For a beautiful escape from Bucharest, especially in the heat of summer - drive about 2.5 hours to Transylvania - up in the Carpathian mountains and spend some time enjoying and touring Peles Castle. The castle built to be a summer residence and was inaugurated in 1883. It was home to the King and Queen of Romania - eventually it was closed during the Communist period - but reopened in 1990. Guided tours are available daily and take one … [Read more...]
Drive with a View: Colorado Scenic Roadtrips
DENVER - Spending a long amount of time in the car for a road trip can sometimes be uneventful, but not a road trip through Colorado. The state is home to 25 Scenic and Historic Byways (11 of which are also America’s Byways) celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2014 along with other roads and passes that offer amazing views. Summer through fall is the perfect time of year to travel the byways, roads and passes of Colorado. Following is a … [Read more...]
Gibraltar: the end and the beginning
My original plan for the end of my Encircle Africa expedition was to return to Gibraltar’s southernmost point, Europa Point, where I began. I liked the idea of looking back at Africa with renewed eyes. But all my reserves of energy were spent, and it was consolation enough to know that all that separated me from Africa was nine miles of often still water, after having travelled a distance equivalent to circumnavigating the earth at the … [Read more...]
Into Africa: Can BushCats Save the Beasts?
“There is an elephant holocaust going on in Africa today,” says Paul Maritz, the last gentleman adventurer. “Up to this point elephant counts have been done by error-prone Mark 1 Eyeballs, and nobody believes the numbers. You really can’t motivate people to take needed drastic actions unless they are convinced you have the facts. And so we need to get the facts.” Rhodesia born Paul and his brother David have created a flying machine they … [Read more...]
The Fabled Montropolis is Found: Jackson Hole
In the evolution of a place there is sometimes a waymark between free-spirited childhood and the discreet somberness of maturity. But what if the in-between actually signifies the third point of a classic Hegelian dialectical triangle? A rough and rowdy cowboy town at one point, an overly-wrought sophisticated metropolis at the other, and the third being some subtly unstated “third way” that draws on the contradictory nature of the first two … [Read more...]
Looking for Sunshine in Lithuania
With my brother and my friend looking to escape the miserable weather we've had all week (they are flying down to Greece in a few days) we opted for a trip together to the countryside before we parted ways. Today we visited Trakai, a prominent and historical Lithuanian Castle located on an island. Spotting an empty boat sitting near the drawbridge to the castle on the water's edge we walked on board. There were no guests but rather three crew … [Read more...]
‘Someday’ – When Europe called
It was sometime in early 2011. I was having a chat with a couple of friends centered on a quote from the Tom Cruise starrer ‘Knight and Day’. Not exactly the kind of movie to throw up quotes worthy of discussion or much thought. But surprisingly, it did have one particularly special quote– moving, thought-provoking, enigmatic and slightly frightening if I may say so. “Someday. That's a dangerous word. It's really just a code for 'never'. … [Read more...]
VW Bus Bar, Naughty Squirrel & Riga Latvia
We first popped into Riga on a bus from Tallinn - the old town is a short few minute walk away but we didn't yet know this. After we located the word "old town" in Latvian on the Internet and showed a taxi driver our phone screen - he just laughed and pointed in the direction of where we needed to walk. Two minutes later we walked into the Riga Old Town Hostel & Backpackers Pub where we immediately spotted the reception; it was located inside … [Read more...]
Helsinki, Finland – a Quick Introduction
With approximately 600,000 inhabitants Helsinki and the surroundings comprises about a fifth of the countries' entire population. It is an International destination yet not large enough of a city to feel overwhelming; it retains a feel of a much smaller community and is fairly easy to get around with a well developed system of tram cars. During a recent visit a mix of using the tram cars and exploring on foot was the perfect recipe for getting to … [Read more...]
Bohemian Rhapsody
John M. Edwards takes the waters in the Czech Republic’s so-called West Bohemian Spa Triangle in order to spy out the local talent and bathe in the buff. . . . “Give me a place to stand on, and I will have the earth.” --Archimedes In the “West Bohemian Spa Triangle,” consisting of the old spa towns Carlsbad, Marienbad, and Franzenbad, now all hiding behind Czech names, I thought to myself that it doesn’t get any better than this! In … [Read more...]
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