What are the main themes to share, after traveling for a year around the world and visiting 32 countries? The most obvious point is that travel is one of life’s most important and pleasurable activities. This year we experienced and shared amazing sights, delicious tastes, new stories, the growth and broadening of our perspectives in […]
Safari is the most special form of travel we encountered. It brings you to the edge: remote location, special field equipment, expert guidance, real personal risk, high daily cost. In return you are guaranteed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You escape from civilization and travel back to see nature the way it was centuries ago, before mankind […]
From the Okavanga Delta we flew to a city on the edge of Botswana and made the border crossing into Zimbabwe by car. The contrast was immediate. Botswana is one of the best and most efficient African countries, with an average income of $14K. Zimbabwe has been torn apart by war and has an […]
The most pleasurable way to enjoy Buenos Aires is to spend time in the quiet neighborhoods, soaking up the café culture and European-style architecture. There is nevertheless some touring to be done! Starting in the city center, we joined a free walking tour (a tip is expected) that had been highly rated by TripAdvisor. Piggy […]
Santiago as a touring destination? The city tour takes you to the presidential palace and other major government buildings, a public square, the fish market, a cathedral, a pre-1500s history museum – all within close walking distance. The 1700s architecture is pleasant enough but not as large or dramatic as you might expect for a city […]
There is so much history in China… let’s take up the challenge to cover it briefly and discover how modern China got to where it is today. There is evidence of prehistoric man in China going back well past 50,000 years. Pottery, stonework and other signs of village life start roughly 8,000 years ago. Some […]
After Beijing, we entered a hectic stretch that covered three cities in six days. The first stop Xi’an was the original capital of China and is the home of the Terracotta Warriors, a variety of tasty local restaurants and a superb calligraphy school, all described elsewhere. Here we visited the Xi’an Museum to see excellent […]
We stepped in to a long glass and metal building, built around one of China’s treasures. Before us lay deep trenches running in a vertical direction. Inside these trenches there were hundreds of soldiers. These soldiers stared straight ahead, not giving us a second glance. There had clearly been some sort of attack, as smashed […]
We started China in the capital city of Beijing, and started Beijing in its iconic heart – Tiananmen Square. This is famous in the West as the place where Chinses students protested for democracy in 1989, and we have read in the Western press that there are some still seeking change in China inspired by the […]
Sydney was all about catching our breath after the craziness in Japan. We checked into the Shangri-La hotel, where we had the good fortune to be greeted by customer manager extraordinaire Sabina. She heard the story and promptly upgraded us into their Governor’s Suite. This is the size of our Paris apartment, raised to the 34th floor […]
Our wonderful Japan guide Mimi came over on Wednesday morning and we stepped out into the streets of Tokyo. Brrr. First stop, Ginza for jackets. Then we saw the Imperial Palace and Asukasa with its many tourist stands and great Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine. We were so impressed with Mimi. She was impeccably dressed, […]
Who doesn’t love a good love story? Every country seems to have one. Here in Vietnam, one of the most poignant is widely known but officially unrecognized by the Vietnamese government: it is the true story of Ho Chi Minh and his Chinese wife and it goes something like this. Ho Chi Minh was born […]
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, a government center that is home to the country’s largest concentration of intellectuals and artists. Dusty construction confronts us in every direction. The city population just passed the 9 million mark and the streets are buzzing. This is the perfect place for cultural adventures. So much is foreign here […]
Could one tourist site account for nearly 10% of a nation’s economy? If the nation is Cambodia and the site is the extraordinary Angkor Wat, then by our admittedly rough calculations the answer is yes. Cambodia only has a national GDP of $11 billion, ranking 124th in the world. Some 2.5 million people per year […]
What’s there to do in Thailand outside of Bangkok? Plenty! Our favorite part of the trip was in North Thailand, a hilly area that was once the ancient Kingdom of Lanna, and is now a collection of nations and tribes split across the legal borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma. This region is geographically midway […]
Where can you find Hindu Indians, Buddhist Chinese, and Muslim and Christian Malays living side by side in an island leased from a Sultan and developed by the British? The answer is George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the capital city of Penang, one of the states of Malaysia. On its first morning out of Singapore, […]
This is the true story of an Englishman who made a New Zealander dig forty-one holes in a hill, sixty years in the future. The Englishman J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Africa and came back to live in England at the age of three. His father and later his mother died of illnesses and he […]
To break up a long drive from Agra to Jaipur, we stopped first outside of Agra at Fatehpur Sikri, which was briefly the Mughal capital (long story) and contains an impressive palace complex. Further along, we visited Chand Baori – a step well. Step wells are massive excavated stone cisterns that could store rain water, […]
Here is a true story: when the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan was a prince, he visited a market at the palace grounds. There he spied a beautiful girl, Mumtaz Mahal, who was working at a bangle booth. She was the daughter of one of the court accountants. He was so entranced that he proposed on […]
The classic touring trip to India is called the Golden Triangle, which is exactly what we signed up to do for our first exposure to the country. It all takes place in Northwest India, right around the capital city and then to the immediate south in a desert area called Rajasthan. You fly into New […]
