Colorful Tobermory, Scotland
Colorful Tobermory, Scotland was a fun spot to explore after our failed bird watching expedition to the countryside. The photo above captures about one-third of the town. The arrival of our ship doubled the population of this quaint town for the day. We went into the Mishnish Hotel, the yellow building above, and had some local beverages and a half dozen oysters as part of our shore excursion. Then we ventured a few doors down for some Indian cuisine.
Gimme Shelter
The Patara Elephant Sanctuary allows you to get up close and friendly with elephants of all sizes. The sanctuary’s advertisement says you can be an elephant owner for a day. With the elephants walking around freely, our first task was to scrub the mud from their tough skin, then walk them to a large pond and give them a bath.
Colorful fishing boats of the Rapa Nui, on Easter Island
The Rapa Nui are the original inhabitants of Easter Island. On the boat above the red smiley face looking design is a drawing of a decorative chest ornament called a reimiro worn by the original Rapa Nui women. On each end of the red canoe design a face appears on the chest plate. This is the basis of the Easter Island flag. So now we know the owner of the boat is a proud, patriotic fisherman. Continue reading
Porto Douro River View
Porto, Portugal was built along the Douro River in northern Portugal. This view is of the oldest section, Riberia, which is largely dedicated to the port wine and tourist industry. The bright yellow billboard near the center of this photograph is the Sandeman trademark of one of these wines.
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We certainly wanted to visit Innsbruck, but it was also a convenient stopping point in our journey from the Dolomites, Italy, to Switzerland. We traveled by bus, two trains and taxi to arrive at the Hotel Mondschein, which is the lighter pink building just right of center above.
Innsbruck is a neat, clean town and we were happy to finally get away from the pizza and pasta of Italy. We celebrated by going to both a good Thai and a Nepalese restaurant. Also, Austria is where I got my first international haircut, by the most skilled barber ever…
