It is 3:30 AM when I am woken with what I thought was a gunshot. This is the beginning of the sunrise ceremony of the festival called Choat Puga. Last night was the start of the festival. From 3:30 AM there were fireworks and drums and people swarming to the Ganges. Lying in bed listening to the various noises and trying to identify what was going on, I thought this could be equivalent to a war zone. My ears rang from the cherry bombs.

Once up and dressed we arrived out in the balcony looking down on this sea of humanity while dodging the sparks from the fireworks and breathing in the heavy smoke created from the offerings, guns and general fires.

Masses of humanity lined the banks of the Ganges River with lines of people going two different directions at once, pushing and shoving to get where they want. Sky lanterns were lit and floated slowly over the people. It is hard to imagine this scene, even if you have seen a million pictures of it. Until you actually see it, you cannot understand it. Taking a boat ride along the river was the best way to see everything.

 

Afterwards we walked to the golden temple, pass the cremation site, and into an area restricted from pictures, the Golden Temple. You walk through ancient streets where you share the street with cows, pedi-bikes, garbage and cow dung All of this is not bad compared to the constant honking of horns blasting your eardrums until you wish and wish for the quiet of Vermont. No wonder everyone meditates, the temples or mediation areas are the only quiet area.

Later in the afternoon we walked through the main streets into a central square while cars, motor scooters, bikes, rickshaws went in every direction at once. A mother cow, with her calf was not going to let us pass. She pushed past us with a toss of the head reminding us we were visitors, and this was her territory. Crossing the street was a major fete, timing a break on one side of the road while dodging our way to the other side. Something akin to bumper cars. Markets were just as crowded.

We successfully completed another day without injury and look forward to moving on to Agra. Varanasi is one of those places in the world that you cannot comprehend until you visit and then you can only observe as an outsider, knowing you could never belong. The Ganges is polluted and judging from the amount of trash, and sewage going into it, plus the factories that contribute, I wonder if India will be able to save it.

“You will never want to miss Varanasi, ” is the comment we have heard from so many people. I was not sure that I would want to experience the Ganges River scene with all the stories I had heard. The polluted river, the burning of bodies, the bathing rituals all seemed a bit barbaric. Yet, there is a certain sense of curiosity.

Driving into the center of Varanasi was certainly exciting with every form of transportation crowding into narrow streets,speeding around cows in the middle of the road, and braking at the last minute as  motorcycles with a family of four or five riding on it,cuts in front of our van, quarter inches from the bumper,  Streets so narrow that we had to walk the last couple blocks to get to our hotel. As in many other countries, the streets are dug up leaving large holes, animal excrement, old debris, trash and other indescribable objects littered along the way. One must hop out of the way as a scooter swerves to miss you, one false step and you may or may not be on the ground. Having been this route other times I knew when we finally got to the hotel it would open up to a beautiful courtyard and lovely rooms. We were not disappointed.

Varanasi was in the throes of a festival, one I could hardly spell here. It is the time when people come to the Ganges to ask for a blessing for their sons. Gifts of flowers, sugar cane and candles in tin pie plates are sold or brought to the Ganges and floated there or lite on shore. Thousands of people come to embrace this tradition and stay until after sunset. Then tomorrow they will come back to bring an offering to the sunrise. We photographed all of this and will tomorrow morning too.

After experiencing this outside our hotel,we headed for a boat and began a trip down the Ganges to the cremation sites.  This was rather an interesting scene as it looked like something out of the movie “Apocalypse .”  But the ritual does not seem any more bizarre than out burial rituals. In many ways cremation in this form is more intimate than our way of cremating. And the traditions have stories that are comforting to loved ones.

I felt that we were lucky to experience this holiday,the cremation and the holy site where pilgrim come to cleanse themselves in the River Ganges.

We arrived by plane in Cusco in the dark so we could not get a look at the mountains but the ride was bumpy. We are close to the central plaza and out hotel ” El Mercado” is an old market place with a center courtyard. Charming rooms and plenty of room for the girls to run around.

I feel like I never left Bhutan or Tibet, I can’t breathe , I  have a headache and I now know how people with COP ,or whatever it is called , feel. The elephant is sitting on my chest going up hill. I have been drinking copious amounts of coca tea but it is not helping much.

I did not know that Peru is known for a huge variety of corn and potatoes and actually serves ver healthy meals..I have been eating lightly as I am sure a full stomach does not add to the altitude problem. Meanwhile the four little girls are racing around like pixies with no hint of feeling the stress.

