Walking the streets of Paris…Five miles/eight kilometers of blissful sightseeing with aching feet and never ending smiles…Lots of photos!

It was exciting to walk along the banks of the River Seine for over an hour on our long walk through the city.
The most romantic city in the world, Paris obviously inspired a romantic person to have this signposted, “Will you marry me, Diane?” We hope she said yes!

With multiple events, we’ve booked through Viator occurring over the next few weeks, the reputable online booking agency with customer reviews, we feel confident that we’ll have covered the main sights in Paris. The rest we’ll visit on our own either on foot, by bus or train.

Many houseboats are used as permanent homes docked along the shores of the River Seine.
This huge boat was filled with tourists on a tour of the River Seine.

The events range from as little as US $56, EU $42 per person, upwards to hundreds of dollars/euros per event.  With our budget in mind and the high cost of dining in Paris, we’ll attempt to see the other sights on our own.

Surely, our readers will tire of photos of the Eiffel Tower but we aren’t quite done with them yet. It’s quite a sight.
We spotted several merry-go-rounds along the walk.

If our future walks are at all comparable to yesterday’s we probably won’t miss much. We walked over five miles/eight kilometers by the time we returned to our hotel. I think that the last time we walked that far was when we did Petra in Jordan in May 2013, although the hills in Paris are at a minimum.

To the right in this photo is the City of Architecture and Heritage. On the left is the Palais de Chaillot.
Beautiful sculptures in the City of Architecture and Heritage.

Surprisingly, neither of us is any worse for the wear and we’re off again today in another direction. We have no doubt that we’ll have seen quite of bit of the city streets of Paris, as per our intentions in our remaining two weeks. 

Tom took this photo from the steps of the City of Architecture and Heritage.
Tom on the steps of the City of Architecture and Heritage.

At the end of the day, we were decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for 8:00 pm dinner rather than dress up and take a cab. The less cab fare we pay, the more we can pay for venues when cab fare is no bargain in Paris as has been the case in many other places we’ve visited. 

Another photo of the museum at the City of Architecture and Heritage.
The massive buildings drew a considerable crowd. However, through our entire walk, we never felt overcrowded.

As for dining going forward, we’ve begun to book restaurants on TripAdvisor highest rated list. Next Wednesday, we’ve booked t#2 on the list of 12,500 restaurants when the #1 highest rated restaurants show a cost of no less than US $400, EU $298 per person for dinner. We’ll pass on that one.

This building reminded me of an area in Minneapolis, Minnesota called “The Wedge.”
We stumbled upon the famous Peninsula Hotel where the basic room is US $1500 per night, EU $1117.

That type of expenditure doesn’t fit into our budget nor do we feel disappointed we can’t try it. We’ve had our share of fine dining and aren’t disappointed to try midrange restaurants. 

Security was tight outside the Peninsula Hotel where dignitaries had gathered for a conference. Later, their motorcade drove past us as we continued on our walk.
Our walk down the road as we approached the Arc de Triomphe.

Other highly rated restaurants will suffice as we work our way down the list. Of course, most of the highly rated restaurants require a taxi ride when the city is 40.7 square miles, 105 kilometers. 

The Arc de Triomphe was a busy location filled with cars and tourists.
The Arc de Triomphe is located in the center of a roundabout. The traffic zips around so quickly that multiple underground walkways were installed to allow tourist access to the monument.

As for yesterday, we decided to try the walk to the Arc de Triomphe which was over 2 miles, 3.22 km one way from our hotel. Sidetracking considerably on the return walk to avoid retracing our steps, we had no doubt we walked the over five miles/eight km when all was said and done.

This building was at the corner of Place Charles de Gaulle which is the meeting point of 12 straight avenues.
Midway through our walk, we stopped for beverages. Tom had a non-specialty beer and I had bottled water. Total cost EU $14, US $18.80
Walking the streets of Paris is heavenly. Every street offers a new and exciting array of charming architecture in offices, homes, apartments, condos, historic buildings, shops, and restaurants. 
From our vantage point, we couldn’t see the name of this church but we were fascinated with its architecture. Please comment if you know the name and we’ll post it.
The Flame of Liberty we passed on our walk. Behind it is the tunnel in which Princess Diana was killed on August 30, 1997.

