Log/Pic 73 Spain/Canary Islands, Morocco & Portugal

Above is me in a sea cave in La Gomera

So after a day in Madrid, we headed out to the Canary Islands. We started in Fuertoventura and stayed in the rural area of Villaverde at this 200 year-old hacienda.

View from within a cave on Tindaya Mountain

Bread-man pulling fresh bread from an outdoor stone stove
Bread-woman selling fresh baked bread to us

Great kite-surfing beaches. Below is a nude beach.

Took a ferry over to Lanzanote...

... to see the volcano.
Then to La Gomera to see the sea caves (1st photo)...

...and plush forests

After a week there, we flew to Malaga, Spain and then on to Gibralter-to see the rock.
From there we drove to the southern tip and took a ferry over to Morocco.

Venders everywhere
Lisa's first camel ride-in Africa-with a seperated collar bone.

Took time for some Moroccan music

Drove the rest of the southern coast of Spain and up to Seville.

Saw Christopher Columbus's Tombinside St. Mark's Church...

...and also his monument in a nearby park next to a palace.

We crossed over into Portugal and saw this graveyard within a castle.

The beaches along the southern coast, the Algarves, was my favorite part of this country. I was not the only one apparently because it was way overcrowded. After we made it to the end of the southern coast- spending two nights sleeping in the compact rental car- we drove up the east coast and then headed inland visiting several other little towns along the way.

Log/Pic 72 Switzerland & Italy

I went to Vatican City to sit through a blessing with the pope. But before that I went to the Vatican museum and spent a good long time in the Sistine Chapel. But first I...

... traveled to basel, Switzerland to see my friends Anneka and Patrick. I had met them while sailing around the Galapagos Islands and we stayed together for awhile after our cruise was over. I had not seen them in three years-and I had never seen their three week old baby, Lynn.

Switzerland was a blast and my friends were awesome hosts. They took us to Lucern where we took a boat on a pristine Lake and then got on this cog train up the mountain.

View from above

View from the gondola on the way down

We crossed over to Germany to get the German train to Schaffhousen and Newhausen to see Rhinefalls. Back in Basel we would drift three kilometers down the Rhine River.

Our hosts took us horseback riding...Englsh style. Just before our second run, Lisa got bucked off and separated her collarbone.

Rome, Italy was next. Here the Roman coliseum.

Inside

The Pantheon

To Pisa to see the leaning tower

(see website for this photo)
Five degree tilt

Then to Venice

Gondolas

Next I went to Bolzano, Italy to see the 5000 year old Iceman.
Then back to Switzerland. From St. Moritz we took the Glacier Express-an eleven hour train ride through the Swiss Alps. I arrived in Zermatt and did some hiking along the Abenteur Gorner Gorge (shown below).

More hiking through the little Swiss villages

But the real reason for this stop was to see the famous Matterhorn.

Log/Pic 71 Benelux & Paris

So this summer it was off to Europe. We started in Amsterdam. This is a shot of the famous seven bridges from my nighttime canal tour.

The real reason for my visit was the windmills.

Above is Zaanse Schans-the windmill village.
Below is a clog factory that we visited after the cheese factory.

This is Volendam-the fishing village.

Below is how we traveled most of the summer. This was in Belgium where we went to Liege-Guillemins and Namur. Here we did little more than eat a Belgium waffle.

Luxembourg turned out to be a great place. The capitol, Luxembourg, had ruins and castles, and this palace.

We went to the quaint town of Vianden...

...to see Cinderella's Castle

Next it was off to Paris, France.

Here in the Louvre we saw the Mona Lisa,

the Eiffel Tower.

arch de triumph, the obilisque, Joan of Arc, the gardens, champs Elysee, and below, Notra Dam.

Log/Pic 70 Moto & Photo

So I took a couple motorcycle trips this month-one to New York for an environmental fair, and one to Maine to see my newly pregnant Godchild Jessica. Below is a photo of her, me, and her dad Gus, my old Navy buddy.

On the way home I spent the day at Walden Pond in Mass.

This place was made famous by Henry Davis Thoreau. Below is the site of the cabin he lived in for two years and two months.

Here is a replica of the cabin.

Some of his many famous words.

I displayed some of photos at the Somers art show/contest. Here is my mom 'Glo' who came to check out the display.

Here is my beautiful niece Sarah.

Ray Kaplan looking at the rest of my work.

I went on the 'Miracle Ride' to raise money for my old employer Connecticut Children's Medical Center. Smaller groups gathered at various businesses and then we all met in Newington-about 1300 of us!

Two by two we rode.

As we passed the Children's hospital in Hartford, patients, families, and staff greeted us.

Do I look happy in the reflection.

We ended in Granby and pigged out like hogs.