Cusco is an amazing city with beautiful old buildings, Inca ruins and Catholic churches galore. We got a tour of many of the ruins, but the highlight was the natural slides in the rock that all of the grandkids had to try. Thank God we had the older ones to take the little ones. What a joy to see them all playing together young and old with adults mixed in.

I love the baby llamas and alpacas that are being dressed up and roam the streets with women all dressed in their traditional garb. I don’t care that they want money for a picture because I explained that this is the way they made a living and one should not shun them and say they don’t want to pay them for their picture. We took one with all the little girls, the Peruvian women and baby llamas,, all of them loved it including the women.

I can’t express what a joy it is for me to be on this trip with my family. I look at them all interacting and feel so blessed that I have been able to provide a venue like this and see them all so happy, laughing together and enjoying everything. I know that each of them will take back memories that will sustain them in their lives ahead, but what they will really know is each one of them has the other’s back and they get to truly understand and feel the bond of our family. No one cares that it is a blended family, as far as they are concerned we are all related. And as I have said many times, you don’t have to be blood to be each others brother and sister, cousin, aunt, uncle, parents or grandparents.

We are all up and had a reunion with the Seattle family. All 4 girls running through the hallway knocking on the wrong doors waking strangers up. Here is a great picture of cousin love Gunnar and Tallulah asleep in the plane

And our @comfort” llama came along with us

We are off with the entire family to Peru, all 18 of us. The range in age is 2 1/2 to 73. The Vermont contngency left at 6:00 AM and we are now sitting around the Newark airport waiting for our 2 PM flight. We got an incredible deal for business class, thanks to Maggie, I believe we will be taking over the business class section.

We have brought along a llama for our trip as we want to do as the Peruvian’s do. However, our llama is very spoiled because he insisted on business class. We had to make him promise he would not spit green globs all over the airplane. Right now he is sitting in the United Club enjoying the Internet.

We arrive around 10 pm tonight and will join the Seattle four tomorrow morning. They will have arrived at 3:15 in the afternoon in Lima. Tomorrow begins with a tour of Lima and a promise to the kids that we will see mummy’s in the catacombs (maybe).

 

Is there a city that could be cooler than Stockholm? Probably, but of all the cities that I have visited in the last six weeks, this one is my favorite. With ferries buzzing here and there, public transportation and a host of rental bikes positioned everywhere in the city, it is easy to get around. The long evenings with museums open until late add to your days agenda. The Old Town sports a town square that could not be more charming where one can enjoy the sounds of a guitar. His notes soar to the heights of the old stone building and descend to your delight, soothing your weary body and calming your soul. The town square was full of tourists, but this music was so melodious that the crowd seemed to have come under its spell and all was quiet.

It was a holiday our first day here. Shap and I have now experienced three national holidays and two or three religious holidays. I can no longer keep them straight. We were treated to marching bands, and the King’s horse brigade. Swedish flags flew everywhere and people lined the banks of the many canals, lakes and the Baltic Sea. A particularly sunny day and warm the Swedes were rejoicing and taking advantage of it in a climate that hosts a lot of cloudy, raining days.

The ferry system is great; your bus card also allows you to get on the ferry. From our hotel we can grab the ferry and zip over to Old Town or the Amusement Park where many interesting museums reside. The Vasa museum, which holds the largest sailboat ever made in 1628, was built around the boat. It sunk almost immediately upon launching due to a squall and the weight of the cannons. The King and all the townspeople were there watching as it slipped into the harbor in full sail and within minutes keeled over and sank, killing 50 people. Imagine the reaction to that debacle? It was raised between 1958 and 1961 and eventually this museum was built.

A storybook museum was also part of our agenda, or at least a few of us. This proved to be as charming as you would imagine, complete with a troll hanging out observing everyone that passed by.

The Nordic museum housed a collection of Swedish history through the folk art and traditions. Replicas of rooms through the ages, folk art, textiles, jewelry, all of it was fascinating. Since it was raining most of the day we did spend our time in the museums gathering a lot of visual information. There are many more that we can visit and we look forward to exploring the city for one more day before we take off.

