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Words are inadequate to describe India, absent firsthand experience. But I’ll try…

This week marks my second visit to Venice. The first was in 2004. My opinion remains unchanged: Venice is one of the most interesting cities on the planet.

There are many hamams in Istanbul, both ancient and modern.  The hamam we visited was built in 1741 and bills itself as the last hamam constructed during Ottoman Empire.

The Pyramids were constructed between 2600-2500 BC. That means that they are the oldest manmade structures in the world.

Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt, is the second most visited Egyptian tourist site after the pyramids. Karnak is said to be the largest walled temple complex in the world, built, decorated, and modified by over thirty different pharaohs over a period starting around 2000 BC for the next 1300 years.

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. 

This blog presents photos from one of India's most beautiful states, Kerala, home to tea plantations, houseboats, and Kathakali dance.

I first visited Sweden in 1970.  Since that time, I have visited Sweden perhaps fifteen times, including ten years in a row of music tours with the group Mynta.   This current trip consists of a single agenda: meeting my old friends, some of whom I met in 1970. 

I write this blog with the Ukraine war present as a disturbing cloud on the mood of our pleasant cruise.  As I mentioned in my previous blog, the cruise schedule is very busy in the upcoming weeks in the Mediterranean.  In fact, we will be in port on seven consecutive days, including two days (and one night) in Venice.  So my upcoming blogs will combine several ports, with as many photos as the ship’s internet will enable.