2023 Year in Review

This year was all about travel, friends and family, seeing new places and old faces. While emotions abounded, we toured the world arounded. 😜

So grateful for this time together.

Wonderful days with Les Decorps in Bodensee.

Reconnected with Cecile in Vienna.

Poets and writers at Festival of Arts for ekphrastic writing event.

Charlotte is hardly a scary scarecrow.

Charlotte cider-tasting with Sean.

Johamy tries to handle a wiggly Jude.

Johamy love.

Growing sprouts

Patty K & Ziggy in Laguna

Leo & Helen

Yusuf & Sayed

Japan memories

Fun at the matcha tea farm 

Sharon, Josh & Justin

I love this one so so much

Lunch with Meryl in Newport

Seeds of Change touring to Wisconsin schools

Celebrating Charlotte at Erickson

Mrs. Pickles was a frequent houseguest

Pa with his wallet at the Montage. Classic.

Tomato harvest

San Diego weekend with Bill

Second Chicks concert with Hannah

Driving x-country

Patty K in the Springs

John and his high school buddy Debby

On the road again

Charlotte, Sean and Hannah in NYC

Les Decorps

Alpine lake

The Johns in Salzburg

Apple strudel with legs

Tiny but mighty Venus of Willendorf

Vamosujfalu cemetery

Rosh Hashanah with the Feddy/Burtons

Sina and Yusuf: An American Halloween

Regina and her candles

Pa's birthday 

Relaxing in Idyllwild

Sina Santa

Taha at 10 months

My love

Europe by the numbers

I always like to end our trip posts with a summary, so here goes:

Total miles traveled: 7,082 

Average mileage by foot per day: 4.8

Most miles walked in a single day: 8.3 

Easternmost destination: Vamosujfalu, Hungary (6,733 miles from Laguna Beach)

Highest altitude: Epenalp, 5,381 feet above sea level

Highest tower climbed: Schlossberg Observation Tower, Freiberg im Breisgau, Germany, 153 steps

Modes of transport: feet, plane, car, bus, boat, funicular, gondola, subway, bike

Longest bike ride: 24 miles (John’s ride along the western side of the Bodensee)

Favorite hotel: Steigenberger Inselhotel, Konstantz, Germany

Favorite guesthouse: r40, Mad, Hungary

Most “adorable” town: Appenzell, Switzerland

Currencies: 3 (Euro, Swiss franc, Hungarian forint)

Languages: 6 (English, French, German, Swiss German, Hungarian, Hebrew)

Performances: 3 (2 concerts, 1 marionette)

Religious services: 2 (one Catholic High Mass, one Shabbat)

Most interesting relic: Head of an unnamed saint

Best library: Melk Abbey

Laundromats: 2

Friends along the route: Jean, Claire, Huges, John B., Cecile, Roland, Lea, Arthur, Noah, Karesz

Pastries eaten: No idea, but a lot

And finally, most amusing gargoyle: The “pooper” on the Freiberg Munster, apparently the work of a disgruntled stonemason, who was not paid well for his work:

The end. 😏

So Long, Farewell

Today is our final day in Budapest before we head back to Charles de Gaulle and then onto LAX. Wow, it’s been an amazing and wonderful journey! I even want to add another exclamation point, even though I despise them!

Today’s stroll along the Danube took us by Orban’s House of Parliament. I tried to take a selfie with the facist guards, soldiers and police at the gate but they were having none of it.

Liberty Square boasts several monuments to people who died fighting for Hungarian Freedom over the Soviets and the Nazis.

This one is a tribute to victims of German occupation.

Below it, people posted tributes to Jewish victims — from 1944 and 2023.

But the day wasn’t all somber. We walked in the sunshine. We shopped for souvenirs. We saw a movie set in a park made to look like old Paris (Angelina Jolie is reportedly filming a biopic of Maria Callas here right now). In the evening, we heard a string concert in St Stephan’s Basilica, an appropriate and uplifting finale to our week in Budapest.

And, of course, our last Pastry of the Day had to be Dobostorte, a Hungarian sponge cake layered with chocolate buttercream and topped with caramel. 

And while we’re talking about things Hungary is famous for, I have to mention Harry Houdini, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Tony Curtis, Bela Lugosi, Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Franz Liszt, Adrien Brody, George Soros and Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube. Random, but kinda interesting.

Thanks for reading!