Tunis to USA

7 November 2008- Friday

Djerba to Tunis

6 November 2008- Thursday

Houmt Souk (Market Square)

5 November 2008- Wednesday

Matmata, Djerba

4 November 2008- Tuesday

Chott el Jerid, Kebili Oasis, Douz

3 November 2008- Monday

Chebika, Tameghza, Mides- mountain oases

2 November 2008- Sunday

Metlaoui and Red Lizard Train

1 November 2008- Saturday

Sbeitla, Kasserine Pass, Gafsa, Tozeur

31 October 2008- Friday

Kairouan

30 October 2008- Thursday

El Djem

29 October 2008- Wednesday

Tunis to Sousse

28 October 2008- Tuesday

Roman Dougga, Tunisian dinner

27 October 2008- Monday

Tunis, Carthage, American Cemetery, Sidi Bou Said

26 October 2008- Sunday

We were told that all tours would start at 0800 so my alarm clock stayed set for 0600 for the whole trip- but today went down to breakfast at 0700 and found the place empty except for a couple of waiters setting up. Took me a while to figure out that we had just gotten off daylight savings time, so I could have slept another hour.
At 8 sharp we left the city to drive around a salt lake that is on the east side of Tunis on the other side of which is the port. Drove along the coast to our first stop at The remains of a Phoenician (Punic) temple. There was a fenced in area with lots of headstones inscribed with their deity. It was alleged that they practiced child sacrifice but some say it was Roman propaganda. Then on through an upscale neighborhood where we could see the president's mansion on a promontory, but no photos allowed. We passed a circular waterway that allowed the Phoenician navy easy exit and then arrived at the Antonine Baths- a ruin from the time the Romans finally defeated the Carthaginians. The reason there aren't Carthaginian ruins is because the Romans dismantled the town and are built their own. The Baths were huge but as in many places the marble has been "recycled" for other buildings.

Flight to Tunisia

24-25 October 2008- Friday and Saturday

This was another OAT airline routing- I think they use a dart board. Cincinnati to Atlanta on Delta leaving 10.30 am arriving 11.57am and then Alitalia 767 to Rome leaving 4:35pm arriving the next morning at 8:30am, and Rome to Tunis on Alitalia DC9 leaving 9:40am and arriving 11am. So that's basically 2 days of the trip shot.
Flight unremarkable except it took a long time to get dinner. Between my neck pillow and an Ambien got a couple of hours sleep, but was ready for a nap in Tunis. Met by our guide Mohamed (most males are Mohamed). That's always hurdle number one- luggage retrieval and hooking up with the guide. Then a 40 minute drive to Hotel Africa situated on the main street of Tunis- Avenue Bourguiba named for the the man who got independence from France ( after being jailed a couple of times) in 1956. He ruled until 1987 when he was deposed (and was a little senile) by a Mr Ben Ali who continues to rule. The day of the coup was on 7 Nov so there will be a big celebration and fortunately that's the day I leave.
When we first assemble in the evening we usually introduce ourselves to the group and then have a briefing. Mohamed skipped that to give us a day by day rundown of our itinerary and a description of our optional tours rating them from one on down and actually told us to skip the tour to Gabes and the Mareth Line (a defensive position built by the French to halt the Afrika Korps in southern Tunisia that fell anyway). He said there wasn't much to see and besides it was the most expensive optional.
Dinner was a at the hotel with Brenda (Pacific Palisades) and Suzanne (Lake Tahoe). It was an extensive Buffet with lots of French selections especially the desserts and a 2nd story view of the bustling Avenue Bourgiba below.
The French colonials made it into a small Champs Elysee's.

