Remember those horrible videos of the carved tall spire, engulfed in flames, and finally just falling? Lookin’ good now.

The last time we were in Paris was July of 2019, three months after the Notre Dame fire. Great to report that the restoration appears to be spectacular. Everything is bright and squeaky clean. Magnificent, and inspiring.

Great little hotel, on a very narrow, very quiet one-way street in the Latin Quarter. From the front door, walk 40 feet north….and you’re at the Seine. Look to your right: Notre Dame. Look to your left: the Louvre.

Some typical photos from just being out & about, the last few days.

Aloha, friends and fam! Greetings from Paris. This one has gotten off to a dreadful start, with a Gregory-medical-issue & ER day at the hospital delaying our entire plan. Rather than boarding our ship 8 days ago in Lisbon, we had to delay all our flights, and come to Paris to regroup. Have been here a few days, and will take the train to Rouen tomorrow, to catch up with the ship, eight days in. Such is life. This was the original cruise itinerary, we just will miss all the great stuff along the Portuguese and Spanish coasts. Grrrrrr.

OK, 11 ½ hours from London to LAX, a night at an airport hotel, and 5 ½ hours more, from L.A. to Hawaii. Always nice to come home, with a quick arrival/aerial glance at our wonderful reefs, not to mention reuniting with the two juvenile delinquents.

The Ring of Brodgar, on Orkney.

Ring of Brodgar

Scalloway Castle.

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/scalloway-castle/

The sushi service onboard has really upped their game recently. mmmmmmmmmm.

Shetland Island ….ponies. What else? The foal’s Mom is the brown/white one with the utterly fabulous mane. He’s 3 ½ weeks old, we’re told, and obviously at this point, has had a long hard day of pony-ing.

*Way* more sheep than humans, in the Faroe/Shetland/Orkney Islands. Good for the sheep I guess, but also good for those of us who like lamb chops.

While they are incredibly adept at the near-vertical environment, they can only graze down to a certain point above the ocean, without the danger of falling. And the wildflowers and other plant life know that, and thrive, inches below danger-level.

Obviously there are sheep everywhere you look around here. On the Vestmanna cliffs, they are contentedly grazing on what looks like perilously-close to vertical cliffs, above the ocean. Would have to think that if you picked one up and put him on a flat surface, he’d fall over. “I don’t know how to do that”.

Wonderful cruise of the Vestmanna cliffs, in the Faroe Islands.

Out of Husavik. Some of the other-worldly stuff for which Iceland is justly famous.