Would-be summer travelers to Europe will likely have to keep their plans on hold as the European Union considers a ban on international travelers from the United States, Brazil and Russia. Composed of 27 European countries from Ireland in the west to Romania in the east, the EU was scheduled to re-open its borders to international visitors next week on the first of July. New and seemingly unabated coronavirus infections in the US, Brazil and Russia appear to be prompting EU decision-makers to consider anew the risk of importing infections into Europe.  In a sign of how much has changed over the past few months,… Read More…

It is an old tradition that travelers send postcards to loved ones back home. With the Coronavirus putting a halt to travel and creating a near-universal sense of isolation and fear, I propose the reverse. From my home in America, I am sending digital postcards to some of the people I have met on my travels. Each in their way has taught me we have much in common, no matter what country we call home. To: Doreen Sekento Kumum in Maasi Mara, Kenya Habari Doreen, Thanks once again for teaching me the very basics of stringing beads during my visit to the Karen Blixen Camp…. Read More…

  Intending no disrespect Google Maps, but could you please stop predicting how long it will take me to pedal 30 miles in Holland? I’m biking because I want to linger: see the sites, smell the roses, dig my toes into the sand on Holland’s expansive beaches all of which I CANNOT DO if I am racing across the landscape at 15 miles per hour. That said, when an expected two-and-a-half-hour ride from Rotterdam to Zeeland turned into something much longer, my energy level was so depleted that I started to worry I would not/could not make it to my hotel for the night.  Then… Read More…

  Nestled low among mid-rise, colonial-era buildings in the heart of the old city of Cadiz, my rental apartment had just one problem; the rising sun did not enter my bedroom window until well past 8:00. As I’d chosen to stay in Southern Spain in February to escape the New England winter I did not want to lose a moment of daylight just because my sun-sensitive body clock was tricked into thinking it was still too early to get up. A month later, (having surrendered to an alarm clock) I was doubly convinced. There is too much to enjoy in this historic city by the… Read More…

To the delight of many, the White Storks have returned to Puerto de la Santa Maria and few are happier about it than Francisco Prainz. I saw the birds and met the man who is documenting their annual fair weather residence here while riding my bike on a sunny afternoon. A dozen of the storks were clucking loudly and stomping around their enormous nests atop the city’s 15th Century Priory Church and I joined several others who were gawking at them. White Storks, I have learned, have quite a big fan base according to the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. “In Europe it brings newborns, in Mesopotamia it… Read More…

It was hot as blazes, about 95 degrees, the October day I set aside to explore Muscat, Oman’s capital city.  Wiping sweat and chugging water, I ticked off just two of the city’s must-do activities before finding a shady spot to sit and consult Google Maps for my new must-do: find a beach. My 2017 trip to Oman to came to mind while reading Seth Kugel’s excellent New York Times Travel story How to Up the Spontaneity Quotient on Your Next Trip.  Like him, I firmly believe it is not the sites we see but the people we get to know on their turf that… Read More…

For those awaiting the arrival of spring, the place to be is the Biltmore House & Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina. Over ten square miles you will find lush green hills dotted with still-bare trees whose branches are tipped in white, pink and purple. This vista of life rejuvenating convinced me that winter may finally be coming to an end. The six Biltmore gardens sit below America’s largest private residence, the place George and Edith Vanderbilt called home in the early 20th century. In early April, tulips create a riot of color barely restrained within the garden’s stone walls.  From this point of view, the… Read More…

Shopping goes with traveling like Swiss goes with cheese. Who doesn’t want to poke their nose into a little shop on a quiet street or steer one’s way through an elaborate entrance into a historic department store? Buying isn’t the point, exploring is. But as my sister, Andrea found during her recent three month visit to Chile, sometimes local can be disappointing. In this guest post she explains why the most satisfying retail therapy she experienced during her time in Santiago came courtesy of Sweden. Guest post by Andrea Lee Negroni Since arriving in Chile shortly before Christmas, I was in and out of stores… Read More…

Guest post by Andrea Lee Negroni – Santiago de Chile For many Santiaguinos, Saturday isn’t the start of a relaxing weekend, its the beginning of another day of hard work. Enterprising folks – the ones without desk jobs – are busy hustling a living in a variety of creative ways. During my five weeks living in Santiago, I’ve come to appreciate the resourcefulness those working outside Chile’s economic mainstream. On any given Saturday, you’ll see manicurists tidying up hands and painting fingernails in pop-up street salons constructed from card tables and cardboard boxes. Some old men have put bathroom scales on the sidewalk so passersby… Read More…

The most monumental fig trees I’ve ever seen, stand on the property of the Cairns Public Library in Queensland, Australia. These trees are such an impressive sight, it took my dazzled brain several minutes to notice that they were singing. In the thicket of deep glossy green, a high pitched-clamor prompted me to look for a cluster of noisy birds, but I was wrong. Very wrong. The Cairns library trees are a year-round roost site for thousands of bats, or what the Australians call Flying Foxes. Spectacled Flying Foxes and Little Red Flying Foxes spend their days hanging upside down (as they do), wrapped in… Read More…