The final stopping point for our Nile boat trip was Luxor – home of multiple ancient Egypt sights including the Valley of the Kings that Gina describes. The last day here we stayed in the city and saw the massive temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor as well as the Luxor Museum. All […]
Before us towered Edfu temple, one of the best preserved temples in all of Egypt. Dedicated to the god Horus, Edfu temple is 118 feet high and a fantastic but small sized memory of the Egyptian builders and engineers. The temple’s gate is lower than the pylons to its left and right. Symbolizing the Nile […]
By far the most interesting pyramid to visit is outside Cairo at Saqqara. Here is the oldest of the pyramids, designed by Imhotep. At the time the pharaohs were buried deep in shafts – not 6 feet under but 600 feet under, the depth representing the importance of the pharaoh. This first pyramid was designed […]
Our last stop in the Loire Valley was the massive Château Chambord. The building was commissioned in 1519 by a 25-year-old King Francois I. The stated reason was that he loved to hunt and he dreamed of having a hunting lodge so princely that nobles would flock there to hunt in royal style. In French class we learned […]
Here are brief descriptions and photos from other activities in Paris this October: – Playing in the Tuileries. Paris has turned to autumn colors, and the leaves are down in the nearby Tuileries park. One day the factors all aligned and the whole family had a few free hours at mid-day with no tours and no […]
Intent upon maximizing our culinary explorations in Paris, despite the great risk to our waistlines, we have now had the good fortune to have dined at three of the city’s most famous restaurants: Taillevent, Le Grand Vefour, and La Tour d’Argent. An amateur’s review and report seems to be in order. This time, however, I […]
Naomi had taken us to the L’Orangerie museum a few weeks ago. Today we were going to use the knowledge she imbued upon us and transfer that knowledge to my mother. We arrived at the L’Orangerie and decided to go for the most famous exhibits first: Monet’s “Water Lillies” collection. Monet had painted the set […]
While Linda and Hugh were visiting us we had a chance to take the tour of the Paris Opera house. This was far more interesting than we had expected. This is the opera house that was the inspiration for Phantom of the Opera. There really is an underground lake, which is a water reservoir in […]
The Waller’s from Natick were in town last week to watch the World Badminton Championships. We were able to see them on several days and to meet Patrick’s parents as well. On the last day Maria and Peter came over, and after tea (of course!) we took the Metro over to the Montmartre section of […]
When we arrived in Paris as an extended family of twelve people of all ages, we had a challenge. The Seattle Wilcoxes wanted a classic whirlwind introduction to the city of Paris, yet both they and the Newton Wilcoxes would be leaving in just a few days. At the same time we wanted to preserve […]
We hopped a flight from London to Bordeaux, rented a caravan of cars, and drove into the countryside of southwestern France. This is Aquitaine, the region controlled by the British during the Hundred Years War, a period of time when related royal families in both Paris and London had a legitimate claim to rule France. […]
This week we met up with the Seattle Wilcoxes and the Newton Wilcoxes for a grand reunion in London. A few highlights: The Athenaeum – a superb, stylish hotel just across the park from Buckginham Palace and walking distance to the West End that loves kids – wow! The focus on children includes a special […]
After four rainy days, the clouds parted and we laced up our walking shoes. The sun had apparently been on loan to the Mediterranean and we didn’t want to waste a moment now that it had returned. We were heading out for a hike in the Alps. To reach the starting point for our walk, […]
We are just in Zurich for a day before heading off into the Berner Oberland mountains tomorrow. Zurich is a quaint city and if you can afford to live here, offers an excellent quality of life: a medium-sized city next to a lake with a mountain backdrop, 1200 fountains that spout clean water, two major […]
We came through Copenhagen for a few days of transition from Turkey to Sweden. The first day was all about sleeping late after a post-midnight arrival. When we found out the hotel ran a great breakfast until 11am, we found ourselves liking Denmark pretty well. The streets were clean, the trains ran on time, most […]
We had a whirlwind 24-hour stop in this southwest coastal part of Turkey. We arrived in time for a gourmet dinner at a tiny inn up in the mountains. After the meal we slept in an authentic hillside dwelling while listening to the village goat’s bell as he ambled past our door. We woke, packed and indulged […]
We spent seven days in Istanbul, a city both modern and ancient. Our hotel, the Empress Zoe, was a converted 15th century bathhouse in the heart of old Istanbul which is called Sultanahmet. The hotel was filled with period style objects and the rooms open into a central courtyard where breakfast and WiFi are served, […]
Limited in their expansion by dry climates and mountainous terrain, the Greeks left their homelands to colonize other regions and originated many of today’s port cities in the Mediterranean. However their population was soon dwarfed by larger nations and they have been under foreign rule for much of their history. After resisting the Persians in […]
Olympia is on the west coast of Greece favored by plentiful water and flat land. The rocky east side was so inhospitable that the major cities there such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Argos quickly developed seamanship and trade and exchange of knowledge with the advanced Eastern civilizations. The green western part was quiet farming […]
Driving three hours west into mountain terrain (see pictures at the bottom of post), we arrived at Delfi – the Mecca of Ancient Greece. Here, crouched under limestone cliffs and built over springs and fissures that release psychotropic gases, the Greeks found a land that hissed and quaked. This was significant because going back even […]
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