We took photos of the names of restaurants we’ll return to after checking their prices, menus, and reviews online. Some are casual brasseries and others were more upscale dining establishments. Dining in Paris is one of the major attractions.

The Eiffel Tower as we approached from the opposite side from Thursday night.
A center view looking up from below the Eiffel Tower.

As for the Arc de Triomphe, it was exciting to see and to take photos. As a high school student, some 50 years ago (ugh) I studied French for four years, all of which lay dormant in my brain all these years.

As we neared our hotel, I shot this photo looking up of the Eiffel Tower.

Having learned during those four years about many of the historical sights to see, finally being here is refreshing. Oddly, I’ve been able to remember much of the language which I learned so long ago which serves us well as we make or way around, reading signs, menus, and in light conversation. For me, this proves that what we learned as young students may serve us well later in life.

The receipt from last night’s dinner in Euros totaled US $50.35. Notice the cost of the food and drinks was EU $25.90, US $34.78, the remainder was VAT and city taxes and service charge. It’s obvious that taxes greatly contribute to the high cost of meals in Paris.
As always , we take a photo of a pharmacy wherever we travel.

Each day we’ll take more photos than we can possibly post but, we’ll share the highlights and links of everywhere we’ve visited including sightseeing, dining, and general points of interest.

Many delis and bakeries line the boulevards.
Bins of delectable appearing treats in a Middle Eastern candy shop.

Right now, we’re sitting in the hotel lobby once again as we write today’s post. The ceiling in our bathroom is leaking for the second day in a row which was supposedly repaired while we were out yesterday. 

We always chuckle when we see these tiny cars throughout the world able to park in the tiniest of spaces.

During the night, I heard the “drip drip” once again. This morning I hurriedly showered in the slippery-floored shower, anxious to get dressed and out of the tiny room. Tom did the same. 

Flowers growing at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

Hopefully, the dripping will be repaired by the time we return late in the day. It’s a nice hotel, rated a four-star, so we didn’t expect this type of issue. We shall see how this turns out.

After dinner, we visited a local market to purchase nuts for snacking.

See you tomorrow with many more photos of Paris! Thank you to all of our loyal readers for sharing our world travels with us. It means the world to us!

Photo from one year ago today, August 2, 2013:

A year ago, we posted a story about the maintenance of our teeth while traveling by using these excellent interdental toothpicks. For details from that date, please click here.

Paris in some out of the way places…The charm of the city continues to intrigue…

The Paris Statue of Liberty, which is the second of two replicas, is much smaller than the one in New York Harbor, USA. See the quote below for details.
An inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Unbeknownst to us, we discovered that there are two replicas of the Statue of Liberty in New York’s harbor, the second of which is shown here, which we visited yesterday. See the link or quote below for details:
“The first (original) statue stands in the Jardin du Luxembourg (48°50′46.9746″N 2°19′59.36″E): an information panel on the pedestal claims that it is a bronze model used by Bartholdi as part of the preparatory work for the New York statue; the artist offered it to the Luxembourg museum in 1900 and it was placed in the park in 1906.[1] The date written on this statue’s tablet (where the New York statue has “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI”) is “15 November 1889” (November 15, 1889), the date at which the larger Parisian replica was inaugurated.

Pont de Grenelle

This second Statue of Liberty in Paris is near the Grenelle Bridge on the Île aux Cygnes, a man-made island in the River Seine (48°51′0″N 2°16′47″E), 11.50 meters (37 feet 9 inches) high. Inaugurated on July 4, 1889, it looks southwest, downriver along the Seine. Its tablet bears two dates: “IV JUILLET 1776” (July 4, 1776: The United States Declaration of Independence) like the New York statue, and “XIV JUILLET 1789” (July 14, 1789: the storming of the Bastille). This statue is shown in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets as one of the historic locations.”

