charleysblog

Dear friends and family, Last evening I got a knock on my door, which surprised me since I thought I was the only one in my apartment building and an unknown visitor. There were two women there who introduced themselves as the neighbor downstairs and the neighbor across the alley. They said in very broken […]

Dear friends and family, I am holed up in my Botel, a ship built in 1936, tied up directly in the center of the city and used as a hotel. The wind is howling again, as a bura wind, when it gets roaring it takes a couple of days to settle down,  It’s 32 degrees

Dear friends and family, I was the only guest at this B and B in Rabac. They offer breakfast included, so my hostess each day has rounded up something to cook for me and made me my gourmet coffee as well each day. I got up yesterday early to prepare myself and my gear to

Dear friends and family, As I sit here in bed, I can hear the church bells ringing loudly for a long time. It’s January 6th, which is a big holiday in Croatia. It is the Epiphany. In Croatia the women go to church to get holy water and bring it home for the men to

Dear friends and family, It was New Years Day in the morning. I was the only residence at the big hostel. I hadn’t slept very well as it seems every Croatian loves to set off fireworks all night the last night of the year.  I woke to fog and even a little smog with the

Dear friends and family I left my bike in my little apartment in Trieste and took a tourist van excursion with a guide to Bled and Ljubljana. It was a very international group with one American (me) five Spanish from Barcelona and a couple that was from Switzerland and Italy, who spoke German to each

Dear friends and family, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! I am spending a few days in Trieste, Italy, which is supposed to be the coffee capital of Italy, a country which loves their coffee. There are coffee shops everywhere and I am doing my best to sample them. I toasted to my close friend Brent,

Dear friends and family, Yup, I’m in Italy. The plan was to get across the Italian Alps with an easier method than riding a loaded bike across. There’s the plan and there’s the reality. Day one I took the hotel shuttle van with Liz to carry her bagged bike to the check-in desk at the

jDear friends and family, Both Liz and I have left France behind for now, she back to Port Townsend and me to Italy.  As we slowly rode our way through southern France, we kept opting for lingering and staying longer than originally planned as we so thoroughly enjoyed touring here. The French cycling system is

Dear friends and family, It’s getting close to wrapping up our time in France and specifically in Provence. Instead of hurrying through, we opted for shorter rides with stops in the quaint little villages along our way. Half the rides were on bike paths, some along highways, but mostly in the country. The other half