Welcome to Oslo

What a wonderful start to a new adventure.

While waiting at Baggage Claim I Also, I heard someone say my name. It was two sisters from Calgary who I met last year. Lisa and Lila had just arrived on the same plane! It was perfect timing, because in addition to meeting familiar faces, we were able to share a taxi to town.

At the hotel I found  a surprise welcome gift in my room!

I met my cousin Dagfinn for a lovely dinner at a Napali restaurant.

Dagfinn's daughter and family joined us. The restaurant is one of Lloyd, Ingre and Tage's favorites, and the food was delicious.

Judging from today's events, I think the upcoming weeks are filled with promise.

Now to get over jet lag.

A Little Uncertainty

Taylor and I started planning a trip to Italy one year ago with our friend Margit Beerli.  We  plotted and planned a month of touring to a fair thee well. We will spend a week in Rome, then travel north to Tuscany to meet with our friends John and Bruce.  After almost 2 weeks in Tuscany we move on to Florence and have a grand finale in Venice.

No matter how well planned, travel always involves some uncertainty.  About a week before departure, I learned that our Airbnb hostess, Virginia, is not the kind of person who likes to communicate. After not responding to my attempts to make contact with her she insisted her sister Francesca, who is not mentioned on the Airbnb site, had organized our reservation. Learning that someone I had never heard of was in charge of my reservation got me worrying about the status of our apartment in Rome. I never heard further from Virginia, or Francesca.  I guess we'll just go to Rome and hope things turn out.

Then, the day before departure we discovered that bad weather in New York City would impact our flight plans.  Less than 24 hours before take off and we were suddenly on high alert, trying to change airline flights booked last January.  Our hours of waiting to speak to Delta representatives paid off.  We are re booked through Atlanta and are ready to go. Here's hoping we also have an apartment to stay in.

The night before take off, re booking our tickets to Rome.  We are still smiling.

At the airport in Atlanta and still in a good mood.  Both Taylor and Margit are plugged into their devices.  Taylor shares Alison Kraus singing "Atlanta" with Jamar.  Once we get on the plane it's only 9 more hours to Rome.

We made it.  We landed in Rome.  Our driver was not at the airport to pick us up, but after a phone call he appeared.  Neither Virginia nor Francesca showed up to let us into the apartment.  Barbara welcomed us instead. What's important is we have an apartment, even though we've never seen the hostess listed on Airbnb. It's all highly irregular, but we are not about to start asking questions.  What is important is WE ARE HERE.

After recovering a bit from travelling, we strolled to the Vatican from our apartment.  Here is St Peter's Square.

Shopping near the Vatican for religious gear. Wooden Pinocchio puppets are right behind Mary.

Bridge over the Tiber.

Castello Sant'Angelo.

We ended our evening stroll with dinner at a cafe sidewalk (I still can't believe we ate dinner after 8 p.m.) and a good bottle of Chardonnay.

Calamari, mussels and shrimp.

Now, all we have to do is return to our apartment and sleep off the jet lag.  I think we can do it.

Whirlwind Tour of Delhi

Today is our second day in Delhi.  We met our guide Suresh at 9:00 am and began our whirlwind tour.

We're on Capitol Hill, surrounded by government buildings.

India Gate commemorates the 90,000 Indian soldiers killed in WWI and the Afgan Wars fighting alongside the British.

We had a breathtaking bicycle rickshaw ride through Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi.  These alleys were originally the silver trading lanes on the Silk Road.  Mughal emperors once shopped here.  It's a little different now days.

We were on a rickshaw just like this one.  I felt sorry for the driver, having to haul 2 well fed Americans through the alleys.

We visited Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in Delhi, built in 1656. Cameras weren't allowed inside so you can't see how attractive I was in my full length flowered polyester robe covering me from neck to toes. Note: Jews are not allowed entry.

Lodi Gardens is the Central Park of Delhi, only it's bigger.  It's filled with ancient tombs.  It's the place where the wealthy come to jog in the morning, and young couples come to get some privacy among the trees and hedges.

This is one of many tombs in Lodi Gardens

The Lotus Temple, designed by the architect for the Sydney Opera House is magnificent.  It's a Bahai temple.

Our final, and my favorite stop of the day, was Qutab Minar.  This is a Mughal mosque built from recycled stones from the Hindu temple that was originally on this site back in 1199.

 

Notice the intricate carvings.  Mughal architecture doesn't normally have carvings this elaborate.

