Flo's bag

Flo's bag arrived at about ten thirty on Monday nite!  She was a happy girl!     We are in the Delhi airport and we double checked our baggage tags to make sure they are going to Sydney,  

The joys of traveling!

More thoughts on India

The Lonely Planet books says that the poverty in India is "confronting" and the newspaper today talked about the paradoxes in India.    Well, the poverty is confronting and overwhelming to us westerners.  Along with the poverty come the paradoxes.   The Mercedes driving down the street next to a camel, or occasionally an elephant.  Always a tuc-tuc or bicycle.    Modern air conditioned tourist  buses next to the old, un-air conditioned  and packed buses the locals ride on.   A toll road that just stops and detours to an old bumpy road, then back to a pretty good road.     Locals walking across the traffic on the toll road to get to the bus stop.   On and on I could go about what we saw while riding in our air conditioned vehicle with our wonderful driver, Arjun.   

Right next to our hotel in Jaipur, a city with 3 million residents, were old little shops and down the street next totherailroad tracks were rows and rows of tiny slum houses.    People live in pretty awful conditions.   In some of the farm fields, we saw makeshift tents that were homes.

But, these poor people are always dressed pretty nicely and look clean.   The women especially wear beautiful saris and seem to take pride in their  appearance.   They wear their saris while working in the fields, carry piles of wheat or branches or grain on their heads, while often holding the hand of one of their  children.  You often see some riding onthe ack of a scooter holding a small child.  This is in the wild Indian traffic.   They always look serene!

I have tried to get pictures of the various modes of communication and I will add some of those pictures here.

Off to Hong Kong for a one day stop then to Sydney.

Agra, Diwali, the Taj Mahal, traffic, and people of India

The last three days have been a whirlwind and an experience neither Flo or I ever dreamed we would have.      First of all,  Flo's luggage has not arrived yet.   This makes  US Air look really fantastic in that category!     Flo has been on the phone at length talking to various people trying to find out where her luggage is and when it can be delivered.    The current plan is for it to be delivered to the hotel we will check into tomorrow in Jaipur.    It should be there when we arrive!   More to come on this!

We had a three and a half hour drive from Delhi to Agra yesterday.   We passed through Noida, which is a new town that is being built with businesses, factories, high rise housing units.    This is a large scale planned community about 45 minutes from Delhi.    This town will be very different for the Indian citizens who move there from other parts of the country.   It should be nice.  Driving in India is an amazing experience.    Our driver (Arujn) is in the picure by the Taj Mahal.   He is very skilled and he knows when to be aggressive and when to be patient.   On the roads there are cars, vans, trucks, buses, tractors, donkeys, camels, bicycles, scooters, cows, goats and a little of everything else.   We have only seen two accidents, which we think is pretty amazing!

We passed through agricultural and brick making country and saw lots of farm workers who live and work in the fields.    The houses were extremely poor.   We also saw lots of poor housing both in Delhi, Agra, and other towns we passed through.   The contrasts are wide!    The country is beautiful in parts, and old, run down, and dirty at the same time.    There are magnificent structures like the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra literally next to slum housing and piles of trash all through the streets.   

The air pollution is ever present.   Most days the sky is grey.  There is no industry in Agra, so the air seems a little cleaner there.   

The Taj Mahal is amazing.     The first view through the arch was unbelievable.    We saw it in the morning and the afternoon.    

We have enjoyed the people here.    This was a big holiday weekend here in India, so lots of families were out enjoying their country.   Everywhere we went there were big crowds and we enjoyed being among them.   I have lots of great pictures!

Transitions

We have  started the second leg of our trip.  We flew into Istanbul and I was able to take a few good pictures as we approached the airport.    For this trip, the airport was the closest we got to Istanbul.    Turkish Airlines has a great lounge there and we enjoyed it for a few hours while we waited for our plane.   You meet lots of interesting folks in the airport.   We met a young Greek woman and two of her sons.   They were moving to Connecticut to join her husband and other son.   Her boys were 5 and 6 and this was their first plane trip.  We saw them until we landed in Istanbul and they rushed off to make a tight connection to JFK.   We also met a young couple and their ten month old son who were moving back to Saudi Arabia after living in Denver for ten years.   We do live in a mobile society.

We arrived in New Delhi, India this morning with no luggage for Flo!   (Still no luggage on Sunday morning, two days later!).  

She handled it well and the bag is supposed to arrive tomorrow morning!   We went shopping for clothes for her today, and I was the one who did all the shopping!

After checking in to our hotel and taking a shower  and having some breakfast, we met our driver, Arjun, and our guide for today, Jessie.  We had a good tour of some key sites in New Delhi.   We saw the Red Fort (which is closed for renovation), the Golden Temple, which is a Sikh temple.  We toured the entire temple area and found it very impressive.  There is a daily "free meal" served by members of the temple from 12-10pm to all who come for the meal.   We had a tour of the kitchen, where the Naan and lentils were being cooked.    It was very peaceful and pretty neat.  They serve thousands of people daily and do it to "serve God".   

Our tour guide took us shopping, twice!!    I bought a gorgeous pashmina rug that will be shipped to Oriental.   We looked at beautiful jewelry and beautiful clothes.  Of course, I was the one buying things!

