The minute she stepped on our tour bus, I had a sinking feeling. Here we were, ready to set out on Iceland’s iconic Golden Circle tour, the thing everyone will tell you to do if it’s your first time in Reykjavík. It’s an eight-hour affair that takes you about 300 kilometers (190 miles) round-trip to … Read More
If the fog, as Carl Sandburg tells us, comes “on little cat feet” over harbor and city, then it surely arrives in Iceland on the paws of a lion. As we sailed through the Westman Islands, a small archipelago off Iceland’s southern coast, the view from our balcony was a thick foggy blur between land … Read More
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland It was 8:30 on a chilly mid-August morning as Herb and I headed out on what we thought was a walking tour to Lews Castle, an impressive structure that looks out over the town of Stornoway on Scotland’s Isle of Lewis. We boarded our ship’s shuttle for … Read More
It’s about a five-minute drive from the Main Street of Tobermory to Isle of Mull Cheese & Spirit Farm, artisanal producer of cheddar and blue cheeses. Known in Scottish Gaelic as Sgriob-Ruadh, the farm also houses a distillery and holds bragging rights as being a completely sustainable operation. It’s a tranquil, picturesque landscape of emerald … Read More
“Doubling and doubling with laborious walk, Who, that has gained at length the wished-for Height, This brief, this simple wayside Call can slight, and rests not thankful?” ~William Wordsworth, Rest and be Thankful [At the Head of Glencroe] This was one of those cruise travel days I wasn’t quite sure how to fill. Our ship … Read More
“Céad Míle Fáilte” Traditional Irish Greeting, A Hundred Thousand Welcomes A soft orange glow was painting the sky outside our balcony, as droplets of yellow spilled into the waters of the Irish Sea below. The Seabourn Sojourn was heading to the port of Dún Laoghaire, about 20 minutes from Dublin, and the calm early morning was a … Read More
“Every summer we can rent a cottage In the Isle of Wight, if it’s not too dear We shall scrimp and save.” Paul McCartney & John Lennon, When I’m Sixty-Four Sailing themed banners and blue, white and red bunting were fluttering across streets and storefronts in the seaport town of Cowes, remnants of the Isle of … Read More
One of the first comments I ever received on this blog was from an English woman named Gill. I had written about a rained-out ancient kite-flying excursion in Dalian, China, and Gill responded with a link to a blog post she’d written about a similar excursion. We shared a virtual laugh over the unusual Dalian … Read More
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ~Mary Oliver, Sometimes One blustery afternoon in January 2017, I was chatting with one of the expedition guides on the aft deck of the Seabourn Quest as we sailed through the waters of Chilean Patagonia. Still feeling dazzled by what we’d experienced in Antarctica, I … Read More
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” ~Walt Disney Disneyland 1.0: The Child If there’s a travel destination that has had a constant presence in my life it would have to be Disneyland. Years may have gone by between visits – decades, … Read More