This could have been a review of a tour that doesn’t actually exist. What I mean is that the Riga city tour I took was sponsored by #LiveRiga, a campaign of the Riga Tourism Development Bureau, but it is not run on a scheduled basis. Rather, our guide, Juris Berze, is a freelance tour guide,…
Back in 2013, I visited the Tenement Museum in New York City’s Lower East Side and loved it. When I visited again recently for a different tour, well, I didn’t love it. This article combines both reviews, with updated museum information. My family’s immigration history Three of my four grandparents were Ukrainian Jews who immigrated…
As you’ve probably guessed, I love food. I can’t call myself a foodie, exactly, because I’m not choosy about what food I eat. I’m likely to enjoy whatever national cuisine I try, or at least find it interesting. Generally, I’m happy with anything from street food to chic food. But tasting the difference between one…
I’ve seen a lot of castles in my travels, but Muiderslot Castle is a real classic: a drawbridge over a moat and four corner towers, designed for defense.
Eating Europe’s Jordaan food tour allows a peek into a special section of the city with its own unique atmosphere while sampling excellent Dutch foods. Click to read the review!
Gorgeous photos in the form of greeting cards, art prints, notebooks, coasters, etc.
Groningen has three nearby manor houses or “stately homes” that are open to the public and furnished to allow visitors to learn about local history. I’ve written about one of them before: Fraeylemaborg, which I only half-mockingly referred to as the “ancestral home.” Another is Menkemaborg, a similarly impressive display of wealth and social position…
Boat Bike Tours Hansa Highlights is a bicycle and boat route through a series of picturesque Hanseatic cities. An in-depth review!
Back in the 17th century, not long after the Reformation turned Sweden Protestant, a new law required church attendance, depending on one’s distance from the church. People up in the cold north of Sweden, despite living on widely-scattered farms far from the nearest church, still had to get to church. Disclosure: This article contain affiliate…
Read here all about things to do in Rovaniemi, Finland in the summer: see excellent museums or explore the wilderness inside the Arctic Circle.
I am a digital immigrant. What I mean by that is that I didn’t grow up with computers like digital natives; the only computers I knew of as a child in Connecticut were the ones that filled whole rooms in banks and government offices. As far as I was concerned, they were equivalent to the…
In a guest post, Danny Newman explains the 10 reasons people get addicted to travel. Are you addicted?
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 about how to make the best of your trip.
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:…
