Seeking Beauty on Roads Less Traveled

Some things about Paris haven't changed in 22 years such as the Gare du Nord train station. The same gypsies and pickpockets that want to steal wallets and grab purses are still there. I'm just standing there watching their antics knowing it is only a matter of time before they approach me. I just came off the lovely Eurostar experience and I rather not have anyone ruin my lovely Eurostar after-glow. I am so annoyed that I just roll my eyes in that New York way that makes no mistake about what I want to say. Besides my dollars are worthless so it isn't even worth the effort to try and steal them. The other thing that hasn't changed? The station needs a big feather duster to pass over it. It needs a dousing of Pledge..lemon-scented, please and some dust mops in a big way. It is still grand in that only-in-Europe way with huge vaulted ceilings and more train tracks than I can count. It is busy and bustling but it's also dirty and a bit run down. It's still Paris, ...

Here's the thing. A million years ago (okay, maybe more like back in the 1980's), I went to Paris, France with my Mom and my now ex-husband (oh, yes...those of you who had no idea, I was married once in a world that seems light years away from today. No horror story to tell. I just married a very nice man who was not the man for me. That's all. So now you can pick your jaw up from the floor and keep reading. If the Catholic Church has recovered from my walk down the aisle in St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC so can you :) Everything that could have gone wrong during that trip in 1987 did go wrong. Here are some of the highlights or lowlights depending on one's perspective. We arrived at the Paris Gare du Nord train station from Brussels on a windy, rainy night. It was late; we were tired and we were told the hotel was within walking distance of the train station but pray tell, which direction? We asked the gendarme, the local police and were told, "That way...

“..and if the weather is bad, do you recommend still visiting the Blue Lagoon?’, we asked on Day 1 on Iceland adventure when we simply didn’t know any better and also had no idea just exactly how different our definition of “bad weather” can be in comparison to that of an Icelander. Rain, sleet, hail storm…gale force winds? That’s evidently a normal weather day to an Icelander. We arrived at the Blue Lagoon, just as the rain started …again. I am convinced there is about 7 minutes of sunshine to be had on a daily basis and after that, the rest of the day is a bag of tricks courtesy of Mother Nature. It should not surprise us that the rain began when it did and thankfully, it passed quickly. We did the mad dash from the enclosed section of the Lagoon to the great outdoors…it is a rather cool (no pun intended) experience. The water wasn’t nearly as hot as I thought it would be but it was far from being ice-cold either. It was just about right in most spots. Now, imagine..it is sai...