Always on the Verge

Okay, you sharped-eyed readers – you know those are not olive trees. They are just a sample of the hectares and hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres, in case you were wondering) of grape vines we drove past as we made our way from Valencia to Fuente de Piedra, a small town that put us equidistant from a number of things we wanted to see on this next leg of our travels. Our next stop:.. Read More

Valencia: from our downtown third floor flat we enjoyed a week of busy urban living. We were less than a mile from the historic city center, less than a mile from the modern art museum, and within temptation’s reach of a multitude of restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries. By walking just a few blocks from our rental we came to what was once the river Turia. The river has been diverted (a response to a.. Read More

What a week! Probably our busiest one yet on this year of adventure…and I must give thanks to the friends who insisted that we not just visit this area but that we allow plenty of time to enjoy the wide range of delights to be found here. As it stands, we already know we want to return to go to restaurants we missed, to linger in museums we found captivating, and to just soak up.. Read More

After our two months in Guanajuato it was time to move to another nest – this time to Santiago de Querétaro – the capital of the state of Querétaro. We had visited here briefly last winter (see Hanging out in Querétaro with Maria) and decided that it would be fun to spend more time getting to know this area and all it had to offer. For our first few days my sister and brother-in-law were.. Read More

Our lovely casita rental includes a weekly cleaning service – which we much appreciate; and, though we really don’t get our nest too messy (as evidenced in the photo), it is nice to have things freshened. Our gals (they are always gals) arrive promptly at 10am, and we leave the house until they are finished – which means being gone until at least 4pm. It is not as if they are slow (though they do.. Read More

Well, it’s official…we have had our first all-of-the-family holiday stomach flu marathon. It started with our sweet grandson (who we though was just having the normal little guy tummy changes), then on to my daughter-in-law and myself (and we tried blaming it on the frappes), then one son, then the other, and finally my Bob. It was the classic domino transmission, and it made me recall similar circumstances and previous holidays with my family or.. Read More

We have landed in our winter headquarters, and since this is a new location for us (still Guanajuato – but in Valenciana, not Guanajuato City) I thought an afternoon on foot would be a good way to begin.

  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this latest blog post figures to come in at over 50,000. So many interesting things to see that I am going to let the places we visited pretty much speak for themselves.  But before all of that, a few comments on our latest rental – which I do not have pictures of. (It was lovely, just not something that cried to be photographed.) We stayed.. Read More

Just lodged for 10 days in a converted sheep barn in Vence, France.  Had the joy of some fabulous and disappointment of some not so fabulous meals. We were busy enough, but not so much that we succumbed to full vacation mode, as we balanced outings with restful days and evenings. And then there were the mosquitoes…   Where we stayed:               What we ate:        .. Read More