Author Archives: wes

Wes and MarlowIsola di Procida, Napoli, Italia15 October 2019We are twenty days into this voyage. I say voyage rather than “vacation” because we have become quite good at immersing ourselves in our varying locales. In Italy, we have become able to express ourselves in the local language. We have had meaningful late night conversations withContinue reading “Isola di Procida, Napoli: 15 October 2019”

Wes and MarlowMenaggio, Lago di Como, Italia25 September to 2 October, 2019I read this week Qantas Airlines will make a twenty hour non-stop flight. A commercial non-stop of that length has never been made. The jet will have a few dozen passengers. There will be various research specialists on board to study how the flightContinue reading “Menaggio, Lago di Como: 25 Sept to 2 October 2019”

We enjoyed our stay in tiny Ollantaytambo. Once, long ago, Ollantaytambo was probably a sweet village. Though the Spanish clobbered it in the 1500’s, it remained more Inca than Spanish. The layout of the town, it’s stone roads and paths are all Incan. Today, as a point of departure for Machu Picchu, it’s tiny stoneContinue reading “Peru, Part Two: 4 May 2018”

Machu Picchu was magnificent. It is, somewhat, the tip of an iceberg of magnificence in the Andes. Machu Picchu sits in a valley, a very long valley. The main river snaking and rushing through the valley is the Urubamba River. There is a museum in Lima, the Larco — one of the world’s great museums —Continue reading “Machu Picchu and Lima: 7 May 2018”

We are five days into our Peru trip. We arrived into Lima on Monday in the late afternoon. It was still daylight for our drive to the Hotel Antigua Miraflores, which happens to be in the neighborhood called Miraflores. Miraflores is upscale. There are Embassies, red clay tennis courts, the city’s top restaurants and itContinue reading “Peru: 29 April 2018”

On the drive from Udine to Trieste we made two stops. The first stop was to see the urban planning oddity which is Palmanova. Built in 1593 as a Venetian city in the form of a nine-point star. The concentric streets radiate outward from the central piazza. Aside from the three entry points, what youContinue reading “Aquileia and Trieste: 21 May 2019”

We had a smooth transition from Vienna to Udine (Italy); several days ago. We rode a train. It’s route has UNESCO World Heritage status because it passes through villages which are a hold over from a century or two ago. There are no “cities” on the first half of the route. There are villages. Bucolic.Continue reading “Udine: 19 May 2019”

Steirereck restaurant, as seen from the park. It is hard to believe that within are still the bones of a 19th century dairy. Yes, we have been to concerts in Vienna. But we have also eaten. This weekend, in the Stadtpark, there was a bio (organic) food fair. About fifty, maybe more, vendors set upContinue reading “Vienna: 14 May 2019”

Wednesday, 8 May 2019We are seated outdoors under cover of an awning with heat lamps. It is still daylight. Across the street is the Vienna Konzert Haus. Another block away is the Musikverein, the home of the Vienna Philharmonic and the room where they were led by Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. Within a radiusContinue reading “Vienna: Wednesday, 8 May 2019”

We picked Vienna, for this trip, in part for the grand hotel availability and also because it is feet away from the Musikverein concert hall which is a hive of outstanding classical music events.When I was a boy of ten I heard live and up close a violin. It was played in a small elementaryContinue reading “Vienna: Anne-Sophie Mutter; 9 May 2019”