Blog by Charles Griffin

The current rage of reality TV has amused me--especially the talent shows where thousands of people show up that think they have a talent, but do not.   Then, when a judge tells them to try another line of work, the wannabes get very offended. It seems silly, doesn't it? Yet, here we are with a web site full of wannabes who do not have a snowball's chance in hell of ever...

Southern France is as distinct as all the other regions of France. To some extent it is more than one region because of the variations in dialect—sometimes a whole language—Occitan , for example, as different from French as Catalan is from Castilian Spanish.   On a trip such as ours, we are always traveling in a linguistic fog, with never enough time to adapt to the...

Barcelona Is a love song Barcino Barça   It is a hymn sung by the Mediterranean Sea breeze Over the rounded hills and through the limbs of trees Intertwined as lovers kissing   Barcelona is a lover’s kiss A passion for life and beauty A stroll down La Rambla A long evening meal with old friends A child’s laugh as water...

Vienna, Austria to Paris and Barcelona   We found a nice hotel through Tripadvisor, the Pension Attache with the accent over the e. The trams stopped right outside and a three day city transport pass was very helpful. We toured art museums and the Treasury of the Hapsburgs. Connie was impressed by the jewels on the crowns and necklaces. We looked at St. Stephans Cathedral in the...

First we decided to go up the Rhine since our Eurail pass would cover the boat ride on the KD line. I called in advance to see if the boat went from Cologne to St. Goar where we planned to stay at the Hotel Am Markt, as suggested in Rick Steves' guidebook.   On the phone we were assured that the boat did go from Koln (Cologne) and I also called to reserve a room at the hotel....