April 17, 2023 The entire city of Brugge (Bruges) is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Settled by the Vikings in the 9th century, Brugge grew...

April 16, 2021 We awoke today to the white cliffs of Dover instead of Le Havre, France. Because of the protests in France over the new retirement age, we were unable to come into the port. Rather than spending a day at sea, the captain was able to arrange for us to visit Dover instead. There was a shuttle with stops at both the town of Dover and the Dover castle. We stopped at the Dover castle first. We crossed an actual drawbridge into the castle grounds and gazed out over t

April 15, 2023 Today, after our walk together around Weymouth, Great Britain, Brent took a tour of the Tank Museum in Bovington to see over 300 tanks and other military machines used in key battles from World War II to the modern day. Our day began with the ship coming into to port at Portland (not Oregon). We had missed our stop in Brest, France the day before because of rough seas. We hopped on a shuttle and went to the seaside town of Weymouth to wander around. We didn't s

April 12, 2023 The Tower of Hercules was built in the 1st century A.D. by the Romans and is still in use today. It was the first place we stopped in A Coruna before journeying on to Betanzos. The artist Pablo, Picasso spent 4 years of his childhood (around 9 to 13 years old) in A Coruna. He and his dad called the Tower of Hercules, the "Tower of Candy" (“Torre de Caramelo"). Its color reminded him of caramel. The budding artist painted the tower during his stay in A Coruna. O

April 10, 2023 Brent toured Lisbon and Sintra todtay. I stayed back on the ship as I had blisters and was giving my toes a break to heal up. Lisbon was a beautiful city which featured many magnificent city squares with monuments, fountains, cafes, shops, and other attractions. The one above is Rossio Square. The one below is Restauradores Square which was built to commemorate the restoration of Portugal as a separate country from Spain rather than sharing a king with Spain. T

April 9, 2023 It was Easter Sunday when we visited Seville. Many of the houses had dried palms in their windows for Palm Sunday the previous week. It is a tradition to cover palm leaves so they are hidden from the sun and can whiten. People then braid the leaves into decorations to mount about their entryway. The one seen here is above the Casa Pilatos, or Pilate's House. A beautiful traditional house that has been turned into a museum that we visited. We started out our East

April 8, 2023 Brent and I went on separate excursions today. He visited Alhambra, an ancient citadel that was originally built as a fortress (alcazaba) in the 9th century by the Zirtians - the first kings of Granada. In the 13th century the Islamic Nasrid dynasty rebuilt the ruins of the alcazaba and added a castle for the sultan to live in. Each generation of sultans in the dynasty gradually added their own touches to the citadel. As it reached its peak of grandeur, the Alha

April 7, 2023 We had a lovely view of Tangier from our room as we docked in the morning. Today we would be exploring Tangier, as well as...

April 6, 2023 The last day in Marrakech began with a visit to Cactus Thiemann, the largest cactus garden in Africa. Next was a delicious...

April 5, 2023 The second day of the overland was spent touring Marrakech. His first stop was to see the Koutoubia Mosque. Its minaret can...

April 4, 2013 Brent began his overland adventure with a trip to the Casbah that I had visited. No one draped a snake on him, so he was...

April 4, 2023 On our first day in Morocco, we visited the city of Agadir. Because of high winds which delayed our departure from the...

April 3, 2023 Today we visited Las Montañas del Fuego (The Mountains of Fire) in Timanfaya National Park. The park's spectacular...

April 2, 2023 Today in Tenerife, we went to visit Mt. Teide. Mt. Teide is the highest mountain in the Canary Islands, as well as all of...

March 29, 2023 Today we took a boat trip to visit a sad time in history when people used to see other people as slaves. Kunta Kinte...

March 26, 2023 Today we went for a walk in the Banco National Park within the city of Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast. It is a...

March 25, 2023 Today we journeyed to a small village who farm cacao that is shipped around the world to become delicious chocolate. We...

March 21, 2023 We began our tour of Luanda with a visit to the San Miguel Fort. This was the first fort built in Angola. Although it was...

March 18, 2023 Today we flew over the Namib Desert once again on our way back to the ship in Walvis Bay. We bid farewell to Little Kulala...

March 17, 2023 Today we went down into the Sesriem Canyon which was formed millions of years ago by the Tsauchab River and was a vital...