In early September we toured Athens and several of the Greek Isles in the Aegean Sea.

This is the view from the rooftop garden of our hotel in Athens — that’s the Acropolis in the background. Here we are atop the Acropolis of Athens, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Parthenon.  The Parthenon was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of the city of Athens and goddess of wisdom. It was built under the instructions of Pericles, the political leader of Athens in the 5th century BC. The Parthenon was constructed between 447 and 438 BC and its sculptural decoration was completed in 432 BC.

Atop Aereopagus Hill, where the Apostle Paul is said to have delivered his famous speech about the identity of “the Unknown God” to the Council of Elders of Athens in about 51 AD.With Roger and Peg in the 6th Century BC Ancient Agora (marketplace), where Socrates (469-399 BC) expounded his philosophy.  Note that the Acropolis is in the background everywhere in Athens.

This is our yacht, the MSY Windstar, anchored off the Greek island of Mykonos.
Here we are on the island of Delos, a major religious and commercial center in the Aegean from about 1100 BC until its destruction in 88 BC.  In the background are the famous Lions of Delos carved in the 7th Century BC and placed to protect the Sacred Lake.This is Paula on the Greek island of Santorini, with the caldera on the left, formed by a volcanic eruption in 1450 BC, and a candidate for the lost kingdom of Atlantis.We were planned to cruise to Turkey next, but our trip was cut short by bad news from Danielle in Orlando.

In mid-August we travelled to Japan for meetings, spending one week in the Himeji/Takasago area and another week in Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital.

Here we are at Himeji Castle, the largest and one of the oldest traditional castles in Japan, and the site of the filming of some scenes from the movie Shogun.

At Takasago we posed with a steam turbine rotor in the ‘retired machinery garden”.We visited Tenryu-ji Temple, the head temple of the Tenryū branch of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in the foothills of the mountains surrounding Kyoto.  It was established in 1339 and is known for views of the surrounding mountains from its gardens.  ……………. and had traditional vegetarian temple food seated on the tatami.  We participated in a traditional “Maiko” dinner with traditional entertainment.  We visited Kinkaku-ji temple, a Zen Buddhist temple dating from 1397.  The garden complex is an excellent example of Muromachi Period garden  design, considered to be a classical age of Japanese garden design.  The temple itself sits in the middle of a pond and is known as the “Golden Pavilion”.At Kinkaku-ji they also had weird ice cream flavors.  John had black sesame ice cream and Paula had green tea ice cream.We celebrated Paula’s XXth birthday at a restaurant on Kyoto’s Kamogawa River with 130 of our closest friends from all over the World.  And Paula was a leading participant in our annual encounter with Karaoke.  Here with the girls from Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.And here with the guys from Ireland, Spain, Egypt, Japan, Singapore, England, India and ???

Sometimes we get a chance to take a side-trip that is not business-related.  This year we went to Bali following the Conference in Surabaya.  Bali is a very laid-back island with a mainly Hindu culture as contrasted with the mainly Muslim culture of the rest of Indonesia.

We visited a coffee plantation and ground some coffee beans.

We visited  the caldera of the Batur volcano, one of Bali’s most active volcanoes.

We had several romantic, candle-lit dinners.

We even took a class in Indonesian cooking.  And there was the sea-salt and turmeric massage for which we have no pictures. 

We had dinner on a cliff overlooking the breakers coming in off the Indian Ocean at the Tanah Lot Temple.

In June and September we visited Surabaya, Indonesia to prepare for and conduct a Conference.  Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia and is an industrial center with a lot of oil and petrochemical businesses.  It is located just South of the Equator so the weather is tropical and doesn’t change much year-round.

We had the opportunity to enjoy the local culture with our friends.

We also had the opportunity to inspect a large power plant. 

We visited Singapore in June to conduct a Conference.  We had been there several times before, and it is always a nice place to visit.

Singapore is quite prosperous and each time we visit we find a new attraction has opened.  This time we visited the newly completed Gardens by the Bay, which includes several Conservatories, each highlighting a different climatic zone.  Here we are above the world’s tallest indoor waterfall in the Cloud Forest Conservatory.

The Gardens by the Bay has groves of “Supertrees”.  These are a concrete core with steel trunk, planting panels and canopies.  Various plant species are growing on the planting panels, and most have canopies embedded with environmentally sustainable functions such as photovoltaic power generation, rainwater capture and air exhausts.

We had lots of opportunities to relax with our friends, in this picture from Turkey and Japan.

Here we are at the Merlion, symbol of Singapore. 

Here are Paula and her “soldiers”. 

Here is the view of downtown Singapore from the Singapore Flyer, the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel 

Karaoke is a tradition at these Conferences and Paula is an active participant.  This song has participants from Malaysia, England, United States, Japan, Thailand and India.

This song has participants from  India, Japan, United States, Vietnam, Spain and The Netherlands.

Here we are relaxing on the Dragon Boat harbor cruise with friends from Ireland and New Zealand.