Winter sucks. All the crap you hear about a white christmas and freshly fallen snow is totally bunk. The temperature here has been in the single digits fahrenheit (-13C), the sun sets a little after 4pm, and there is over a foot of snow. It has been below freezing now for over two weeks and …
As I shared in Easter Island update, an organization has been taking votes for what should be considered the New Seven Wonders of the World. These seven wonders wouldn’t replace the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, but instead a more contemporary list of places worthy of awe and wonder. Before we get to the …
The number of countries in the world seems like an easy question to answer, but, surprisingly, it’s difficult to precisely count the number of countries involved in a complex and interwoven game of history, politics, and culture. If you’ve traveled heavily, you have probably tried to convey the extent of your travels by condensing them …
I’ve spent the last several days doing the time consuming chore of reformatting and redirecting all the old images on my site that point to Flickr and my self hosted photos, to Smugmug. I mentioned this on Twitter and I’ve gotten a lot of questions as to why I’m leaving Flickr and my self-hosted site …
You may have noticed a significant amount of inactivity from myself on Twitter and on the website during the last week. Since I left Florence I’ve been extremely occupied taking photos, running around seeing things, experiencing Italy and generally doing things that travelers do. The problems with a travel blog is if you are traveling …
This Saturday I’m flying to Acapulco, Mexico. I’ll be there a few days before sailing on the Queen Elizabeth up to Los Angeles as a guest of Cunard Cruise Lines. Not surprisingly, almost everyone I’ve told mentioned something about crime, murders, drug gangs, or beheadings. Almost all the news coming from Mexico lately has been …
Last May I was invited onboard the Carnival Magic for its inaugural cruise from Venice to Barcelona. With that cruise I have now been on a whopping 3 cruises in my life, which probably takes me out of the category of a rank novice but a far cry from the 100+ cruises that many people …
I stay in a lot of different hotels. A LOT of hotels. They range from 5-start luxury hotels to youth hostels. Some I pay for myself (aka the cheap ones) and others are provided by tourist boards (aka the nice ones). The majority of the places I stay at all sort of blur into one …
As you have probably noticed, I have a fetish for visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Having visited 400 of them, I often am asked if I plan on visiting all of them. The answer is “no” and I’m not even sure it is possible. As of 2020, there are 1,120 UNESCO World Heritage sites and …