American College of Surgeons, San Francisco

12-15 October 2008- Sunday to Wednesday

Welcome Home

16 September 2008- Tuesday

Depart Ashkabad for USA via Frankfurt, Philadelphia

15 September 2008- Monday

Askhabad, Turkmenistan

14 September 2008- Sunday

Ashkabad flight to Merv and return

13 September 2008- Saturday

Ashkabad, Turkmenistan

12 September 2008- Friday

Bus Khiva to Tashauz, TN - Flight to Askabad, TN

11 September 2008- Thursday

Khiva, Uzbekistan

10 September 2008- Wednesday

Bus from Bukhara to Khiva, Uzbekistan

9 September 2008- Tuesday

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

8 September 2008- Monday

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

7 September 2008- Sunday

Shakrisabze- birthplace of Tamerlane

6 September 2008- Saturday

Penjikent, Tajikistan

5 September 2008- Friday

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

4 September 2008- Thursday

Tashkent to Samarkand, Uzbekistan

3 September 2008- Wednesday

Tashkent, Capital of Uzbekistan

2 September 2008- Tuesday

Flight Fergana to Taskent, Uzbekistan

1 September 2008- Monday

Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

31 August 2008- Sunday

Fly Biskek-Osh, Kyrgyzstan- Fergana, Uzbekistan

30 August 2008- Saturday

Lake Issyk-kul to Biskek, Kyrgyzstan

29 August 2008- Friday

Almaty, Kazakhstan to Lake Issyk-kul, Kyrgyzstan

28 Thursday 2008- Thursday

Tour of Almaty, Kazakhstan

27 August 2008- Wednesday

Frankfurt to Almaty, Kazakhstan

26 August 2008- Tuesday

The Five Stans with MIR Corporation

25 August 2008- Monday

White Coat Ceremony- Convocation

3 August 2008- Sunday

Moscow to USA

17 July 2008- Thursday

Vladilvostok to Moscow

16 July 2008- Wednesday

Vladilvostok

15 July 2008- Tuesday

Full day on the train- Day 3

14 July 2008- Monday

Full Day on Train- Day 2

13 July 2008-Sunday

Full Day on Train- Day 1

12 July 2008- Saturday

Since Mongolia doesn’t participate in Daylight Savings Time, we had to do a lot of switching around, but again wound up losing another hour. We were crossing 8 time zones crossing west to East so we were running 22-23 hour days, depending on how many time zones

Ulaan Baaatar, Mongolia

11 July 2008- Friday

The train arrived at Ube at 7:30 in the morning and everyone went out to await their busses. Our tour guide was very fluent in English but definitely Mongolian. After a very quick tour in the main square in town which had just been hosed down and was dominated by a beautiful state building including a massive statue of Genghis Khan in the center of the square. He was a warrior who led the battle to freedom of Mongolia from china. After that, I was being harassed to buy pictures and post cards, which I did, then, off to the stadium. At the stadium, it was basically a mob scene with busses, cars and every sort of transportation vehicle. It was very colorful, but we were moving too fast to take a lot of pictures of Mongolians in their native dress. We found our portal of entry and the guide insisted that we take our seats in the hot, sunny stands because we did not want to lose our good seats. This being accomplished, they launched a sort of dress rehearsal in the center of the ring, which was much smaller I expected the stadium to be. Still, pretty professionally done. Shortly after 12-noon, the program started with the Mongolian state band playing their fanfares and raising the flag, followed by the cavalry coming in and carrying the standards of nine horse tails tied to a pole, which is the symbol of Mongolian aristocracy. Once these were in the stands and guarded by four Mongolian ___men, the cavalry rode by. Mistake number 1: I should have captured that on the video, but instead tried to get some good close-up shots of the costumes. Two of them came out. The next thing was the opening speech by the president of Mongolia, who was dressed in native costume and, fortunately, gave a short speech followed by the national anthem for which we all stood. Looking around, I noticed there were many, many Europeans in the audience, although there were Mongolians there also. The opening ceremony took place, led by a bunch of Buddhist demons that appeared and there was a ballet of contortionists who performed and looked like lotus blossoms that eventually opened up its leaves and let the contortionists do their thing. Once this was all done along with a couple of parades of various costumes, the people who approached were the wrestlers, archers, and the jockeys for the various events after which was a short parade and people began to go their different venues. Once we left the stadium, we fought our way over to the archery stadium, which was much smaller, which was beautiful grass strips with targets at the end. All the contestants were in Mongolian garb. I understand that they were equipped with 300 pound pole bows, but there were a lot of women in there who I don’t think were shooting a bow of that strength. Before we left the stadium, they had begun to do Mongolian wrestling which was, basically, Sumo wrestling with one wrestler trying to throw the other one to the ground. Once one wrestler hits the ground, the match is over. Of course, the one that falls on the top is the winner of that bout – and this goes on for a couple of days. Interestingly enough, the men were wearing shirts which only covered their back and sleeves and not their chests. The story goes that there was once a woman competitor unknown to everyone else who actually won the competition and the men considered this such a big put-down that they decided that from now on, the front of the garb has to be open so that they can be sure they’re not wrestling a woman. This being over, we went back to our busses. We were supposed to go up to view a monument on Freedom Hill, overlooking Ube, but this was called off by Michel who said that the traffic jams resulting from the festival were too big to tackle. Everybody was sort of near exhaustion by the time we got back to the train which departed shortly after we climbed aboard. So much for the Nadam Festival. I was surprised that we could pack so much into one day.

