Dr.Dobro

We visited Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island in 2015. The only kangaroos we saw were on road signs, but we were able to get up close with huge numbers of sea lions. We also had a rare (I am told) sighting of an echidna, rooting around for tasty bugs.

The changing of the guards, called Evzones, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens. The high-stepping choreography and very unusual uniforms can draw giggles from foreigners, but membership in the Evzones is a great honor that celebrates several Greek military traditions.

@erewhonIt was called The Cowshed.

The Far Side is a treasure trove of bovine appreciation.

This is the Airbnb we stayed at in Picton, New Zealand. The owner definitely appreciates cows!

I came across this 1959 poster at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. the other day. I guess the Nieuw Amsterdam is not the nieuwest.

Testing, testing.....

From our Holland America (Zaandam) cruise, Feb. 2018: We arranged a trip to Bertha's Beach and Gypsy Cove through Patrick Watts. He was waiting as promised at the dock and as soon as the other couple who shared our driver came off the ship, we were on our way. Our driver was Dave, a former Royal Marine from Liverpool who was among the 40 or so defenders of the Falklands when the Argentines invaded in 1982. He had lots of great information about the 76-day war. It was about 45 minutes on asphalt and gravel roads out to Bertha's Beach, where we saw hundreds of Gentoo penguins up close, walking among them on the beach and the adjacent grassland. There were no roped-off areas or other restrictions; we were out among the birds. Then we went to Gypsy Cove, where two large groups of Magellan penguins were down on the beach below a viewing area; we could not go down there because of possible mines left over from the war. We also got a tour of battle sites, monuments and points of interest around Stanley. Cost was $130 per person. We found this tour preferable to Volunteer Point, which involves two-plus hours each way, much of it off-road over rough terrain (although you do see the larger king penguins at Volunteer, and if that is a must for you, you should do that). But we were very, very happy with our experience and can recommend Patrick highly. He said he does not contract with the cruise lines at all because he wants to give people a good experience at a more reasonable price, and he said he hires only experienced drivers. We saw first-hand evidence of this when a 10-passenger van got stuck in the sand approaching Bertha's Beach, with clients on an official Holland America tour, We spoke to some of them back on the ship; they were not pleased at the distance they had to walk from the spot they got stuck. The van eventually got winched out by an independent jeep driver (unsure if it was one of Patrick's or maybe Estancia Tours), but the van did not proceed to the beach to get the passengers. It stayed where it was and the passengers had to walk all the way back. Patrick struck us as a tour operator with integrity and we are pleased to recommend his company.