We’re Back!!!

Nathan thinking about dinner after a weary day of traveling on the French Riviera.

It has been quiet on my blog for the last few weeks. Why? You may ask. Well my bride and I just returned from a little trip to celebrate 32 years together. We visited six countries in the western Mediterranean including putting a foot on the African continent for a day. We traveled by jet, taxi, large and small buses, train, cruise ship, small boat, and we pounded a lot of cobblestone pavement along the way. In fact, I wore out a pair of shoes in Tunis, Tunisia. The soles were flapping by the end of the day like a flat tire.

Along the way, we visited Spain, France, Italy, Tunisia, Andorra and the Vatican. Below are a few pictures out of the several thousand we took. We had four cameras going! I shoot videos, and Sandi does the stills. The pics below are all ones she took.

The highlight of the trip? For me, it was not the Vatican, or the French Riviera or Barcelona. Not Pisa or Florence, Pompeii and Vesuvius or Sicily. Not Andorra or the Pyrenees. Not the Coliseum, the Roman Forum in Rome or the Sistine Chapel or the Vatican Museum or even climbing to the top of the Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. No. As great as these things were, what blessed me the most was slowing the pace down a bit and savoring life in the company of my wife, and experiencing the food and culture of Italy and the exploring the quaint back allies of the Old City and savoring the little things that are often overlooked in the mad pace of life.

Now it’s back to work, and the USA with its mass shootings (been home only a three days and there has been almost one a day so far), pudding eating Biden, the uni-party childishness of the Republicrats and Democans, and constant trans-trope with their alphabet soup of sexual perversions being crammed down our gullets. Oy vey!

Oh well, it is what it is, and may Yah give us the strength to stand firm for him until our ultimate redemption which draweth nigh comes from above with healing in His wings to straighten out this mess below and give rewards to is disciples. HalleluYah!

Please enjoy a few pics hopefully to get our minds on some better things for a moment or two!

Nathan taking a photo of Europe’s largest palm tree located in the Rome Botanical Garden.
Sandi and Nathan in front of the Duomo of Florence, Italy.
When finished, this minor basilica—La Sagrada Familia—will be the second largest church in the world after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It will have the tallest tower in the world at 560 feet. They started building the church in 1882 and it’s still not finished. This Barcelona church is Spain’s top tourist attraction.
Inside view of La Sagrada Familia.
Some good Italian food and a Negroni drink in the Trastvere neighborhood of Rome.
Visiting the tiny country Andorra high in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. It is the sixth smallest country in Europe.
Nathan pretending to be Samson and trying to push over the pillars of what’s left of this pagan temple in Carthage, Tunisia in north Africa.
St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the birthplace of Greco-Roman, Constantine Christianity, but NOT the burial place of Peter.
In Pompeii near Naples, Italy with Mount Vesuvius in the background.
No caption is needed here. Y’all know what this is!

Stay tuned for more pics and videos to follow as time allows. I will also be sharing some spiritual insights I gained while traveling through these five Catholic and one Moslem countries. The dust is still settling from this long trip through more than 3,000 years of history, and the cognitive overload of it all is mind boggling. All the while jet lag is still keeping us up at odd hours of the day and night.

Chiao and shalom!

 

3 thoughts on “We’re Back!!!

  1. Well…Samson. I see you were successful in keeping the leaning tower of Pisa upright….but where are the collapsed columns form the pagan temple (har-har 🙂
    Nice photos…thx for sharing!

  2. Thanks for the Western Mediterranean travelogue. I have not been to Andorra nor Tunisia. Several years ago I thought about visiting Sicily, taking a ferry to Malta and then on to Tunisia, but still have not been any farther south in western Italy than Positano on the Amalfi Coast. The Mediterranean lifestyle is definitely good for relaxation. Sega sega, as they say in Greece. Slowly slowly. Lots of siestas and great food. Thanks again. We look forward to more photos and videos from you both. Sandy takes some good photos!

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