I’m currently at Istanbul Airport awaiting my flight to my next destination. I’ll arrive tomorrow morning at 5:15. I’ll take this opportunity to share about my last day and a half in Istanbul: a food tour about more than just food, a visit to a church/mosque/museum with some beautiful mosaics, an ancient water storage system…
Last time I was in Istanbul, in 2022, the Blue Mosque was under renovation. I learned it was filled with scaffolding, so I opted out of visiting. This time, it was my top priority for my Istanbul stopover.
I’m back in Istanbul. Last time I was here was September 2022, just over three years ago. One of the highlights of my last visit was a Hamam (Turkish Bath) experience, so today I relived that. And I’m happy to say it was every bit as awesome as I remember. Maybe more.
Today, November 1, 2025, is Luis’s 30th birthday. I wanted to celebrate in a special way. Since I am leaving early Monday morning from Mexico City on an overseas trip, I asked him if we could spend this birthday there. But he said he’d rather go somewhere else, so we settled on Mérida, Yucatán.
Before each trip, I usually post my itinerary so you can follow along. I don’t know who actually reads and follows along with all the details of where I’m going to be staying each day and what activities are on my agenda, but it’s fun to put it all in a post. But this time,…
My Hurtigruten cruise is coming to an end. After twelve days, it turned out to be about six days too long. I’m glad I got to see some of the beauty of northern Norway, and I learned a lot along the way. But I will never do a cruise again, at least not as a solo…
Yesterday we reached Kirkenes on my Hurtigruten cruise. We’re now heading back toward Bergen. I don’t have a lot to write about, and because the ship’s wifi blocks photo apps, it’s hard to post a lot of photos. So I’ll just share a few highlights here, as best I can remember them.
This is Thursday, day four aboard the Richard With. We set sail from Bergen on Monday evening, and early this morning we crossed the Arctic Circle. So far I’ve been off the boat twice so far, once for a bus ride from Geiranger to Molde, and once for a walking tour of Trondheim.
I started with such good intentions a week ago. My plan was to blog every evening about the things I did each day in London. I made it through the first two days, and then, utter failure. Here’s what I did wrong: I tried to organize all my photos so I could share them with…
I spent my first morning in London doing a Changing of the Guard tour. And I spent the afternoon at the National Gallery. Here’s a bit of detail about the day.
Yes, I made it to London. Not everything on the journey went as smoothly as it might have, but I’m here.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my most memorable travel experiences. Sometimes it4. comes down to moments that just made me weak in the knees. Sometimes it’s a monument or edifice or place that wowed me. Other times it’s a day like none other. I’ve given this a lot of thought after my last trip,…
