So I submitted a couple of 'workshop' ideas, with the idea that I'd go if I had something specific to do. I thought my suggestions were interesting – Tarot in Ten Minutes and/or Sacred Journeys/Irreverent Presentations, a showing of some of my videos of places of interest to Pagans (Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema, Diana's Temple at Lake Nemi, the Witchcraft Museum in Cornwall

and, if there were time, my video about Damanhur (yet to be premiered here - gotta get it under ten minutes for you-tube). I thought I might have a chance at a slot, since the con goes from Friday noon to Monday noon with 8-10 track programming. That's a lotta slots. But all the Big Nose Pagans (Starhawk, Margot Adler, etc.) go and automatically get slots, other regulars, and then I suspect all the California friends of the organizers, and then they add some *diversity*, which is the only imaginable reason for that incredibly lame voodoo ritual last year.

But no luck. They turned me down.

So I thought the hell with it.

Then a friend decided it would be fun to come with me and check out the scene. Afterwards we could go on to San Francisco and visit those friends mentioned above, and perhaps drive down the coast. And I thought maybe I'd get to see some Bay Area folks I know, and perhaps arrange a couple of OS meet-ups.

But THEN, there was some problem with my friend's air-miles that wouldn't produce the cheap fare hoped for, and that plan was off.

And I still didn't want to go by myself.

Meanwhile, my younger daughter was interested in some kind of winter get-away.  It has been a mild winter, but it still entails a lot of house-time. Also, though there hasn't been too much snow (or rain!), it's been overcast a lot. We're ready to bust out...

We really enjoyed our tour together in Egypt a couple of years ago (just before the riots) and, despite the weird company, we enjoyed the new-age tour in England last year (where I got the pictures of the Witchcraft Museum and which inspired my award-winning post, Who Crapped in the Crop Circle).

Egypt was especially nice, with the leisurely cruise down the Nile in a small river boat, stopping at various sites.

So we looked into some cruises. My preference was for the Greek Islands. But they all seem to be on those huge floating cities, as big as some of the islands, and besides there was nothin' happenin' in the, like, winter, silly tourists. Well, turns out there were at least some cruises - down the Italian coast!  Which, gurgle, fortunately we weren't on.

Anyway, we booked a bus tour of Spain.  

I like tours, because you don't have to think about anything – meals and accommodation and transportation are all taken care of.  There's guys to wrangle the luggage.  Guides to tell you what you're looking at. Plus unstructured time to get lost in twisty streets...

That said, my free-form trips with A. were even better. (See recent post about our visit to Mt. Etna.)  In France and Italy, he spoke the language, and dealt with the hotel and car-rental and train-ticket people, and likes driving...and is great company. I'd really like to do another one of those – eat & drink our way thru Sicily, for instance.

But I still have to catch up on posts about our previous trips - Carnac and the prehistoric art in the caves of southern France.  Good pictures!  Well, if you like rocks.

I'm taking my lap-top and have hopes of posting a few highlights as we go. Watch this space.