Ulan Ude

10 July 2008- Thursday

The train arrived in Ulan Ude at 7:30 and we left at 8:30 for our city tour. This was done fairly rapidly, but this was another day that we would be heading for Mongolia. In the morning, however, they took us out on a bus ride through some pretty good roads to a small village of ‘Old Believers.’ The ‘Old Believers’ were a group of Russians who decided they did not want to switch to the reforms of the Orthodox Russian church by blessing themselves with two fingers instead of three, and, therefore, they decided to keep the old ways, broke away and cause enough problems to where a number of them emigrated to Siberia. This turned out to be a pretty fantastic day as they were all dressed in their local costumes and served us a meal, the highlight of which was a pudding that they called kaasa, which turned out to be rice pudding that they served with powdered sugar and butter – it was absolutely delicious. There was also ham and various other meats as well as some boiled potatoes and cabbage salad. They did put on a performance of singing for us as well as a little tableau using a couple of tourists who demonstrated an Old Believers’ type of wedding and costumed these people as well. It turned out to be a pretty hilarious day.

Lake Baikal

9 July 2008- Wednesday

Breakfast at 8. The train arrived Irkutsk. Again, we transitioned from the train to the bus. This was going to be a day-long trip through Irkutsk and we started out by doing a quick bus tour of the city including a look at the retired ice breaker, Angara and a visit to the outdoor museum of wooden architecture. After a great lunch and short talk on the December movement which was led by a bunch of Russian officers who had fought against Napoleon and decided the government needed reform. Their plot was overthrown and they were sent to Siberia. The interesting thing was that some of the wives, who were all aristocratic, decided to accompany their husbands. We visited one of the houses which was built by Princess Volkonasky. The house was surprisingly well constructed with authentic furniture, including a peramital piano which I had never seen before. The big surprise was that the living room was set up with enough chairs to accommodate everyone who was on the train – which was almost 150 people – and a concert was performed, including piano pieces by Chopin and Tchaikovsky, a couple of Russian songs by a female singer and Italian arias by Verdi. Essentially, this was a program similar to what the princess would put on for her guests, and, even though they were political outcasts, apparently everybody enjoyed her parties. This turned into one of the more memorable moments of the trip. So it was back on the train for dinner and I think everybody was pretty mellowed out.

