Heading up to Thurso from Inverness where I had a good stay at a B&B ten minutes walk to the center. A sweet little place and a bit more room than my Skye retreat in Portree. Inverness seems to be a mini-Edinburgh. Very manageable. I took a local bus out to the Culloden Battlefield where…

Sitting on the train (yes, train) from Skye to Inverness. I had no idea there was a bridge and that it was so close to the “mainland.” I arrived from the south via a ferry crossing and leaving to the east in the 2 car train. Whew! They just turned on the a/c. Not a…

Here I am sitting on the “Harry Potter” train heading to Hogwarts…oh, no I mean Maillig. I’ve learned more about the Jacobites in these couple of days than I knew in all my long life. This is called now the Jacobite train trip since Harry retired. Well actually long before. I happen to have a…

Oh my, Oh my…I spend about 2 hours a day figuring out where to go next. Such a problem. Right now I’m in Edinburgh and loving it. Such a Harry Potter world…alleys, dark corners, sinewy stairways, towers, old soot colored buildings. The city is built on two levels with “bridges” spanning the dales below. It’s…

If you purchase an item in Europe you qualify for a tax refund when you leave the country. One thing of note: the “country” means the entire European Union. So, if you buy something in Lisbon and then go to Mallorca you are not able to get the refund. Then if you continue on to…

Boy, this is getting boring. One beautiful place after another. They say you can’t go home again and I’m not sure that one would want to. The Balearic Islands which include Mallorca and Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentara are situated off the Spanish coast. I had the good fortune to spend some time with friends who…

June is party time in Lisbon. Every street corner, Praça, miradoura has something going on. It’s the feast of Saint Christopher with singing, dancing, parades going on throughout the city. The Bairro parade takes place in the 12th which has all neighborhoods participating for the ultimate prize of best presentation. Don’t plan on a quiet…

Since my last post I’ve made some moves both physically and mentally. I feel pretty much at home in Lisbon now but started watching too much TV. That Netflix will really get you going. Anyway, I think I told you I went on a little cruise around the Mediterranean with a friend. We hit some…

The year of living lazily is going well. Heading from Roma on the train to Napoli and then on the ferry to Ischia (“taking the cure” island)…one over from Capri and more “Italian” if you will. This is definitely taking it easy. Nothing to do but stroll, shop, head to the spa and dine. This…

Let this be a warning…think twice before you decide to travel in threes…or rather, think thrice. This is definitely a first world complaint but, nevertheless, it is a warning. It makes it doubly hard when two of the three speak Italian, and two of the three speak English. Being the solo English-speaking guest of the…