August 6, 2026

August 6, 2026

Despite sleeping ten hours two nights ago, Aimee and I both had a fitful sleep last night in our London hotel. This morning we took the Tube to Westminster. We are a little early so we walked to the Thames bridge for a nice view of Parliament and Big Ben. It looks like it has been cleaned up significantly since our last trip. The gold trim is gleaming in the sun. The bridgehead has a monument to Queen Boudica, who is revered by the British for her unsuccessful defiance of Roman rule in 60 AD.

Afterwards we got in line for our appointment to tour the Churchill War Rooms. Eerily we are standing beside another monument to the 2002 Bali, Indonesia terrorist bombing.

At 9 am we begin our audio guide tour of the War Room. This underground bunker is where Churchill and his staff directed the British side of WWII. When Germany surrendered, there was great relief and everyone went home leaving this area untouched. It is a time-warp from 1945. This HQ was merely the basement level of a government building close to Parliament. It was greatly expanded as the war intensified. The structure was never blast-proof. Fortunately for the occupants it never received a direct hit. These basement offices were tight and claustrophobic, more like a dungeon. Most of the offices had cots nearby because the hours were long. Most workers thought sleeping here was safer than at home despite the target on this facility.

Half of the office space has been converted into a museum to Churchill. He was born to an American mother at the Duke of Marlborough’s Blenheim Palace. (We visited that grand estate in 2003.) He was an ambitious politician often taking risks. He maintained his popularity by penning war correspondence and dozens of books. His popularity skyrocketed leading the WWII effort. It is shocking to me that he lost reelection at the end of the war. He eventually regained office and was active in politics all the way to his death at the age of 90!

The War Room tour continues in the core where we see extensive maps and dozens of brightly colored vintage phones. To keep noise under control, typewriters were silent and the phones merely blinked. We also see Churchill's office and bed. It was very spartan.

Finished with the tour we went topside and walked toward Trafalgar Square with its Nelson Monument surrounded by four huge lions. Shockingly there are no pigeons. This area used to be famous for these aerial rats. The nearby pubs said they don’t serve food until noon so we found a bookstore cafe for a quick meal. The Cheese and Onion toasted sandwich was so delicious, we ordered a second one.

While eating lunch I made a reservation for Westminster Abbey. A ticket is very pricey. When I first visited in 1984 it was free and uncrowded. Unfortunately my visit then was brief and I missed all the highlights. On this visit we are given audio guides again. Mass is occurring so we spend the first half hour sitting and listening to the audio.

Unlike most cathedrals, the medieval Gothic architecture of this church is not the focus; it is not even second or third. Westminster is the spiritual heart of Britain. It is the site of royal coronations, weddings, and funerals. Eighteen kings are buried here starting with Edward the Confessor, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings before the Normans took over. We see the majority of them but surprisingly they are not the highlight. Most of these tombs are elevated or behind ironwork. Plus most have the decorative statuary in a prone position making them mostly impossible to appreciate.

There are however lots of tombs of other nobles who must have been equally wealthy as their decorated tombs are just as splendid but significantly more visible.

This World Heritage Site is devoted to what put the great in Great Britain. More than 3300 famous Brits are interred here. Visiting Poets Corner and seeing the many authors from Chaucer to Dickens, it is hard not to be impressed with British literary history. There are also many illustrious scientists like Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton. Most are interred with simple name plaques. The more recent Stephen Hawking burial is slightly more decorated. Westminster is now an anachronism. Our modern grievance culture now only focuses on a country’s failures and missteps, not its successes.

The architectural highlight of Westminster is Henry VII chapel at the eastern end. It was added during the Perpendicular Gothic period and has a stunning fan-vaulted ceiling. It also contains the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I.

From Westminster we walked north back to Trafalgar Square. We passed many more memorials. London is truly a city of monuments. I wasn’t surprised to see statues of Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. But seeing Abraham Lincoln in London was a surprise. It was an old gift from the US celebrating 100 years of Anglo-American peace following the War of 1812.

We crossed Trafalgar Square for a quick visit of the National Gallery. I was pleased to find no line to enter this art museum. Aimee is reaching her limit so we speed walk the galleries. We start with the Impressionists which are my favorite. We pass a nice Caravaggio in the Baroque Hall.

In the middle of the Renaissance gallery, Aimee is saved from more torture with a phone call from an Irish cousin. We make arrangements to meet her in nearby Piccadilly Circus. We have a little family reunion at a local pub. Like many Irish, this cousin lives in London. She brought along her daughter and two grandchildren visiting from Ireland. They are lovely.