Irkutsk

8 July 2008- Tuesday

After pulling into a small bare-root station at the Southern tip of Lake Baikal, we switched from electric to diesel engine and started to follow the route of the old Trans-Siberian Railroad which included riding along the Western side of Lake Baikal through at least 38 tunnels to a small town called Listvyanka. While on this trip, for $10 per person, the train would stop every 30 minutes and people who wished to ride on the outside of the locomotive could climb aboard and experience about 15 minutes’ ride. One of the tunnels was quite long and I think that the people who were on for that 15 minutes probably should have gotten their money back. All survived and we pulled to a small site where the kitchen staff broke out some tables and began barbequing some shish kabobs which was deliciously marinated and we had our lunch and drinks out beside Lake Baikal overlooking a little farming village. It was really a spectacular experience. We then continued on to the small town called Listvyanka where we went out to visit an open air wooden museum consisting of churches, school houses, etc. from the last century and then back into the town where we went to the aquarium to see two species of animal that live in Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal, by the way, is 25 million years old, has about 10 % of all the fresh water in the world. It could easily take all the water from the Great Lakes and still need more. If it were to have no further inflow and maintain its single out flowing river, if it were to drain, it would take 40 years to drain through that river. A spectacular place including its 1500 species, many of which don’t live anywhere else except Lake Baikal – one of them being a fresh water seal that eats a fish which is so rich in oil that it is transparent and, if set on a stove, it would simply melt instead of cooking. In order for us to get from the train trammel to Lisvyanka we had to take a ferry boat which was rather dilapidated and there were some storm clouds overhead as we were crossing, but they finally broke loose on our return voyage. Most of the people were out in the open deck and, naturally, I would find my way in to the covered area, but people were pretty much soaked by the time they got across to the train again. Once people were dried out, they were ready for dinner. We left from this area to return to a town to pick up our electric engine

Transiting Kranoyarsk on the Yenesei River.

7 July 2008- Monday

Breakfast was served on the train at 8 o’clock. Later, there was an excellent lecture on the emergence of the Russian empire and the crucial role of the Trans-Siberian Railway which was delivered by Michel Behar, program director: A Dutchman with very impressive credentials – knowing several languages including Arabic which he studied at the Kartun in the Sudan. Michel gave an excellent presentation, the most notable fact being that the Trans-Siberian Railroad is actually a complex of 100,000 miles of rail with 400,000 pieces of rolling stock and is the second largest employer in Russia after the Russian army. Lunch was on the train and, since this was going to be a full day on the train, we had lectures that afternoon again. This time by Michel with the discussion of the collapse of USSR from perestroika to medvedev and political economic reform. This was another good talk which put everything in perspective including the Russian politics. Dinner was at 8:00 p.m. after having more white wine that I usually have with dinner.

Novosibirsk (New Siberia)

6 July2008- Sunday

Again, we had to advance the clock so breakfast today was going to be from 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. I did go to a lecture Helge Pedersen who is a Dutchman traveling for publicity for Mir Corporation to promote Trans-Siberian travel. He gave a lecture on photography trips and used some pictures he had taken on the trip so far to illustrate what he was talking about. When he asked for questions, I asked him ‘what was the secret of taking pictures through bus windows’ since that’s what a lot of my pictures have had to be. He said that the first thing to do is to knock out the window, but then after laughing, said you’d probably have to get your camera as close to the window as possible to avoid reflection – which I’ve not been too successful at. We had lunch on the train at 12:30 p.m. and arrived at 2:30 at Novosabersk, which translated means New Siberia. Again, the organization worked beautifully in getting off the train on a platform, met by our local guides boarding the bus and taking a trip outside the city to see an academic area which is supposed to be a place for the meeting of the minds and was a sort of secret area. The city itself is over 1.6 million people and is, therefore, the largest in Siberia. While visiting the academic center we also went into the mineralogical museum where there was a stone called Charliot which is a stone found only in this area of Siberia.

