This is part of a series called Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 Our first stop after leaving Hong Kong was Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We actually made it without the Chinese invading (of course, this was just our first stop in Taiwan, so there’s still time!) — although we were buzzed by a number of “fishing boats.” While…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 We made our last port call of the cruise in Portofino, a small commune with Liguria. And when I say small, I’m not kidding — the population is about 400 people. As in the case of St. Tropez, this started out as a tiny…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 Today we arrived in St. Tropez. Unlike Marseille and Nice, St. Tropez is actually in Provence. There has been a settlement here since 68 AD when it was known as Heraclea. Until the 1950s, St. Tropez was a quiet little fishing village. That all…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 This morning we arrived in Sète, known as the Venice of Languedoc, France. It was founded by Louis XIV in 1666 to create an exit for the Canal du Midi into the Mediterranean Sea. It rapidly grew and expanded, moving from just an important…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 Today we headed east to visit Alicante, which is a port city on Spain’s southeastern Costa Blanca and the capital. Some 800 – 900 years ago, Alicante marked the frontier between the Muslims and Christian, which led to the building a chain of castles…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 When we left Barcelona, the rainstorm of the previous day got a boost with massive winds. Luckily, it subsided during the night, and today we visited Palma de Mallorca, one of the Balearic islands within the archipelago of eastern Spain. We learned, however, that…
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This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023 Well, we are off again! After a couple of big recent trips to immerse ourselves in the power and beauty of raw nature, this trip has no real design per se. Rather than seeing how nature shaped cultures in order to survive, this trip…
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The past 6+ months have been very stressful for our family when our son was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive blood cancer. Luckily, he was accepted into a clinical trial and, after an immunotherapy course of treatment, he was declared in remission! As a consequence, we decided this would be the perfect time for…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 Well, our destination has changed again. We were originally scheduled to go to Vigur, Iceland to look at the extensive bird colonies there. Given the lateness of the season, it turned out that most of the birds had already left. Instead we went to Patreksfjordur,…
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This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022 Today, we visited the most isolated town in one of the most isolated countries in the world — Ittoqqortoormiit in Greenland (the nearest town is about 500 miles away!). It is located on the north side of the mouth of Scoresby Sound, the entrance to…
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