Traveling for six weeks has been a wonderful experience for us. The combination of traveling alone as a couple for four of the weeks and then as a group of seven for the remaining two weeks has been a great time for us. We accommodate each other very well, allowing for individual preferences. Most interesting for me is to see the influence of art and architecture transcending from one country to another. Also the indigenous tribes of many country seem to have experienced the same profiling against them as the American Indians. But they have not only survived due to their ability to keep the stories alive, but also because the younger generations demonstrated their power to take back the culture and let it become alive again. The Sami’s of Norway, Sweden and Finland have their own parliament and elections, although they are still under the rule of their country. We think that the U.S. is the only country to have treated our indigenous people poorly, but we are not alone.

Oh My God, I just looked out the window of our hotel and there is a party on the front lawn with a silver duvet covered bed accented with pink cushions, and a “woman” (not sure about that) in 4 inch heels, a lace body suit with just a corset over it and enough make up to convince me that she is a he. Meanwhile everyone else is walking around kind of frumpy looking. Can’t figure out what is going on but it sure is interesting.

Tomorrow we are back to Vermont, to my Green Mountains and my family. It has been a great experience but I will be happy to settle down, to no longer live out of my suitcase and enjoy the summer to come. Thanks for following the Smith’s.

 

I thought I would not be writing another blog until we got to Sweden but I could not resist the temptation of sharing the “Midnight Sun” with you. After being out on the water yesterday experiencing the malstrüms swirling by our Zodiac, I thought this area could not get any better. That is until, I experienced our trip into the Fjords guided by the midnight sun.

At 11:30 we turned into a fjord in the Lyofoten Islands, cruising at a gentle speed with the hillsides almost touching our ship. This is exciting to have the mountains so close, but it was nothing compared to the spectacular color radiating through the clouds which are creating the most enchanting colors of oranges, magenta, yellow, purple, blue and white. The sun did not shine into the fjord, but danced along the tips of the snow-covered mountains, and played hide and seek behind large bilious clouds. As if a spotlight was turned on behind the clouds, the sun would burn a blazing hole through them, or in the next minute create a dramatic effect by illuminating the edges of the cloud.

It was hard to know which side of the boat to be on, as the light show changed from orange, blue, and yellow, to pink, baby blue and white. In the first case, the view created a symphony of brass instruments, while the other side was a quiet melody of violins.

Until 1:00 in the morning the sky erupted into one scene after another. Just as you thought you had the perfect picture, another cloud formation would show its beauty. Slowly the light on the mountain tops began to disappear but dusk never came, the sun stuck it out all night while we gave up and went to bed.

Arriving in Bergen feels like coming home. I have been here enough times with Shap that the city is familiar. After all of the traveling, I feel like it is a homecoming. I rented an Air BnB for the seven of us with ONLY ONE bathroom. We all remembered our dorm days and it worked out fine. The “we” consisted of five friends from Stowe: Alan and Ellen Thorndike, Cindy and Jeff McKechnie and Louise Reed. All five of us have traveled together on various trips; although our personalities are quite different we seem to blend well and have a great time.

 Lysøen, Shap’s family’s Home belonging to Ole Bull and now a museum

What is meaningful for this trip is the beginning of a new chapter in many of our lives. Louise, with a year gone by since we lost our wonderful Paul, Allen, with a year of recovery from two long years battling depression, Ellen, with a year of retirement under her belt, Jeff and Cindy, coming out of two weddings and the joyous occasion of a new grandson, Then there is Shap and me,we have arrived into our seventies, are blessed with eight grandchildren, four out of five children living close by and our health is good. Decisions have to be made soon for our next number of years, what form this will take we are not sure.

But right now we are on a ship, cruising up the coast of Norway, stopping at incredibly beautiful ports of call. We passed the Arctic circle at 7:15 this morning. The scenery has changed to high snow capped mountains and small picturesque villages and cottages. I thought we would see more marine life but have been disappointed. I am sure the Gulf Stream has something to do with it.

As we cruise along in this pristine area, we hear that Trump is taking us out of the Paris agreement, has turned his back on Germany, and continues to assume a dictators role. Germany is now lining up with China, everyone is distancing themselves from us, and Rufus Wainwright sang “ I am so tired of America” at the Bergen Music Festival while people were clapping in the audience. Try hearing that? We were all so sad that this is the way that we are perceived. We are losing our standing in Europe, everywhere we go people are making jokes about Trump and the U.S. We have become the laughing stock of Europe, of Russia and the world. Even we laugh at the situation we find ourselves in, while being horrified that our senators and legislators sit by and watch the United States falling from grace. We all ask how much damage Trump can do? Just come to Europe and you will find out, he has done too much already.

