The JimAnna Chronicles

We were able to spend an amazing day in Sicily with our guide … Paolo Piana. However, before we arrived, we woke up to a beautiful view of Mt Etna.  In fact, this was the best view we had of the most active volcano in Europe.   We started out in the Catania’s UNESCO-worthy Piazza [...]

Although the weather wasn’t great, we had a nice time in Palma de Mallorca. This is the Rambla dels Ducs de Palma.  Not quite as big as Barcelona’s, but still very interesting.   We stumbled on an art show while we were there.  I liked this white marble eyeball.   This is the view of [...]

We visited the always vibrant city of Barcelona.  Unfortunately, the bad weather followed us and it rained most of the day.  Oh well, no matter, we just enjoyed indoor activities.  Notably, we spent most of the day with Juan and Sonja, our Spanish “family.”  Juan had spent a year on exchange with Anna’s family while [...]

Next stop … the sprawling city of Naples.  Although we didn’t spend much time in the city, it felt a little like Marseille.   Our time was spent in a small ancient city sitting at the foot a mountain.  Mt Vesuvius.  That city is of course, Pompeii and infamous for it’s destruction in the year [...]

For our Spring Break this year, we decided another cruise would be easy and the most relaxing for all of us.  Fortunately, there is a cruise ship port very close to us in Marseille.  So, we hopped on the same ship we took back in 2007.  The only difference was we had a third in [...]

The second week in April, I had the opportunity to join the school and some of the students up in Paris for a week of touring around professional and cultural sites for the benefit of the students.  I was happy to tag along and participate.   Although I’ve already visited the Louvre several times, its [...]

Last  month, we decided to take a little weekend trip to the Pyrenees.  We used the occasion to visit the Principality of Andorra for a couple days, then head home and stop for a visit at the medieval French town of Caracassonne.   A little history about Andorra.  It’s a principality, but unlike Monaco, there [...]

These are the images from my parents’ and sister’s visit back in February.  It was a week-long visit, and if you know my family that means thousands of images.    We have pared it down to 55, but I’m including them all in a single post.  In order to break it up, I’ve identified the [...]

So, our trip over the holidays was part vacation and part work.  However, most importantly, we got to spend it together.  Half of our time was spent up in Germany and the other half in France. For the German portion, we began with a short stop in Munich … one of our favorite German cities. [...]

We began our tour of Normandy appropriately, somberly.  After a visit to the museum in Caen, we hopped on the bus and went out to see the locations in person. This is the La Cambe German military cemetery.  It was a sobering place to begin.  There are over 21,000 men and boys buried here. These [...]