Stockholm Bay main street is lined with impressive buildings originally erected as banks.
Extreme heat and wilting humidity may have compelled tourists in many countries to make like bats and only come out in the dark shade of day or the prayed-for cool of night, but on our early July trip to Sweden and Denmark, we sidestepped predicted rain and donned light
View of the coastline from Parco Florence Trevelyan, the public gardens that began as a private park.
In Part 1, we survived an arduous journey to Taormina for the first leg of our two-week Sicily-Southern Italy tour. We learned about the city’s discovery, its shames (eliminating Jews), and folklore stories woven into today’s culture, from pinecones to pottery heads of planted basil.
what we did:
At the top of the pedestrian-only hill from our hotel, Eurostars Monte Tauro, is the serenely peaceful Parco Florence Trevelyan. The beautiful public gardens were originally created as a private park by Lady Florence Trevelyan Cacciola, a Scottish noblewoman married to the mayor. She styled her sanctuary as a typical English garden with an infusion of colorful varieties of flowers and plants from all over the world, but it was her passion for ornithology (bird watching) that inspired many of the park’s fanciful brick structures. The one most used as a backdrop for photos is called “The Beehives”. Taormina’s government now maintains the quiet manicured respite overlooking Mt. Etna and the coastline.
A painting by Paul Cezanne.
In Part 4, we saw how Vincent Van Gogh’s art was impacted by his mental issues, how mountaintop former castles and fortresses continue to “live,” and how the idyllic beauty of Southern France country landscapes inspire paintings.
Aix-en-Provence
It was a reality jolt to spend days roaming gentle villages of country folk living high in ancient fortresses and then to find oneself in the thriving urban city of Aix-en-Provence. We strolled along Cours Mirabeau, a wide, tree-lined thoroughfare, explored the Old Town, and took in the artistic drumbeat left by Artist Paul Cezanne, born here in 1839 and who Read more
Shopping at the farmer market.
In Part 3, we cruised down the Canal du Midi in a barge, cooked a full-course meal in a 5-star French hotel’s cooking school, and learned that Vincent Van Gogh left his impressions on more than canvas.
SAINT-REMY-DE-PROVENCE, LES-BAUX-DE-PROVENCE, ISLE-SUR-LA-SORGUE and ROUSSILLON
One of the absolute delights of this Southern France trip was getting to visit (albeit too briefly) small mountainside medieval villages on day excursions. We were lodging in Aix-en-Provence. Each village brimmed with the flavors of France, from fresh bags of lavender to nutty confections of nougat, to the flower-potted window sills that crowded narrow passageways within the former fortress rock walls. The air was fresh from mountain breezes. The views of multi-hued fields Read more
The locks at Canal du Midi
In Part 2, the journey took us to Figueres, Spain to explore Surrealist Salvadore Dali’s Theatre-Museum, to the seaside city of Collioure immortalized by paintings of André Derain, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, and to the quiet beauty of Perpignan.
CANAL DU MIDI, AVIGNON and ARLES
On our way to stay in Arles and to visit Avignon, we paused for a morning excursion on the famed Canal du Midi.
CANAL DU MIDI
The slow steady pace of cruising down the 150-mile-long 17th century-constructed Canal du Midi in a flat-bottomed barge was one of the most relaxing aspects of the two-week Odysseys Unlimited tour thus far. Originally named the Canal Royal en Languedoc in 1681 when completed by Pierre-Paul Riquet, it was renamed by French revolutionaries to Canal Read more
Hollywood Oscar-like figurines repose in niches at Dali’s Theatre-Museum
In Part 1, our journey began in Albi before exploring the medieval city of Carcassonne and then the Abbaye Fontroide in Narbonne.
FIGUERES (SPAIN), COLLIOURE and PERPIGNAN
Where we stayed:
La Villa Duflot sits in a three-acre park with olive and palm trees. The hotel’s site says it has just 24-rooms, but it is apparent they have added many more than that. We had to walk outside the hotel’s lobby to reach our room in a first-floor wing. The hotel is styled after an Italian villa, although the décor was more Art Deco. The dining room in the evening is Read more
Idyllic Southern France countryside
Art. Food. Wine.
Those were the three words that drew my husband, Russ, and I to book our two-week tour to Southern France, the Languedoc and Provence regions. Russ expected this tour would be a bit more laid back than our previous Odysseys Unlimited tours, though sometimes we still felt as if we were racing against time to cram in as many cultural experiences as we could before our weary bodies collapsed. That’s not a complaint, by the way… just the reality of not wanting to miss out Read more
Spinach strudel, boiled potatoes, sausages and more at Café Museum in Vienna, Austria