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
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
On our way to Bled, we would land at a place that I had never heard of, and had no idea how to pronounce: Ljubljana. "We're flying into an airport close to Bled," was the best I could do. What a gem of a city! Who knew? Not I. I barely knew of Slovenia. The … Continue reading Ljubljana, Slovenia
"Most innovative museum" of Europe (2011): the Museum of Broken Relationships. Have you been? We didn't go. Too sad –– besides, it was closed. (But you can read about it on another blogger's site.) We did visit two great museums in Zagreb that we loved––one art, the other history. … Continue reading Two Museums in Zagreb
In Split, a local named Bobo and his dog Bennie greet us and show the way as the driver guides our big bus up a winding mountain road, inching around narrow corners in the village without every scraping a building or parked car. On the way, Bobo tells us about the area and about his … Continue reading The Making of Soparnik
Travel Tales amongst my Ramblings 