Read more books

We had a lovely day out today, we travelled to Hay-on-Wye, a village on the Welsh border that has more new and used book stores than any other place certainly in the UK or in Europe possibly in the world. It's one big book store sprinkled with coffee shops. One store alone boasts more than 200,000 books. We browsed the book stores and a few other shops such as antique shops and cook shops plus buying something from the baker for our afternoon tea. We also had a good lunch in one of the many pubs.

There are currently over thirty major bookshops and with a population of only 1500. That's a lot of books per capita.

Day at Windsor Castle

We had a wonderful day at Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world. When the flag is flying the queen is at home as she quite often is on the weekends. We visited the state apartments which hold a wealth of art and artifacts collected over the years by the royal family. We took some friends with us that had taken us to Windsor in January. We enjoyed the summer like day taking in coffee in the morning and lunch after our visit.

Windsor, the town, is also a wonderful place to visit with all the shops and eateries. There's a mall around the train station and you can take a cruise on the river that runs through the town.

Springtime in England

It's springtime and we're looking forward to summer. We get an occasional warm day and it makes us want more. All the rag tops come out even though it's still a bit cool. Oddly, there are more convertibles in the UK than other European countries. I guess it's the lack of sunshine that makes them wish for more. With the past two summers being more than usually wet, we wish for a hotter dryer summer. Still it makes the gardens beautiful and we don't have to water. Here's a picture of my pond with the water lilies, three fish and two frogs.

England is jam packed with history and beautiful gardens to view. From castles to walks along ancient roads plus the roads built by the Romans during their 400 year occupation. There is never a lack of things to keep oneself busy without watching the telly (TV).

Late spring holiday.

Summer is getting here, slowly but surely. Rain to start us off so the flowers will grow, but also the weeds. We had a relaxing holiday in Santorini, Greece. Everywhere was blooming with flowers before the summer heat kicks in. The volcano was interesting and still warm, ready to go. The sunsets were good, with great clear skies. The villages are very picturesque, with their trademark blue and white churches.

Norway in Spring

Norway is always a great place to visit, but spring time is really fantastic. The sun shines and everyone is ready for summer. The convertables are out as well as the motorcyclists, flowers are starting to bloom. It's great to go for a walk and watch the snow melting as Norway prepares for the late evening sunshine.

Venice in Spring

Yes, Venice was as good as I had remembered it. There were a few less tourist than before, but that's OK by me. We enjoyed sharing Venice with Steve & Judy, my wife's sister and brother-in-law.

The food and wine were great, well after all it is Italy but more importantly Venice. Everywhere you look, there is something to take a picture of, a real Kodak moment if ever there was one. Venice is a city that will not be confused with any other you're ever likely to see.

Next Adventure

We're soon to have our annual visit from Steve and Judy, we are excited! Judy is Brenda's sister from St. Louis. Every year we look forward to showing them something new. This year will be no different, something new, this year's adventure is to be in Venice. Judy is a teacher and therefore needs something to look forward to, something to ease her troubles. Don't you teachers agree? She deserves it, a short spring break, a glass of wine and an adventure to tell the other teachers while having a cup of coffee. We'll see if we can show them a good time. At least have a descent cup of coffee or just maybe a cappuccino.

Living outside the U.S.A.

It started in the early 1970s when I had an apartment in Okinawa, Japan while I was in the Air Force, after that we've lived in Calgary, Canada 1996-97, Cork, Ireland 2000-02, and now we've been in England since 2004. I would say that one of the best things for me about living in England is the opportunity it affords us to travel, because that's how we like to spend our holidays. Our big incentive to move to England and Europe was to be nearer our grandchildren that live in Norway. We found an opportunity and took it, we've seldom looked back, although we miss family and friends in the states.

Last October we took the grandchildren and our son and daughter-in-law (Eirild) to Euro-Disney outside of Paris and had a blast. Just seeing their faces light up was worth it. To see Disneyland through their eyes was priceless. That included their parents.

The opportunities for travel are endless. Last year we went to Crete, Egypt, France, Belguim, and Norway. Plus all the side trips to places around England like London, Bath, and Oxford. We love seeing new places and meeting new people. And taking in a London play now and then isn't all bad either.

We're off to Venice for a second time in March. We go in less than two weeks and are looking forward to the trip. We enjoyed it then and we're going to have a blast showing my wife's sister (Judy) and her husband (Steve) around. I guess we like being tour guides. We also have a trip planned for Santorini, Greece, one of the small Greek isles. We've already been to Norway this year and have our next trip there already planned.

Norway has snow

Just back from a five day holiday in Norway and they have enough snow to chipple England. There was so much snow, it was hard to ski. At least three feet on the ground and new snow four out of five days. It was beautiful. Norway doesn't let a little thing like snow stop them. Interesting enough they also have good pizza.

It all started

Ready for adventure!

It all started back in 7th grade. We were studying ancient civilizations and my teacher made the subject so interesting that she instilled in me a life long love of and desire to know about history first hand by travelling and living in different cultures. It wasn't until I was grown, married and the kids grown up that I got the chance to indulge my desire to travel and live in foreign lands. The village I live in now is full of history and the country is full of history. From here I also get to travel to far away places and see things I've always dreamed of seeing. So, I'm living my dream, wearing my Indiana Jones hat and having adventures of my own. As I look back, I can't believe it's really happened to me!

My life-the short version

I'm Vic to most of my friends, uncle to some and even Grandpa to a select few. After serving in the Armed Forces overseas I continued my education. Where upon I found myself married and living in Scottsdale Arizona and so my life really began.

After working as an engineer for many years I finally ended up at Arizona State University as a Computer Graphic Artist. I'm still not sure how that all happened, luck I guess.

Then the next phase of my life began, living outside the U.S.

More on that in my next blog.