On April 8th, we flew nonstop from Bangkok to Rome, and on to Sicily. Because of the ongoing war in Iran, our flight took about 45 minutes longer to avoid going over that area. Beginning in Palermo, Sicily, we traveled by train east and then north along the coastline of Italy, continuing up to the…

On September 3rd, 2025 we head back to Thailand via six weeks in Eastern Europe. PDX-DEN-FRA-IST flights. Start in Istanbul, then Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Hungary, before flying back to Bangkok from Munich nonstop. We begin in Istanbul, then fly to Bulgaria, and travel by car for a week. Then fly to Romania, and travel…

When time came to fly from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Moscow, the competitive leader was Aeroflot Russian airlines. I got a lot of kidding about how awful this would be. The reality was rather different. I flew on a new, Russian-made jet, quite comfortable, with an attentive, efficient crew, and even a sandwich and drink on…

I have come to Vilnius, Lithuania because my grandmother Anna Skinder was born here. I had not known of the long history of this prominent city of the Baltic area. One interesting thing I discovered: Vilnius has one of the fastest internet speeds available to the general public in the world. I asked a local…

My hosts in Bergamo insisted that I must visit the ‘high city’, the old section of Bergamo up on the hill surrounded by the city wall. It is one of the largest well-preserved city areas dating from the middle ages that I have seen. In this picture, you can see it in the middle distance.…