Travel Tales amongst my Ramblings
True stories of our world-wide journeys interspersed with bits of my real life journey, retired now in Silicon Valley
It’s six PM, our last evening in Paris. We've loved it all, but are museumed out, for this trip anyway. We've seen pretty much everything that we’d hoped to see in these four days, and a lot more. We loved Paris, of course––who doesn’t? The Louvre––a building so beautiful that it would be worth seeing … Continue reading Last Twelve Hours in Paris
In Cape Town, we drive through neighborhoods with funny Dutch-sounding names like Tamboerskloof and Hout Bay, and capture the brightly colored homes of the Malay district when the sun shines. We walk through the gardens along Government Avenue and past huge posters that say “Thank You Madiba” and learn that Madiba is Mandela's Xhosa … Continue reading Cape Town — Part Two
I'm reading sad stories of Cape Town's drought. The city expects to run out of water in mid-April 2018, and some say that the problem can only be solved with a massive desalination program, which hasn't yet been initiated. Drought years are no fun––we in Northern California know that from experience. Lack of enough water affects … Continue reading When It Snowed on Table Mountain
People ask us why we liked our trip to Antarctica so much. My answer: "We don't know, but everyone loves their trip to Antarctica. You should go." I do know I loved the quiet. And the stillness. And the penguins. And the scenery. Some of the highlights: Ushuaia––a nice little town with wonderful ice cream … Continue reading Memorable Moments in Antarctica
The Year of the Dog starts February 16, and reminds me of our visit to Vietnam in January 2012, in the two weeks leading up to the Year of the Dragon. Our few days in the Old City part of Hanoi were some of the best. A hectic and fascinating city––we loved it. Honk. Honk. … Continue reading Hanoi Motorbikes
What a cool site! I'm sure most of you already know about it, but I didn't until an OAT representative told me: Rome2Rio Planes, buses, Uber––you name it, it's there, with easy-to-compare prices and times. Another example Be sure to uncheck the automatic Expedia search box or you will always get a page of hotels … Continue reading How to Get to Wherever
A visit to Corfu Town on the Greek island of the same name is not complete without a tour of Sisi's Palace, now the Museum Achilleion, lovely inside and out, built as a vacation home by the beautiful and popular-at-the-time Princess Elisabeth of Austria (nickname Sisi), wife of Franz Joseph of the Hapsburgs. Wikipedia about the palace. … Continue reading Corfu Town
We don't visit Serbia and therefore don't see the Nikola Tesla Museum located in Belgrade, but we hear Tesla's name often on our trip to Croatia. Was he a Serb or a Croat? Both claim him. Ethnically a Serb, Tesla was born in the village of Smiljan in the Lika region of current Croatia. All … Continue reading Tesla
A MLK-Day brunch in San Francisco with friends reminded me that we have free museums close to home, worth a visit and suitable for visitors of all ages. The Beach Chalet is my favorite––I'll come back to that one. For truly San Francisco fare, you can't beat the Cable Car museum––fun for history buffs and … Continue reading Three Free Museums in San Francisco
My resolution for 2018: become more proficient at capturing unique photo ops. I can think of several I missed in the past two months, and who knows how many more I was too dense to even realize what I was missing. After Thanksgiving, on a bike ride along the trail through our local park, … Continue reading Happy New Year!
Travel Tales amongst my Ramblings 