I took my journal to Europe but didn’t have much time for sketching.
Here are drawings from our travels and from our couch.
I also like to draw sitting on the couch in the evening watching TV.
I’m using mostly permanent and water color pens. I’ve liked to doodle since childhood. I find it relaxing and creative. I have numerous books of my drawings. it’s fun to see my life journey in art. Enjoy.
DOS TORTAS
Returning from vacation requires hustling just to be in place, at least the place you were supposed to be in if you hadn’t left. This week was filled with getting the cars serviced, refilling the larder and chasing a yellow DHL shipping envelope all over Mexico.
We had submitted my MILs passport for renewal via DHL before taking off in February for the US and later Europe. The US Consulate in Guadalajara had already returned it once due to the wrong sized photos. But pictures were retaken and the passport and application were quickly off again. Fingers crossed.
When we returned home and looked to see why the passport hadn’t arrived, we found it was hung up in Cancun, four hours away? Solving the mystery was time consuming, a long and winding story requiring numerous phone calls, a trip to DHL (45 minutes away) and promises of a speedy delivery. There was also much waiting on hold and standing in line.
When the promised arrival time came and went, we returned to the trusty web tracking site to find the package was marked DELIVERED. Another phone call discovered that the envelope had been left at the hotel across the street! Now addresses in Mexico are long and complicated, especially when you live in the jungle. DHL had been given very specific directions which they chose to ignore. They’d already delivered the package once using the exact same address!!!
Sigh, we have the passport. Breathe, relax.
DOS TORTAS
This week millions looked to the sky to watch the solar eclipse and gasp in amazement at the cosmic event. Last October Bacalar was in the totality of a solar eclipse. We watched through a crystalline sky in awe from our own roof! I cried.
During the last five weeks, Lisa and I were blessed to travel across Europe to London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Salzburg. Talk about awe!
When we returned to Mexico, I realized that my eyes needed a rest. For weeks I had lived and traveled in awe, staring at art, domed ceilings, gold leaf paintings, castles and towering mountains. There were so many flowers, sculptures, vistas and even caves. My eyes were perpetually wide open trying to take it all in.
We have returned home to our very beautiful Bacalar, Mexico. I think that the daily awe and wonder of living anywhere, starts to wear off eventually and becomes the usual and ordinary. Perhaps that’s why we travel, to see the world with eyes wide open and appreciate home when we return.
I strive everyday to be grateful and pay attention to the beauty that surrounds me. This week it was hard to get out of my hammock. Still feeling jet lagged, I made big salads, hugged my dogs and gave my eyes a rest.
DOS TORTAS
On our last day of the Dos Tortas unscripted, magical, mystery European tour, we joined forty or so Sound of Music enthusiasts to sing our way around Salzburg, Austria.
People from all over the world come to this corner of Austria just to walk in the footsteps of Maria and the Captain and their cadre of musically talented children.
The dramatic production was based on the lives of the Von Trapp family who escaped Nazi occupied Austria in 1938. Hollywood recreated the story using castles, lakes, gardens and the Alps as the backdrop for the academy award winning movie. Producers took liberties with the storyline. The Von Trapps did not climb over the Alps to Switzerland (See map). It would have been a long walk. They boarded a train for Italy and later migrated to the US.
My favorite stop on the tour was the Basilica St Michael. I always thought the wedding scene in the movie was magical. Visiting the cathedral didn’t disappoint.
https://youtu.be/THKgiaGLAOs?si=lmoV0Smgn-ACF4K7
The following day we caught the train to Frankfurt and left the next day for Mexico. It was a long flight but uneventful. We are struggling with jet lag but that’s a good problem to have right?
DOS TORTAS
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