Ekatherinburg

5 July 2008- Saturday

The next day we had breakfast as usual starting at 7:00 a.m. My routine was to get up at 6:00 and be ready to go at 7 o’clock. The train got in to Yekaterinburg. We made a quick trip to just outside the city where we found the separation of Europe from Asia by a marker. We went by a ‘border guardsman’ with the rank of major who was obviously a college kid and for his summer vacation. After the photo ops, we returned to Yekaterinburg which was founded in 1721 and named after Katherine I, the wife of Peter I, and went to the place where the Bolsheviks had executed the Czar and his family in attendance. The house that they were kept prisoner in was that of an engineer and, in 1991, this was ordered bulldozed by Yeltzin who was mayor of the city at that time and in its place a cathedral which is still being built. A very impressive edifice and of course because the Czar was martyred, immediately became a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. We then saw some of the typical decorative wooden houses before returning to the train for lunch at 1:00 p.m. Another restful afternoon after the wine and dinner was at 7:30 p.m. This is the evening I decided to watch the movie Genghis Khan which was a Chinese production and essentially paralleled a lot of the movie I had seen before I started this trip. However, it told the same story with a slightly different slant and, unless you knew the players, it would be hard to figure out what was going on. Again, this was a subtitled movie.

Kazan- Capital of Tartartstan

4 July 2008- Friday

The train arrived in Kazan about 7:30 a.m., we finished breakfast on the train and got on the platform at 8:00 a.m. in an occasional misting rain, but looked up at a four story staircase which had to be climbed in order to cross over to the train station and, of course, four flights down. With that unique experience, we then were led toe the busses which turned out to be mini-busses and I got an inside seat in the rear, therefore precluding a lot of bus photography, and we were off to explore the city. Kazan is the capitol city of Tartaristan. The tour was not the most comfortable, but we drove rapidly through the business section over to Freedom Square. We took a right turn before we saw the square and there was Lenin in the Square center, of course, un-photographable. We then headed down to the “Kremlin” of the city. Kremlin, by the way, means fortress and every city in Russia has a Kremlin.
They got out to do a walking tour and were met by two lovely young ladies who were serving something that looked like the Rice Krispy and honey combination that you’ve seen around. Pretty edible. Then we entered the Kremlin. The most remarkable place here was, although it was a 13th century structure, in the middle of it was a gleaming modern mosque. Naturally, we had to tour the mosque. That meant plastic shoe covers and a climb of about six flights of stairs to be able to look be able to look down into the main worship area and listen to the explanation from our female guide who was also a Muslim. Fortunately, I’d seen a few other mosques and could pick out the landmarks such as the name of Mohammed and Allah prominently displayed in the front of the worship area. It’s easy to make out Allah because it looks like a very forward ‘W.’ Then down the stairs to finish the doors of the Kremlin and in the process I lost one of my plastic shoe covers. A wedding party had just arrived as we were getting ready to leave the mosque and the bride looked beautiful in her white gown. The distinctive part was the fact that she had her face wrapped in white satin as well so you could only see her eyes. We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant after which we went down to the shores of a lake – along the shores of the Vulga – where we got on a boat that took us for a short cruise on the Vulga River where we could get some distant shots of Kazan. I tried a drink called Kas which is the Russian national drink which is made of fermented Rye bread and is probably only 4 – 6 % alcohol and does have a very yeasty flavor. I think it would become an acquired taste. We then drove back to the town square for “shopping” for twenty minutes but this was just another time for a photo op. By the way, for the next several days, we had to keep advancing the clock at least one hour a night and sometimes two in order to make up for the different time zones we were crossing – so we were actually getting one hour less of sleep every night.

