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Ons Lieve Heer op Solder: A surprising little museum

Ons Lieve Heer op Solder museum is a great choice for a quick taste of the Golden Age of Amsterdam; it was a secret church built into a canal house attic!

Yes, you CAN visit the Rijksmuseum in 2 hours!

Yes, it is possible to see the Rijksmuseum in just two hours. Read this article to find out how I saw the best of the Rijksmuseum in 2 hours.

The hanging monastery looks like it's glued to the side of a sheer cliff.

Sadness of the Hanging Monastery

The hanging monastery outside of Datong, China, a UNESCO world heritage site, is breathtakingly beautiful, yet also in a way, sad. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one and spend money, I will get a small cut of what you spend. It will not affect your price. The monastery was built…

How my citizenship hit me in the gut

One day last month, when I was walking through Oakland on my way to meet a friend in Berkeley, I passed the old Paramount Theater. This is a gorgeous restored Art Deco theater that I had paused to admire every time I’d walked past that week. That day, though, the theater was open at 8:30…

Is flying safe?

While I wrote this several years ago, I think this question is still something fearful flyers wonder: is it safe to fly? I read an article at Renegade Travels that looked at some statistics and declared that flying is indeed still safe, despite how it looks in the news. The author is right, of course, even…

Two pearls of the California mission system: Carmel Mission and Mission Dolores

We often forget that California history goes further back than the “49-ers,” the gold prospectors who hurried to California once gold was discovered in 1848. Carmel Mission and Mission Delores in Northern California are two pearls of the California mission system that arrived long before the Gold Rush. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If…

Haight-Ashbury walking tour: A nostalgic trip

Back in the 1990’s, I lived in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, the birthplace of the hippie movement and the epicenter of the Summer of Love. When my daughter was born in 1992, I decided not to go back to work right away. Paying for childcare would have cost much of my take-home pay, so it…

A walk along the Embarcadero, San Francisco, being a tourist

Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory, views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz: these are typical tourist destinations in San Francisco. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. This will not affect your price. Those of us who…

A weekend trip from San Francisco into the Sierra

Here’s an idea for a weekend trip from San Francisco that my daughter and I enjoyed very much. We really skimmed the surface of each place where we stopped; you could easily make it a week-long trip. Nevertheless, it felt like a real San Francisco getaway road-trip: the freedom to travel where we wanted, stopping…

newspaper article about the Sinterklaas news program

Black Pete redux

Speaking of local traditions, Sinterklaas is approaching again, and with it, the controversy over Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). As I posted last year, Sinterklaas (the holiday) takes place on December 5th. On that day, as well as the weeks leading up to it, Sinterklaas (the person) delivers gifts to children, landing on their roofs on…

An unusual walking tour in Athens

It was just my luck that the day I’d signed up to take a walking tour in Athens, there was torrential rain. Nevertheless, this tour – covering religious Athens under Ottoman rule – was fascinating. Disclosure: I received this tour for free, but all opinions are my own. It never occurred to me, to be honest,…

children at the door with their lanterns

St. Maartens Day: A sweet local tradition

Today is St Maartens Day here in Groningen, a children’s tradition that is relatively unique to this area. On the 11th of November, once the sun goes down, children go door-to-door begging for sweets. Instead of threatening “trick or treat” like on Halloween, the deal here is that they sing a song, and in return,…

A one-day Greek island cruise

I’ve been to Athens before, so I’ve already done the usual Athens itinerary like visiting the Acropolis. Disclosure: This is a sponsored article in that I was given a free ticket to the cruise in exchange for writing about it. All opinions, however, are my own. So, with only one free day after my conference was…

Republicans, Expatriates and FATCA

Last week I posted about the possibility of renouncing my American citizenship due to the onerous requirements the US government imposes on expatriate Americans. That post broke the record here at Rachel’s Ruminations: the most “hits” ever. And, in the process, I’ve learned a lot more about the situation from the many people who responded,…

Giving up US citizenship?

For several years, I’ve been thinking about giving up my American citizenship. This is not an act of disloyalty or of protest, I hasten to add. I admit there have been moments – when George W. Bush was reelected, for example – when I was angry enough to repudiate my nationality in protest. But I…

The stress of airline pricing

A few days ago, I managed to book an extremely low airfare to go visit my daughter in San Francisco. I found out about the fare by using Skyscanner, where you can input your destination and the dates you want to travel and receive updates whenever the fare goes up or down. So while I…

Outside my comfort zone: scuba diving

I am a certified open water diver and have done exactly 29 dives up to today. That makes me a relative newbie, but I know the basics of scuba diving. Nevertheless, scuba diving is and always will be outside my comfort zone. The basic problem is that the whole thing just goes against any idea…

Petra travel advice: 10 tips for visiting Petra

My first awareness of the existence of Petra was seeing it in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When I learned that it was a real place and not just a movie set, I added a trip to Petra to my next Israel trip. (Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links, which means if…

A Dead Sea Day

Floating in the Dead Sea is one of those things people put on their bucket list: something that has to be experienced once in a lifetime. The Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea because its salt and mineral levels are so high that nothing lives in it. It is also the lowest elevation on…

Masada and the Israeli Army

In about 66 C.E. (Christian Era, which is the term Israelis use for A.D.), a Jewish rebel movement captured a great fortress and palace built by King Herod. Called Masada, it stood high above the Dead Sea on a flat-topped mountain, surrounded by desert. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. by…

the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock, as seen from the Mount of Olives

The Western Wall Tunnel Tour explores a long-hidden history.

If you visit Jerusalem’s old city, you will surely see the Western Wall. It’s as if the large plaza at the center of this ancient place draws you in like a magnet. All roads don’t lead to Rome; they lead to the Western Wall. Yet the Western Wall is more than the most holy place…

The Via Dolorosa

The route by which Jesus is believed to have carried the cross to his crucifixion is now a tourism and pilgrim route in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Mundane in Jerusalem

Amidst bombings and tension between Gaza and Israel, everyday life continues.

Why I’m in Israel

Why I traveled to Israel at a time when Gaza and Israel were bombing each other.

How Americans see the Dutch

When I posted about how the Dutch see the Americans, it wasn’t particularly complimentary, so I promised to write the opposite post: how the Americans see the Dutch. (Nederlands vertaling beneden) Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them and spend money, I will receive a small percentage of what…

10 Things the Dutch Think about Americans

“You’re not like most Americans.” A student of mine, a trainee English teacher, said this to me. I laughed, and the conversation moved on to other topics, but I’ve been thinking about what he meant by this. What the Dutch think about Americans – and I dare say this applies to other Europeans too – is…

a house in Lutjegast, Groningen province

Advice for Expats: 12 Tips

There are two kinds of expatriates: the kind who move to a foreign country to seize an opportunity for a job or education or retirement, and the kind who move to a foreign country for love. Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, I will…

Bicycle baptism

All we were trying to do was to get out of the car while it was stopped in traffic. The plan was to walk to the restaurant two blocks away while my husband went to park the car. It made sense. I stepped out on the right side, but not before saying to the kids…