Author: tarakauffman
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Rouen
After a busy day, and a warm day, we were able to sleep in and spend a relaxing morning cruising along the Seine on our way to Rouen. Rouen is the gateway to Omaha Beach which we will visit tomorrow. The river has become swifter as we move toward the Atlantic. This does not affect…
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La Roche-Guyon and Vernon
La Roche is a village of about 600 people. The Château de La Roche-Guyon is literally the biggest landmark in the small town. The first section of the Château was built in the 12th century and then two other wings were added in the 18th century. Limestone was carved out to make cliffs in the…
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Montmartre
After a morning overview of the sites of Paris we traveled north and up a hill to Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement. Montmartre originally was outside of the walls of the city of Paris and its own village. Many impressionist artists came to the Montmartre area in the late 1800’s. Picasso, Monet, Toulouse Luutrec , and…
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Moving to the Seine Port
Close to our hotel is the Jewish Quarter Marias, and this morning we wandered through the area on our way to Notre Dame. This 4th arrondissment district has been home to Jews on and off since the thirteenth century. Today, though gentrification has made this one of the city’s most fashionable quarters, it is still…
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Paris
We made it to Frankfurt early and into Paris late, but all our luggage arrived too. We found our way to the train and headed to our hotel where we had stayed in 2017. The couple that we sat by on the train waited for us when we got off and asked us if we…
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Celebration Day!
Cheers to 42 years since we tied the knot! Life is better together. We both cannot imagine starting out straight out of college, raising children and now growing (kind of) older without each other. Traveling is the best, exploring new places and revisiting some favorites as well. Paris here we come!
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August Trip
We begin with a cruise down the Seine River to Normandy and all spots in-between. Then we will take the chunnel to London and see the Cotswold area of the UK. Our final country is Ireland, where the highlight will be the opening game of the year for K-State.
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Lima to Home
This morning we took a flight back to Lima from Cusco. This city is huge and seemed similar to Mexico City. The bus ride to our hotel took over 2 hours and was only 7 miles. We had a 2 hour meal, mostly because the service was terrible. Then we hung out in our room,…
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Cusco
A little story to start with about how the Llama got its name. The Cameloids came from North America originally. They moved to Asia through the Bering strait and down to south America through central America. When the Spanish came to south America they spoke Spanish and used the phrase “¿Como se llama?” and somehow…
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Machu Picchu
This morning we traveled up to Ollantaytambo and wandered around the village. Most of this area was built by the Incas and restored. The water in the gutters gushed down next to the sidewalks and this was our first view of the amazing stonework of the Incas. The locals were sales professionals, listening for any…
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Urubamba, Peru
We spent all of Monday traveling from Valparaiso to the Sacred Valley in Peru. We had a 90 minute bus ride to Santiago airport, a little more than a 3 hour flight to Lima, Peru. Then we caught a plane for a 90 minute flight to Cusco followed by a 90 minute bus ride to…
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Valparaiso
Valparaiso was unknown to us. It is basically the port city closest to Santiago. Before 1914 it was the biggest port. At that time that was the only way to connect the Atlantic to Pacific for trade. After 1914 the Panama Canal became the safest, shortest and easiest way. Santiago and Valparaiso are both big…
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Puerto Montt
Land Ho!! Finally we arrived at Puerto Montt after 2 1/2 days at sea. Half of that was with high winds and huge swells. It was not a swell time. This area was settled mainly by Germans in the 19th century. The small town called Frutillar (about 15 minutes from Puerto Montt) has many pretty…
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Punta Arenas
A hundred and two years ago a couple came over from France and began what today is a 6000 hectare ranch (almost 15,000 acres or 23 sections). The ranch is still in the same family and raises sheep, which at this time is not a lucrative commodity. To diversify their ranch they flew in Hereford…
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Hiking with the Huskies
The Pan-American Highway starts in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina. 19,000 miles is the length of this highway, which is unpassable at many points. 14 is the number of countries that it passes through. 3 is the highway number that we took today, which is the end of the Pan-American highway. It…
