We are home. We left London on a sunny afternoon. London is eight hours ahead of Seattle time so, we arrived on a overcast cold afternoon in Seattle, tired and jet lagged. I have piles of newspapers to thumb through (I’m afraid I might miss something important) lots of mail to read and accumulated bills to pay. There are also suitcases to unload and contents put away. Dirty clothes to be washed and unfinished business to be faced. Unfortunately, the computers and key boards in the South of Italy and Normandy France made it too difficult to file travel reports on a regular basis so I've decided to prepare a summary but in the reverse order of our trip

London

We stayed in the Goring Hotel. This was a first time for us at this unique hotel and I am impressed. A small hotel (74 rooms) this hotel has been owned by the Goring family since O.R. Goring built it in 1910. A life size bronze statue of O.R. is in the small lobby. A round faced, mustached rotund man dressed in a suit with vest and a fresh flower in his bronze suit jacket is there to greet you at the reception desk. O.R. built a hotel that was the first in the world to have central heating and a bathroom in each room. The hotel is favored by the British and the large bar is filled with British business people with brief cases having a drink after work. The hotel isn’t large in size, but has a large enclosed outside courtyard in the rear. The dinning room is very nice the hotel well maintained. The individual rooms are small, but comfortable. I liked this hotel as well as it’s location.

It is located adjacent to the grounds of Buckingham Palace, it is a 10 minute walk from the hotel itself to the gates of Buckingham with it’s ornate gold painted fence and the guards. I walked there about 9:00 am and there were only a few people aroundl. Later horse driven carriages began arriving. Shortly after that cars began arriving with men and women in their finest getting out to go inside the grounds. Men in top hats and long tail coats. Women dressed well and all with various ridiculous looking hats with floppy things sticking out at an angle. The sort of thing one would expect on Saturday Night Live, but apparently in high fashion. Something big was happening. Later, when Lita and I returned it looked like the crowd at the Husky football stadium. People everywhere. There were more people arriving in cars. Someone pointed out Princess Ann in a car. We never did find out what the function was, but it was exciting anyway.

We took a cab to the Covent Garden. This covered market consists of pubs, shops, crafts and activity of all kind. Street performers singing opera and carrying on all kinds of activities for which they pass the hat. Lots of activity in a sort of huge Pike Street Market setting. This was well worth the effort to see and we will return next time. We were only in London over night before catching our flight home.

Normandy

We had arrived in London after a long 5 plus hour drive from Honfluer, France which is in Normandy. Our route was from Honfluer through the beautiful countryside of France to Calais where the tunnel to England is located. The "Chunnel" is a 31 mile three tunnel connection between the two countries. On one set of tracks the 372 mph Eurostar takes only three hours to go back and forth from downtown London to downtown Paris. On the other the car train carries vehicles from one country to another in a thirty minute trip. You drive aboard the train they way we drive about car ferries. The cars are big enough that there are two levels for vehicles. You never have to get out of your car. When you get to the other side you drive off and head into London.

In Normandy we stayed in Honfluer at the five star, small (29 room) La Ferme Saint Simeon a beautiful restored farm about a ten or fifteen minute walk from town. This hotel location was the favorite of the17th century impressionist painters such as Monet, Boudin and Jongkind. It has a farm building with the thick thatched roof and a very nice spa with indoor pool. The hotel is a remodeled farm. Our room was peculiar. A large room with a separate smaller bed room and a small bath area with a toilet area about the size of the one on a Horizon flight to Spokane on one of those planes where you can’t stand straight. I had mixed feeling about the place as a place to stay. The price for wine by the bottle was about the current price of gold. The food was good.

One day, we had a car drive us about thirty minutes from Honfluer, to Liseux where one of the most famous saints, St. Theresa, lived in the Carmelite monastery there. Now a large basilica, named after her, is located here. This huge and very ornate structure is impressive and very beautiful. I was anxious to see the place where this extraordinary woman lived and died before she was thirty years old. Lita’s middle name is Theresa and I named one of my daughters after this saint.

From there we continued on to the highlight of our trip to Normandy, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Here on 172 acres some 9,387 men and women are buried beneath identical white crosses arranged in precise rows on top of very green grass. There is an excellent visitor’s center with photographs, articles from the invasion and movies relating to the great invasion in June 1944. All of it is located on the high cliff overlooking famous Omaha Beach. It is hard to describe the emotional impact of realizing how many died just in this one area of that war and on D Day. Almost all of them just youngsters. We asked a group of three men to take our photo there. They turned out to be from Texas. One, a white haired older man, Lita later saw with tears coming down his face in the area were the photos of the invasion were located. We saw men dressed in WWII clothing and many people who were emotionally involved just seeing this site.

Paris

We had been driven to Normandy from Paris. What can I say about Paris? I don’t like big cities generally, but this is one of the exceptions. We were only there one day and night, but seeing all the sights of this city is always a pleasure for me. The wonderful George V hotel is worth the trip. Celine Delon and her family had been there a week when we arrived. Our hotel room had a balcony where you could sit in the sun and see the Efile Tower in the distance.

Puglia Italy

We had flown from Bari, in the Puglia area of Italy, to France. Our hotel there had been the Masseria San Domenico located in Savelletri Di Fasano. This hotel is  located near a tiny town on the Adriatic side of Italy. I have previously written about my impressions of this hotel, which I said reminded me of a minimum security prison in appearance, but Lita liked it. The best hotel in the area, but not my cup of tea. I like color, flowers, landscaping rather than granite. The one thousand year old olive trees were impressive. Huge trunks.

From here we visited Locorontondo and Alberobello two small Italian towns. The latter is famous for it’s white washed conical shaped trulli houses. Their appearance is striking and wonderful to photograph. We also made trips to Ostuni, another small Italian town and Lecce with it’s Baroque architecture. The weather was really hot in this area while we were there and we had only one extraordinary meal. That was in a nearby town where the restaurant featured fresh fish and it was outstanding.

Ravello

We had driven to Puglia from Ravello on the other coast of Italy. Ravello was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the whole stay there and have previously described it. One thing I didn’t mention is that in our drive from Rome to Ravello we had driven a narrow, winding mountain road and coming around a corner found a herd of goats going down the road. Led by a herder and controlled by dogs the goats were on their way to another pasture area.

Rome

We had flown from Seattle to London and then on to Rome. We stayed outside Rome, about a 45 minute drive, in an extraordinary hotel La Posta Vecchia, where we spent the night before driving on to Ravello. I’ve previously described this jewel of a hotel once owned by the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Located on the water this small hotel is one of the most comfortable and beautiful I’ve stayed in around the world. We were only there for the night, but the man playing classical music at dinner was there when we last stayed in the hotel and the beauty of the location worth the trip.

Well, there’s our journey, in reverse order, just to keep you confused. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to record some of the impressions while they were fresh. I don’t want to pack my computer and didn’t expect the computer problems in Italy and France I ran into. Let me also say: I’m very glad to be home. Our dollar isn’t worth toilet paper, the Bush administration continues to lead us into destruction, and gas prices are going up, but it’s still great to be home.