Moscow Tour

3 July 2008- Thursday

It was a 7:00 a.m. wake up for bags out at 8:00 a.m. and a buffet breakfast at the hotel. The bags were picked up and taken to the railroad station where, after breakfast we were loaded on separate busses and for the remainder of the trip, I was designated as bus 4 with Katya as our group leader. There were 30 of us on a large bus so there was plenty of room and proceeded to tour Moscow. The weather was superb and it looked like the city had just been washed by the thunderstorm and everything looked pretty elegant. Of course the big thing was to ride around the Kremlin and Red Square since we were not able to go through Red Square with a bus and we did get some good views of St. Basil’s church. By the way, a Kremlin tour was included in this trip except for the fact that the Kremlin was closed on the day we were there and as a result we substituted a cemetery at a local convent. In the meanwhile, we did get to see Moscow University, which is one of Stalin’s tall skyscrapers and we did get to see the reconstruction of the main cathedral in Moscow which had been dismantled by the Bolsheviks and Stalin’s plans were to build a huge skyscraper in its place, however, they ran out of cement because of the outbreak of the Nazi invasion and therefore converted this to a swimming pool which in the 1990s was taken apart and the old cathedral was rebuilt, however, gold had become too expensive to guild the domes and it is obvious this is a newly built cathedral because of the difference in the color of the dome. We also saw Peter the Great’s memorial on the 400th anniversary of his birth but it seems that the artist was the same one who competed for the anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America and so essentially what it is is the head of Peter the Great on the 15th century Spanish sailor’s costume sitting in the middle of a river. After touring the convent, we went to the adjacent cemetery where a number of Russian overlords were buried including some of their famous writers such as Chekhov and the wife of Stalin who committed suicide, Gorbechev’s wife and finally Christov’s memorial which is extremely interesting in that it is Christov’s head in between a black stone and white stone to show that the area of turbulence in which he served as the premier. The Alson’s memorial was also there, which was a huge slab made of three different colors of stone which are the white, red and blue of their Russian flag and it appears to be waving. This is a place where you can probably spend many more hours than when we did in our short, quick walk, but we had to get to the train station on time for our departure. We got there in plenty of time and were standing on the train station’s platform as the train pulled in. It was much longer than I expected it to be and, finally located my car, car 10, and my cabin which was number 6. so without too much difficulty the luggage was located and transferred to the train and my suitcase and I were reunited which I quickly unpacked into a very small closet. The cabin wasn’t very big but certainly plenty big enough for me. It had an upper and lower bunk and, of course, the upper bunk never being used. There was a flat screen TV and the lower bunk converted into a six and a half foot couch. There was a small table next to the window which was supplied with bottled water and vodka. The bathroom was ingenious in that it had a chemical toilet consisting of a vacuum purge for which the control button was located across the bathroom to the right of the mirror and obviously put there so that people didn’t flush this vacuum toilet while they were sitting on it as I’m sure it would produce a catastrophe if that were to happen. The shower was in the middle and looked like it would soak everything however, a well planned shower curtain was placed around this area to protect both the sink and the toilet, so it was easy to take a shower without wetting down the entire room. Local investigation being accomplished, I decided to explore the train and found that I was two cars away from a dining car followed by a kitchen car, followed by another dining car and then, eventually, the bar car which was overstuffed of furniture which had very few books, but there were a couple of CDs and DVDs one of which was a Chinese movie called Genghis Kahn which I scarfed up immediately. I asked the bartender if I could look at his selection of postcards and I checked those out. They were a pretty sparse lot and did secure a few stamps from him as well. The train left the station about half an hour after we boarded and we were on our way. Dinner was a fine example of what we were to expect which included all the wine you could drink, bottled water, and a three course meal usually consisting of a salad, soup or both, a meat or vegetarian meal and a dessert. The first night the food was delicious and it looked like we were in for a good time as the train departed the Moscow station for Kazan.

