In Bosra—a crossroads in the desert just an hour and half south of Damascus—the Roman world intersects the Arabic in an ancient theater turned fortress. You can imagine watching a classical play while a battle rages beyond the massive walls that were built around the free-standing amphitheater. Every summer international concerts are held in less…
As winter continues its grip here on supposedly sunny Spain, today’s Foto is meant to remind me of the joys of sitting outside drinking beer (you choose your beverage). This was taken while I lived in Vientiane, Laos, sometime in September when the Mekong was still very high. While living there, one of my almost…
To follow up on yesterday’s post on Spanish train travel, I thought I would link over to a good overview by the Man in Seat 61 who has written a short piece on how to ride the rails around Europe without losing too many of your Euros. All Aboard!
Rail seems to be all the rage lately on the progressive travel radar here in Europe, and rightly so…but be careful, Greenwash lurks under the carbon-light promises. Just over a week ago an article in the Guardian was gushing over the fact that Spain’s new high speed rail link between the countries 2 major cities…
Stumbled upon my name in one of the local papers the other day. It seems that one of their journalists heard about my article in the Toronto Star and gave me a little local publicity. Who knows, might lead to something?
After a beautiful drive up Vancouver Island through old-growth forests, you get to the little fishing village of Port McNeil. From here, whale-watching tours depart down the Johnstone Strait for some of the best killer whale viewing in the world. Early in the morning, you cut through the misty archipelago, searching for the resident pods…
Perhaps not surprisingly the most visited site in Spain in 2008 was…? I ran a little poll the other day and got a flood of hits, the answers were: The Prado Museum (Madrid) 1 (33%) The Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) 0 (0%) The Alhambra (Granada) 2 (66%) The Great Mosque (Cordoba) 0 (0%) The Cathedral in…
Continuing on with the thread from my last post, I thought that I’d post a photo of what may be the most beautiful mosque in Libya. The mosque of Murad Agha was built in what is called the Al-Andalus style with a square minaret, it is an easy day trip from Tripoli. Just find the…
If you somehow managed to jump through the right bureaucratic hoops to get in independently or if you stepped off one of the luxury cruise liners that now stop daily in Tripoli, you won’t be disappointed. A land where only the government can advertise and Gaddafi watches are the hot tourist item, the until-recently-forgotten Old…
After being being designated a sensitive Military Area and therefore off limits for many years, the true end of the Trans-Siberian is once again open to visitors. Contrary to what you might think, Vladivostok (a mere 9,289 kms away from Moscow) in the summer is actually quite nice. True, there is a train that runs…