Time Travel Log

Istanbul

2023-01-10 05:20:48 UTC
It is three weeks since we left Istanbul and in my dreams, the sights and sounds of the city still wash over me. We only knew her for a week, but I am tempted to say that Istanbul is the Paris of the East. More ancient, more diverse, not refined…

Turkiye

2022-12-16 19:55:28 UTC
It’s December 12 and we are sitting at the Istanbul airport waiting for our flight back to Seattle. Our mood is whistful as we ponder how to fit back into Seattle life. The last six weeks in Turkiye have been a revelation and the perfect ending to this phase of…

Athens

2022-11-20 19:20:00 UTC
We arrive in Athens after dark. The ride from the airport is long and I am pleased to see there is almost no traffic—kind of surprising at 6 pm on a weeknight. But then we hit the city and the snarl of cars practicing competitive driving brings us to a…

Cassis and Besalu

2022-10-31 16:07:00 UTC
One of the more fantastic features of the Marseille region is the Parc National des Calanques. Calanques are the rocky finger coves to the southeast of Marseille—between Marseille and Cassis—where the mountainous coastline meets the sea. The area is covered in hiking trails of various levels of difficulty most of…

Marseilles, Arles and the Luberon

2022-10-27 22:26:00 UTC
I last wrote about leaving Marseille. We now go back to the beginning. We leave behind a Parisian-grey morning, traveling by train at 325 km/hr to emerge into the warmth and brilliant light of Marseille, her pastel skirts spread over hills in all directions. Our polite and welcoming taxi driver…