Most tourists spend from three to five days in Paris, hitting all the major sites. If well planned this could be accomplished in a relatively short period of time if constantly being on the move wasn’t an issue.

We walked on a bridge over the train tracks with the Eiffel Tower in a distance.

Our objective is not only to see the major highlights at our own pace but to save time to familiarize ourselves with what life may be like living in this city, not that we’d ever considered living in a big city. We enjoy visiting the local shops, restaurants, and neighborhoods where Parisians live and conduct business and their lives.

A River Seine cruise ship, perhaps docked for the day to allow passengers to tour Paris.

After all, no location we ever visit, even for short periods, is beyond our realm of a longer stay sometime in the future. Although Paris is essentially too large of a metropolis for our idea of a long term stay, it’s enjoyable to imagine what life would be like.

One of the popular Viking cruise line’s river cruise.

As a result, we tend to examine life everywhere we travel with a profound sense of curiosity as opposed to constantly being enamored by the tourist-orientated surroundings, which may be difficult to ascertain by the level of our enthusiasm as we post each day.

When in crowded tourist areas, Tom carries this pen in plain view in front of him as a deterrent to pickpockets.

We try not to behave as tourists constantly asking questions of hoteliers, staff in various establishments and people on the street. Besides, each person’s taste is different and suggestions others may make may not be befitting our preferences. 

As we walked toward the more modern area of Paris, we stumbled across this modern shopping mall.

Yesterday morning, as we wrote our time-consuming post while situated in the lobby, no less than a dozen separate groups checked into the hotel with no less than a dozen already checked-in guests constantly questioning the staff at the reception desk as to where to go, what to see, how much to pay and how to get there. 

The interior of the shopping mall could have been in any city in the USA or another country. We looked at cameras in an electronic store but with the 40% taxes, including VAT, the prices were outrageous.

As I was writing, I couldn’t help but listen to the many conversations hoping to gather a morsel of information here and there that may be useful to us. Alas, I was sorely disappointed when we heard several suggestions that were contrary to the information we discovered on our own researching online sites, reading many reviews, and tailoring our events to our personal desires and preferred schedule.

The City of Light is mostly known for its historical architecture. However, many modern buildings occupy the skyline.

So far, we’ve asked three times for someone to fix the leaking ceiling in our bathroom (still leaking this morning after multiple efforts to repair it), to make a dinner reservation for us, and to get some ice when the ice machine was empty. The rest, we’ve figured out on our own. 

Unusual design in this building in the “downtown” area.

It’s not to say that the way we do it is ideal, especially for a shorter-term visit. But, we’ve learned to rely upon our own resources to discover what we want to do, how much we’re willing to pay, when we want to partake and how we will get there. It works for us.

This charming bag shop so well depicts Paris with its awning, quaint architecture, and highly-priced items.

Yes, we’re already booked to go to Versailles, The Louvre, The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a dinner cruise on the River Seine and much more, as we continue to research that which we feel is worth our time and money. But, also, we plan to walk as much of the 40 square miles of the city of Paris as our legs will allow.

Another Merry-Go-Round in the city.

Yesterday, we walked all afternoon with one major destination in mind, the Statue of Liberty which was the second statue in France from which the New York statue was based.

Six streets intersect in this interesting area of the city near the Place Charles Michels station.

We especially enjoyed the long walk from our hotel to the statue along the banks of the River Seine as illustrated in our many photos shown today that led us to the bridge and subsequent stairway that then, led us to the statue beautifully located on the river in its own, not so easily accessed spot.

A narrow one way street with minimal parking for residents of these buildings.  Driving in Paris and parking in Paris is difficult, to say the least. We feel it would be pure frustration for a visitor to rent a car with intentions of seeing the city.

As we walked along the river, we spotted a little Asian boy with his parents, squealing with delight as he pointed at us and then to the water, inviting us to come to see the treasure he’d found in the Seine, a family of Trumpeter Swans. It’s moments such as this that make our travels meaningful.

