In March 2006 we visited the beautiful Junagarh fort in Bikaner on our trip through Rajasthan. Somewhere in the large complex, which was built by Raja Rai Singh in 1588, we found a lone basil plant sitting on a small table in the middle of a large empty room. In India, holy basil, which is called Tulsi, has been known for thousands of years for its healing and medicinal values. It is therefore an important symbol in the Hindu religious tradition, and obviously they don’t want passing tourists to touch or sniff this holy plant. Still, I thought that the sign with the plant was rather funny: “Please do not touch basilicum & don’t sniff”. First time I saw a sign telling me not to sniff something.

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Five years ago today, on 14 December 2003, we were in Chicago with my parents! It was a cold winter day. We got up early and took a Metra train from Lake Forest to Union Station. We went up Sears Tower and had a nice view of the city, we had hot chocolate and donut holes at Dunkin’ Donuts, we walked to the Magnificent Mile, took a trolley to Navy Pier and visited the Christkindlmarket on Daley Plaza. Here are some photos of that day five years ago:

At Navy Pier with John Hancock building in the background

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Yesterday we drove up to Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. The weather was beautiful again. It’s around 77^oF / 25^oC these days. Horicon Marsh is the site of both a national and state wildlife refuge. The extinct glacial lake is the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States. The refuges are known for their many species of birds. Millions of waterfowl migrate through the marsh. Here are some photos of our visit.

Horicon National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center

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Four years ago today, on 11 September 2004, we were in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado, and saw the annual parade of the The Long Peak Scottish/Irish Highland Festival. We saw the parade of Clans & Tartans as well as the Grand March of the Dogs of the British Isles. Here are some photos of that day:

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On Tuesday we visited the Musee du Champignon outside Saumur, France. In the Saumur region there are many troglodyte buildings cut into the soft rock valley walls; the region produces more mushrooms than any other in France. We had a tour of the mushroom caves which included exotic specimens as well as the more common types of mushrooms grown and sold in France.

Bed of mushrooms More »

French grocery stores are full of delicious single-serving desserts and puddings. The other day we picked up these lemon meringue desserts and they are so yummy! Each one is like a little single-serving pie.

I think we will bring home a cooler-full.

Today we visited the Château de Villandry and its beautiful gardens, which are considered to be among the most beautiful gardens in France.

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Today we saw the magnificent Cunard cruise ship the Queen Elisabeth 2 in Rotterdam. We spotted the large red word “Cunard” by chance between a few buildings as we drove home from our dentist appointment, so we had to go check it out. We crossed the Erasmusbrug and drove passed the Cruise Terminal where all the fancy people with their pipes and hats were getting ashore and onto busses. Unfortunately we didn’t have our camera with us, but here are some great pictures from today as found on Flickr by aureliozen and vanda2006:

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One year ago, on 23 June 2007, we were in Paris and visited the beautiful Musée d’Orsay. The museum holds French art dating from 1948 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. Here’s a view of the museum from a bridge over the Seine:

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Three years ago today, on 19 June 2005, we had a great day in Italy on our city trip to Napels. In the morning we took a bus from Napels to the foot of Vesuvius and in the afternoon we visited the ruined and partially buried Roman city of Pompeii nearby. Here are few photos of our visit to Europe’s most famous volcano.

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