August 5, 2026

August 5, 2026

Staying up all day in London yesterday must have worked. We both slept ten hours last night. Hopefully that means we are over our jet lag.

Because of London over-tourism, most sites these days are timed entry. So today I bought a day pass to visit the World Heritage Site of Maritime Greenwich. It is on the Thames east of London, so we have to leave early to make our first appointment. It takes over an hour to get there by Tube. The last section goes through the historic Docklands. This area on the Thames, also called Canary Wharf, was once the world’s largest port. It has been redeveloped with skyscrapers set around the old water slips. We finish passing under the Thames to arrive at Greenwich.

Greenwich used to be the site of a Tudor Palace. After the English Civil War it was demolished and replaced with a retirement home for English sailors. In the 19th century it became the Royal Naval College. We are early so we grab a Cappuccino at McDonalds and try to walk around the buildings but there are lots of construction barriers for a music festival. A stage is set up in the gap facing the Thames.

At 10am we begin our tour of the Cutty Sark, the fastest ship in the world when it was built in 1869. It was so famous a Scotch Whisky was named after it. The hull was designed shallower and sleeker. The exterior planking was sheathed in a copper alloy to prevent barnacle growth allowing it to cut swiftly through the water.

Our tour starts in the holding deck where we learn about the tea that was stacked wall to wall. It would take only 72 days for the Cutty Sark to make the journey from China. Apparently that was fast.

We worked our way up past the Tween deck topside where we are met with three sail masts and a forest of rigging. Eleven miles of rope. Unlike earlier ships it had a small crew, as little as 19. They all slept in short wooden beds on this top deck. It was luxury compared to earlier times when sailors slept on swinging hammocks in the hold. It was still tough duty and sailors would often go AWOL in foreign ports. Cutty Sark’s trading advantage didn’t last long. When the Suez Canal opened shortly giving steamships a short cut of thousands of miles. Cutty Sark switched to trading wool from Australia.

Our tour finishes underneath the ship where we get a look at the sleek copper-sheathed hull. This dry dock area also has a museum of mast heads from other ships.

From the Cutty Sark we make our way through the Royal Naval College uphill. Or at least try to. We are stymied by the music festival barriers. We accidentally find the college chapel, St Peter and Paul. It is decorated with a nautical theme.

We then climb the hill to the Greenwich Observatory for our next timed entry. As the British fleet expanded around the world, navigation became critical. A major loss of one expedition on a reef prompted a royal contest to solve the Longitude Problem, i.e. knowing how far east or west you have travelled. An observatory was built on this hill away from the lights of London, to take careful measurements in the hope of using star charts. We start our tour in the Flamsteed House, named after the first Royal Astronomer. Atop his home is an Octagon Room where crude instruments were used to take measurements. A method of navigating using the transit of the moons of Jupiter was created but these measurements were almost impossible to take on a rolling ship.

Another building has a small museum on the Longitude Problem solution, an accurate clock. This allowed a sailor to compare Greenwich time to Local time allowing the navigator to know how far east and west he travelled. Prior clocks used pendulums which were inaccurate in rolling ships. The solution was a coiled spring. It had to be fitted with a mechanism to compensate for temperature swings and regular winding.

In 1883 an international conference was held in Washington DC to establish the Prime Meridian. Because England was so far ahead in this technology, Greenwich Time was made the standard. Aimee and I took our picture straddling this imaginary line that separates the eastern and western halves of the globe.

We return down the hill to the Royal Naval College and do a quick tour of the Queen’s House. It is now a naval art museum. It has a famous painting of Queen Elizabeth I. It also has a cool spiral staircase.

We eat lunch next door in the National Maritime Museum. Aimee and I both have soup. Afterwards we make a quick run through the museum. We start with the Admiral Nelson Hall. Aimee initially groans but I end up having to drag her out after she learns that this hero of the Battle of Trafalgar had lost his right arm in an earlier battle. On display is his uniform he wore when he died at Trafalgar. It has a hole in the left shoulder from the fatal bullet.

We speed through the rest of the museum. We are in overload mode. After two days of museums I have to do penance and allow Aimee some shopping time. We travel to Oxford Circus to visit the Liberty of London store. It is decorated in Mock Tudor style. Surprisingly this department store has a very large fabric section. It seems to be doing a very brisk business for upscale London.

As we were walking to the Tube station to return to our hotel, we passed a nice Pub selling Fish and Chips. I couldn’t pass it up so we stopped there for dinner. I washed it down with a classic English warm beer.

