Aboard the Crown Princess – Day 4, Grand Cayman Island

We finally got to visit a real port of call, Grand Cayman Island. Given the problems with the weather, there were five boats in the port at Grand Cayman. Three Carnival ships, the Crown Princess and a Celebrity ship. My shore excursion was SCUBA diving, which is something I haven’t done since I dove the …

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Aboard the Crown Princess – Day 5, Roatan, Honduras

My original plan for Roatan was to go diving, but after Grand Cayman I didn’t really feel like diving anymore. Moreover it was raining hard and despite the fact you are going underwater, diving in the rain really isn’t that fun. It makes visibility poor and you can never dry off once you get on …

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Easter in Jerusalem

I got up Easter morning to the sound of bagpipes (yes bagpipes) and headed off to the Church of the Holy Seplechure. While it is Easter for Western Christians, it is Palm Sunday for the Orthodox Churches, and it is the anniversary of the fight fight breaking out between the Greeks and Armenians last year. …

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Help me plan my trip to Rome

According to the Most Traveled People website, Italy is the most popular place in the world to visit…… which I’ve never visited. As I finally enter Europe in a few days, I’ll like to tap the collective mind of the internet to help me plan my trip to Rome. There are some things I’ll see …

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In Praise of Spontaneous Travel

I am writing this in Warsaw, Poland. That in and of itself isn’t that impressive. Many people visit Poland every year. What makes this special is that up until a few days ago, I had no idea I was going to be in Poland. In fact, until yesterday, I had no idea I was going …

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Behind the Lens – The Milky Way over La Palma, Canary Islands

I am not an expert in Astrophotography. Nonetheless, I had the chance to try my hand at it when I was on the island of La Palma back in 2011. La Palma, along with Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is one of the most important locations for professional astronomy in the world. It is the location …

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Just Like Barry Gibb, or ….The Streets of Sydney

My first day in Sydney was very nerve wracking. I think it might be the worst city for driving I’ve ever seen. I had to get to my hostel which was an adventure in itself. Once I found it, I had to get on the correct road and in the correct lane to turn into …

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See Ya Sydney

The last few days have been an exercise in frustration. I’ve spent hours trying to upload video only have it end up in failure, I couldn’t get iMovies to export my video, and made a big screw up with Google. There are limits on how much time I can spend on photos and the website, …

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Luxor and Celiacs Disease

I’ve arrived in Luxor. Today I was planning on visiting the Luxor and Karnak Temples. Instead I spent the entire day in my room sleeping. I felt horrible this morning. The cough I had gotten in Alexandria came back with a vengeance and to 20 hour days in a row wiped me out. Outside of …

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