Christmas in Hawai'i

I (Manfred), too, can't believe that we lived here so long. The island of Kaua'i where we are, is much more built up from when we lived here but at the same time, I must say, that most of it is still very much he same. The same underdeveloped roads & single-lane bridges, the same 40 foot MATSON containers that bring in practically everything from the Mainland US, the same vegetation, except more so, with it's flowering trees and bushes and most of all the same friendly and seemingly very happy people.
We were fortunate to be invited by our long time friends in Princeville on the north of the island for Christmas dinner and had a most wonderful time.

The weather is another thing all together. It's too hot . . . . . at least it is for me now, it must not have been then, age has definitely something to do with it. In the last few days we had a storm system coming through here lots of rain complete with lightening and thunder in the distance. This made it a couple of degrees cooler but also more humid.

Christmas Dinner in Princeville

We had an absolutely fabulous Christmas Day, visiting our best friends, Jan and Ken Bernard in Princeville, Kauai. We had a fantastic Christmas dinner, with turkey, lamb, with all the fixin's and then some (portobello mushrooms, orange-glazed carrots, and great desserts and sweets).

Then, after dinner, we viewed a spectacular performance of fire dancing, done by their son, Jake, in the street in front of the house. What a sight! Who knew?

Then we played music, talked story and played games until late. What memorable a day!

Wonderful Garden Ponds on Kauai

Today we went to visit Garden Ponds Kauai, near Princeville, owned by our friend Ken Bernard. What an amazing place. The pictures can't show the feeling of peace and tranquility that this place gives you. You just have to see for yourself.

Celebration of Life - Richard Shen

A Celebration of Life was held for Richard Shen (my ex) at the gazebo he designed on the KCC campus. It rained hard all day, except for the 2 hours that we were there. It was very nice.

Lihue

Hard to work on the computer - it is so hot. I don't know how I ever lived in this place. That's my excuse for not getting any new posts put here, & I'm sticking to it.

In Hawaii

We are in the town of Lihue, on the "Garden Island" of Kauai. Very beautiful place, but sooo hot.

We'll be here until Jan 5, back in Port Angeles Jan 7, as shown in last post.

We didn't get to fly in the little Cessna - I was disappointed, but Manfred was glad it was a jet. Go!Makulele Airlines was very good, unlike the negative comments on the internet.

Heading for Hawaii

We are leaving tomorrow for Lihue, HI, to visit Aida Shen for the holidays. Her husband died a few weeks ago.
We fly to Honolulu Saturday and get to visit with my sister, Jan, and my #1 son, Richard.
It will be a happy/sad time. Not a good time for us to leave, but necessary.

Here's the plan, in case anybody cares:
December
10 Fri - noon take bus to Seattle, stay night (tomorrow)
11 Sat - 9:30 am fly to Honolulu, arrive 1:35
. . . . visit w/ Jan at airport
. . . . 5:20 fly to Lihue, arrive 6 pm
12 Sun - visit w/ Rick & find out what Aida needs/wants.
13 Mon - Rick flies home
January
5 Wed - we fly to Honolulu, stay the night, visit Jan (& Darrel?)
6 Thu - fly to Seattle, stay the night
7 Fri - take bus to Port Angeles, home

We are taking a big chance on the flight Honolulu to Lihue, going by Go! Mokalulu airline. Tiny (9-passenger Cessna) plane, and notorious for canceled & delayed flights. Living dangerously -- we'll see.

Skipped a lot

OMG - this is so far behind.
We got on the cruise ship in Venice - Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Gem. Nice boat. Stopped at some places in the Mediterranean, then sailed across the Atlantic to NYC. Took 14 days. Had only a couple of rough-sea days. Otherwise good EXCEPT that they charged a horrendous fee ($.45 per minute on a very slow network) for internet access. So I couldn't update my blog, which I had been planning to do.

From NYC we flew to LA, where son Robin picked us up, since he was there anyway. We had to go to San Francisco because my ex, Richard, had died and both sons were going to be there to be with his widow, Aida, to put the ashes in a cryp there. We had a sort of sad family reunion, but it was good anyway.

We stayed with Robin & Virginia until the Black Friday, the cheapest day to fly to Seattle. We just got a few things done about the house we have for sale, and now we are going to to Hawaii to be with Aida during the holidays.

I'll try to fill in the gaps and get some photos in there while we are Hawaii. .

Cruising the Atlantic

Our cruise was quite nice. Bad thing about it was we couldn't use their internet -- too expensive. It was so good to be on a boat again. Here are some photos.

In Venice

We got up at 5 a.m. to catch the train to Lisbon so we could get on a plane to Venice. Flying is so horrible, especially compared to train travel. I never want to fly anywhere again - but I'll have to. We changed planes in Barcelona and arrived in Venice about 5 p.m. We had booked an airport hotel, which is quite nice, but it's a good thing we're here only about 24 hours - everything is so expensive.

And we just learned that we will have to walk about 1 kilometer, lugging our bags, to get to the ship, because no roads or boats can go there. !!
'nother lesson: never book a cruise that starts in Venice.

Bill is still suffering from his cold, I hope he can make it.

Train trip to Coimbra

Today we wanted to go to the Portuguese town of Porto, where the Port wine is made, but it looked like it would take too long. At least 3 hrs each way on the train. So we went to Coimbro, instead. It is a very old college town. The old campus is very interesting, especially the library. No photography allowed, so I got these photos from the internet.

I has 40,000 very old books, that can still be used for research.

Sintra, going to the beach

Today we took the bus to the beach. Weather was cool, but nice. Spent a lot of time waiting for buses.

