Joshua Tree National Park is located in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, centered roughly between Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. It gets its name from the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia, seen above) which inhabits most of the park. Due to its remote location in the desert, Joshua Tree isn’t a popular national …
This the second installment in a series for my 4th Travelversay Celebration. One of my favorite activities is visiting the great museums of the world. Unlike my list of favorite cities which had a heavy Asia/Pacific bent, this list has a heavy European bent. The simple fact is, Europe has far better museums than Asia. …
Here is what has been happening on my US road trip the last few days and other odds and ends: With today’s daily photo, I have now caught up with my most recent World Heritage site. Carlsbad Caverns was my 106th World Heritage site and it only took 35 days to go from Italy to …
If you are reading this between noon on April 9th to noon on April 11th, I’m sitting in a chair on the Sunset Limited between San Antonio and Los Angeles. I decided to take the train for no other reason than I’ve never taken a long train trip before, and this was a great opportunity …
I have come to the conclusion that the image of Texas I have always had is wrong. Very wrong. Texas was supposed to be oil wells, cattle, pick-up trucks and guys in big cowboy hats. It’s really nothing but an endless expanse of malls, stores, walled subdivisions, and highways. Friday, I had no fewer than …
March 13 marks the anniversary of the date in 2007 when I turned over the keys to my house to travel around the world. It is the date I use to mark what I call my Travelversary. The last 11 years have totally changed my life in every way imaginable. I have been to more …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Kew Gardens: Set amongst a series of parks and estates along the River Thames’ south-western reaches, this historic landscape garden includes work by internationally renowned landscape architects Bridgeman, Kent, Chambers, Capability Brown and Nesfield illustrating significant periods in garden design from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The …
From the World Heritage inscription: At its height the Roman Empire extended into three continents. Its borders reflected the waxing and waning of power over more than a millennium. In what is now Germany there were several military campaigns into the area north of the Alps and east of the River Rhine from 55/53 BC …
From the World Heritage inscription for the Defense Line of Amsterdam: Extending 135 km around the city of Amsterdam, this defense line (built between 1883 and 1920) is the only example of a fortification based on the principle of controlling the waters. Since the 16th century, the people of the Netherlands have used their expert …