Are You a Tourist or a Traveler?

Burj Khalif...not the Emerald City. Tallest building in the world!

I keep reminding myself that I am not in  Kansas anymore!  Actually I have never been in Kansas but if I was there once I am not now...or something like that.

Travel books and goals are all wonderful but sometimes life just happens and what you think you want may not be what you get. If you are a tourist you will come home with horror stories. If you are traveler you will come home with bragging rights and much better stories. It is your choice. And the lessons you learn on the road will apply to your life from beginning to end.

We are in Dubai. We left Tucson, traveled to Houston for deep fried salt, flew to Frankfurt Germany where I learned about the German attitude towards limping, spent a week in Florence Italy where I learned to eat, flew back to Frankfurt to eat Irish Food and spend the night in a gorgeous hotel and flew to Dubai the next afternoon.

As I walked the streets seeing the real Italian lifestyle and beautiful sidewalk cafes, remarked on how Frankfurt reminded me of Portland and took pictures of the Dubai skyline, I remind myself over and over that this is not Las Vegas. This is the REAL THING! Those blue skies in Pisa with clouds wafting overhead are not painted on a ceiling in the Venetian Casino. That park along the Rhine in Frankfurt is not Tom McCall Park. The Mirdif City Center mall near Academic City here in Dubai is not in the USA. But most of all, the skyline here in Dubai is not Kansas's version of Oz.

Park on the Rhine no Portland's Tom McCall Park on the Willamette. 

Tower of Pisa with beautiful blue skies!

Dubai shopping mall...
women totally covered in Burqas walking by Victoria's Secret

Along the way there were flight mix-ups, difficulty with airports larger than your hometown and rain. Boy did we have a good time. Our oldest grandson is traveling with us. This is the first time he has traveled overseas...the first of a lifetime of travel I hope. It is fun to see it all through his eyes...as though we are doing it for the first time all over again. I hope he is learning a lot because I know we are.

We will go to a resort to watch the tourist version of Arabian Nights, eat beautifully prepared foods at the Polo Club and take a taxi to the city center to see the tallest building in the world...and the rest we'll just make up as we go along. We are not tourist at all...we do not set out so see something. We set out to see what we see. We have never been disappointed. We are truly travelers.

Have a wonderful day!

b+

Eating Through A Day in Florence, Italy

It's All About the Food...

Feast for the Eyes

Proud chef in Pisa!

Breakfast hour in Italy...no diners just beauty.

Sometimes only a Starbucks will do...
Frankfurt shuts down for Easter
...everyone but SB's!

Gelato and Grandchildren

Outdoor tables at Di Sasso di Dante

French Onion Soup 

Chandelier Distraction...who cares about the food!

Pasta Carbonara with Gluten Free Pasta

Beer of the world including Ommission Beer from Oregon.
Centrale Mercado upstairs eating court...a must!

Travel: Firenze, Italy (Florence to You)

Even after traveling all these years it still surprises me when I arrive in a city and find out that we Americans (and maybe the rest of the world) have given the city a name that locals do not use. We are in Florence Italy for a week. So it puzzled me when we first arrived here last Sunday that every business had the name Firenze over the door. What did that mean? Then it dawned on me that all this time I had been calling this beautiful city by the wrong name.

We are staying in an apartment just across the street from the central market here so we can wander over and buy vegetables or cheese on a whim. The apartment is very old but sparkling clean. Shutters can be closed to keep out the light and windows swing open wide to let the afternoon breeze blow through. No TV, just we 7 family members laughing and talking together. It is wonderful.

We walk everywhere in the city and today we went two blocks to the train station and rode through the countryside to Pisa to spend a few hours. The tickets cost less than $100 Euros for 7 people. I am learning that traveling around Europe could be easy if a person wanted to venture out. Safety is an issue with the airlines but passports are not. It seems very strange to us.

Read the tour books if you are interested in the museums or tours. I am not going to try to describe the experience of standing before Michelangelo's tomb or seeing the place where Galileo was laid to rest. Nor am I going to try to empress you with the beautiful image of Michelangelo's David statue or even pictures of the beautiful 4th largest cathedral in the world. So many words have been written about all of that, it is not necessary. Sometimes it is the quirky that catches my eye. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Red tile roofs are normal, getting this close to one is not! Walkway to Dante's
museum.

Some graffiti is just too good not to photograph...train to Pisa.

Love under the Tuscan sun...my son and his wife!
Plaza in front of the leaning tower.

Letting a trains linger for too long is just an open invitation to the graffiti artist...very beautiful. 

It is required that anyone that visits Pisa must have their
picture taken hold the tower up. My oldest grandson and his little sister.

I want to tell you about traveling with a cane finding gluten free food but that will have to wait for another day. Stay tuned!

b+