Some time in early July – as soon as we can get ourselves organized for another trip – we’ll be heading north from Anacortes into the Salish Sea for about four weeks. We plan to blow through the San Juan and Gulf Islands quickly as we head toward the Broughton Island group. Never heard of …
Poof! Just like that, and a few tons of carbon in the atmosphere later, we’re back in Seattle. Since this blog exists primarily to share travel photos with friends and family, I’ll be going silent until our next trip begins some time in July. But before then, I want to share a few photos from …
Monet was famous and going blind from cataracts when he came up with the idea of creating a set of huge paintings inspired by his “water garden”. He envisioned a space where the harried urbanite could go to be surrounded by tranquility. Some say that the conversion of an old greenhouse in the Tuileries Garden …
I was going to title this post “Monet-land”, but decided that it sounded snarky. My point is that Giverny is a perfectly pleasant small village, but no one would visit if Claude Monet had not come here to paint. The aura of his presence, and the ability see the pond where he painted the famous …
Here we are, at the end of our five week ramble through England, Germany and France. Before taking the Eurostar back to London to catch our flight home, we thought we’d spend a couple of days in Paris. On previous visits, we’ve stayed in small, usually friendly, hotels – next to the elevated railway, or …
Leonardo, a son of Tuscany. Proudly claimed by Vinci, his home town. “Leonardo da Vinci”, get it? So how did Leonardo come to be buried in France? Why did he bring the Mona Lisa with him when he moved to Amboise a few years before his death? Before answering those questions, a bit about the …
As you may know, France is criss-crossed by canals. These were originally used to transport goods, but are now mostly used by recreational boaters. At the end of the 19th century, officials were unhappy with having the main north-south canal cross the flood-prone Loire, so they decided that a bridge needed to be built to …
Departing Strasbourg with some reluctance, we made a short drive to Nancy (see pronunciation, above). This much smaller city turned out to have a beautiful central core. Left unphotographed is a large and popular park with the usual French compliment of strolling paths, ponds, and places to drink wine. Maybe part of my good feeling …
Most churches are inarguably better decorated on the inside than the outside. After all, that’s where God and the parishioners money reside. But Strasbourg Cathedral calls that conventional wisdom into question. Sure, the interior is fantastic, including a set of organ pipes that have been affixed high on the wall since the 14th century. But …