Macleod and Jerry Bellune are often asked about their favorite places. Here are 3 they love and would visit again.

MacLeod’s travels as an

Air Force brat took

her all over the US, to an education in France and time in England.

It’s undoubtedly fitting that she married a small town boy with wanderlust.

North Coast of Spain

Months before launching the Lexington County Chronicle, MacLeod and I were invited to Spain by the Spanish government.

We flew to Madrid, then to Santiago de Compostela, the end of the pilgrimage route from northern Europe to the cathedral there.

After the Moors burned the cathedral, Spain rebuilt it almost 1,100 years ago.

We slept in a parador hotel Queen Isabella, a devout Christian, had built for aging and ill pilgrims in 1499.

From there we boarded a luxury train on which we traveled across the north coast to San Sebastian in the Basque country.

This is majestic but rugged mountain terrain, with fjords that make you think you’re in Scandinavia, colorful fishing villages and bustling industrial cities.

A memorable experience was the morning we missed the train, and a fearless taxi driver whipped us across the mountains to rejoin our companions. MacLeod has not yet forgiven me for that harrowing ride.

Cheese & chocolates

Our friends Holly and Denis Vaucher invited us to join them in Switzerland.

On clear mornings from the terrace of their chalet an hour west of Zurich you can look south and see the Alps.

In a week with them that seemed only a few days, they crowded a whirlwind of experiences including visits to restaurants and a winery owned by family friends, charming Swiss villages, a luxury spa for massages, a sprawling chocolate factory, a magnificent cathedral in next door Liechtenstein and meeting Denis’s family at a Swiss Independence Day party on August 1.

We admire the Swiss for many things, most important for their sense of independence in a tiny country surrounded by historically militant and warlike giants.

Young Swiss are required to serve in their military and keep their weapons at home in case one of their neighbors gets aggressive.

The Black Sea

An international research and educational exchange group invited us to Ukraine twice to advise newspaper publishers how to survive and thrive in a democracy.

After the fall of the USSR, Ukraine voted to become independent, and the old government-controlled press collapsed. In its place came free market-minded publishers who needed help.

In turn, our friends in Ukraine came over here to Lexington to visit us twice.

It was a great experience as we were working natives, using interpreters to understand each other.

One publishing family became close friends. We spent a week on the Black Sea in Crimea with them at their friend’s hotel.

This is a part of the world rich in history but to which few Americans ever travel.

We visited an air museum where we found out where MacLeod’s fighter pilot father had landed after the allies’ 1st Berlin bombing raid. We swam in the Black Sea in August, its waters still chilly, and posed for a photo at Yalta where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin had planned to carve up Europe after WWII.

Our lone regret is that Crimea is once again under the Russians’ thumb. That is subject to change.

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Traveling is about discovering other cultures, meeting people & seeing how fortunate we are