Enjoy the photos of an amazing place in the world and remember you can help to make a change so get involved so we can keep this beautiful world.

We are all on a Kodiak going going to look at a malstrüm.

                    The malstürm

After experiencing the Border arrest in Russia, Shap and I ended up in an insane asylum in Berlin. Before you ask, how can they get into this much trouble, let me explain. I set up a photo shoot with a photographer before I left the U.S. His specialty is abandon buildings. About forty minutes outside Berlin, is an abandon insane asylum that was built in the late nineteen- twentieth century by the Germans. When the Russians took over East Germany, they used them for offices, and a small section for the insane. Now they sit completely abandoned with no fence around them, areas of access with deer and wild hogs roaming around.

Nathan Wright, a Brit who came to Berlin for a 5-day visit and is still here after 8 years, specializes in photographing abandon buildings. He has been exploring these buildings all over the world. He definitely has an eye for creating the scene. Besides this, he is great at helping you with your camera settings.

We parked on the side of a road, headed off into a field, and then onto an overgrown pathway surrounded by a jungle of trees that must have been beautiful lawns at one time. The first place was easy to get into, as we went through a door and up a set of staircases. Most of the rooms have peeling sick-colored yellow paint that I figured was full of lead and was definitely painted during the Russian period.

Under the yuck-yellow paint, was a blue color left over from the Germans. I seriously think that there must have been some morbid person that sat in a factory and looked at paint chips that would drive people even more insane. Every wall and window sash was peeling double layers of paint. At one point I took a picture of a wall that looked like a waterfall of peeling paint.

The eerie atmosphere of the rooms, the dirt on the floors, the old bathtubs, and toilets, the rusted out washers and old belt dryers, abandoned pipes, broken chairs and old operating tables added to the ghostly empty feeling. Hallways extending the length of the building with old shoes, newspaper, and receipt books scattered here and there created incredible pictures. Five different buildings with low light was a challenge, but the light created some amazing pictures.

Typical of me, I arrive on the scene and my battery ran out. I was in Cuba with a wide-angle lens when I should have had a portrait lens; I am now at the beginning of the day without a battery. I was able to get a couple of great pictures before it completely died and then some with the iPhone; of course I had to borrow Shap’s because I left mine in the hotel. You can see how this day went. I did borrow Shap’s fixed 100-lens camera, which gave me some pause for a bit, but then the lens and I came to an understanding, and I enjoyed the rest of the day.

We troop around the various buildings going through some pretty iffy rooms,but the next shocker was from Nathan who says: “ Do you want to go down in this hole to the basement or climb in this first story window?” I look at the window and it looks like an accident waiting to happen for me. I can just envision my head on one side of the window and my ass hanging out the other. Since my knees don’t work that well anymore I figure there was no way I could rely on them to help. So off to the hole in the basement, where Shap hops down to the first level right into a cloud of bugs. At this point I decide that the best thing that I could do is stay outside. But Shap would not hear of it and so I dove into basement through the bugs and onto the floor. Then we had to duck down through basement pipes that were wrapped with asbestos and continued up a set of stairs that were shaky at best. Nathan kept saying not go anywhere unless he told us, as half the building was burned out and the floor was falling through. However, we did get some of the best photos at this location.

At some point our age came up with Nathan and his statement was “You are the oldest couple I have taken down through that hole in the basement.” Great, does that make us stupid or cool?

 

 

Just so you don’t think we were done with border guards and police on trains, I want you to know that on our way home on the S bahn, we got kicked off the train. The ticket Nazi came by and asked in German why we did not have out ticket punched. I understood what he said, but just kept saying in English, we don’t understand. Best line of defense is to act dumb and pretend you have no idea what is going on. Finally, he says “Get Off, get ticket punched. “ In all my great wisdom I advise Shap to ignore him and stay on the train, as it was slowing down. The ticket Nazi starts yelling at us from halfway down the car to get off. So we finally got off the train and he yelled for us to get out ticket punched. I kept saying where, where? He motioned to a small red box where we punched our ticket. How ridiculous was this? We had obviously bought the tickets, we had not scammed the system, so why we had to get off to punch our ticket, I have no idea, just another autocrat pulling his weight around. Shap and I survived another incident on the train, once again.

 

Last day in Berlin, on to Norway.