Italy2023

On Monday, we traveled to Sorrento, where we found the hotel we stayed in in 2007, the hotel Bristol, very English, very traditional, very beautiful. We had a perfect lunch there. It also sports a spectacular view of the Bay of Naples. Note the enormous five-masted yacht. That big lump on the far side of the bay is Mt. Vesuvius. You can see that people have built part way up the mountain—not a shanty town but expensive villas! Didn’t they get the memo?

Our hotel is truly a lovely place. Right outside our room is a roof terrace. The hotel is right on the beach (too cold to swim, alas). But the waves on the rocks provide endless entertainment.

 Sperlonga is a small town, primarily a resort. Here are the drag, the piazza, and the city center.

Friday, we drove out of Sperlonga to the town of Gaeta, which turned out to be far larger, a substantial seaport. Some of the stone works looked very old. There was a fortress and several churches, one quite large. Busy place.

We settled in the little town of Sperlonga, Italy, in the delightful Hotel Aurora. The beach is beautiful, and although out has rained a bit, the weather has been equally beautiful.

 Sunday, it was on to Italy. We flew out of Copenhagen to Malpensa on an SAS Bombardier CRJ-900, rented a car, and drove to Parma for the night. The next day we drove south, stopping at Orvieto for lunch. Magnificent Duomo: the Basilica Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, dating from 1290.

We had some wonderful worship, heard numerous presentations, and saw many old friends at the Crescendo Leadership Conference, including Beat Rink and Airi Rink, Kristen van Dyck, Dinu Serfezi, Kostis Papazoglou and Marini Peikidou, Claudia Michaelsen, Krisztina Tarjányi and Tamas Tarjanyi, and Malin Hartelius-privat, along with many others. A great time.

Ellen and I came to Malmo, Sweden, to attend the Crescendo Leadership Conference, Oct. 19-21. We were lodged in a Best Western hotel in downtown Malmo, but the conference was held in Dinu Serfezi’s church .7 miles away. The first session was held at the home of a very interesting Swedish artist, Janeric Johansson.

On Thursday, after leaving Amsterdam, we flew to Copenhagen on an SAS Embraer, rented a car, and drove to Malmo, Sweden. Upon arriving in Copenhagen, we saw something unexpectedly familiar.  The weather was unusually windy, which made crossing the bridge across the North/Baltic Sea a bit dicey. Interesting half-hour drive. The four short posts on the left are the four enormous supports for the incredibly high (don’t look down) bridge.

 and Schiphol airport 

 Hyatt at the airport. We had a nice visit from Irene Postma here on Tuesday.

We visited with Marcel Zwitser and his beloved on Monday in Zwolle. Before have my a very nice dinner with them, we stopped at Marcel’s place where I spied a couple of really interesting books.

Our trip to Italy began with a flight to Amsterdam. We are glad to be here in Amsterdam even if it is raining. There is a story about yesterday’s flight (which was delayed from Wednesday), but I will not relate it here. Suffice it to say that we left Dallas two days late on a British Airways A-380 (great big airplane) and we were finally having dinner at the hotel 18 hours later. We have spent Sunday recovering (the food is good).  The hotel lobby is 12 feet below sea level! Welcome to Amsterdam.