What better way to enjoy a journey than in the company of friends! In a ship-full of people – including passengers (about 200 on this cruise) plus the crew and performers – you meet so many interesting folks. With most of our fellow passengers, we met for only a dinner meal or perhaps on a…
To me, the research for any novel seems like giant treasure hunt, and I’m energized by discovery. I love fleshing out a scene with small bits of information and visual imagery. To do that, I often rely on on-site photos. However, anyone who has seen my photos in this series can tell that photography is…
Our port city in Bulgaria is Vidin, and our tour today includes a visit to the Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress. On our way! (Photo from the bus window.) The red Rocks of Belogradshick were formed by weathering and erosion. They extend for more than 18 miles, are 650 feet high and about 1 mile wide….
When Neil and I were making plans to visit Eastern Europe, one of the reasons we selected a river cruise was the opportunity to see the Iron Gate Gorge in Serbia. Many ancient peoples settled in the Gorge area. One of the sites, Lepenski Vir, dates back to 6500 B.C. Perfect “fodder” for my novel…
So…we’re in Belgrade, Serbia, and our tour today includes a walk around the Kalemegdan Fortress. The fortress dates back to the 1700s, but a fortified settlement has occupied this same high bluff since 300 B.C. In one form or another, the fortress has seen at least 115 battles and was razed to the ground 44…
One of our guides describes the shape of Croatia as that of a bird flying. Check out the purple image on the map, and you’ll see her description is accurate, with one “wing” of Croatia lying along the Adriatic Sea and the other slanting inland to follow the Danube River. As I mentioned in my…
I have loved horses since I was very young, and one of the “characters” in my novel-in-progress, BONE FIRE, is a horse. Horses from 5000 B.C. (the timeline of the novel) were quite different from horses today. They were smaller, with large heads, and the insides of their legs were striped, like zebra legs. One…
Neil and I learned that the magnificent city of Budapest, often called the “Queen of the Danube,” was at one time two cities, separated by the Danube River. Buda lies on the west hilly side of the river, and Pest is on the east, which is the flatter side of the river. In 1873 the…
Neil and I arrive in Budapest, Hungary, at about 1 p.m. We take a taxi from the airport to our hotel, the Budapest Marriott, which is located right on the Danube River! The lobby welcomes us with dark elegant paneling, flowers, and chandeliers. The Lobby of the Budapest Marriott We have a great room with…
When I was in sixth grade, our teacher Mrs. Hannah Graham decided that each member of our class of 40+ students should write a term paper. She taught us how to use note cards and how to write a bibliography and footnotes. The assignment, which at the time seemed overwhelming, included a forty-four-mile round trip…
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