I never imagined a trip to Europe from Thailand, but Thailand had become our home. We got a great airfare and plenty of leave time. At the time we had two of Karens opera siblings living in Europe and planned to visit them. They're not just "opera" siblings but the both sing opera. Tamara was in Berlin and Junie cum Howard is in Paris. Howard and Josh generously provided their home for us to stay in. Karen had never been to Europe and she was very excited.

I had been to Europe a few times over the years. When I was a one year old my parents moved to Kaiserslautern, Germany. Dad taught military dependents at the big military base. My sister was born there 2 years later. We vacationed in Europe in about 1970. My parents had been in a post WWII workcamp to rebuild Berlin. The vacation was partially an opportunity to visit friends from that workcamp. We also visited several Christian communities. I remember one in England and one called Taize in France. Taize made an indelible impression on me spiritually. It still holds a special place in my heart.

For me this current vacation was a chance to see Karen's siblings. I enjoy photography so a new place is always a new opportunity. Paris has interesting and distinct architecture. There was a last minute plan by Karen's sister so we decided not to visit Berlin. All our plans were not finalized in the last two weeks prior so we ended up deciding to visit Barcelona. There was a rail strike at the time so we ended up flying to Barcelona.

Our flight crossed from southeast Asia over India to Paris, France. We traveled on Kuwaiti Airlines so we stopped in Kuwait. That was an interesting adventure in Muslim dress. We saw many family groups in the airport there from all over the Muslim world: many countries in Asia and the middle East. Each family group seemed to have distinctive and coordinated outfits. Some women in the family groups wore identical clothing. Some just chose similar styles by family or nationality group. The men had braided bands around their headdresses. Some color schemes were subtle and some lavish - a real study in style.