The largest of the North American waterfowl, an adorable boy invited us to see this Trumpeter Swan family on the River Seine. The babies have yet to develop the black markings on the beak. These birds mate for life in most cases. Most likely this is mom and dad with babies.

Or, the pleasure we received in chatting with the friendly shop owner at the little store next door to our hotel that chatted with us in reasonably good English, making us feel so welcomed that we stopped by the next day to simply say hello.

Under the bridge in the area of the Statue of Liberty was a workout area with multiple sturdy pieces of equipment with a soft padded floor. There were four low rock climbing walls.
As of today, we’ve been in Paris for three days. During our walk yesterday, Tom and I spoke of the joy of having no angst about leaving Paris in 13 days when our experience already is rich and fulfilling. 
A government building.
By giving ourselves the opportunity of doing exactly what we want, when we want, and how we want, provides us with an indescribable sense of freedom, making every moment of our travels filled with contentment and pleasure.
During our three to four miles walk yesterday, we found this restaurant returning at 7 pm for dinner. The food was good with prices in euros as noted on the receipt below. Our plan going forward is to post a photo of dinner receipts as we’ve done below.
The best cup of tea I’ve ever had, French Breakfast Tea, was EU $4.10, US $5.51 for one teabag, and a tiny pot of hot water. Tom’s beer was EU $8.30, US $11.14.  We both ordered the hamburger, mine without the bun. I gave Tom my fries, leaving me with a small, delicious beef patty topped with cheese, onions and tomato with a side of wild greens topped with olive oil. I ordered a side of haricot verts (green beans) but, I see we weren’t charged for them. If we maintain this price range for most of our meals, we’ve decided to try three of four finer dining establishment on other occasions. So far we’ve booked two highly rated upscale dining experiences and will continue to book one or two more, reporting back here with the menus, food photos, pricing and the décor.  It was impossible to get a seating time over the weekends when most venues were booked through Monday evening.
Photo  from one year ago, August 3, 2013: 

No photos were posted a year ago today. As time marched on we made a point of adding at least one photo with each post. Thus, we won’t have too many more dates in future “Photo from one year ago” sections that don’t include a photo.  That date, we wrote a story about our concerns for visiting Kenya in less than a month on September  1, 2013 when there were travelers warnings posted from the US State Department about visiting Kenya. For details of that post, please click here.

Here we are, Paris!…Video of the Eiffel Tower”s light show last night…Wow!…

We were enthralled with the lights of the Eiffel Tower. A video of the light show is shown below.

We’re not city people. We don’t like crowds, loud noises, honking horns and the sounds of sirens.

We took this video of the Eiffel Tower’s light show last night at 10 pm. The video will rotate to its proper orientation when you click on it.

But, here in Paris, all of the above is part of its charm and its ambiance as one of the most beautiful must-see cites in the world. Of course, I’m not at all surprised by the sense of excitement running through me. 

This view is from the corner near our hotel.

Even Tom, “Mr. Cool and Calm” exuded an appreciative twinkle in his eyes as we watched the sights as we entered into the city while it was still daylight as the enthusiastic cab driver darted in and out of rush hour traffic. And then again, as when we watched the Eiffel Tower’s light show at 10:00 pm, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face (nor could I).

Statue on the bridge of the river Seine.

Once we were situated at our boutique hotel conveniently located across the street from the train station, with views of the Eiffel Tower, walking distance to dozens of cafes, bistros, and restaurants, we giggled over the quaint quarters, typical for Paris. Well, I giggled. Tom, not so much.

We thought this longboat on the Seine may actually be a river cruise ship.

On the trip up to our room, we were warned that we’d be entering the smallest elevator we’ve seen in a hotel, although our hotel concierge explained that there’s another hotel with a one-person elevator. With no bellman or luggage cart, we had no choice but to haul our bags to our room on several trips which explain the following photo of Tom in the tiny elevator.

Driving into the city of Paris was an experience in itself.