In Sintra, Portugal

After spending 3 days in Barcelona, we flew to Lisbon and took the train to Sintra, arriving quite late. Today, we visited the 2 palaces here, quite spectacular.

Troubles getting online

Have been having problems getting online and this blog was taken offline and German keyboards are different, and our Firefox is broken. So, no updates for now. These photos were added later.

We have just been for 3 days in Vienna -- great place, and we attended a super concert (all Mozart). Saw the Spanish Riding School training, and the palace.

Tomorrow morning we will fly to Barcelona, stay 3 days. Then fly to Sintra.

I'll write more later, when we have better internet. We have lots of photos, but I'm using the hotel computer so I can't put any on here.

In Heidelberg - heading to Rothenburg

I had the same title for a blog post last year... We got away from Bacharach later than planned. The train trip was good. Took a taxi from the bahnhof (train station) to the youth hostel where we are staying. Then a bus to the old university part of the town. Not much time but we had a good German-Mexican meal. Bill is holding up marvelously -- better than we are, sometimes. I wasn't able to get online much, so I wrote up some notes offline which I will put in now in the appropriate dates.

And yes, we did find the key. It had fallen out of my pocket while sitting on a bench waiting for the boat.

In the castle, finally

Bacharach - Stahleck. Wandered around the town, took lots of photos, taxi up to the Burg Stahleck. Lunch? Ate dinner there, not very interesting. Our rooms were in the part behind the tower, with narrow old stone stairways. Bill’s bathroom was on our floor, but his room was one flight up. Reeely tiny rooms, bunk beds. But it was lots of fun anyway, plus the awesome views.

Bacharack - back to town -- river trip

Bacharach - river trip - key-disaster!!. Taxi back down to Bacharach, found Zimmer frei Orth as mentioned in Rick Steves, left bags there to take KD boat up river & back. Nice trip, nice boat, lots to see & photograph.

Got off in St.Goar.... where B & I went up the Lorelei cliff and to see the statue. €25 taxi + Bill’s €25 tip.

When we got back to the Zimmer, the key they had given us was GONE. I had it (bad news). And it’s a super security key -- landlady said it costs €500 to replace. After much discussion we decided it must have fallen out of my jacket pocket on the boat. Manfred asked the KD ticket lady to help find it - she called the boat, they will look for it during clean-up.

Boat will be back tomorrow @ noon. If it’s there, we might still have time to got to our reserved rooms in Heidelberg. Otherwise, we have to skip Heidelberg and do something else about the key. Had a very early, very nice dinner (pizza & spaghetti) and “went to bed” b4 10.

On our way

We finally flew to Frankfurt, then to Trier. Now we are in Bacharack, staying in this castle - Borg Stahleck. Not much internet time... I'll write more later.

boat + train to Bacharach.

Getting from boat to train was pretty hairy. We wanted to take boat from Koblenz, but missed it so had to take another train. Bill left his new hat on the boat. They had no room for us at the castle, so we stayed in a B&B seen in Rick Steve’s book. Nice lady, 3 long stair flights, bad spring bed, beautiful frühstück (breakfast).

Trier, still

Trier. Bill & I went up the porto nigra, took lots of photos, but they are all on his camera, not mine. M stayed in the square. I never did get to see the other historic sights of Trier. Bill bought a nice hat, which he promptly lost.

Trier, still

Trier. Bill & I went up the porto nigra, took lots of photos. M stayed in the square. I never did get to see the other historic sights of Trier. Bill bought a nice hat.

In Germany, at last --Trier

Trier. Lots of historical buildings, dating from the 2nd Century onward. Bill wanted an umbrella. Manfred wanted to get a piece of the computer power supply that he had left behind. Bill took a tour of the town, G & M went to stores, looking for the part. I bought an umbrella for Bill, but Manfred took it.

Bill’s power supply has the same part, but he didn’t bring an adapter to plug into German outlets. So Manfred has the adapter, Bill has the part, they have to share.
NOTE: most important part of packing and repacking: All charging equipment, including adaptors, must be present & accounted for at all times, & have back-ups.

Flying -- lots of flying.

Sept 28 We drove from Port Angeles to SeaTac in a rental car, returned the car and took the hotel shuttle to the Best Western Executel. It’s a very nice place w/indoor pool & exercise room & free WiFi. Had a swim & dinner there and slept, Sept 29 Returned to the airport to catch our 4 p.m. flight to Frankfurt. There was a brief stop in Rekjavic to change planes (Iceland Air). Arrived Frankfurt in the afternoon, went to the bahnhof in the airport to get the train to Trier. The train ride was nice, but we were tired. Went to the youth hostel by taxi, arriving 7:30 p.m., just after they finished serving dinner. Went out for Manfred’s birthday dinner. Dinner was good, but was not his best b’day -- too long, or too short, depending on how you look at it.

Eve of departure.

We are leaving tomorrow, Monday, Sept 26, for Seattle. We'll stay overnight there and fly out to Frankfurt on Tuesday, Sept 27, arriving the next day. We will immediately get on a train to Trier, where we have a reservation.

Needless to say, the house did not close on Aug 16, or any of the other dates suggested. But it finally was finalized on Monday, Sept 13! Our bid for the house was accepted before the end of April, so it has taken 4.5 months to do the paperwork.

Trip plans are coming together

We have been online day & night, planning our trip to Europe. The dates are fixed now:
Leave Sept 28 -- fly to Frankfurt. Return Nov 14 -- ship to NYC
We will spend

• 2 weeks in Germany & Austria
• 2 weeks in Portugal & Spain
• 2 weeks on the ship.

The new date for the "closing" of the house is Aug 16... we'll see.

4 Photos

These are photos of the house we are buying, and a hummingbird on our feeder.