I have been encouraged to write a blog about a trip I am taking with my friend Frank that starts today and ends on July 4.  Our first destination is Thessalonki Greece, where we will stay for a few days before heading the "the Holy Mountain," that is, Mt. Athos, which is home to many Orthodox Christian monasteries rich in wonders.  After about four weeks there we will go to England, where Frank has good friends who are willing to cart us about for visiting museums and other sites.  Frank has been going to Mt. Athos and England in the summer for decades, often in earlier times also going to other parts of Europe. I am going along this time because, at 91, he might need a bit of help and because he wants me to experience these places and meet his friends before he has to stop travelling. The trip out promises to be a challenge even though we are flying business class: bus from Madison to Chicago's O'hare airport, flight to London's Heathrow, flight to Athens, and flight to Thessaloniki. We start at 11:30 a.m. today and arrive at 9:20 p.m. tomorrow.  As Greece is seven hours ahead, we will be in transit for almost twenty-seven hours.

     So what am I going to do for four weeks on Mt. Athos?  I hope to catch up on reading, get an article ready to send off, and so on, but I also want to share a bit in the life of the monks, working in the garden and doing other chores....and of course there will surely be birds to see.