I'm Ba-Ack!

Hip Hip Hooray! Thanks a million to my guest-bloggers baltimorejen and aco for keeping things hip and literary up in this piece while I was a broad. They are welcome to post their brilliant thoughts any old time (hint, hint).

I was very ready to come home at the end of my sojourn (I'm getting too old to enjoy those hole-in-the-ground toilets they love so much over across the pond even if I tolerate them still), but confess to suffering my usual travel withdrawal upon my return, particularly with yesterday's crap weather here in NYC.

So here are some pics of where I was to ease you and me back in to this America business. The places are Pitlochery, Scotland; Venice, Italy; and Cinque Terre, Italy. See if you can guess which is which, reader! It may be tough.

























I came to the conclusion, incidentally, as I hid my head in shame of the antics of my fellow Americans in Italy, that travelling as an American now is like being a Brit 100 years back off surveying the empire and demanding your afternoon tea somewhere in the jungle. You would not believe the sense of entitlement and ownership Americans exhibit in foreign lands. But of course you would believe it because you're egalitarian, bookwormy, and you read this blog! Ciao for now, more later of course. I missed ye, readership. Thanks to google for keeping the traffic flow at its usual steady trickle.