August 3-4, 2026

August 3-4, 2026

We had been trying to do our part with the closure of the Hormuz Strait and limiting our travel. So when oil traffic resumed a month ago, we jumped at a last minute travel deal. That month flew by and this morning we awoke way before the sun. Our 6am flight left on-time. In Atlanta, we used the long layover to take the showers we missed this morning.

In the late afternoon, we boarded our overnight flight to Europe. After watching one movie and a quick dinner, Aimee and I tried to sleep. I thought I was merely closing my eyes until the pilot rudely awoke me saying he was starting our descent to London. We again approached Heathrow from the east flying over the main sites of the city.

Surprisingly customs in the UK is fully automated and we were through in seconds. The Tube now extends to the airport and is also Tap & Pay with credit card. As a result we were at our hotel way earlier than I thought possible. Nothing is open this early. So we stashed our bags with the hotel and rode the subway around town. Our first stop was at Abbey Road Studios of Beatles fame. Since we are celebrating our country’s 250th anniversary, our next stop was in Grosvenor Square to see where John Adams temporarily lived while he was the first minister to England.

We ride the Tube to the Victoria & Albert Museum when it opens at 10am. It is the largest of its kind devoted to the decorative arts and design. It was built during the Victorian Era to help improve the art education of the British people. Apparently it still serves that purpose as we saw lots of students doing sketches throughout the museum.

To serve the education purpose, the museum staff collected artwork from around the world. We wandered most of the halls. It seems to have examples from almost everywhere in the world covering almost every subject that you can imagine. You could easily spend days here. Humorously we kept running into period beds that reminded us that this is a very long day and we are barely able to stay awake. We took a break in their garden cafe to have some caffeine. We have to make it through the day.

When the museum couldn’t purchase original artwork for the museum, they bought plaster copies. I really enjoyed the Great Hall of Plaster Casts. It was a great reminder of many of the places we have been to around the world. It includes the required Michelangelo’s and Donatello’s Davids, but surprisingly items like the entrance to St Petronius Cathedral we saw in Bologna in 2023, and an Irish Celtic Cross we saw in 2024.

The hall is dominated by a replica of Trajan’s Column from Rome that we saw in January. It looks so much bigger up close. It is also easier now to see the details of Trajan’s Dacian Campaign illustrated in this ancient cartoon strip.

Aimee is having art overload, so we leave and try to peek inside the Natural History Museum next door. The line to enter is a block long. So instead we find a Thai Restaurant to have a quick Green Curry. Our feet need the rest.

Around 1pm, we Tube east to “the City”. We check out the historic Blackfriars Pub, but Aimee says a beer will cause us to crash. Instead we walk across the new Millenium Footbridge that connects St Pauls Cathedral with the now trendy shore across the Thames River. The South Bank or Southwark area has always been a seedy entertainment district.

Aimee and I just finished reading the book Hamnet about the death of Shakespeare’s son and his writing of the play Hamlet, so we got tickets to see Much Ado about Nothing at the new Globe Theater. Like us, most of the audience is standing in the yard in front of the stage. We are up close and personal with the actors. It is well-done but a little too realistic for us. Between the thick English accent and the Old English script, we can’t understand the story very well. Plus it is hot in this open air theater and our legs are dying. We leave after only watching for some thirty minutes.

We return to our hotel, check in and have a quick and tasty Doner Kebab wrap across the street. We are in bed at 7:30pm.

June 10, 2026

June 10, 2026

We got a surprise when we got home from our recent trip to Southeast Asia. After losing our owl box tree to a windstorm several years ago, I finally put it back up in another tree last fall. It is not in a convenient spot to see if it is occupied. On our walk the first morning back we noticed a head popping out. Aimee then noticed two owlets sitting on a branch nearby. Our Screech Owl couple was very busy while we were gone! Unfortunately young chicks have to grow up very fast in the desert and we only saw them one more morning before they flew the coop. We hope they return next year.

It has been a busy Spring for all owls. Before we left the local excitement was a family of Great Horned Owls taking up residence at a local outdoor restaurant. They commandeered a flowerpot atop the patio column. These owls must love to party as this restaurant is packed nightly and even has a band on the weekends.

If we didn’t get enough wildlife, while we were watching TV tonight a dove slammed into our picture window. This happens all too frequently. Less than a minute later, the pursuing hawk reappeared and made off with the dove leaving only the smear.

May 27-28, 2026

May 27-28, 2026

Yesterday afternoon when we returned to our Bali hotel room, we felt shaking. Ooooh, an earthquake, another reminder of our location on the Ring of Fire. That is the last straw. Aimee insists we head home. We had a final meal with our travel companions.

