Our tour of the British Isles via a Viking ocean voyage will commence on July 20, 2025. Below is a map of the trip and our day-by-day itinerary. Day 1 -2 – Bergen, NorwayDay 3 – Shetland IslandsDay 4 – Scottish Highlands (Invergordon)Day 5 – EdinburghDay 6 – Orkney IslandsDay 7 – Scottish Highlands (Ullapool)Day…
Author: jmschaller
Wanamaker’s-End of an era
The old Wanamaker department store building, currently occupied by Macy’s, announced that its final day of operation would be on Saturday, March 22, 2025. The store offered blow-out sales on the few items still available for purchase, and provided a series of short organ concerts on the world famous Wanamaker organ. The event attracted a…
Morocco Photos
You can scroll through the Morocco photo album using the right and left arrows on the image below to view all of my photos from this trip.
Chinese Lantern Festival – 2022
The Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival returned to Franklin Square in 2022, after a 3-year hiatus. The historic Franklin Square was filled with over 30 massive lantern displays celebrating the cultural traditions of China. The individual lanterns were built directly on the site by Chinese artisans using thousands for LED lights. Their design skills have been…
Netherlands River Cruise
On April 24, 2022 we embarked on a ten day cruise along waterways in the Netherlands and Belgium, sailing on a 145 passenger Vantage river ship. Highlights of the trip were : a visit to the medieval city of Bruges, touring the UNESCO World Heritage site of Kinderdijk to see a working windmill. a spectacular…
Visiting the American Southwest
We had a wonderful and thoughtful two weeks exploring the National Parks in Arizona and Utah. I came away with about a thousand photos – 147 of which are posted here – and a couple of impressions. My first impression from the trip is that the diversity of our country – in climate, geography, and people…
Photos from Provence
Here is a photographic journal of my trip on the Rhone River from Avignon to Lyon, with an extra stopover in Paris. You can scroll through the photo album using the right and left arrows on the image below to view all of my photos from this trip.
Visiting the Pope’s Home…and Drinking His Wine
On Friday, while in Avignon, we paid a courtesy call on the Pope at his “chateau” here. Unfortunately, we missed him by about 700 years. We decided to take a tour anyway. This was the home of a series of 14th Century Popes (Benedict XII, Innocent VI, etc.) who decided to move to Avignon when…
Arles and Les Lumieres
We spent our first full morning in France traversing the streets of Arles, famous for the quality of its light, which drew Van Gogh and others to the area. Except there wasn’t much light this morning. Cloudy, overcast, windy, and 10 degrees Celsius (you do the math). Nevertheless, intrepid travelers are never deterred by a…
Arles and Les Lumieres
We spent our first full morning in France traversing the streets of Arles, famous for the quality of its light, which drew Van Gogh and others to the area. Except there wasn’t much light this morning. Cloudy, overcast, windy, and 10 degrees Celsius (you do the math). Nevertheless, intrepid travelers are never deterred by a…