August 9, 2026

August 9, 2026

During breakfast we watched as our cruise ship entered the port of Bilbao, Spain. We are on the Bay of Biscay in Basque Country. The Basque are an ancient people with a language that predates the rest of Europe. It is so old that the language is not related to any other in the world.

Bilbao was an industrial city, the biggest in Northern Spain. This industry moved to China and Bilbao declined. Bilbao’s city fathers invested heavily to enhance and beautify the river front. The centerpiece of this effort was the construction of a Guggenheim Art Museum here in 1997. Against all odds this “Bilbao Effect” succeeded turning the city into a tourist magnet.

I have seen cool photos of this uniquely shaped building, so as soon as we arrived Aimee and I got in the line to disembark. It should be a short walk to the nearby Metro Station but the jetty the ship is docked at is exceedingly long. It takes us twenty minutes to reach it. We buy a Metro Card and take the subway upriver to Bilbao.

We are early so we spend some time photographing this Frank Gehry designed masterpiece of architecture. Aimee is not impressed. She prefers the Puppy statue outside. It is made of thousands of flowers. We get in the long line to enter. We overhear that the museum is sold out for the next few days. We persist hoping to get lucky. We find they are only selling tickets for noon or later.

With two hours to kill we walk along the revitalized river walk toward the Casco Viejo (Old Town). It is very nice. We pass the City Hall and the St Nicholas Church. Both are Baroque designs. St Nicholas is the patron saint of seafarers. This church has some nice polychrome statuary inside.

The medieval Old City is filled with narrow alleys and multistory apartment buildings. Most have enclosed glass balconies similar to the ones we saw in Malta.

In the center of the old Town, we reach Santiago Cathedral, the oldest in Bilbao. This 14th century church is also a World Heritage Site, because it is a stop on the historic Camino de Santiago that pilgrims walk to reach Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

We return to the Guggenheim cutting across the center of modern Bilbao. We start our tour on the third floor and work our way down. Aimee and I are very disappointed. While we are not fans of modern art, the pieces in this museum barely qualify as art in our minds.

The most famous permanent art installation in this Guggenheim is Matter of Time, a large set of metal walls that is supposed to be experiential art as you walk through the maze-like structure. It does nothing for us either.

From the Guggenheim we hop back on the Metro getting off two stops before the cruise port. There we view the Vizcaya (Basque for Biscay) Bridge, another World Heritage Site. It is not an ordinary suspension bridge. Instead of cables holding a fixed deck, the cables support a car that glides vehicles and passengers across the Nervion River. This ‘Hanging’ bridge was built in 1893 by an Eiffel disciple and is the oldest transporter bridge in the world.

From the bridge we have a long walk along the Getxo promenade back to the cruise port. It is lined with lots of century-old mansions built in a Neo-Basque style. By the time we reach our ship, both Aimee and I are complaining about sore feet. We drop our gear in the room and head straight to the cafeteria to replenish our energy supply. Eating lunch so late, we think about skipping dinner. Instead we go, but just have a Caesar salad and some delicious Tiramisu.

August 8, 2026

August 8, 2026

This is a sea day so we took advantage and slept really late (eleven hours), plus we lost an hour due to a time change. After coffee in our room, we went up to the cafeteria for a late breakfast. We then went to a sky bar to watch the sea while reading. We are sailing south skirting the long western Brittany Peninsula of France. Two hours later we listened to a very mediocre presentation about the upcoming solar eclipse by a Smithsonian scientist before going to the gym.

After returning to our cabin, we learned we got our wait-listed early dining choice. Things are looking up. I wore the new shirt Aimee just made for me from Indonesian Batik. Humorously our wait staff is two guys from Bali. They had to remind us the Indonesian words we just learned a few months ago. A mind is a terrible thing to lose. We learned from our waiter that the ship spent 45 days in dry dock being renovated.

After dinner we attended an entertaining song and dance show.

August 7, 2026

August 7, 2026

We got up late today because this is another travel day. We snagged a last minute cruise spot a month ago. London is a port city but only small ships can make it this far up the Thames River. So we need to get to the large seaport of Southampton on the southern coast. After checking out of our London hotel we take the Tube to the Waterloo train station. There we catch the Southwestern train. Ninety minutes later we arrive in Southampton. It should be a short walk to our ship but we have to work our way around the fenced off car park.

Since we are carrying on, we can go right on our ship, Liberty of the Seas, after passing through security and getting our ship pass. We also have to check in with our muster station for a safety briefing. Then it is on to find our berth. Despite having an inside cabin, it is larger than expected. We spend the first half hour unpacking.

Aimee is hungry so we head to the cafeteria. Neither one of us make it past the Indian dishes. They were excellent. I finished it off with three desserts. Good thing this is only a nine-day cruise. After that we explored the ship. It is huge carrying some 4500 passengers.

Our ship left port in the early evening. We walked the deck as we sailed down the 5-mile long Southampton Water estuary to the open sea. We passed the huge Esso Refinery in Fawley where my old employer had an office and plant. Then we skirted the Isle of Wight along the Solent Strait passing Portsmouth and its iconic Spinnaker Tower. Portsmouth has the historic British Navy yard. I had the opportunity to tour it on the tail end of a business trip many years ago.

Since we signed up late for this cruise we could only get late seating for the dining room. Instead we ate supper back in the cafeteria. It is very nice with loads of choices. This is not going to be a problem for us. I had Crab Cakes and mashed potatoes (and more dessert). Then it was early to bed for us.

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 soon after, giving steamships a short cut of thousands of miles, the 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.