This morning we took Grab to the airport. This time we paid for the Premium ride. Still only $7 for a half hour transfer. No wonder Australians love coming here. The Bali airport is named after a heroic soldier killed battling the Dutch during the war of Independence. His picture also graces the back of the 50,000 Rupiah note. On takeoff, we get a great view of 10,000-ft Mt. Agung, the active volcano that periodically gives Bali grief, but also makes the soil so fertile.

During the flight, I am served a lunch of smoked salmon salad and a spicy shrimp curry. I think Aimee and I were getting tired of Indonesian food because we were mostly served dumbed-down non-spicy food. We were the only ones in the group who liked spice.

It is a long process to get home from the other side of the world. After landing in Singapore, we take the Skytrain to our departure terminal. Humorously the shuttle goes right down the middle of the Jewel shopping center giving us a chance to view the central waterfall again, albeit only for a few seconds.

Since we are going with the wind this time, our flight back to San Francisco is less than fifteen hours. I take advantage and have a couple Singapore Slings, while feasting on the Singapore specialty of Chili Crab. We land in refreshingly cool weather. And because we crossed the International Date Line, we landed at precisely the same time as takeoff. We got our lost day back. It is late so we  spend the night at a nearby hotel.

We head to the airport the next morning early for our noon flight home. We signed up for an airline credit card last year and got two free passes to their lounge. We used them today. Good thing we had them because our flight was delayed three hours. The lounge has nicer chairs, and free food and beer. It is still a long day just to make this short last leg. Finally on board, we take off and fly over the city giving me a nice view of the Golden Gate bridge before hitting the cloud layer. The skies clear when we hit the desolation of the Mojave desert. We circle south of Tucson on our approach passing over a huge Pecan farm, the largest in the world with over 100,000 trees.

Aimee and I are both happy to be home. The humidity was a killer that we are no longer used to. Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were both nice modern big cities. Indonesia was full of traditional culture. Bali especially so. I am still amazed that virtually every home had a significant household shrine.

Unfortunately everywhere we went was crowded with traffic jams. Who knew so many people lived in this part of the world.

May 26, 2026

May 26, 2026

Surprisingly Bali has a century-long tourist history. While neighboring Java was full of Dutch plantations, Bali was relatively undisturbed. The Dutch started marketing it as an unspoiled exotic cultural paradise. The allure of topless natives surely helped. Its name even got incorporated into that mythical island of Bali-Hai in the movie South Pacific. After independence Sukarno, the first president (with a Balinese mother) continued the promotion and built a presidential palace here. During the 60’s Bali was a stop on the Hippie Trail. David Bowie’s ashes were scattered here. This morning we drove west across Bali to the epicenter at Kuta Beach. A large colorful statue of Lord Baruna, the Hindu god of the sea greets us on arrival.

Not surprisingly Australia sends the most visitors here. They keep coming despite the many obstacles. 1963 saw a major volcanic eruption. 1966 saw a bloody revolution, 2020 brought the Covid pandemic, and in 2002 Al Qaeda detonated a huge car bomb outside a Kuta night club. We walked down the street to see the memorial. It has an inscription listing all 202 victims, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

Back at the beach, I follow Aimee around the market but she finds it uninteresting. So we make the drive back to our Sanur hotel. We walk the beach boardwalk north. While the hippies went to Kuta, the rich favored Sanur. Mick Jagger came many times and got married next door to our hotel. We ended our walk at the Bali Mall which is shaped like a coconut. On the walk back I found a vendor selling that pirate ship kite.

We switched into bathing suits and relaxed at our hotel pool facing the sea. We munched on a Peanut Satay snack. I dipped my toes into the Indian Ocean. It was full of sea grass and plastic garbage. Most of the plastic polluting the oceans comes from these island communities. While I tried to stay in the shade, I ended up getting redder than I planned.

May 25, 2026

May 25, 2026

This morning we drove seven miles north of our Sanur, Bali hotel to attend a Barong and Kris (dagger) dance show. Barong is a mythical monster who battles the forces of evil. The best part of the show is when our guide gave us a behind the scenes look at the actors' preparation. Aimee, the crafter, was particularly interested in a lady weaving props for the show out of palm fronds.

After the show we drove to the western shore of Bali to visit Tanah Lot Temple. It is spectacularly located on an island just off-shore. It can only be visited on low-tide. A few years ago erosion got the best of the temple base and Japan donated money to artificially restore the island's integrity.

