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The Hills Are Alive In Salzburg

7 Apr

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

How On Earth Are We Doing It?

30 Mar

If you’ve been following our unscripted, spontaneous European adventure, you’ll know it’s been a whirlwind. One of our followers asked a bunch of questions. How did we do it? I’ll do my best to answer.

Breakfast extraordinaire Munich

First off, my wife is the queen of travel planning. She enjoys it and we’ve traveled enough together to know each other well. We are adventurous by nature. She does her best planning and then we are happy with however things turn out.

1) We are not extravagant. Hotels are a place to sleep. They were however much more expensive in Europe than we expected. We booked budget hotels close to the city center to use public transportation and/or walked to various sights.

Paris train station.

Clean, safe and basic is our motto. We’ve averaged about $200 US or so a night which is more than we’ve ever spent sleeping. We have had to modify our travels due to aging bodies and disabilities. We walk when we can, take hop-on-hop-off buses to get the lay of the land and boat rides when they’re available. We also take tours which mostly work well and are not expensive.

Hop-on bus ride in Paris to the Arc de Triumph and Eiffel Tower
Tour to Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria

2) We tried to eat one meal a day, usually lunch, at a nice restaurant. (Our Paris and Munich hotels included a great breakfast.

Avocado bowl in Amsterdam

We looked for little grocery stores and purchased pre-made meals for dinner and fruit and granola for breakfast and snacking.

There were great grocery stores everywhere.

We hardly drank alcohol so that’s a big savings. Also there’s no suitcase room for souvenirs. No Olympics t-shirts were bought in Paris.

A “Free” church in Paris

3) As to whether we just “put it all on plastic,” the answer is yes and no. We had money budgeted for a water softening system for our house. I guess soft water will have to wait. The credit card will get paid when we get home.

Salzburg

Next week’s blog will be from home in Bacalar. We are currently in Salzburg Austria. There are no words for how much fun we’ve had. Until next week,

DOS TORTAS

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Travel’s Trials And Tribulations

16 Mar

As I sit on the Eurostar train between London and Amsterdam I contemplate this astounding trip so far. It’s been almost 15 years since Lisa and my last overseas adventure. A lot has changed. I am 72, she is 60. After Lisa’s multiple back surgeries, neither one of us can walk for hours nor stand gazing at antiquities. We return to the hotel in the late afternoon and collapse for the evening.

Stock image.

When I was pick pocketed in Athens in 2005 and had my passport stolen, we got to experience the darker and inconvenient side of travel. Any trip might include loss, loss of cell phone, hat, or scarf. I once left expensive headphones on the plane home to Mexico.

Amsterdam Canals

In an attempt at prevention I try to turn around from any stop and make sure nothing is left behind. To prevent pick pocketing, I carry a  shoulder bag designed for travel with zippered pockets to protect phone, money and identification. And still it happened.

I lost my credit card.

In London everything is paid by tapping your bank card on a terminal. Some restaurants don’t accept cash at all. In order to hop the underground (subway) I had placed my card in a side pocket with my phone. Apparently I pulled out my phone and dropped the card. After searching everywhere I contacted my US bank.

Saturday Market

Fortunately we have other plastic but it could be so easy to get stranded with no money. The worst part was the sleepless night and self flagellation.

Thank God I’m over it. There’s nothing more I can do until I return home.

Dutch apple pie.

The trip continues and we’re having a great time. Weather has been unprecedented with sunshine in both London and Amsterdam.  Crowds are small compared to high season. For an unscripted holiday, we’re doing very well.

DOS TORTAS

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Sometimes The Stars Align

10 Mar

Last week our wonderful house sitters arrived to care for the house for our trip to my niece’s funeral. The day before we left they offered to stay “a few more weeks”. Since Lisa and I are caregivers for her 80 year old mother and two dogs,we have not had a vacation, just the two of us, for sometime. This unexpected offer sent our imaginations spinning.

Alice’s big 8-oh.

Our heads were exploding as we discussed where to go. The possibilities were endless, Shri Lanka, Africa, Croatia. I didn’t want to be on a 20 hour flight as we did when we visited Turkey and Greece (2010) and Thailand (2005). My first thought was, I’ve never been to Europe!