Arrival in Moscow

2 July 2008-Wednesday

I awoke the following morning about 4:00 a.m. which was the Russian local time and they had breakfast prepared for us about an hour later – which was essentially a McDonald’s egg and ham sandwich and actually pretty tasty. We landed uneventfully at one of Moscow’s several airports and, as promised, were met by Elder Hostel representatives who loaded us into their bus for the one hour drive to the Moscow city center. The traffic was impressive and found our hotel, which was Peter the Great, was only about 2 blocks from Red Square. By now it was early afternoon and I decided to nap before our dinner that night. A welcome packet provided for each of us put down most of the rules and told us we would be boarding the Trans-Siberian Express the next day. After a short nap, we went to a dinner at a restaurant which was one block walking distance from area we were staying. It was a typical Russian meal including borscht, which is a beet soup with sour cream, and a shish-kabob. By then, I was ready for sleep again and, although they had announced that there would be a 10 o’clock walking tour of Red Square to see the lights, a huge thunderstorm came in about the same time and we had some significant fireworks, not only for the 10 o’clock walking tour which I declined to take, but also throughout the night. I noticed that Russian thunder is different from Ohio thunder in that these were long rumbles that went on for seemingly minutes at a time, but it led to a good night’s sleep.

Flight to Moscow

1 July 2008- Tuesday

I left the house at noon for the one hour drive to the Cincinnati airport to be on time for my 3:00 o’clock departure to JFK. The weather was beautiful, the trip uneventful and the airport was not crowded although the plane, which was a 737, flying from Cincinnati to JFK was only about ¾ full – which was OK with me since there was an empty seat next to me for this 2 hour flight. I had checked my bags through to JFK and, since Delta is right next to the International Terminal, it was a short jaunt over to, again go through security to get into the international terminal to find aero flaut and because of my early arrival, the desk was staffed, but there were very few people. I walked up and presented my electronic ticket. They immediately presented me with a boarding pass, which was for an aisle seat on a 767-300. Now, it was just a matter of waiting on proceeding to the aero flaut departure gate, sure enough, there were plenty of Elder Hostel people camped out and raring to go. Someone started the rumor that the Russians did ‘mob’ boarding instead of the usual, however, they were wrong and they did board the back of the aircraft first which relieved my anxiety since a number of the Russian passengers were carrying several carry-ons of goods they had bought in the United States. I was afraid the overhead cabinets would be all full. My window seat partner turned out to be a gal by the name of Sue who is also traveling with Elder Hostel. She was a pleasant young lady who was exhausted from her trip up from Tampa and, in short order, fell asleep for the duration of the trip. I waited until dinner was served, which wasn’t really that bad, then took my Ambien and was in la-la land for about 4 solid hours before waking up. By the way, the first announcement of the Russian group was that there would be no entertainment provided on the aircraft. After that, every announcement was made by a very soft-spoken Russian woman who was totally intelligible and Sue and I would look at one another and ask “what did she say?” – Neither of us having heard the announcement.

Last minute preparations

30 June 2008- Monday

It was the last work day and, as luck would have it, the chairman of the department is out on a trip to the Galapagos Islands, the administrator is out taking a trip with his family and the administrative assistant is visiting her sister in Missouri so there is no-one in the department to share my anticipation with. As a result, I decided to take off at 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon to finish packing for the Trans-Siberian railroad.

Trans Siberian Railroad with Elderhostel

29 June 2008- Sunday
St Peter and Paul's day
My 77th birthday !

I first heard about the Trans-Siberian railroad in 1973 when a pediatrician and his wife I was stationed with in the Philippines decided to take their discharge from the military in the Philippines and go back to the States and by going to Vladivostok and crossing Russia on a Trans-Siberian railroad. That of course was in the middle of the cold war and I don't kknow if they succeeded or not but it sowed the seed of a great adventure. I then saw advertisements for the trip in the Elderhostel news magazine and because they didn’t run it annually, I signed up a year in advance to do the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok. About two weeks before the trip departure, they wrote and said they had added exxtra cars on to the train and I could be upgraded from Heritage class (which had a narrow bed and the toilets were at each end of the car and you could bathe in a separate shower car)to Silver class which would include a bed that was about the size of a full-sized bed plus a shower and bathroom within the compartment. That was the best 1100USD upgrade I ever made.
I had read some reviews on a new foreign film that was just released Called "Mongol" made by a Russian in Kazakstan with Mongolian dialogue and was part one of a trilogy on the life of Genghis Khan. Because it was English subtitled it would never come to Dayton, so I decided to drive up to Columbus with friends to see it. Since the route of the Trans-Siberian railroad I was taking included a side trip to Ulan Bator, Mongolia to see the Nadam festival, I decided that seeing this movie would be a good introduction for the trip and I was right. Turned out to be a good movie with great photography and incredible vistas.

