A Life, Lived

Travel Tuesdays - Thanksgiving in Sonoma

In 2014 Mom, my sister Rose, Paul and I travelled to Sonoma for a week around Thanksgiving. We flew into San Franscisco and after spending a few days there we drove north to the Russian River valley area. We rented a house in Guerneville and spent the week travelling around Sonoma. We visited an art preserve, wineries, wandered historic Sonoma, checked out the historic towns of the Russian River Valley and Fort Ross the old Russian Fort on the coast. We recreated a pic we took on our last evening in the area in 2004 on our final night - dinner at the famous Rivers End restaurant.

Welcome to PEI

We recently spent a week on PEI. Because of the car rental shortage we flew to Moncton, New Brunswick (where we could obtain a rental car) and made the two hour drive to PEI. After we had crossed the Confederation bridge we pulled over in Bordern-Carleton to take some pictures.

Travel Tuesday - Sant'Antimo

The Abbey of Sant’Antimo, a former Benedictine monastery is situated in a picture-perfect setting just about 10 km south of Montalcino, just below the medieval hamlet of Castelnuovo dell'Abate.

It’s one of the most important examples of monastic architecture of the 13th century and by far the most important Romanesque building in southern Tuscany. The church was built around year 1100 and took the place of an older 9th century abbey. Only a few parts of the first abbey are left. It belonged to the Benedectines, and to the Guglielmite friars thereafter.

The Abbey was founded in the era of Charlemagne, and is a prestigious example of the meeting between French and Lombard Romanesque architecture. It was then enlarged in the 12th century.

We were lucky to visit it on our last trip to Italy.

Travel Tuesdays - Rome

In March of 2018 I spent a solo week wandering Rome. Here are some shots from that trip.

Travel Tuesday - London

Some more shots from our last vacation pre-COVID to London.

Travel Tuesday - London

Our last real trip was in March of 2019. We spent a week in London. Somehow that trip popped into out minds this weekend and we spent some time reliving the memories.

I'm doing the same for Travel Tuesday!

Travel Tuesday - Lucca

On the weekend I reproduced a dinner that we had had when we were visiting Lucca a wonderful walled city in north-western Tuscany. We've visited twice - the first time was on a day trip with my mom and sister. It impressed us so much that when we were planning our tenth anniversary trip to Italy we decided to stay there for three days.

Travel Tuesdays - Berlin

Last week I posted about the post Christmas my friend and I enjoyed in Amsterdam and Berlin. After a week in Amsterdam we hopped the train to Berlin. Note to self: don't take the train from Amsterdam to Berlin. While it looks to be a short distance on a map it is LONG. It didn't help that I was sick. We were in a train with private compartments - I slept in the corner and Nancy enjoyed herself talking to all of the folks who joined us for a part of the journey.

Here are some shots from our time in Berlin.

Travel Tuesdays - Christmas in Rome

Here is another collection of shots taken the year we spent Christmas in Rome.

Travel Tuesdays - Christmas in Rome

Nine years ago we spent Christmas in Italy. Much of the time was in Rome. Here are some shots from the beginning of our stay there.