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We spent seven days in Istanbul, a city both modern and ancient. Our hotel, the Empress Zoe, was a converted 15th century bathhouse in the heart of old Istanbul which is called Sultanahmet. The hotel was filled with period style objects and the rooms open into a central courtyard where breakfast and WiFi are served, […]

Last week Piggy was at the Olympic Stadium.  Congratulations to Sam and Rachel they guessed right! Where is Piggy this week?  Send your guess to me by email.

Turkey is a feast for all the senses but my taste buds were on overdrive as we sampled street fare, sweets, and dishes fit for a Sultan.  In lieu of chips or packaged snacks we found lots of little stands selling all sorts of nuts, dried fruits, and—of course—Turkish delight.  The latter is a sort […]

Limited in their expansion by dry climates and mountainous terrain, the Greeks left their homelands to colonize other regions and originated many of today’s port cities in the Mediterranean.   However their population was soon dwarfed by larger nations and they have been under foreign rule for much of their history.  After resisting the Persians in […]

The picture is a hint and the video below is the clue. You can hear a lot of cicadas – they brush their wings when it gets hot outside to fan off their backs. If you have a guess, don’t post it because other people might want to guess too, so email it to me!

Olympia is on the west coast of Greece favored by plentiful water and flat land.  The rocky east side was so inhospitable that the major cities there such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Argos quickly developed seamanship and trade and exchange of knowledge with the advanced Eastern civilizations.  The green western part was quiet farming […]

So sorry it’s taking so long to post another picture but we recently found the right place and took a pretty good picture, so be keeping an eye out for piggy.

Driving three hours west into mountain terrain (see pictures at the bottom of post), we arrived at Delfi – the Mecca of Ancient Greece.  Here, crouched under limestone cliffs and built over springs and fissures that release psychotropic gases, the Greeks found a land that hissed and quaked.  This was significant because going back even […]

  Food is one of the very best ways to discover a new place and we had the finest introduction imaginable on our first day in Athens as guests of our guide Antony and his wife Sam.  The morning began with a trip to the local produce market where we saw fruits and vegetables of […]

Focusing on the sites of Greek antiquity, we visited four locations while in Greece: Athens, Delfi, Olympia, and Nafplio. In Athens we kicked off with a hands-on cooking lesson in the home of our guide Antony and his wife Sam as described in Gina’s post. We then drove down the coast until we reached the […]

Off we went to the airport. Air Italia helpfully provided us the weights of all the baggage.  The biggest bag weighs 23kg, just a hair below the limit where they start to charge a fee.  This is the bag the contains electronics and tour books!  The other three roller bags weigh 19kg.  Carry-ons weigh 7kg for […]

What?  July 1 is the first day of school?  Well, yes, if you attend Road School.  Road School is designed to replace 4th and 7th grade for the kids.  It is based on the Massachusetts standards, although we don’t have any MCAS.  And then it goes a bit beyond. Since getting out and seeing the […]

At 2:51pm on Wednesday June 30, we left our home in Natick in a borrowed car and journeyed all the way to… Newton.  Surely the first day out of the house must be reserved for grandparents!  Having seen Gina’s parents during June, we made it a trifecta.  The kids played games the rest of the day with a happy […]

Yes that is Gina, standing in an empty driveway in front of a clean house and cheering. Getting out the door for this journey was a lot of work! Although we had agreed to rent our home furnished to cut out the labor of moving, we realized eventually this simply meant the furniture would stay. […]

The answer was the dining room which no one got but don’t worry this was a practice round. Also please don’t post your answer or it will not count. You have to e-mail me. Remember once you get the answer right 4 times (I will keep track) be looking for an e-mail from me.

This is an easy one! Email Katherine if you know where (which room of the Wilcox house?!) this is.

Good grief!  It is just about time to go.  Over the past few months we worked as a family to sort out all the details of a year’s travel abroad.  We started with the outline of the itinerary.  The trip spans six continents and roughly 30 countries and is the journey of a lifetime.  The […]