Our room is sufficiently equipped with a strong WiFi signal, flat-screen TV, and AC. Although smaller than a cruise ship balcony cabin, it will suffice for our 16 nights in Paris. Fortunately, the king-sized bed was gloriously comfortable with perfect covers and high count cotton sheets. Unfortunately, neither of us was able to fall asleep until almost 2 am when our brains wouldn’t shut off.

Crossing the bridge over the Seine.

Now, we begin the process of booking various tours and planning routes we’ll walk in the city. With several maps on hand, clearly marking the attractions, today we’ll begin walking through the streets of Paris. We’re booking tours to begin after the weekend crowd, although from what we hear Paris is always crowded. 

The streets are lined with one café, bistro, and restaurant after another.  We’ll never have trouble finding great dining establishments.

Last night, we dined at a nearby restaurant. Since Tom ate both his and my snacks on both flights, he wasn’t hungry. By 9:00 pm, we wandered into a nearby restaurant and I had an exquisite salad. Being unable to order meal salads for many months due to possible illness from the raw veggies, I was thrilled to dine on a fabulous salad as shown in the photo below. 

The lobby of the boutique hotel we choose for our 16 night stay in Paris, across the road from the train station.
Looking out the window of our hotel to the train station. We couldn’t be in a more perfect location.

With many restaurants within walking distance, we’ll enjoy trying a new one every night. Prices are outrageous.  Thank goodness we usually eat only one meal a day with a snack if hungry midday. Unquestionably, a decent meal for two with beverages will be no less than US $100, EU $73 in the most modest of establishments. 

Tom, standing in what may be the smallest elevator on the planet.

After dinner, we began the short three-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower only to stop dead in our tracks when the light show began and we had a clear unobstructed view. We share these photos today with the utmost of enthusiasm. Of course, many more photos will be posted each day as we commence our exploration of this magical city.

This salad I had for a late dinner last night was delicious.

Many tourists come to Paris for a week or less. With our 16 nights, we can plan an event each day, ensuring we’ll have visited most of the highlights that interest us the most.

See you tomorrow with more photos of our first full day in Paris, the city of lights. Yeah!
                    

Photo from one year ago today, August 3, 2013:

We didn’t post any photos on this date one year ago. However, here is the link from that date

Layover in Lisbon…Flight late in leaving Madeira…

Tom’s fairly relaxed at the Lisbon Airport.
Tom took this photo of me at the Lisbon Airport.

The packing was seamless. Getting out the door was a breeze by 7:00 am when my phone alarm woke me at 6:00 and I bolted out of bed to run my bathwater. It’s amazing how we’ve learned to hustle. 

We left the house tidy, finished up the last of our pizza, and watched the final episode of our recent obsession, the TV series “Luther” on BBC. What a show!

Our flight leaving Madeira was late departing. Fortunately, the next flight from Lisbon has an over two-hour layover, which now is greatly reduced from arriving an hour later than expected.

At the moment, we’re sitting in the same café as when we arrived in Lisbon on May 15, 2014 when our flight was delayed for hours where we spent over US $65 for a plain burger, a beer and a cup of tea for me.

Tom’s sipping on a beer and I’ve already guzzled my first cup of tea, ready to order another. A tiny cup of tea is hardly satisfying for this tea lover.

Have I said how much I dislike flying? I’m sure I have. Recalling the small plane we flew from Diani Beach, Kenya to the Masai Mara, Kenya, I’m amazed that I did so well, preoccupying myself writing on an app on my phone as I often do to kill time. Taking photos on that flight also helped divert my attention preventing me from any anxiety during the flight.

Now as I write this during our now short layover with 30 minutes of free WiFi, I’ve come to the realization that its not the flying that bothers me the most. Its the hours of waiting, the frustration of overpaying for overweight baggage (we just paid US $340, EU $250 at the Funchal airport), the crowded bus to the plane and the steep stairway to board the plane with our still heavy carry on.

Once the plane was finally in the air heading for Lisbon, I seldom thought about the flying part in itself. Most flights are uneventful (hopefully).

Understanding the complexity of one’s discomfort is a small conciliation in reducing one’s anxiety. I think I finally have it figured out.

