And so we arrive in Aswan, the furthest navigable point before the High Dam. From here some courageous souls can continue to the beautiful temple at Abu Simbel which was relocated with fantastic precision prior to the construction of the High Dam. The...
Thispost isvery close to home for me, sharing not just a bit of Trinidad & Tobago's multi-ethnic culture, but my Hinduheritage and family.Indians make up 35% of the population of T descendantsof the first Indianswho camefrom India 169 years ago. Sometimes people are surprised T&T has such a high percentage of Indians but it is just another factor that makes us such a unique country. I do travel a lot, but when it...
On Monday August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. My son, my elderly German mother-in-law, Lütte, and I were hunkered down in my husband’s office at Tulane Medical School. Our decision to stay seemed smart at the time. My...
Girona, Spain is an ancient city northeast of Barcelona, with a fascinating medieval core and a walker's treasure: The Passeig de la Muralla. The old city walls are among the most complete and best-preserved in Spain, and have been turned into...
When we first started including a week-long February school break in our travel plans, our goal was to go somewhere significantly warmer than New York City. We still try for that, but once in a while something else calls, and we found ourselves...
In the late afternoon we reach the Ombos temple, or the Crocodile Temple, on the Nile's east bank - that of "life". This is a really beautiful temple with the frieze of the Pharaoh being anointed by Gods with the life giving waters of the Nile. Around...
The Plaza Mayor is the largest open space (other than parks) in Central Madrid. It's a major tourist attraction, a place for cafes and shops that range from traditional to chic and has served for hundreds of years as a place for public gatherings,...
Being perpetually surrounded by the ordinary things of everyday life made me a bit unprepared for the reaction I had when I experienced my first man-made marvel. Never had I felt in awe of the “genius” behind a calculator, or the...
Located in the small Cotswold village of Winchcombe near the city of Cheltenham in south west England, Sudeley Castle was built on the site of an earlier castle by Ralph Boteler, Baron Sudeley, using money he had 'earned' fighting in...
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings on five beaches in Normandy by Allied forces, beginning the liberation of France and Northern Europe, and helping crush the Nazi war machine already being driven back to its own territory by the...
(Knowth) The combination of its natural beauty and fascinating archaeological record (chronicling the country's long history) makes Ireland a compelling place to visit. There are many fabulous places to see when...
In the corner of a small lake in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka I came across this delightful 3rd Century BC rock carving of a Smiling Elephant. It is so wonderfully 'cartoonish' that it set me thinking about the sculptor who clearly had a great sense of...
Visitors on the campus of Barcelona's pioneering Sant Pau Hospital, built at the turn of the 20th century under the direction of architect Lluis Domenech i Montaner, who worked to make the hospital not only beautiful, but functional and safe...
No, not a king's arboretum, or the Budapest palm house. And not in the Mid-Atlantic region. PortMoresby came closest when she suggested an airport, possibly in southern Spain. It's actually the main long-distance waiting room of Madrid's Atocha...
Now a restaurant, this late 19th-century example of Moderniste style was built as a convent for straying young women of Barcelona's wealthy industrialist class. It's on Tibidado Avenue, in a neighborhood filled with mansions the young women...