there is little concept of personal space, I crowded up next to a guy as we wear in line for tickets. His body actually jerked… Read more: Jazz

Saw this mechanical clock. Took the guy 20 years to do the math and the 20 more to get the money to build it. Completed in 1955. The slowest gear completes a revolution fastest gear completes a revolution every ten seconds and the slowest every 25,753 years. And this Greek Temple-looking Luther’s Church. (Evidently Greeks were… Read more: First Day in Copenhagen

It took me a couple of days to get my head around Lisbon. But now I can truly say it is a lovely, interesting city. We enjoyed getting to know it. I think in about 10 years it will be a world class place to visit .

When we visited Singapore (who am I) Max really loved the gardens. So we have made an effort to see them It was so peaceful. The garden is 150 years old. Which means big trees. Off to Copenhagen tomorrow!

Woke up this morning to this I’ve been watching the weather, often the heat waves in Budapest only last 3-4 days…but today it looks like there are really hot days for the next 2 weeks. So despite my LIST. (So very very hard for me to abandon a list) We pivoted!!! On our way Tuesday… Read more: Breaking NEWS

We went to Bordallo Pinheiro Museum (after accidentally going to the eponymous store..wrong subway stop entirely). He lived 1844 to 1905. Then went to the Time Out Market…much like our Public Markets (Philly, Milwaukee). SO crowded….so we went to an empty Vietnamese (4.8) restaurant across the street. I don’t get why people like crowded areas.… Read more: More Ceramic

Ok… we made it to the castle in Sintra…mostly because it was cooler there than Lisbon… I know a lot of you are suffering really high heat, but once it is over 85 my PG body just overheats! It was incredible and the pictures don’t give you the fun of it. Oh… this is at… Read more: Sintra

There are even more tiles in Portugal than Spain. They started making them in 1200. On the way to the Tile Museum we saw: The Museum was in a Covenant.

Went to a suburb of Lisbon today. Has (not very expensive) tickets to go into the Cloister It had just opened so we went into a ( you guessed it) museum for a long while. Line was longer when we came out. But we REALLY liked the museum. There was a large section about a… Read more: Belem

Let’s be honest. There are a lot of visitors in Lisbon. But we have a solution. Go to Museums! Or the Police Museum Fun day!

Decided to head out to the MAAT Museum. click here to learn more I’m loving what artists can do in BIG spaces. Nicolas Floc’h: (gotta wonder how you say his name) Tambor Terra Both were incredible. The brown is tan bark and the artist encouraged us to take off our shoes, walk on the tan… Read more: WOW!

The Castle in Lisbon is just up the hill from our house. Remember we are UP. Yesterday we walked to the grocery store. We got there by entering a building on the 7th floor and riding the elevator DOWN to the grocery store. We went early and it was peaceful and easy to imagine a… Read more: Castelo de S. Jorge