While waiting “in chairs” to board the bus, we reviewed our upcoming itinerary from memory to realize that we won’t have to fly again until September 17th when we fly from Boston to Vancouver.

Considering all that we’ll experience over the next few months, relatively little flying is involved: Paris, London, Normandy, Portsmouth, UK, Cork, Ireland, the Faro Islands, Reykjavik, Iceland, Boston, MA, USA, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ending in Honolulu Oahu, Hawaii.

We discussed the issues we experienced on various flights over the last almost two years in both airports and at ports when boarding cruises:

1.  Belize: Our vitamins were confiscated by security when we boarded the ship
2.  Dubai: Our power cords were confiscated by security as we went through the line.
3.  Barcelona: Someone put a knife into our plastic bin as we were going through security.
4.  Istanbul: An over eight-hour delay on our way to Kenya
5.  Numerous short and lengthy delays in and out of three countries in Africa.

But, who’s to complain when we’ve arrived safely on each occasion? Not us.

If anything, its made us more seasoned travelers to “expect the unexpected” and continue on with a smile on our faces and the anticipation of knowing we’re on our way to yet another adventure.

We’ll be back tomorrow when first thing in the morning, we’ll head to the hotel’s restaurant for our first breakfast in Paris, sipping Parisian coffee and looking forward to sharing our first tidbits about this famous city.

                                            Photo from one year ago today, August 1, 2013:

No photos were posted on this date one year ago.  Please click here for the story.

Adeus (goodbye) Madeira!…Travel day post…A beginning to share from long ago…Reporting back from Paris tomorrow!

On sunny days, the blue of the sky is breathtaking.

As we rushed around the house preparing to leave this morning, we knew there would be no time to write a new post for today, as we usually do, each and every morning.

The variety of colors of flowers on the island have been a pleasure to see.

This past week when reviewing some of our past posts, we noticed a number of editing errors that remained in place, either one of my errors that we missed or editing errors when we had a poor connection. 

We drove through one little village after another on our most recent road trip.

I’ve finally decided to go over each and every one of our previous over 700 daily posts and begin making corrections on at least 10 each day. Unable to use the costly internet time while cruising for a month, it may take over three months until I’ve completed this task.

We’ll never forget the terraced hills, beautifully manicured for growing gardens and farming.

Beginning this process a few days ago, I stumbled across our very first post. Not only did I find several of my errors to correct but, I was anxious to see if our thoughts and opinions had changed much over the almost two and a half years since we began posting in March 2012. Surprisingly, most of our basic principles have remained the same.

Many areas had many homes built in the past 20 to 30 years as the surge of tourists has increased over the years, inspiring tourists to buy vacation/holiday homes on the island.

In lieu of writing a new post for today’s travel day, knowing full well I won’t be able to wait to write again once we’re situated in Paris, today we share these final photos of Madeira and, our very first post for those of our readers that joined us partway in the telling of our ongoing story.

What are these berries on this bush?
Blue flowers found recently on a road trip.
The flower grew from a pod in our yard.

We’d love to hear your perspective if indeed you see that we have changed (other than my hair-brained notions of how much luggage we should bring). Please feel free to comment at the end of this or any post.

There’s always heavy humidity in the ocean air, at times visible in photos.

We’ll be back with you from Paris. If time allows and we have a WiFi connection during our layover in Lisbon we may write a short update as to the progression of the day.If the flight is uneventful, we’ll be back tomorrow from Paris!

From time to time we’ve spotted religious shrines in public areas.

Here’s our first post from March 14, 2012:

“Sunday morning we both jumped out of bed at 6 am with a peculiar sense of urgency to begin the painstaking process of changing the myriad clocks in our home. Daylight savings began during the night.  

Over the 21 years that Tom and I have joyfully enjoyed life together, we seem to have assigned ourselves which clocks we each change, two times each year. We scurried about the house, mumbling to ourselves as we adjusted one clock after another, realizing that this will be the last time we will change clocks in this house, in this state of Minnesota, and perhaps in this country.  

