For the past three months we have been very busy with traveling and hosting visiting friends and family (finally.) Even some major surgery in the middle of it all barely slowed us down. Since March, we have traveled to central Greece, Sicily & Puglia (Italy), and The Netherlands. (Plus Madeira Island – which is in the following post.). More trips are planned for the second half of this year. We are taking full advantage of our location for easy travel within Europe.

Here is a (relatively) small selection from the thousands of photos taken.

Greece: Meteora & Thessaloniki

We flew in & out of Thessaloniki. Our destination was Meteora. In spite of the dense fog, rain, and even snow that we experienced, the place was magical. With its mountain-top monasteries and convents, Meteora should be on everyone’s bucket list. We hope to return someday in better weather.

We saw many roadside shrines to accident victims.
Mount Olympus
Thessaloniki

Sicily:

Palermo
Poggioreale is a fascinating ghost town now.
The village was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1968 that killed 200 people.
Six of us drove around Sicily then took a ferry to the mainland and continued up the "foot" to the "heel" of Italy (Puglia) in twin rental cars.
Trapani
Erice
So many tunnels that we lost count...

…and endless road construction.

Mount Etna. We had a perfect day for our visit.
Fresh snow to visit...
...then sunny warmth a 15-minute-drive away.
Savoca - where scenes in The Godfather were filmed. We were there for the 50th anniversary of the movie.
Taormina
Siracuse
The ferry from Messina to the mainland...
...loading the two cars was an experience.

Southern Italy:

Stopped for lunch in Scilla
...where a local with no English not only helped us park and suggested a restaurant, he also walked us all the way there.
Onward to Puglia.
So much for GPS directions.
We stayed in a trulli cottage in the countryide.
Aberobello - the trulli village.
Charming even in the cold rain.
Pump your wine into a resuable jug.
Sassi di Matera with its fascinating (not too distant) history...
...of cave and subterranean dwellers and disease.
Leece
Polignano-a-Mare
4-3-22_20-_Polignano a Mare to Bari Airport_sm

The Netherlands:

We spent just a few days with friends near Amsterdam. We went to Kuekenhof Gardens to see the amazing flowers and visited surrounding towns.

Kuekenhof. The riot of color was almost too much to absorb.
Over 800 varieties and over 7 million bulbs.
Haarlem
Delft (like the china)
Zaanse Schans
Edam (like the cheese)
Site Title, Some rights reserved. All photos are property of Ann Kemp unless otherwise indicated.

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