September is a month of transition. Summer and vacation are ending. People go back to school and back to work. The slow rhythm of the summer accelerates a bit again and cities are coming back to life. Despite the return of this routine September is an excellent month to travel. The peak holiday season is over and you avoid big tourist crowds. Of course, a city like Paris doesn't really have downtime with fewer visitors, but the temperatures … [Read more...]
India for Individuals
The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of hundred nations and a hundred tongues... ~~~ Mark Twain Pink, the navy blue of India, is everywhere in Varanasi, Copyright Stephen Bassman When I was a twenty-two, I was both naive and … [Read more...]
Key Largo Food and Wine Festival, July 29 through Aug. 7
Photo by Cheryl Gorski KEY LARGO, Florida Keys - The 'Sauce Boss' is preparing to cook up a jazz-laden gumbo onstage as a highlight of nearly 30 palate-pleasing events at Key Largo's Food and Wine Festival, set for July 29 through Aug. 7. Bill Wharton, known as the 'Sauce Boss,' is to craft his signature dish during the Night in New Orleans event set for Saturday, July 30, at Sundowners, mile marker (MM) 104 bayside. The special gumbo … [Read more...]
Hanging out in Budapest
Been hanging out in Eastern Europe the past few days. We are having a great time in Budapest so far! Enjoyed 3 hours today in the public baths in various pools ranging in temp from 20C to 40C including the 70C sauna -whew! Did you know some of the residential parts of town are littered with caves under the homes? We spent 5 hours spelunking through a 19km long cave. At times you could barely squeeze through a number of parts of the cave it was so … [Read more...]
Along the Dusty Trail
I was on a back road leaving a dust trail behind me that startled rope-pegged donkeys out of their sullen afternoon doze, the way before me stretching into the distance as infinite space. I had traversed miles of nowhere, taking in the lowland marshes of rice paddies where egrets strutted in measured steps collecting minnows for lunch, and the high mountain passes bordered by cliffs where only shaggy wild goats were sure-footed enough to clamber … [Read more...]
Lost in the City of Dreams
I had long been promising myself a visit to Istanbul, European Capital of Culture for 2010. So with the Bayram festival now approaching and the summer sun warming the earth, I couldn't resist a visit to this most ostentatious city of spires, a fabulously inspiring metropolis of imperial dreams; and it was only a magic carpet ride away. I arrived exhausted but excited, my heart in my hands here at the epicentre of three empires. Straddling two … [Read more...]
Squid on the Floor
At sunrise the buzz of motorbike traffic has not yet begun, and the street is oddly quiet. We come out of the alley and onto the sidewalk where shop owners are opening up and iced coffee vendors await their first customers. We're out here at this hour waiting for a van, which soon arrives. The four of us shove our bags in the back and groggily climb in. The previous afternoon we booked a Halong Bay tour from one of the hundreds of vendors in … [Read more...]
Madrid, Once Upon a Time
Maybe it was a bad omen that I'd memorized Cinderella before I could read. By winter 2004, I had to accept that my life was turning to ashes. Single, living alone in Manhattan, I found myself without steady income, and few, if any employment options. My seemingly endless supply of crazy ideas to otherwise help keep me clothed and sheltered had long gone up in smoke. Factor in frequent, lengthy illnesses and my lifelong propensity for being … [Read more...]
St. John
You think hockey, you think cold. You think St. John in the Caribbean, you think hot. When you combine the two, what do you get? If you're very lucky, a Boston Bruins Stanley Cup championship. That improbable confluence happened for me when I was staying at Kismet on St. John, a gorgeous, five-bedroom villa of Moroccan design high atop Maria's Bluff, between Cruz Bay and Chocolate Hole. I'm a hockey nut in general, and about my Boston … [Read more...]
Cruise Clues
This is the season for vacations and probably a goodly number of Dave's Travel Corner readers will take a cruise. Today's cruises-unless they are aboard a river raft on the Amazon-offer our grandest dreams of indulgence. These are floating luxury resorts, dedicated to recreation, education, cultural enrichment-and SHOPPING. I've chalked up my sixth cruise by now on the world's seas, rivers, and through locks and fiords. (I'm not counting the … [Read more...]
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