Banjamasin
South Kalimantan
Borneo
Indonesia

March 8, 2015

Who needs to travel to the jungle to watch the orangutans?  The antics of young children are much more entertaining!

My quiet City Tour begins with a visit to Mesjid Raya Sabilal Muhtadin, a massive mosque that my guidebook describes as “resembling a landed spaceship.” 

We continue to Soetji Nurani, a Chinese temple where we encounter a group of young girls in local costume.

We stop at the obligatory batik shop where I choose a perfectly outrageous cotton shirt.

For the main attraction, I board a small motorboat for a Canal Tour.

Balikpapan

East Kalimantan

Borneo

Indonesia

March 10, 2015

When I called my Cousin Stanley in Florida and mentioned my upcoming trip to Borneo, he had one immediate response.  When I called my dear friend Bill in Connecticut and mentioned my upcoming trip to Borneo, he had the same immediate response. 

Stanley was born in 1932 and I believe Bill was born in 1931.  And so “Borneo” triggered their boyhood recollections of land and sea battles during the Second World War.  

Athens
Greece
April 24, 2015

My friends,

I suppose that when you think of Athens you think of Greek temples and marble columns and sculpture from centuries ago.  And I am sure that very soon I will see those unique features of the city.

But on this first morning I head out from my hotel to Victoria Square.   From the square I can take the subway to the Acropolis stop.  But instead  I decide to walk in that direction.   I eventually arrived at the station but not at the temple.

Athens

Greece

April 25, 2015

Here I am at THE Acropolis, one of the wonders of the ancient world. 

So why am I so “down?”

Jetlag?

Homesick?

Headache from the din of noisy tourists?

Just can’t get motivated!

Then along come a Greek Goddess and her Faithful Companion. 

Athens

Hellenic Republic

Sunday

April 26, 2015

I need a drink every time I visit a place like this.

Housed in a small, lovely building, displaying a variety of secular artifacts and religious icons, the Jewish Museum of Greece carries the appropriate name - a museum - the lifeless panorama of history.

Jews lived in Greece for more than two thousand years.  But in large numbers, Jews arrived in Greece following their expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the late Fifteenth Century.  For more than four hundred years, communities thrived here, especially in the northern city of Thessalonica, known as the “Little Jerusalem.”  In 1940, the Jewish population of Thessalonica exceeded 53,000 children, women and men.