Travel – Page 2 – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

2024, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

11/13/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on November 13, 2024 by nancyb422

We took a Danube River cruise in October 2018 and we had a great time except…. There was sort of a pre-excursion part of the cruise where we stayed at a resort for 2 nights and were bused back to Munich for an excursion and only had an hour at an Oktoberfest. Once we boarded our boat in Passau we cruised forward for the night but then had to be bused to Regensberg and another excursion because the water levels were low and Viking took our spot in Regensberg. It created very long bus rides, shortened excursions, and cranky passengers (not us!).

We decided to cancel all our non-included excursions and woke Sunday morning to the notification that breakfast was ending in five minutes!

We got up, took our showers and headed out to find someplace for breakfast – in a country where we could barely speak the language (ok, we couldn’t at all).

We found this lovely passage and wandered around a bit until we found a cute little restaurant so we sat down and helped ourselves to the buffet being served. then realized the restaurant was part of a hotel!

They were very gracious and let us have our meal – thank God because we were starved!

The trip improved from there and we enjoyed ourselves traveling down the Danube.

2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

11/6/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on November 7, 2024 by nancyb422

Let’s pretend today is Wednesday! Unless you had such a horrible Wednesday, you’d rather forget it….

This was taken in October 2013. It was another fun travel trip with my sister, Janice, and her daughter Julie. We shared driving duties from Connecticut to Las Vegas, and then Jan and I would hop on planes and fly home.

We planned the trip to allow us to see a little of the area along the way. We timed our day right to stop at this site mid-morning and enjoy the grounds and the view from the TOP.

Do you know where we were? Have you been there?

2023, 2024, family, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel

10/30/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 30, 2024 by nancyb422

On our trip to California last year, we planned a day at Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We went on the Grand Rooms tour in the morning and the Upstairs Suites tour in the afternoon. Both tours included a stop at this outdoor pool – I didn’t care because the weather was gorgeous and so was the pool!

I can picture William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies hosting parties with Cary Grant and Jean Harlow and Clark Gable lounging along side the pool or playing tennis.

It was a really enjoyable day!

2024, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, Travel, Writing

10/23/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 23, 2024 by nancyb422

I shared a picture from a trip to Paris I took in 2008 here and today, I’m sharing another!

Poor Saint Denis! He was the first bishop of Paris back in the 3rd century when Paris was still ruled by the Romans. At that time, Romans were not the Christians we know of today and they weren’t very happy with the number of conversions to Christianity that Denis was accomplishing.

So they took him to the Montmartre area of Paris and beheaded him. It was said that immediately after he was killed, he picked up his head and walked six kilometers north before he finally died.

This statue is in the Place Suzanne Buisson, a lovely park in Montmartre. We came upon the statue as we were heading down the winding streets of Montmatre after visiting Sacre Couer.

We would see Saint Denis again above a door of Notre Dame and again inside the cathedral.

2024, family, hobbies, leisure time, life, photography, relaxing, Travel

10/16/24 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 16, 2024 by nancyb422

Greetings from our nation’s capital! My husband and I are here for 3 full days to explore Washington and Alexandria. Two days are in the books and both have been great.

Day one we took the metro into the city and visited a bunch of monuments around the mall and went to the Holocaust Museum. Today we went to Mount Vernon and the spent a few hours in Old Town Alexandria. Tomorrow we’ll be back to DC for the White House, Capitol building, the museum of the American Indian, and on the way back we’ll stop at Arlington Cemetery.

If you’ve been here, what’s your favorite place to go?

friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, This Old House, Travel

10/9/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on October 9, 2024 by nancyb422

In July 2016, five people and three bikes took off from Wallingford, Connecticut, for a cruise around Pennsylvania. The trip was inspired by our 2012 trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway through Gettysburg. My head was on a swivel as we went through the middle of town coming home from that trip and I knew I wanted to go back some day!

We prepared for the trip in February by checking out the state on a map looking for sites and hotels and planning our route.

We headed out on July 12th and had a wonderful time. We saw sites including the Colton Point State Park gorge, known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, Kinzua Bridge State Park, the Flight 93 National Memorial, and the piece de resistance of the trip, three nights and 2 full days in Gettysburg.

I took so many pictures during our trip and one of the sites I couldn’t get enough of was Fallingwater.

This home was designed in the mid-1930s by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann who met him through their son Edgar jr. The home is cantilevered over the falls of Bear Run!

The family, through Edgar jr., continued to own the house through the early 1960s, when he turned over the home and 1,500 acres to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. It’s a beautiful home in a gorgeous location and the ride on the motorcycles to it was filled with rolling hills, forest, and farmland.

