Winging it back to the US of A, or: Police State, ho!

London and Princeton, Monday, June 9, 2025 We regretted the big meal Sunday night because it limited our capacity to enjoy the remarkable breakfast buffet at The Londoner. Not that we suffered. Easy jaunt on the tube from Leicester Square to the Elizabeth Line at Tottenham Court Road, and on to Heathrow, where we breezedContinue reading “Winging it back to the US of A, or: Police State, ho!”

The Rain in Spain…

Madrid and Cordoba, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 The wait at passport control in Madrid was just silly: something like an hour and a quarter standing in line foll0wed by the most cursory passport check imaginable. Things went pretty well after that: a shuttle bus brought us from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, where trains leaveContinue reading “The Rain in Spain…”

New neighborhoods, new colors

We started the day by getting our Covid tests; it couldn’t have been easier, all rumors to the contrary. What the newspaper reports of long lines with multi-hour waits failed mention was that this was for free testing; paying a small amount at a labratory reduces the wait to…zero. Our plan for the day wasContinue reading “New neighborhoods, new colors”

Iceland…not our last trip

Wednesday, August 3 Iceland is a deeply moving place, a place that made us reexamine our relationship with nature. As Sue aptly said, the distance could not be greater to a place like Chianti, where, as Fernand Braudel long ago noted, humans and nature have found a harmonious balance. Humans carve out a somewhat tenuousContinue reading “Iceland…not our last trip”