Greek Island Experience

This morning we woke up on the island of Hydra (pronounced ee-drah) and have the morning free before we head back to Athens. The island is serviced primarily by donkeys, who hall everything from people to luggage to food to bottled water (pic related). Overall a nice quiet island with plenty to explore for a […]

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Best Travel Partner Ever!

I am one lucky lady in many ways that I have Ben in my life – just one of those reasons is that he is an amazing traveling companion. Examples? Here they come… Ben has a positive attitude through every stressful situation. No spots left on the night train to Venice? No problem – let’s […]

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Urchin Care Clinic

The first thing that we start talking about when we arrive at our host’s, Rachel and Dimitri, house in Athens is the beach and swimming. It’s very warm here (95F) and “going for a dive” is a part of the culture. So, within a few hours of our arrival we were being whisked away at […]

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Athens

…Grease.  Yep, we made it. Land of slickback hair, blue jeans, dancing in the streets, singing with Olivia Newton John…. More later, we’re very happy to be staying here with our friends Rachel, Dimitri, and Jake. Beautiful house with a beautiful view of the Aegean sea from our private loft. We’re off to jump off […]

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Tour de France, Stage 17

Warning: very long post that will bore most everyone. Our tour experience had us waking up at 6am to guarantee early access to the mountaintop town that we were using as a base for our spectating. Each morning we have a few crucial tasks to complete before too long, and this morning was no exception. […]

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Fiat Accompli

Woke up in Genoa yesterday morning and walked to the local Europcar (yes, I have the jersey and shorts!) to pick up our adorable Fiat Panda. There was a bit of apprehension as the official rules suggested I would need an international driver’s license (something easily procured from that genuinely evil organization, AAA). But the […]

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Milano

No, not the cookies.  But equally delicioso.  We’re recovering from a wild and crazy day watching the Tour de France in person.  We were on the border of France and Italy (on the French side) at the Col du Montgeneve.  This was the first climb of the day, a category 2 climb, and we were […]

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Flora and Fauna

Part of our time in Cinque Terre was catalogging the various species of plants and animals (edible for the fomer, inedible for the latter).  This picture illustrates one of Liz’s favorites: This sample chose to stay on the mountainside so our experiments have concluded. There are other examples, however, including the native water mammals: Finally, […]

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