Monday, May 10 — Day 17: Plain, Wisconsin to Worthington, Minnesota (continuing on the Passage Across America)
Visit to Taliesin, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal estate, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The second photo is his school, one of his earliest designs that he constantly revised over the years. The first is the only restaurant Wright ever designed, near the end of his life.
Dayton House Bed & Breakfast in Worthington, Minnesota Continue reading
Monday, May 18 Needless to say, after such a late night last night, we were off to a slow start this morning. By early afternoon, we had finally gotten moving. The other day when we were at the aquarium, we had noticed the exhibition hall next door was featuring a traveling DaVinci science exhibit. Another family friend had seen the exhibit when it was in France and had said it was wonderful, so Eric and Christi decided to go see it today. We dragged Andronikos and John with us.
Christi is ashamed to admit this, but she Continue reading
Friday, May 15 On Tuesday morning we flew to Athens. We had gotten lucky and found plane tickets at literally half of what they normally cost. The recession must be really bad to get such cheap tickets during prime tourist season.
We landed in Athens on Wednesday in the late afternoon. Needless to say, it had been a long day of travel. The flights were uneventful. Traveling by plane always makes us appreciate how nice it is to travel by boat. Yes, sometimes travel by boat is miserable, too, but at least on the boat you aren’t cramped into small seats, can get some sleep, can eat or drink whenever you want, can watch a movie of your own choosing, don’t have to listen to screaming babies, don’t have to worry about lost luggage, and don’t have to smell people who have been traveling for 26 hours and need a shower (including ourselves).
Upon arrival in Athens, we went straight to our hotel in downtown, got dinner and crashed. We were up early yesterday morning so we could walk around a bit before meeting Andronikos. We picked a route that took us down streets we have never been on before so we could catch some new sights. We probably walked about 5 miles total and it was lovely. We talked about how much nicer the city has become over the years.
Athens is a fairly homogenous looking city, mostly 8 10 story blocky buildings dotted with Byzantine style churches. You can differentiate the newer churches from the very old ones by their placement. New churches fit the layout of the street. The old churches are in odd places, like hanging halfway out into the street, tucked between two other buildings, or an appendage off of another building. Here is an example of an old church in an odd place
Also, here and there you pass Continue reading
Monday, May 11 We spent most of last week running errands and getting situated. We are a little surprised by how much there is to do and how long each thing takes. We also spent some time with our parents. We knew our parents would be happy that the trip was over, but we can’t even begin to tell you how ecstatic they are. As you would expect Continue reading
Today was errand day. We went to an internet café, the grocery store, and to several gas stations in search of diesel engine oil. The grocery store we went to is called Tesco and it is like a Super Target, and very clean and nice inside and outside. There was also a section where you could buy foods in bulk. We are delighted to report that there was a big selection of heat and serve foods with English labels, however, most of the canned foods were labeled in Thai, so we didn’t get many canned goods. BTW, prices for alcohol and cigarettes are much lower here with tax than in Langkawi duty free, so we should have stocked up here.
A friend of ours from home that had recently visited Thailand told us we needed to get a pancake from a street vendor. We were pretty disappointed with the pancakes we had gotten in the restaurants, but we saw a street vendor selling dessert pancakes and each got one only because we trust our friend’s judgment on food. They turned out to be paratha bread filled with the sweet(s) of your choice. They were to die for good. We all got a second one.
In the evening we went to a show called FantaSea, which is billed as a Vegas style show. A van picked us up at 1830 (6:30 pm) and took us to up the coastal road, the same road we had taken with Jennifer and Koy to Patong. Beyond Patong there are a lot of big, fancy resorts lining the road. We were let out at the entrance to the park at 1930. Park? We thought we were going to a show! The area where you buy your tickets has elephant head columns and the ceiling is painted in a way that looks like it is from a Thai Disney cartoon. There is a pond with a waterfall and with statues in it that look like Thai Disney characters, including the Thai Little Mermaid.
We entered into the park. There are Continue reading