Tenerife is just a 180-mile stepping stone away from the coast of Africa, and the largest of the Canary Islands of Spain at 790 square miles with a population of 700,000. Santa Cruz is the capital, administration and commercial center, and a busy port with large cruise ships lined up the day we arrived. The…
Continue reading →Santa Cruz de la Palma, with its colorful almost Caribbean-like patchwork of buildings and houses set on cobblestone streets, is known simply as “La Palma”. With a population of about 13,000, it is the capital of the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands of Spain. Overlooking the waterfront are the ancient ruins of…
Continue reading →The Maderian capital of Funchal, with its 16th century charm, is the Portuguese word for “fennel plantation”, named for the wild fennel discovered there by the first settlers. Famous for its wine, the island is also a major tourist destination with its lush mountainous landscape, exotic plants and trees, clear seas, and mild, sunny climate. One…
Continue reading →Cruise ships offer many ways to overindulge, and one of the best ways to do that with food and wine onboard Marina is at La Reserve, a serious special restaurant endorsed by the oenophiliac magazine “The Wine Spectator”, and limited to 24 guests, which features an extravagant, carefully chosen and prepared, seven-course food and wine…
Continue reading →After fog delays in London, we arrived late in Lisbon and were glad to be warmly welcomed at the charming Hotel Britania, a small boutique hotel just off the Avenida da Liberdade, sort of the 5th Avenue of Lisbon, and conveniently located to the city highlights. We came here several years ago and explored many…
Continue reading →The hardest part of travel may be getting there…and getting back from there. Airplanes, airports, security checks, queues, more queues, waiting, walking, more waiting, sitting, more walking, more sitting…and no sleeping. That’s where we are right now….sitting and waiting in London’s foggy Heathrow airport, en route so far for about 18 hours, with about three…
Continue reading →“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”, the daughter of my friend advised her, as she was choosing a travel destination. And, as Dean and I are about to embark on another cruise, I am feeling a bit out of my comfort zone. To fill in some of the cancelled itinerary of our…
Continue reading →“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” ~Marcel Proust I am deeply grateful to Francis, Jelena, Desi, Samuel, Isabella, Augustina, Bojan, Doina, Julia, Paolo, Fabio, Cristian, Volha, Marco, Milena, Janice, Lector, Mishra, Sergei, Claudiu, Milan, Nicoletta, Gusti, Sasha, Vitali, Levante, Subhamoy,…
Continue reading →When we met with very rough seas leaving Columbia, the Captain announced that we would be forced to skip our last port of Key West and, to avoid the impending storm, take a longer route farther to the east around Cuba. So, the last days of our long voyage would be spent captive at sea,…
Continue reading →Cartagena has gotten a bad rap from years of misinformed media, suffering from a past reputation for drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence. While, as in every destination, one must be alert and take precautions, it seems the bad guys here have pretty much killed each other off, and left behind a charming and breathtakingly beautiful…
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