Greek Goddesses 2005
Hagia Sophia Mosque – Turkey 2010

I figured we’d get to see the most countries in the closest space. So here we are in London. I have to pinch myself!

Westminster was mind blowing.
Changing of the Guard, Kensington Palace
The best view from the giant London Eye Ferris Wheel.
The Tower of London

We’ve had four days of sunshine! For these tropical girls it’s been chilly but we don’t care. We’re having an unbelievable time. Stay tuned because this party is just getting started – Stonehenge, Bath and tickets to Wicked! None of this was on my 2024 bucket list. I guess I’ll make room at the bottom of the page.

DOS TORTAS

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Remembering Raegan

3 Mar

Lisa and I are visiting the East Coast of the US to gather with family to remember my brother’s daughter. The service was very moving with many friends and family members sharing stories.

I learned a lot about my niece. She was a good friend to so many.

My daughter with one of my niece’s cancer survivor friends.

Raegan’s positive attitude throughout her long ordeal was always positive and inspired many.

She loved all animals.

The evening of our family dinner had an empty chair at the end of the table. Her presence has been felt all weekend.

Raegan and her mom

We’ll miss you Darling that’s for sure.

DOS TORTAS

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When You Forget Your Own Birthday

22 Feb

We have some lovely large trees in front of our house where it snuggles in at the edge of the laguna. Walking on our dock, under them is a religious experience. However our cathedral needs to be canopied. There are many dead and twisting branches that need trimming and shaping to give the trees lift. Imagine my delight at finding a professional arborist in Bacalar!

I met with Ramon towards the end of the week. We gazed upward, pointed and made plans for him and his crew to work on Sunday. They would trim and shape, but here’s the kicker, we had to do the cleanup. No problemo. I was willing to lug branches up our hill. Ha!

Then Lisa reminded me that Sunday was my birthday. I had completely forgotten. Completely!

My dear friend Juan surprised me with this lovely cake Friday evening at our expat meet-up.
My best friend from Austin’s child and partner. Rose, Dio, Lisa, me.

We’ve had guests for the week and been quite busy showing them about; birding, snorkeling, pyramids, art class, eating and shopping have kept us busy. In that light I guess it could be easy to forget.

Early morning bird watching.

DOS TORTAS

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Life Is Like The Super Bowl

18 Feb

Having moved to Mexico in 2013, there were so many things that we didn’t consider. An important event that never crossed our minds was the Super Bowl. Of course we’d be able to watch the Super Bowl! Well, technology hasn’t always been our friend living out of the country. Or perhaps our cultural bias is showing. It’s a bit like the World Cup. No one watches the WC in the US. For many people not being able to watch the Super Bowl is no big deal, but not to us, at least it wasn’t in 2013. Living in Austin, Texas, Lisa was a huge football fan. Every Sunday she turned on the game, stretched out on the couch and slept through most of it. Her team? the Dallas Cowboys of course. (Dallas hasn’t played in the SB since 1996).

In Mexico, without satellite, it is nearly impossible to get American football’s biggest over the top magic show on your TV. We have tried going out to local bars but the game volume can make your ears bleed, the commentary is in Spanish and everyone is sloppy drunk. Not our favorite environment.

Mexicans love American football.

This past weekend we invited some new friends over for our version of a Super Bowl party and made another attempt to get the game from the comfort of our living room. We made Texas chili and started over an hour early to tune in. Between two couples, we had access to three different streaming services and a VPN. A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your physical location. Why the NFL doesn’t want people to be able to watch the game from overseas is beyond me, especially if they’re willing to pay!

Our new friends who are building a home in Bacalar.

NOTHING WORKED! With fiddling and rebooting every ten minutes, we got a grainy view of the field and game play leading up to the halftime show. Then the whole thing failed. Our guests had long since left. We went to bed.

Truthfully our poor reception could have been caused by inadequate capacity for all of Bacalar. New internet towers have been going up everywhere but the increase in tourists and the fact that it’s Super Bowl Sunday might have put the system over the top.

