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Old Town is Always New

I love wandering around Old Town as there is always so much to experience, from shops to museums to live music to festivals.

The museums are exceptional. Explora is a hands on science exploratation place for children. It is so popular with adults that they also offer adult nights.

The Natural History Museum and Planetarium has fun and unusual shores in addition to all those cool dinosaur skeletons. A recent exhibit brought all of Leonardo day Vinci’s inventions to life by making full sized working models. It was extraordinary.

The Planetarium at the Natural History Museum.

A great reminder that Albuquerque is over three hundred years old.

Tiguex Park is a fun place for a picnic and includes some interesting public art.

If you’re interested in Zuni fetishes, New Mexico Bead and Fetish has a great collection.

They offer explanations for what each fetish means

And while you are in Old Town, stop in for some fun candy at Old Town Candy & Sweets.

In addition to great chocolates, they stock all sorts of unusual candies and lunch boxes

San Felipe de Neri is an iconic Southwestern church. It is also still actively used for services, including both traditional and vampire weddings.

Most weekends, this gazebo is filled with entertainers playing music or demonstrating tango.

The entrance to the Albuquerque art museum sculpture garden hints at the delights inside. Its a great place to relax with a coffee and a sketchbook.

Many of the Albuquerque Museum’s sculptures are in front of the facility.

A recent sculptural addition (about border crossing) in front of the museum needs to be seen from all sides to be fully appreciated.

Wouldn’t you like to wander through Old Town with me?

Magic doors

Taxis were delightful. They were always immaculate and the seats were invariably covered in white lace fabric. When it was time to get out, the doors opened as if by magic–though I’m sure it was through the driver’s command.

In Kyoto, foreigners aren’t particularly welcome as they overwhelm this small town. In that town, taxi drivers hesitate to pick ip foreigners. so a whole separate cab business has developed: “foreigner friendly taxis”. The term is emblazoned on the taxis so foreigners know that they can effectively flag these taxis down. Not surprisingly, these taxis are often driven by foreign immigrants, who often also speak English.

So would you be like me– a little worried about inadvertently soiling the pristine white interior of a taxi? (I’m a klutz by the way.)

Getting ready for a trip to Germany

Lobster is what I think of first when planning a trip to Boston.

We were planning a trip to Boston for a business meeting and said, “Hey! We’re well along the way to Europe. Let’s go!” We settled upon Germany, because Brenda wanted to finally put her German language minor in college to good use.

Lufthansa offered flights from Boston/Logan to Frankfort, so we opted to visit that area. Once there, we considered our options: travel hither and thither, staying in various places, or establish a base of operations in one place and explore the environs. We opted for the latter, eschewing the multiple unpack/pack cycle. We also travel light, so readily finding a laundry with time to use it is a must. (At least, our seatmates on the flights home would prefer it.)

The next decision was where to establish our home away from home. There’s where the DK travel guides for Germany came in handy. The Rhineland offers an abundance of pleasant towns to choose from, so we felt we couldn’t make a wrong decision. We opted for Koblenz because it was convenient to both the Rhine and Moselle attractions, and was large enough to provide lots of different fun things to do and enjoy over our stay.

What about touring the countryside? Car or train? We opted for the convenience of the German railway system. We will use their affordable and convenient rail pass to avoid dealing with auto insurance, parking, and foreign language highway signage. The train system offers direct service from the Frankfort airport to Koblenz and convenient service from Koblenz to other towns and cities that we wanted to visit. And we won’t have to worry about driving after Wine tasting our way through the countryside.

Just a few more details to take care of and we’ll be ready for our trip. What about you? Where in Germany would you like to go?

Rock n Roll Heaven

Elvis Presley changed the world of rock n roll as completely as other stars like the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Jerry Lee Lewis. So when we were in Memphis, TN visiting our daughter’s family, we had to see Graceland.

My husband, who was not a fan of Elvis, was shocked to see the huge quantity of gold and platinum records awarded to Elvis.

According to Wikipedia, “In August 1992, he was awarded with 110 gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums and singles, the largest presentation of gold and platinum record awards in history. According to the latest data from the RIAA website, Elvis has a total of 117 gold, 67 platinum and 27 multi-platinum album awards by the organization.” That’s a lot of award winning songs.

His house, while large, isn’t as palatial as those of modern day rock star homes, although it does include more than 37 acres. And it was designed to also house his parents.

Today Graceland is a huge tourist draw for the area. We took the walking tour but there are lots of other options. Expect to wait in line for tickets, and then for entry to the house. Once inside, traffic is controlled so it isn’t crowded.

Here are a few photos from inside:

The exterior looks very southern with its columns portico and the lions and white iron benches at the front.

The peacock room with its stained glass was probably my favorite even though I can’t imagine living in an all white room. Still, that stained class was gorgeous.

The pool room was very dark and cozy.

We had a great time in Memphis. Another not-to-be-missed site is the Rock n Soul Museum.

So what do you think. Do you want to visit Graceland?

Best apple juice on the planet

I have never had apple juice that tastes as good as this from Nagano, Japan. It tastes like biting into a fresh apple, without the effort, of course. I drank a whole bottle in one day because it was so amazing.

They also make a Fuji apple sake that tastes like fresh apples, but with an alcoholic kick. Yum..

Olympic Hopes

At the train station arriving in Nagano, a delightful Japanese town that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics.

These are cool statues along the access road to the shrine.

We were drooling as we passed the shops with their food samples in the windows. This is the restaurant we came back to for soba. Yum.

There is a 7 springs hike nearby.

And here is a gorgeous hand painted manhole cover celebrating the famous apples from the region. They are deservedly famous. I became addicted to the fresh apple juice, apple sake, and fresh apples.

A mn so outlines the sacred places at the temple.

The beautiful shrine appears embraced by the trees.

A fruit stand where we bought one of the famous apples.

Nagano was one of my favorite places in Japan. I think it was the apples. Do you have a favorite place in Japan? Where?

Samurai Sushi

We made a traditional version of sushi that was served to samurai as it was extremely portable and stayed good without refrigeration.

Despite our lack of enthusiasm, our sushis, made with pickled vegetables (for antiseptic properties), nuts, snd rice were delicious.

Dragon Temple

The paintings on the ceiling of this shrine were the highlight for me. I love dragons. Details about the painting follow later in the pictures.

Albuquerque bosque at dawn

Guest blog by Ray Shortridge

During the summer, it’s more comfortable to take my routine three to four mile hike along the river at dawn, when the air is still cool. Owen the wonder dog usually accompanies me. He’s more interested in checking out the bushes along the way than watching the sun rise over the Sandia Mountains and light up the Rio Grande River valley, however.

At first, the valley remains in shadow while the sun climbs the east slope of the mountains.

As the sun crests the Sandia, the atmosphere refracts the sunlight into the red and gold colors of the spectrum.

The water fowl along the river banks quack, honk, and screech as with the coming of the day.

Teen and Tween Heaven

Harajuku is always popping. It’s the epicenter of teendom, a mind-boggling array of sounds, sights and sensations. Whether you’re into balloons, cosplay, enormous cotton candies, or owl cafes, there is all that and more here.