Stuff happening ... transitions all about

Bonjour, bonjour,

Lots of stuff happening these days. Transition seems to be the word of the day.

At noon today, our friends Gary and Dianne Gerberich left Aix-en-Provence for Barcelona, the next stop in their four-week European vacation.

Yesterday, our daughter Natasha, along with hubby Lawrence and our precious little Annika (nine and a half months), arrived for a week in Galicia, Spain, not far from the northern border of Spain with Portugal. The purpose of their trip is a political science conference that Lawrence is attending.

Can you believe this: they are apparently staying the week in a castle. Natasha said it was beautiful and that, already, Annika was loving it, whatever that means. I guess it means that Natasha is loving it and that Annika is loving being with mom and dad in this stimulating new environment.

I remember my days in Oporto, Portugal, not far from Galicia, and the beauty and majestic aura of a number of the castles we visited (some forty years ago). As I recall, castles are cool. Imagine, living in a castle! Wow! I'm looking forward to seeing Natasha's pictures in the weeks ahead.

After another three hour conversation-partner session (it was almost totally en Francais) this afternoon--always a growing, albeit tiring experience--we are concluding our plans for our ten-day trip to Greece and Turkey which commences this coming Thursday.

Here's the plan: two nights in Athens, taking in the sights of that historic, ancient metropolis (hoping to stay free of the Greek protests and agitation over their recent economic worries), followed by an overnight boat trip (we have a cabin suite which Natasha enthusiastically recommended) to the Greek island of Rhodes where we will be spending three nights in the beautiful village of Lindos.

I have always wanted to spend a few days on a Greek island where they have those beautiful, white homes perched on sun-baked rocky hillsides, looking out to the irresistable azure, ocean waters. Lindos apparently promises such visages.

Next, we take an hour boat ride to the Turkish port town of Marmaris where we jump in a rental car and find our way (a sixty to ninety minute ride) to the beautiful resort town of Bodrum where we'll be spending two nights.

Soon it will be on to Selcuk for our final two nights in Turkey, before flying out of Izmir (over two million population) on June 27th and back to France. Sometime along the way, we will visit the ancient ruins at Ephesus and hopefully gain a sense of that historic site (where the Apostle Paul spent some three years).

All reports indicate that the temperature will be in the 90's or more our entire visit. We're taking our swimming trunks and are thankful that our lodging promises air-conditioning at all our stops along the way.

We'll soon be blogging from Greece and Turkey. For now, a bientot again from Aix.