I had visited Switzerland only once before in 1973, driving my VW van with my parents, when they came to Europe to persuade me to come back to the US after I had stayed out of the country for three years. By that time. . .
I’ll never forget a conversation that occurred in Norway some years ago as Susan and I met retired hospital architect, Knut Bergsland, to tour his hospital in Trondheim, Norway. Knut said, “Welcome to Norway. You should know that as long as you are in Norway, if you have any medical problem, you can go straight to the hospital, where you will be treated without charge. We don’t care if you’re Norwegian or a foreigner, with or without a visa, all will receive treatments free of charge.”
The inclusion of Lhasa, Tibet, in Viking's Wonders of China cruise was a big incentive for us to book this trip. Three nights and two full days of tours were only a superficial introduction to this ancient culture. But this was better than nothing. I don't think we otherwise would have ever planned a trip to Tibet. It's simply too isolated, and obtaining the required Chinese visa was expensive.
Flying from Beijing to Shanghai, Susan and I boarded the Viking cruise ship Yi-Dun. We had the pleasure of a Shanghai city tour in which we viewed an ancient garden containing ornate buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The skyline of Shanghai is impressive, containing the world's third tallest building, the Shanghai Tower with 128 floors, at 2073 feet high. (The world's tallest building is Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 2722 feet high. The second highest is the Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 2227 feet.)--source Wikipedia
This blog was written during our ten-day visit to Israel. My wife Susan’s sister Aliza has lived in Israel for decades. In our thirty-five years of marriage, Susan and I have visited Israel at least a dozen times. Israel is a dynamic society of high-achieving hard-working people.
Ha Long Bay Vietnam is a unique location, famous for its thousands of scenic islands in the bay. Our tour took us to a magnificent cave inside one of the islands. The photos from this area will tell the story better than my words.
