HANOI, VIETNAM – We recently spent a day at the Japanese Culture Exchange Festival, held March 23-26 near Hoan Kiem Lake in downtown Hanoi.
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Japanese Culture in Hanoi (watch the video)
Scotland’s exquisitely beautiful coastline
NEAR ORKNEY ISLAND, SCOTLAND – Right now I’m traveling with a white-knuckled husband who is gritting his teeth. No, I’m not talking about my driving. We are, in fact, riding in a very comfortable express bus from the Orkney Islands along the mainland coast of Scotland to Inverness, still a 3-hour trip once we are off the ferry.
It is a fantastically beautiful sunny morning. The rugged coastline is exquisitely lit up, with shadows in just the right places. There are sheep and cows posing in the fields, traditional thatched roof barns right next to the road, and all other sorts of daily life things that hold your eyes in wonder.
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If it’s Wednesday this must be Stirling (Castle)
SCOTLAND – Melanie and I have been in Scotland for just about two weeks now. We’ve (mostly) adjusted to the 8-hour time difference from back in Stanwood, Washington; figured out how the buses and trains work; can make proper change when we pay for something; and we’re getting used to some of the differences in language (yes, they speak English, too, but it often sounds quite different from the American English we’re used to).
In our past travels, this would have been the point in the trip when we had to head back home (and back to work) after a much-too-short vacation, with way too many places still on our “we should go there” list.
But not this time. We’re just getting started…
Continue reading “If it’s Wednesday this must be Stirling (Castle)”