one only sees when one chooses to look

Europe trip 2013. The cities on this trip are (in the order of adventure), from Italy; Rome, Florence, Venice, Verona, Milan, then from Greece; Athens, Kalampaka in northern Greece, then to Munich, Germany.

the trip was from Sept 6th to Sept 28th, the cost was a lot, but the experience is...
priceless. then there's the photography. I sometimes epitomize the japanese tourist with a camera around his neck. Although I am neither a Japanese and rarely have my camera around my neck. It's either in my right had with the strap around the wrist, or in the backpack while traveling. Yes, I try not to look like a tourist.

Well, without further a due,
oh, by the way, I had a friend take a picture of me,

ok, that's actually David, from the Hebrew Bible where David, in defense of the Isrealites against the Goliath the giant sent by the Philistines, took Goliath down with a rock from his sling.

The sculpture above was done by Michelangelo in 1504. It was carved from Carrara marble that was started by other 2 previous sculptors that had failed. 

hummingbirds

star date: Wednesday, April 23, 2014, 1300 hrs; 

A flowering bush of the house across from mine lends itself to the delight of a hummingbird on Monday. After my usual morning walk with mom I saw this critter fluttering about;

europe trip 2014

The adventure begins.... (plug in theme from Star Wars here)...

Currently I am planning the trip to Europe in May--- June, with my brother for a part of the trip.

I have booked the flights for myself from Seattle to Krakow, Poland a few months back. And I also booked a flight for my brother to leave a week later from LAX to Charles De Gualle, Paris. I plan to leave Krakow to Paris a day before he lands into CDG.

The planned cities are Krakow, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Seville, Lisbon. Then fly to London, visit friends at Wheymouth, then to Cardiff (Wales); 33 days total.

Hotels are all booked at this time, except for London.

star date: April 23, 2014, Pacific time, 1210 am...

I have just booked eurail tickets for the train travel (eurail. com: http://www.eurail.com/eurail-passes/what-eurail; there's also a site called Rail Europe, but the charges are more expensive. After searching the former site, the options are select pass or regional passes. The global pass is for more extensive travel. the select pass is through  4 countries of travel, while the regional pass is for 2 countries. Although I travel through 4 countries, Poland, France, Spain, and Portugal, in Poland I will use local trains, and from Seville, the last city of Spain on my itinerary, to Lisbon is by bus, therefore no need to include Portugal in my pass. That leaves me with needing pass for France and Spain only. I chose the 1st class since it's only $60 more.

The select pass is for 6 days of actual travel sitting on the train, 2 persons. confirmation order #EU0151475; it will be sent to my address in Pasco, Washington by May 5th, or so it says.
total cost of pass: $872 (I added the pass lost protection for $20/pass).

I also downloaded the confirmation sent by email of the purchase to the dropbox, then DL it to my iPad, and then save it to a folder Europe trip 2014 in iBooks. This way I will have all the documents on my ipad in one folder for the trip.

After booking the eurail pass, there are reservations required on some trains. Most trains in France required advance reservations, despite having the pass. From the eurail site there's link to submit reservations for the trains and days of travel.

train schedule:

Barcelona Sants to Madrid-puerta de la Tocha: AVE 3082 8am-11:10am 3hr10min.