This week was also my mother-in-laws 80th birthday.

We woke the next day to discover the Chiefs had won. That’s why the Superbowl is like life. You just never know the outcome. There are so many contributing factors, injuries, who Taylor Swift is rooting for, and social sentiment. Sometimes the game may go into overtime but when the clock runs out, you’re toast. These days our clock is ticking along a bit louder. But never fear, we’re in it until the final whistle blows.

DOS TORTAS

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Life Goes On

9 Feb

We’ve had a rough month. First my mother-in-law fell and dislocated her wrist, then Lisa and I got Covid and last week my dear niece died after battling brain cancer.

Blooming

I’m mostly recovered from Covid but still experiencing body aches. I’ve been working in the yard and exercising a bit. Getting outside is good for the soul.

We all have ways to cope. One of mine is making art. I’m loving these mandalas.

We are heading to the U.S. for my niece’s memorial the end of the month. There are lots of loose ends to tie up before we travel, warm clothes not withstanding. I’m not sure why we’ve been heading north in cold weather. These tropical girls do not adjust easily.

DOS TORTAS

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In Memoriam

4 Feb

We got a message this week that  knew was coming, just not when. My niece died after a long battle with brain cancer. We were making plans to go see her when we got the message from my brother, “she’s gone”. She had contracted Covid but seemed better. Then when no one was looking she slipped away quietly. She was 46.

2016 There are no words.

I remember when she was born. My brother and sister-in- law had a son. I had a daughter and then they had Raegan. All three cousins were less than a year apart, each from the next. Raegan Mercedes was such a cool name.

1977 the day before Raegan was born. Her very pregnant mom on the left, assorted brothers, and my mother in the center. I am on the right. We were all so young.

To say she was smart was an understatement. A Doctorate in Human Factors Psychology.

The discipline of human factors is devoted to understanding how people interact with their environments and the products and objects in those environments.

Raegan had worked on systems to effectively integrate technology for the US military. She was our whiz kid and fascinating to talk to. Even as her vision deteriorated from the pressure of the tumor, she worked with the local county agency to give feedback on how to help people with visual disabilities navigate their transportation system. Our hearts break with the loss of her.

The last time Lisa and I got to hang out with Raegan was Thanksgiving 2022. We were in Florida with my brother, her dad and other family members. One afternoon we walked the few blocks to the highway where there was a large sex store.

Sadly they closed the end of 2023.

Only Raegan with her lesbian aunts would walk the store aisles laughing uncontrollably at enormous wobbly dildos, penis lollipops, edible underwear and a huge variety of vibrators. I smile at the memory (not of the dildos).

With Captain Jack
Animals helped her so much.

There is so much more I could say, but it all makes me sad. Hug each other, be kind to strangers, take care of yourself, laugh and hug puppies. Especially puppies, and goats, and pigs, for Raegan.

DOS TORTAS

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The Dreaded C Word

28 Jan

Silly me, I thought I had some magical powers and when Covid was floating around for the last four years, somehow it would go around me! But fate caught up with me this week and I’m down for the count.

I remember the first time I heard the C word. I was in Oaxaca painting with a group of women. It was February 2020 and I was feeling a bit under the weather after a month of traveling. While talking on the phone to my daughter in California, she asked if I was sure I didn’t have Covid? Mmmm. What’s that? I clearly was out of touch.

My artwork from 2020. Guadalupe, Frida, Catrina

Lisa knew this week before I did that I was positive, having dealt with her own and her mom’s multiple infections. I woke her up two nights in a row with a raging headache and body aches. Something I’ve never done in thirty years. She’s a saint and knew just what to do.

We dug out our one and only remaining home test (expired) and sure enough double lines = positive. I’ve been terrified of getting Covid, because of “coexisting conditions”. I have asthma.

So far so good, except Lisa is also infected. This is new territory for me. The body aches are the weirdest. I feel like I’ve been doing pushups. Following the new Center For Disease Control Guidelines, we’re isolating appropriately. Fingers crossed Covid releases me from its grip soon. For now, rest and y’all be careful out there.

DOS TORTAS

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