The first major travel this year will be a short round trip San Francisco-Iran-San Francisco. As travel to Iran requires a structured tour, we will be traveling privately with a guide for nine days, visiting the following cities: Tehran, Shiraz, Yazd, and Isfahan. I have been preparing for the trip by reading about Islamic Art and Francopane’s book, the Silk Roads. It is a fascinating overview of my favorite topic, as well as the development of trade throughout the world. Please be sure to join me on this segment of travel starting in mid-April (next month).
Providing all goes well with the visa application process, we will be leaving April 13 and then returning to Frankfurt and New York City for quick stopovers on the way home. We have tickets to see Pretty Yende at the NY Metopera in “Lucia de Lammermoor” that we purchased nearly a year ago. Our recent trips to New York make the city less intimidating and feeling more like a home away from home!
The major world trip this year will, for the fifth time in five years, circle the globe. Similar to previous years, I will take a month-long course in German at the Goethe Institute. This year, I’ll be in Munchen. After spending a month in each city of Dresden, Schwabisch Hall, Berlin, and Dusseldorf in the past, I feel more than comfortable with the language, culture, and pace of life. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it! Previous posts have explained my love and admiration for the German art, technology, and efficiency. So you’ll all have to allow me to indulge in the German language in visits to German-speaking countries.
Since I’ve separated out the more challenging travel to Iran this year, the big trip will be shorter and more relaxing. Long-time friends now living in Italy and California will join us in Munich for a road trip through the Austrian countryside to Budapest. We’ll return to one of my favorite get-away places, Skt. Florian, an old Baroque monastery near Linz, Austria. Bruckner is buried under the organ in the chapel!
On our return trip we’ll stop in Salzburg for another indulgent couple of days to see Salome by R. Strauss and Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) by Tsaichovsky. Gee Kin and I will continue our travels in Guangzhou and Seoul after that. Similar to last year, we’ll fly back to San Francisco at the end of two months.
If any of you are along this travel path, let me know and we can meet up! If not, I look forward to sharing my real-time travels with you. For those of you who are new to my travel blog, be sure to comment on my posts, and I will definitely write back! I love hearing from everyone as I travel, and to get your thoughts and ideas.
The attached link shows you an interesting map I found online. It shows the wettest parts of the world for each month of the year. It may help you in planning world travels, as it was also useful for me. Enjoy!
Travels with Myself and Others 