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Docking in Port Ushuaia
Yesterday we finally entered the Straight of Magellan. We had had a rough night and half a day with high winds and rough seas. Neither one of us felt sea sickness, but we didn’t sleep well. Thank goodness for the straight of Magellan, it is a good barrier to the seas of Cape Horn. At…
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Port Madryn
Due to the weather we had an extra day in Port Madryn. The morning started slow, with yoga and a facial. Then we did a little shopping for the grands. On the way there was a Sea Lion relaxing under the bow of our ship. Yesterday we bought a couple of postcards, so we needed…
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Sea Lions and Southern Right Whales
The last two days have been sea days. This morning we docked at Port Madryn, Argentina. Port Madryn began as a Welsh colony, called “Little Wales”. Founded in 1865 by the arrival of 1,500 Welsh immigrants, who named the natural harbor Port Madryn, after Sir Love Jones-Parry, whose estate back in Wales was called Madryn. …
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Montevideo and Punta del Este, Uruguay
Today we traveled a couple of hours from the Montevideo port to Punta del Este, Uruguay. Carlos Páez Vilaró created this Guadi esque compound that takes on a life of its own. He purchased the seafront property in 1958 and began building with the aid of friends and fishermen. He likened it to mud nests…
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Evita
The Pink House is like our White House. The President doesn’t live there, they just do business in this house. Eva Duarte came from a poor family, not because of her father, but because he died early and left her mother (his mistress) without means. The stigma that Eva faced because she was considered illegitimate…
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Buenos Aires
70 degrees, no wind and sunny, just a perfect day to wander the streets. Buenos Aires is a huge city with 4 million people in the center and another 15 million in the suburbs. It makes up half of the country’s population. After arriving at our ship and getting settled, we grabbed a shuttle bus…
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South America Begins
Traveling to the continent of South America is a first for us. One of us is excited and the other is somewhat terrified for this voyage. It is the beginning of summer and the temperatures should be in the 70’s, except around Cape Horn where we are looking at 45 cool degrees as we cross…
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Frankfurt & Mainz
It’s always good to see Victor and his family. Their backyard is just gorgeous! We had breads, spreads and meats for breakfast. I love pretzel bread with homemade garlic leek butter. We don’t have the same kind of garlic in the U.S. At least not that we can find. We traveled a short way to…
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Shopping & the Cathedral
After the full day yesterday, we slept in and then found a really good bakery for breakfast. Since Berlin is a city of roughly 3.5 million it has plenty of shopping. We hit a few of our favorites this morning, Uniqlo, All Birds and the Ampelmann Shop. What is an Amplemännchen? On October 13, 1961,…
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Berlin
Our menu items now have numbers next to them. Back to the real world! The weather is perfect and we walked 25,000 steps today to take advantage. Above are pictures from the annual Asparagus Festival Primavera. We ate bratwurst, white asparagus soup and crepes. The soup was especially good and something we had never had.…
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Naschmarkt and Sisi’s Apartment
Just a short walk from the U1 Karlsplatz is a huge market. Lots of restaurants, food stalls and clothing. Some things, like the Sissi chocolates were priced higher than in the center Ring. It is an interesting place and if you get there by 9:30 it isn’t very crowded. We went looking for an area…
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Vienna, Austria
Second time around for Vienna, but it had been awhile, so we took an overview walk this morning. It seemed much more crowded this time. Part of it was because it was a holiday weekend for the locals and there were like eight Viking boats here at the same time. This afternoon we took another…
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Bratislava, Slovakia
The story is either this is a man at work or just a man peeping under womens skirts. If you rub his head it is said to give you luck. In the morning we have been having breakfast with two lovely British ladies. They have been teaching us their language with a colloquial slant. Just…
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Gödöllói Palace
Just 40 minutes outside of Budapest is a suburb where in 1850 a Hungarian family built and lived in this palace. They then sold it to another family and then it went to the Hungarian government. The government gave it to Franz Joseph I and Queen Elizabeth (Sissi) as a coronation gift. Since 1920 it…
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