Hurtigruten cruises are unlike other cruises! This Hurtigruten review describes all aspects of a Hurtigruten cruise on the Norway coastal route: the cabin, the food, the excursions, and it gives lots of advice.
The Amsterdam Historical Museum (more correctly called The Amsterdam Museum), housed in a former orphanage, covers Amsterdam’s whole fascinating history. Click here to read all about it!
Visiting Karlstejn Castle from Prague is quite possible in a day trip. Just make sure to do your research ahead of time, unlike me. This article will help.
Below the Surface in Amsterdam shows archeological finds from building a new metro line. It’s not a museum; it’s basically a teaser for the website. Read about it here!
A so-called “tower house”, Crathes Castle in Scotland has been added to and changed over the centuries. First built in the mid-16th century, it was the home of the Burnett family of Leys, who lived there for over 300 years. It’s one of the 14 castles in Aberdeenshire worth visiting. Crathes Castle still has its…
The old TWA terminal in JFK Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1962, has been restored and repurposed into the TWA Hotel: a review of the new hotel.
My initial interest in visiting Mauritshuis, an art museum in the Hague (Den Haag), had to do with one single painting: Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer, painted in about 1665. But this outstanding little Den Haag museum has many more gems of Golden Age painting. A disclosure: This is a sponsored post:…
I hate the word “influencer.” It has taken on a bad connotation: young people, generally female and white, who claim “influence” through pretty poses on Instagram. Articles circulating on social media accuse them of all sorts of bad behavior: buying followers and demanding free rooms and meals from hotels in exchange for pictures, posing for…
Recently I made a short trip to Lebanon, despite a lot of “But is it safe?” from everyone I mentioned it to. I’ll write about the travel warnings at the end of this article, but first I want to report on all the special places in Lebanon that I saw in the two free days…
On my recent trip to Lebanon, I was just blown away by the Baalbek ruins: a magnificent set of Roman temples in the Beq’aa Valley and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. I saw Baalbek on a full-day small-group tour, which included other stops, but right now I just want to write about the Baalbek…
Berlin is a wonderfully diverse and dynamic city and, for a tourist with an interest in history, there are plenty of WWII and Cold War sites to visit. Here’s a complete list!
As I wrote in my overview of Aberdeenshire castles, my expectation was that the Dunnottar Castle ruins would be worth about a half-hour’s visit. I’d seen photos, and its setting – on a cliff-edged finger of land extending out into the North Sea – made for some very dramatic photography. In those photos, however, it…
If you’ve ever seen a film involving Queen Victoria, you’ve heard of Balmoral Castle. This is the place the queen used as her escape: her place in the country. She loved Scotland, and this location in Aberdeenshire is stunning, with its rolling hills and deep forests. Note added September 9, 2022: Queen Elizabeth died today….
For years I’ve assumed that all budget airlines in Europe are essentially the same. Not so! Click to read my review of EasyJet.
A weekend in Hamburg delving into its history as a maritime center. With lots of recommendations of things to see and do in Hamburg.
Discovering King Arthur in Cornwall, UK. Read here about Arthurian sights in Cornwall!
I have many articles on this website about things to do in Guadeloupe, yet I’ve never compiled them into an overview. After updating all of the separate articles, I figure it’s time, so here it is: a Guadeloupe guide. Note: at the bottom of this list you can find a map with all the sights…
There’s something about the fact that Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire is pink that makes it conjure fairy-tale visions. Or maybe it’s that it’s taller than it is wide: think “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Either way, it’s an enchanting sight when you first spot it from a distance and do a double-take at its…
Aberdeenshire, Scotland has dozens of castles, but many are them are either private or in ruins. Here are the 14 Aberdeenshire castles that are most worth seeing.
The leaflet advertising the Wick Heritage Museum compares the museum to the TARDIS. If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you’ll know exactly what that means: Doctor Who’s form of transportation, a blue police box (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), is bigger on the inside than the outside. Outside, the museum is small and unimpressive:…
In my last post – about the Scottish Highland heritage tour that I took with my friend, Kate – I mentioned Dunrobin Castle as one of our stops. In reality, we stopped there twice: once on the way north and again on the way south. The first time we tried to see Dunrobin, the electricity…
When I told my friend Kate that I was planning to visit my son in Aberdeen and spend a week exploring Scotland, she immediately wanted to come along. Kate has Scottish heritage and was curious to see some of the history of her family and why they left Scotland. Our trip turned into a wonderful…
Some ruminations on life as an expat, with a few words of reassurance for those moving to a new country.
There are 11 UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic outside of Prague. I’ve visited most, but thanks to two other bloggers, you can read about all of them here.
Kutna Hora UNESCO site isn’t just about a pretty old town. The UNESCO designation focuses on two churches, but there’s a macabre Bone Church to see too!
Trebic, Czech Republic has a UNESCO site made up of three sites: the old Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery, and a Catholic Basilica, and they’re all worth seeing.
The Holy Trinity Column, a masterpiece of the Moravian Baroque style, is a UNESCO site in Olomouc, a small town in the eastern end of the Czechia.
When we booked a stay at Lankayan Island, off the east coast of Malaysian Borneo, our intention was a little rest and relaxation and a little diving. That’s all. What we didn’t think about was visiting turtle sanctuaries or seeing sea turtles hatching. Yet the turtle sanctuary on Lankayan became a highlight of our trip….
Travelling opens you up to the world and challenges your world view, yet some things are just not worth the risk. 10 top risks NOT to take!
Bat guano, cockroaches and other grossness. That’s what awaits you at Gomantong Cave in Borneo. A standard stop on the adventure tourism circuit in Sabah, the eastern part of Malaysian Borneo, Gomantong Cave is near enough to the popular river boat rides on the Kinabatangan River to make a relatively short detour. So that’s what…
At Lankayan Island Dive Resort, we both felt we’d found paradise. A tiny dot off Malaysian Borneo, it’s great for a peaceful island holiday.
A food tour unlike others – it’s self-guided, through an app leading you from bite to bite, pointing out sights along the way.