The minaret is 239 feet high. It is the highest brick minaret in the world - built in 1199.

Note the lady in yellow lounging among the ruins.

We were lucky enough to be leaving Qutab Minar just at the sun was going down.

What a day! Suresh was an excellent tour guide, and we happily went back to our hotel to enjoy a few beers and bask in the memories of the wonders that we saw today.

The Adventure Begins

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go.

This is more than our usual "one carry on" each. We made an exception to our rule so we could take a few items to the grand boy and his parents.

Good bye house

Good bye garden

We have great confidence that our journey will go without a hitch. We fly out of PDX at 9:30 pm on Monday night.  We arrive arrive in Taipei at 6 am on Wednesday morning. Since it's not typhoon season everything should go smoothly.  When we get there we will give our address to the taxi driver.  Yikes.  This is our new address.


台北市大安區溫州街74巷3弄2號


Our Airbnb hostess sent us these pictures of our apartment, with instructions to get the keys.

We should recognize our own front door because it it next to this book store.

This is our front door.  When we find the key, hidden in a secret place, we are to let ourselves in and take the elevator up to the third floor.

Here's our front door.

No matter what happens on the journey to Taipei, Solomon/Soup will make the trek worthwhile.

9 month birthday

More news to follow from the other side of the globe.

Religion in London

This morning we woke up in London to a glorious blue sky. We took the tube to the London Bridge station, where we met Syvart, and ambled over to Broughton Market.  We were disappointed to find it closed, but we enjoyed walking through the deserted aisles.  It was an oddly calm space in an otherwise noisy, crowded city.

We eventually found a small coffee/tea/cacao shop within the market where we had our morning scone and drink.

On the way way out of the shop, we stumbled across a parade of worshippers going into the deserted market for a Palm Sunday mass: choir robes, music, incense, palm fronds..............it was all there.

After enjoying a little incense and song, we continued strolling through the city.  We crossed the Thames on London Bridge, took a peek at Shakespeare's Globe Theater and the Tate Modern. We crossed back over the river on the pedestrian Millennium Bridge.  We passed through Fleet Street, and many alleys, and secret courtyards including St Bride's Church which is hidden in one of the the courtyards.  We had lunch in the Salisbury Pub near Covent Garden and then we found more religion.

Fortnum & Mason - this is the temple of all things wonderful on earth.

Nothing prepared me for this experience.  Because I was with two of the main men in my life, I kept my visit brief.  I only saw the first floor. It is the ultimate shopping venue for teas, preserves, jams, marmalade, honey, candy, tea cups and much, much more.  Everything exemplifies exquisite taste and luxury.

This palace is a different kind of religious experience.

Amen

Post publication comment from the author:  I discovered that the Queen shops at Fortnum & Mason.  No wonder it is what it is.

Music and Religion in Bath

The Henry House, in Bath, is located in a block of houses built cheek to jowl, that line one full block.  In the center of the block are a jumble of private gardens, accessible only through individual houses. 

Early in the morning, I was awakened from a sound sleep, by a beautiful acapella male voice.  I was befuddled with sleep, and thought at first that it was a clock radio in our room.  Not seeing one glowing on either bedside table, I eventually concluded that the source of the song was outside.  The music continued.  It crescendoed, and eventually softened, and I thought I heard it moving down the street.  Eventually I fell back asleep.

When I went down to breakfast I asked our host Colin about the source of the early morning serenade.  He laughed, and said, "Oh, you heard it?"  He went on to explain that Bath doesn't allow building mosques in the city limits, so there was a mosque in a tent in one of the gardens behind the Henry House.  I had wakened to the call to prayer.  

Sure enough, on the way back upstairs, I looked out the window and saw the tent in one of the back gardens.

The Bath Mosque - in the tent.

As we left the Henry House after breakfast, to walk to the Bath Abbey, I looked down and found this sign.  Colin, was right, the tent in the  garden behind our guest house is a mosque.

The mosque may be in a tent, but it has an official sign.

We strolled through the Bath Abbey as our last experience of this old town, built upon Roman ruins.  The Abbey really is lovely, with very large windows, which make it lighter and brighter than many European churches.  As I was enjoying the light and the architecture, the organist began to practice.  Like the early morning call to prayer, this magical moment was almost enough to make me find religion.

Driving in the Cotswolds

Lower Slaughter

• Good news: After two days of driving through innumerable roundabouts, there is help for Taylor's traumatized heart.
• Bad news: He doesn't have the proper change.