In 7 months and 22 days from today, our journey will begin. Tom retires on Halloween after 42 years on the railroad (I retired 16 months ago) and off we go to the adventure of our lives, time being relevant to us in the future only in terms of the time of our next cruise, the time of our next flight, the time of the next ferry, or the time when we move into yet another vacation home.  

As we each finished our last clock, oddly about the same moment, I said to Tom, “We need a domain name for our future website and blog.”  

He chuckled, and said, “Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.” It’s equally odd how couples often have thoughts simultaneously. We never cease to be amazed by this phenomenon.

We had been mulling over some names the past month, as we booked our plans well into the future, knowing the time to document this process was coming near.

Last year, I wrote my first blog, WorldWideWillie.blogspot.com as our beloved Australian Terrier, WorldWideWillie’s precious life came to an end, finding solace in the process. With over 400 followers we found comfort in their invisible, lurking presence as I wrote almost daily from Willie’s perspective, his final days, days filled with love, humor, and tears.  

When Tom returned home each night, I read him the daily postings, often crying a river through the sobs that welled up in my chest. Tom cried with me, unashamed by his vulnerability, a charming aspect of his manly demeanor that which I have always adored.

We chose to honor Willie by using part of his name, WorldWide, by adding a 3rd word beginning with a “w.”  Sitting at our computers we looked up all the “w” words that may be available as a domain. We stumbled across “Waftage,” a word that means “travel gently by water or air.”

How perfect a word when in fact this blog will be about us leaving our well-established lives here in Minnesota to travel the world, leaving our grown children, including our six adorable grandchildren, other family members, our longtime friends, our amazing neighbors, and all of our “stuff,” to be sold off at an estate sale… days before we leave on Halloween, 2012. 

This blog will document a journey that at this point knows no end, a journey meticulously planned to be affordable and yet rich in comfort, visually stimulating, surrounded by nature, filled with history, all the while enjoying that which we have enjoyed the most, simply being together.

We’re lousy photographers but we’ll post photos. We don’t like tourist traps but we will visit some. We don’t care to buy trinkets but we’ll surely buy a few.  

Ironically, neither of us has ardently enjoyed “sightseeing” but, we will seek out those that appeal to us. We don’t like crowds, gridlocked traffic, loud noises, or waiting in line but, we will experience all of these.  

We are both gluten-free, wheat, grain-free, and sugar-free. We won’t eat bread, croissants, or pasta. I don’t drink alcohol. Tom drinks a little but doesn’t like wine. Tom doesn’t like to go for walks. I love walks. Occasionally, we’ll walk.

Then why will we do this? 1. Because we have figured out a way to afford to make this possible with some creative planning, which we’ll share with you along the way. 2. Because we want to!  

More than the concept of world travel in itself, we relish in the concept of stepping outside the box; getting out from behind our computers with fingers flying across the keyboard with our latest preoccupation; getting out of our comfy chairs while watching one of our big flat-screen TVs playing a popular premium hi-def series; playing another rambunctious competitive game of Wii Bowling or looking forward to the next great homemade meal.  

We have loved every minute of our lives, whether hanging out with family or friends or looking out the window for another delightful morsel Mother Nature throws our way:  an eagle swooping into the trees outside our house, a beaver building a den along the shoreline, a pack of coyotes looking for “little dog lunch.” We have loved it all.

So…we registered our domain name early Sunday morning. We poured ourselves a cup of perfectly brewed coffee, topping each cup with a dollop of real whipped cream, and sat down at the bar in the kitchen.  We both smiled, eyes locked on each other. The little crinkles around his eyes made a wave of something wonderful wash over me.

We both looked up at the same time to notice we hadn’t changed the time in the big clock in the kitchen. We both jumped up simultaneously and said, “I’ll get it!” We laughed. We have all the time in the world.”

                                            Photo from one year ago today, July 31, 2013:

Palazzo Ducale in Lucca is located in Piazza NapoleoneDecorated in the center is the statue of the Criminal Lucca Francesco Carrara.  For more photos and story of our visit to the walled city of Lucca, please click here.