Have you ever been to any of these locations? Tell me in the comments!

2024, family, friends, life, Memories, photography, Travel

9/18/2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on September 18, 2024 by nancyb422

Going back to my first trip to Paris in 2007. I was with my sister, her daughter, and their neighbor.

This was from our trip to Notre Dame. We were staying just over the river in the Marais District so we spent a good amount of time in this area.

I remember we took a tour of the church on Tuesday and while we were waiting in line to go into the bell tower we met some college girls who told us the best time to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower was in the evening. They were right! It was beautiful.

We had already visited Montmartre the day before and I love that I had it in the background. The gargoyles were so much fun and I have so many pictures of them! I wonder if they are ok?

2024, friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, relaxing, Travel

9/11/2024 Hump Date Photo

Posted on September 11, 2024 by nancyb422

There’s nothing like “seeing the colors” on an October weekend in New England!

Our motorcycle gang of 4 people, 3 bikes took off for Vermont on a Friday morning in October of 2015. We stayed at the Grey Ghost Inn in West Dover. On Saturday, we took a ride to Mount Equinox and had an amazing 360 degree view of mountains and valleys.

Of course when you’re on a motorcycle, you take a very circuitous route there and back so I’m sure we spent the entire day riding to a place that is a 2 hour round trip! Of course, there’s stops for snacks, lunch, more snacks, candy…..

Along the way we passed through 2 covered bridges and this beautiful steel bridge. This was taken as we were motoring by and there are 3 or 4 pictures I took leading up to it because I’m always hoping for at least one spectacular shot. I think I succeeded here!

What’s your favorite part of fall? Do you have changing colors where you live? Let me know in the comments!

2024, friends, hobbies, leisure time, life, Memories, photography, thoughts, Travel

August 21, 2024 Hump Day Photo

Posted on August 21, 2024 by nancyb422

Today’s Hump Day photo comes from the first week long motorcycle trip we took in 2013. We traveled with another couple and 2 single guys from Connecticut, down the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Cherokee North Carolina and back.

*Brendan, Chris, and Mark Harley Davidson Factory York PA*

This picture was taken in the parking lot of the Harley Davidson factory in York Pennsylvania. It was on the last day of our trip. Because of a rain delay the day before we were running behind. We stayed overnight in York, but I think there either was no Saturday tour or we couldn’t swing the time because we were still a good 6 hours away from home.

About the trip –

We took off in early June and it was cold and rainy. The views were amazing on the Skyline Drive but for much of the ride on the parkway it was cold and foggy! Lesson learned #1 – we need to travel in the summer!

There was one other rider, who is still a good friend. He led the way and the focus was getting in a lot of hours on the bike. Amy, the other female, and I wanted to see sights! Lesson Learned #2 – plan the trip!

We rode on the Tail of the Dragon in Deals Gap, NC and went nice and slow! We went to the top of Chimney Rock and could see Lake Lure where they filmed Dirty Dancing. We stayed in Floyd Virginia and absolutely fell in love with it! We got caught in a monstrous rain storm on the highway and stopped for the day and overnight in Natural Bridge Virginia at this little motel where we pulled the bikes under the overhang and walked to the nearby diner for our meals.

After this trip, we continued to go on day trips, weekend trips, and week long trips with Brendan and Amy and Chris. We all got along so well and enjoyed some really great trips.

This picture reflects the start of those wonderful friendships.

2024, family, friends, leisure time, life, Memories, relaxing, thoughts, Travel

When Vacation Is Over

Posted on August 18, 2024 by nancyb422

Is there anything worse on vacation than opening the Friday on a pill case? I can’t think of one!

Our last day at Lake Winnipesauke was spent on the boat with my sister and her husband who drove over from their home in Maine. We tried to dock in Wolfesboro for lunch again but everyone had the same idea so we headed over to Weirs Beach instead. We’ve been there many times by motorcycle for Laconia Bike Week in June so this was a whole different view! We saw buildings usually blocked by big white vendor tents and the arcades were in full swing. We had lunch at Dox and headed back out to drift on the lake.

It was a great week of boating, hiking, and shopping! The early part of the week was sunny but by Wednesday the smoke from the Canadian fires made its way to us and it was hazy sun. We knew rain was coming on Thursday so we headed to Conway for shopping – but we didn’t think to bring our umbrellas so ended up buying new ones!

Packing up on Saturday and saying goodbye to our little home was sad as I was finally sleeping past 6am but it was time to go. I’m hoping to rent for 10 days next year at the same location.

*Our one bedroom cottage among 4 rentals on the property*

Today it’s rainy in Connecticut which is perfect weather to get laundry done, open the mail, and get ready for our family’s Fantasy Football draft tonight!