Madrid, Spain

8-13 May 2008

American Osler Society, Boston

4-6 May 2008

Assoc. Surgical Education, Toronto, Canada

14-19 April 2008

American Assoc. of History of Medicine, Rochester

10 - 13 April 2008

Cairo- USA

8 March 2008- Saturday

Petra - Amman- Cairo

7 March 2008-Friday

Petra

6 March 2008- Thursday

Amman to Petra

5 March 2008-Wednesday

Cairo to Amman, Jordan

4 March 2008- Tuesday

Return to Cairo, Wadi el-Natrum

3 March 2008- Monday

Library of Alexandria, Catacombs

2 March 2008- Sunday

Library of Alexandria, Catacombs

2 March 2008- Sunday

Disembark- Cairo to Alexandria

1 March 2008-Saturday

Luxor

29 February 2008- Friday

Nile Cruise- Edfu/ Luxor

28 February 2008- Thursday

Nile Cruise- Aswan/ Edfu

27 February 2008- Wednesday

Embark Moevenpick M/S Royal Lotus

26 February 2008- Tuesday

Aswan/ disembark Prince Abbas

25 February 2008- Monday

Valley of the Lions, Aswan

24 February 2008- Sunday

Lake Nasser, Kasar Ibrim, Amada,Wadi el-Seboua

23 Frebruary 2008- Saturday

Abu Simbel embark Prince Abbas

22 February 2008- Friday

Old Cairo, St Sergius, Ben Ezra Synagogue

21 February 2008- Thursday

Memphis, Sakkara, Giza Plateau

20 February 2008- Wednesday

Egyptian Museum, Citadel,Khan el Khalili Bazaar

19 February 2008- Tuesday

Cairo

18 February 2008- Monday

Egypt, Eternal Nile and Jordan

17 February 2008-Sunday
Depart for Cairo

Back in the USA

30 January 2008- Wednesday

Iguassu Falls- Beunos Aires- USA

29 January 2008- Tuesday

Igauassu Falls, Brazilian side

28 January 2008- Monday

Iguassu Falls, Argentinian side

27 January 2008- Sunday

Beunos Aires Tour and Tango Dinner

26 January 2008- Saturday

Maipo Valley, Santiago- Buenos Aires, Argentina

25 Friday 2008- Friday

Peurto Natales-Peurto Arenas to Santiago

24 January 2008- Thursday

Montanas Fjord

23 January 2008-Wednesday

Calvo Fjord and Glacier, Southern Ice Fields

22 January 2008- Tuesday

Pio XI Glacier and Peurto Eden

21 January 2008- Monday

Amalia Glacier, Sarmiento Channel & Antrim Fjord

20 January 2008- Sunday

Aboard the "Skorpios"

19 January 2008- Saturday

Torres de Paine

18 January 2008- Friday

Peurto Natales, Chile

17 January 2008- Thursday

Peurto Varas, Chile

16 January 2008- Wednesday

Peurto Monti, Chile

15 January 2008- Tuesday

Valaparaiso, Chile

14 January 2008- Monday

Tour of Santiago

13 Januaary 2008- Sunday

Arrive in Santiago, Chile

12 January 2008- Saturday

Chilean Fjords and Patagonian Wilderness- OAT

11 January 2008- Friday
Departure USA