Curiosity, Travel and Change
Baklava and tea in Taksim Square Our Istanbul food tour guide, Kadir, leaned over the plate of baklava and commanded our attention. “There is a proper way to eat baklava, watch”, and he speared the sweet sticky square with his fork about a third of the way in and turned it over so the nutty …
Continue reading "Contemplating Baklava: Eating my way through Türkiye"
Hay dos Méxicos; there are two Mexicos, said our driver, Francisco, as we passed through the interminable sprawl of Mexico City on our way to San Miguel de Allende. We were passing through a stretch of sometimes makeshift auto body shops, with hand-lettered signs and beat-up cars, trying to ascertain some of the products being …
Continue reading "Two Mexicos: My Trip to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato"
Seen in the Braga Cathedral Sometimes the trip you plan is not the trip you end up having. Our trip to Portugal was originally going to be five-day layover on the way to a couple weeks of wandering around Morocco. I had been planning the Morocco trip for months and had given the Portugal part …
On the only sunny day of my six days in Newfoundland, I drove down the Irish Loop from St. Johns to Ferryland, a town founded in 1621. Ferryland sits halfway down the east coast of the Avalon Peninsula, nestled, like so many Newfoundland towns, in a cove framed by rocky cliffs. In mid-October, I parked …
There is a Balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, There is a Balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul [African American spiritual] Once, when I was a child, I ran briefly away from home. I got no farther than the wooded ravine on the far side of Salisbury Road, two blocks from …
Sometimes you have to try out a travel experience because..well, just because it's there. So it was for me spending a night at the East Brother Light Station, perched on a rock where the San Pablo Bay spills into the San Francisco Bay. Last year, we had spent two nights on a tugboat in Port …
Continue reading "A Night in A Lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay"
I don’t usually think “walkable downtown” when contemplating Los Angeles. But recently I explored downtown LA—by foot and by bike—and found the bones of the city that existed before Los Angeles became synonymous with freeways. From my hotel on South Grand Avenue, I walked past gems of the 1920’s and 30’s in neighborhoods bearing names …
January 7-9. I spent my last weekend in India near the Munnar hill station in the Western Gats of Kerala. We were grateful for the calm and welcoming presence of our hosts at @mistletoehomestay. View from our room at Mistletoe Homestay Ayurvedic tourism is very big in this part of India. All along the road …
Continue reading "Munnar Hill Station and Final Thoughts: India Travels Part 5"
January 3, 2023: And we’re off! Day 1 of a four-day bike ride through Kerala with my sister @naomicb98 . This part of South India is lush, tropical, and steamy. It is, as the Kerala tourism bureau says, “God’s Own Country”. Perhaps it is because every mile or so there is a Hindu temple or …
Continue reading "Cycling Through Kerala: India Travels Part 4"
January 1, 2023: Arrived in Kochi (Cochin), located on the far southwestern tip of India, from Delhi on New Years Eve. But the real party in Kochi seemed to be on New Years Day, when the streets were filled with costumed and bewigged people atop floats that would parade through the city. Women of all …
Continue reading "Kochi, Kerala and an Ancient Jewish Community: India Travels Part 3"
Old and On the Way 