Now we are relaxing to get ready to take off tomorrow for Agra and the Taj Mahal!    Can't wait!

Athens airport

Well, we leave Greece in a half an hour.    Loved it!

We are in the Athens Airport, which is very nice.    The people are so friendly!    So'eone just took our picture!

Greece pictures

I am posting a variety of pictures here.  The last few days in Tolon.

Last day in Greece

TThe first week of our journey has ended too quickly!    I am sitting on the beach in Tolo watching the sun go down and wondering where the week went.   It has been a great week.  We started in the hustle and bustle of Athens, learned how to get around easily on the subway and tram, visited the Acropolis, museums, flea market, the beach, and the local neighborhood where we had a wonderful apartment.   Then off to Hydra on the Ferry for a fun overnite stay and good exploring.  I had my first swim off the rocks in the Saronic Gulf.   The water is as beautiful as itis in all the pictures.  Then our wild and long ferry ride back to Athens.   We were so late getting back on Sunday that we changed our plans and stayed in Athens for one more nite.   Our local host Greg helped us out with all the rearranging we had to do.   

We were off to the Athens airport on Monday morning to pick up a rental car, and off we went to Tolo, a wonderful surprise on the coast near Nafplion.    Our classic old hotel is literally on the beach and staying here has been so nice.   We have visited Epidaphros, the best preserved of many amphitheaters in Greece, Nafplion, a pretty and protected port town, and Mycenea.   Mycenea is one of the oldest sites in Greece with amazing ruins and artifacts from a civilation from 1600-1100BC.   We have had just wonderful food everywhere we have been.   We will be looking for seafood tonite.   Since we are here by the water, we will find some good fish!  Off early tomorrow for Athens, then to New Delhi for a different experience!

Greece adventures and food

It is a gorgeous morning on the veranda at the Hotel Minoa in Tolo, Greece.   What a beautiful little slice of heaven!  Flo and I arrived here by car yesterday afternoon after an easy drive from Athens.   The roads are great and the signage good, so we arrived as we expected and found this lovely little town.   Our hotel sits on the beach and the water is about twenty feet from my table.

I am slowly learning how to use this blog, and have learned that once I put a picture in, I can't figure out how to enter more text after it, so all the text is first.  Enjoy the pictures, anyway!  

Our adventure on Saturday and Sunday was wonderful.  We left our comfy and convenient apartment in Athens, took the subway to Piraeus, the port, and took a ferry to Hydra Island.    We had some help finding the ferry, and got on just in time.  The ferry was called the "Flying Cat5", a large catamaran painted lime green.after two hours, we disembarked at Hydra, the manager of the Hotel Defini grabbed us and showed us a room, so we stayed there, right at the harbor.     We explored the island near the town, I took a lot of pictures, we had a great leisurely lunch.    Then a swim off the rocks.  The water is clear and Aqua colored and just spectacular.     Our evening was leisurely with dinner at a cafe on the side street where we had a great salad and fresh red snapper.    We met the loveliest couple from Holland who were on the Island for five days.  She was 87 and he was 88!   They were fun and interesting and very spry.   I saw them out walking on Sunday morning and had a nice chat with them.  

The food in greece has been excellent.  The salads are huge and full of crisp, fresh vegetables and tomatoes and olives.    The fish is cooked beautifully.  Breads are excellent and so is the yogurt.   We have been eating well!

When we got on our ferry on Sunday, we were in for an adventure.   The north wind had blown in on Saturdaynite and the seas were high.   The waves at the entrance to the harbor at Hydra were about five feet ( my estimate of the height.).  I made the mistake of watching the ferry back out of the harbor into those waves and it was BAD!!!!!!    When we got our turn, we were surprised at how rough our ride was.   Flo and I had taken two doses of Dramamine  and had sea bands on and still were almost sick.   The rocking did not stop for about an hour and a half.   We will not forget that ride for a long time!   Beware the north wind in the Saronic Gulf!

Today we are off to see the oldest and best preserved of 132 amphitheaters in Greece, then on to Nafplion.       

Fist picture is our hotel in Hydra, second is the beach here at Tolo.

 

Sunday morning in Hydra harbor, Greece

We have been traveling long enough to have caught up on some sleep and are really enjoying Greece. We arrived here yesterday at noon by ferry and leave today at 1:45 by ferry.   What a gorgeous little island with NO CARS or SCOOTERS.   Just boats and people walking.  Oh, yes.  There are donkeys that carry people, baggage, etc up the hills.   I am so glad we came to this island.   We are in the Sardonic Gulf, about 2 hours from Athens.    

I took a nice swim yesterday afternoon.     The water is clear and very Aqua colored.    Lots of swimmers.     I am glad I swam yesterday as it is too chilly today!

I had a good hike early and took lots of pictures.    I will post them after I get hooked up to wi-fi.

In Athens, Greece

We arrived on Athens last night only a little worse for the wear!    Our long trip was easy.    We were on a crowded airport in Istanbul for a few hours.   Great day today finding our way around Athens and visiting the Acropolis.   We will do se more sightseeing tomorrow..

Packing

I am almost packed for my trip to Greece, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and California!   The planning has been fun and a little challenging.   Next time I will book a tour!

I am new to blogging, so this is a trial.    Hope it all works!

I leave on Tuesday!