it was indeed, a milestone of a year. bim is now officially a card carrying medicare senior citizen! after all these years of senior discounts at the movie theater – dahtahdah – it’s now official! stamped and approved by the government!
whew – where did that year go?
bim decided it was time to visit the dentist – the friend that moved to vienna, austria a few years ago. about ten hours into the flight from san francisco to munich, bim noticed a deviation in the flight course (those engineer pilot types…) to a much more southerly route into europe. we found out about the explosion of the icelandic volcano after landing two hours delayed in munich. very fortunate to barely make the connection and get on the plane to vienna, as it was one of the last planes flying in all of europe for the next three days! people all over the old continent were stranded for days in airports waiting for the volcano dust to clear, while we were on the ground walking our little toes to exhaustion exploring beautiful vienna!
any viennese guidebook worth its weight in cream and sugar devotes at least one chapter to “wiener kaffehauser” (traditional viennese coffee houses – nothing anywhere in the world compares!) – and (surprise!) it’s the largest chapter in the book. yes, we did indeed explore at least one cafehaus per day – we called it resting our aching feet!
ten days in vienna and budapest – and it was time to head over the alps and south to italy, first stop, venice. city of ever-changing light, a photographer’s paradise!
we rented an apartment, with the full moon rising behind the church across the canal.
we stayed for a week, and patti would have liked to live there for a year. call me for the details!
the day after the home-bound plane departed, the rome airport closed down due to that pesky volcanic dust in the atmosphere! lucky again!
seven months later and it’s solstice in sebastopol….
12. 21. 2010
the last time a lunar eclipse and winter solstice occurred on the same day was in 1991, but before that it had not happened since 1619! and it won’t happen again for 84 years!
we returned yesterday from basking in the 82 degree tropical climate of maui hawaii and have been enjoying the sebastopol version of the pineapple express for the past 24 hours – cold, wind, hail, rain, grey – you get the picture… as the dreary daylight transformed into the darkness of night, the clouds dissipated and by the time the earths shadow started to darken the full moon, we were fortunate to enjoy the entire 80 minute lunar eclipse!
the tropical review will be short and sweet! two weeks in the middle of december on maui – doing nothing. leisurely early morning breakfasts of kona coffee, strawberry papaya, apple bananas, local pineapple. followed by an hour or so of snorkeling in the 76 degree turquoise calm pacific ocean – otherwise known as an aquarium, filled with brilliantly colorful fish and green sea turtles.
midday lunch, naps, reading…. late afternoon walks on some perfectly beautiful peachy colored crescent of a sandy beach, lined with palm trees.
followed by postcard sunsets,
the occasional humpback whale spouting, breaching, or fin slapping in the distance.
we hope this (short! i tried…) holiday missive finds you happy, healthy and wise!
we wish you a very...
view photos+videos at the travel gallery : www.bimpix.com
"there is more to life than increasing its speed"
- gandhi -
