A change of plans, no Israel.

We had planned to spend 7 days in Israel, then taken a cruise from Haifa Israel to Miami during November.  However, because of the war we took Israel off the list. Instead, we are spending a week in Istanbul and a week in Barcelona before taking a different cruise from Barcelona to Miami.  This way we are safe and will be home by the end of November.

Leg two in Turkey, day 15 to 26.

We drove to Pamukkale and stayed in a hotel that overlooked the town.  Pamukkale is known for it's therapeutic properties since Roman times. Thermal Pools flow into white travertine formations that rise out of the surrounding plains. We walked over the ruins of Hierapolis, an ancient city that grew up around the springs. We took a balloon ride and Tim paraglided over the pools. From there we went to Cesme, we rode a ferry to Chios Greece and rented a scooter to ride around the island. The last stop on this leg was Kusadasi and stayed in the best AIRBNB yet on Ladies Beach plus danced in a Turkish wedding.

Turkey, What a place! Day 1-14 of 40 days in Turkey.

We started in Antalya for a week where we took a day boat ride along the coast and seen waterfalls and swimming and had a great meal.  There were many walking sites we went too and then took another tour of the city.  A cable car ride and another boat tour from the city mariner.  After picking up our rental car we drove 7 hours to the Cappuccino region for our second week, it's in the middle of Turkey (desert). Cappuccino is considered the number place for a hot air balloon rides.  We had dinner with Turkish dancing and food, we spent the night in a cave that was 1,000 years old.

Flying a glider in the Alps

 Most of you know I've been in aviation all of my life, my first aircraft to work on was the RF4C in August of 1979 and last was training young airmen in March 2023, that's 44 years. So getting an opportunity to fly a glider was a dream come true, once airborne, he gave me the stick for a 360 degree turn.