A maritime-themed weekend in Hamburg
A weekend in Hamburg delving into its history as a maritime center. With lots of recommendations of things to see and do in Hamburg.
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Discovering the Legend of King Arthur in Cornwall
Discovering King Arthur in Cornwall, UK. Read here about Arthurian sights in Cornwall!
Best things to do in Guadeloupe: A Guadeloupe guide
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…
Craigievar Castle, Scotland
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 castles worth visiting
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.
Wick Heritage Museum, Scotland
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:…
Dunrobin Castle, Scotland
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…
A Scottish Highland Clearances tour
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…
Expat wellness: Life as an expat
I haven’t written an article in a long time about expat issues, despite the fact that my articles about expat life still get regular readers. My posts about renouncing my citizenship, in particular, are in my top 10 nearly every day. So when I was approached by Aetna International to collaborate with them as an…
11 stunning UNESCO sites in the Czech Republic outside of Prague
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 and a macabre church
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: A 3-part UNESCO site
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.
A UNESCO site in Olomouc (and other things to see there)
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.
Visiting Turtle Sanctuaries in Malaysia (and elsewhere)
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….
10 Travel Risks NOT Worth Taking
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!
Gomantong Cave in Borneo: A warning
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…
Lankayan Island Resort in Malaysian Borneo
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.
Bitemojo app Singapore food tour: a review
Bitemojo food tours are not like other food tours. That’s not to criticize other food tours, mind you. I love learning about a place’s particular customs and foods. Bitemojo tours are different, though, in that they don’t include a tour guide. Instead, the tour is led via Bitemojo app, which leads you from “bite” to…
Prague Airport tour and a teeny-tiny airplane
Despite my fear of flying, I jumped at the chance to take a Prague Airport tour, including a flight in a small airplane. “Face your fear” and all that. Read all about it here!
A self-guided Rotterdam walking tour: Architecture and art
Rotterdam is famous for its post-war architecture, mostly because a World War II bombing in 1940 destroyed much of the city. Yet it didn’t just rebuild and settle in; it is still constantly changing, expanding and reinventing whole neighborhoods. On a recent visit, I took a tour of a few new buildings, but I also…
De Rotterdam Architecture Tour
Very little of Rotterdam survived World War II. While this means it is not the place to see the Netherlands you expect – charming streets along canals, 16th century merchants’ homes, or picturesque windmills – it is the place to see post-war architecture. This is why I signed up for a tour with De Rotterdam…
Rynek Underground Museum at Krakow Main Square
Krakow’s Old Town is centered around a lovely main square called Rynek Główny, which means main market. It dates to 1257, when it was rebuilt after the Mongol-Tatar invasions. Krakow Main Square Krakow Main Market Square forms the focal point of Krakow Old Town, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the center of the…
Wieliczka Krakow salt mine isn’t just a salt mine!
The Wieliczka Krakow salt mine is much more than tunnels carved into salt. It has a history all its own, and, surprisingly, it has artworks made of salt!
Urban Adventures Krakow food tour review
Polish food doesn’t have the excellent reputation of, say, French cuisine or Thai cooking. Frankly, it’s not something I ever really thought about. So when I traveled to Krakow for an influencer conference and was offered a place on an Urban Adventures Krakow food tour, I figured, “Why not?” I had minimal expectations of the…
The Lost Chambers Atlantis Aquarium isn’t really about fish
The Lost Chambers Aquarium at Dubai’s Atlantis the Palm Dubai hotel is not your run-of-the mill aquarium. At any self-respecting large aquarium – think the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the Boston aquarium – you’d expect to see a range of species from all over the world. The Lost Chambers has that. It isn’t a big…
A Krakow Tour with a Twist
Crazy Guides’ communism tour advertises a visit to Nowa Huta, a “model communist city.” Built starting in the 1950s, this experiment in communist community-building is considered a landmark of Soviet-era socialist architecture and urban planning. I signed up for the tour with low expectations. I thought that the phrase our tour guide kept using, “worker’s paradise,”…
Green Planet Dubai: a review
If you’ve ever been to a world-class zoo – the Bronx Zoo comes to mind – you’ll have seen an indoor tropical rainforest before. Visitors walk on prescribed paths and bridges, while the birds and other animals fly or roam where they choose within their building-sized cages. The Green Planet Dubai is one such indoor…
Al Ayn UNESCO site: A day trip from Dubai
“We go to camel market?” Nishad asked, glancing over at me. I had, contrary to custom in Dubai, chosen to sit in the front seat of the taxi, explaining that I could see the scenery better from there. “No, thank you.” “Souk?” “No, not that either.” I had hired Nishad as a driver for the…
One Day in Dubai: Things to do!
Dubai is a land of superlatives: biggest, tallest, first. I would also add: oddest. Dubai is often compared to Las Vegas, and I agree: its sheer brashness and artificiality are very like Las Vegas. Like Vegas, it’s a big, shiny city plunked down in a desert. And although there aren’t any casinos – at least…
A Dubai Frame review
The Dubai Frame was not what I expected. In the flurry of publicity when it opened, the media showed just what its name promised: a picture frame. That’s what I thought it was: a large picture frame, outsized, like everything in Dubai. It was two or three stories tall, I figured, perfect for taking a…
Sightseeing in Ankara, Turkey
The last time I tried to visit Turkey was more than 30 years ago, and my attempt failed. I’ll tell that story at the end of this article. I will tell you, though, that I finally managed to get there recently when I flew to Ankara to lead a workshop. I tacked on one extra…
Visiting Hoover Dam with a “Dam” Tour Guide
“My name is Arcelia and I’ll be your dam tour guide.” This was our introduction to visiting Hoover Dam. Arcelia milked the joke as much as she could – “this dam wall,” “these dam generators,” and so on – but somehow, it worked, earning a chuckle from the visitors every time. Her cheerful approach impressed…