San Juan, Puerto Rico

After driving around and surfing on the south and west coasts of Puerto Rico, Marié and I dropped off our rental car in San Juan and checked into our funky hotel in the heart of Old San Juan.  Arriving within Old San Juan you feel like you're stepping foot into an old Spanish city, yet here we are in the "New World" in the good ol' USA.  The forts here date back to the 16th century when San Juan was a strategic base and stopover point for Spanish explorers crossing the Atlantic to plunder gold and resources from all over the Americas.  

Colorful homes in Old San Juan

A view from our balcony at Da House.  In the alley below lies San Juan's most famous salsa club.

old blue brick streets

Looking out from one of the batteries in Castillo de San Cristobal...

At Castillo San Felipe de Morro

Puerto Rico: the South & the West

Southwest Puerto Rico near the lighthouse of Cabo Rojo...

Tamarind tree in Cabo Rojo

Colonial architecture at dusk in Ponce, Puerto Rico's second largest city 

 

 Old firehouse in Ponce

Marié and her longboard at our surfspot Parking Lot in Rincon

Looking through leaves on Puerto Rico's west coast

River Cruising with GCCL

Flying into Amsterdam

In November, Grand Circle Cruise Lines sent me on the last half of their river cruise, Romance of the Rhine and Mosel, to experience the trip and the ship.  

Bus transfer from Frankfurt to the Mosel River

American military cemetery in Luxembourg

My cabin on the MS River Melody...
If you're new to Grand Circle Travel, mention customer # 946347 when calling, and they'll give each new traveler a $100 discount off their first trip.  That's in addition to any other savings that are available.

Mural of Beethoven in his hometown of Bonn, Germany

The cathedral in Cologne

In Nijmegen

A resident and caretaker of the historic Kinderdijk windmills in the Netherlands

The guild houses in the main square in Antwerp

Antwerp, city of dark chocolate and Belgian beer

A girl drawing a heart with chalk in Antwerp...

Stonybrook Autumn Kaleidoscopes

Fall colors swirled into mandalas from pictures of yellow leaves in October at Stony Brook Reservation in Boston

Massachusetts in Autumn, 2012

Autumn at Stony Brook Reservation

Diving into Turtle Pond, a lovely local swimming hole, in Stony Brook Reservation.  Photo by Marié

Praying Mantis

More yellow leaves at Stony Brook...

Marié at Jamaica Pond's annual Lantern Festival


 Purgatory Chasm State Park in Central Massachusetts