I was initially irritated by a kite flyer blocking my view of the island temple. As I walked to a better vantage point, I thought that it was a pretty cool looking kite, shaped like a sailing ship. I should have gone back to see if he was selling them. We finished with lunch at a restaurant with a view over the ocean.

When we travel we try to learn a few words of the local language. Usually Hello/Good Morning and Thank You. In Malay and Indonesian, it is Selamat Pagi and Terima Kasih. In Balinese it is Om Swasti-astu and Suksma. The Bali greeting actually means ‘May you be well’. While driving we passed Swastika High School making me think the words must be related. They are. Swasti-ka is a common Hindu symbol meaning Good Luck.

Bali traffic is ridiculous. It takes us just under two hours to drive the twenty miles back to our hotel. After resting a while, we went to the beach bar for Happy Hour and to watch the sun set behind our volcano neighbor. Thankfully the volcano is not smoking. I asked Aimee if she wanted Sex on the Beach. Shy Aimee said she preferred a Mai Tai. After a few drinks, I got her to agree to Sex on the Beach. She loved it.

May 24, 2026

May 24, 2026

Indonesia doesn't get too many American visitors so the closest one of the nine kings of Bali invited us over for dinner. He is just down the street and I bet owns the land our hotel sits on. One of the granddaughters gave us a tour of the home. Of course we have to wear a sarong. Like all Balinese homes it is more of a compound with several separate apartments around courtyards. Every generation of the family lives here together. Since he is a king, Ubud Royal Palace is a little bigger and quite a bit more ornate.

Today is a holy day for Bali. They are celebrating Tumpek Uduh or Plant Appreciation Day. We are also celebrating. It is our twentieth anniversary of retirement and freedom. So we get our photo taken on his throne.

This is still Bali, so the king doesn't have a proper dining room with chairs. We have to sit on the floor to eat our meal. Lucky thing I am used to sitting cross-legged.

Near the entrance is an elaborate stage. The local community put on a traditional dance performance for us. It is much better than the one we watched in Java. We are sitting at the foot of the stage and the weather is slightly cooler. Plus the tempo of the action is much more upbeat. It is very interesting watching the Gamelan band play. I can’t believe they can keep the fast tempo up for so long while maintaining synchrony.

This morning I was going to just eat cereal. I was looking for granola but it wasn’t available. Surprisingly when we travel the one cereal that is always on tap no matter where we go is Fruit Loops. How did that become so universal??

Bali is a triangular island with mountains across the top. Most of the population lives on the southern lowland tip. Bali is part of the ring of fire. After breakfast we drive uphill to the slopes of Mt Agung, an active volcano in the northeast corner. An eruption in 1963 devastated the island.

Today Bali grows coffee (Kopi) on the slopes. Surprisingly the world’s most expensive coffee is produced here. By accident they found that if the coffee beans are first eaten and partially digested by a Luwak, the local cat-like Civet, the coffee bean gets a unique flavor. Humorously they call this Kopi Luwak, Bali cat-poo-chino. We get a tour. Locals go hunting in the forest for Luwak droppings. They are like gold. Aimee and I both buy "Poo Hunter" souvenir t-shirts.

Afterwards we explore more of the local World Heritage site, Cultural Landscape area of Bali Province. Two days ago we saw the rice terraces. Today we start by visiting Pegulingan Temple. It is the oldest Buddhist temple in Bali. It has the typical 'split gate' entryway and a large Stupa. At some point after construction the Bali Hindus and Buddhists merged their religions together with their indigenous animist beliefs. This temple was buried in the eruption of the volcano overhead and rebuilt.

We next explored the Pakerisan River system that irrigates the many rice paddies. The farmers are all in a collective to share this precious resource. We drive farther up the mountain to the springs that feed the river. The Mangening Temple was built beside the water source. Local pilgrims come here to pray to the water goddess and purify themselves in the bubbling water. The colors of the Koi in the pond are vivid in the ultra-clear water.

Our local guide today served us lunch on his property. He explained that each home has a living compound for the extended family and an attached garden for fruit and vegetables. Each family also has a rice paddy nearby. Lunch was similar to the Indonesian of the last few days with the exception of a Jackfruit dish. This tropical fruit can be used as a vegetarian meat substitute. We finished with Kolak, a coconut dessert soup.

Afterwards we drove to the southeast town of Sanur and checked into our beach-side hotel. Aimee insisted on window shopping down the street till we got to a market. Instead of Aimee buying something I bought some knockoff Croc shoes. We had dinner at a local restaurant.