Hotel Cabana is Nirvana
To Airbnb or Not to Airbnb Choosing to stay at the Hotel La Cabana multiplied our enjoyment of Cinque Terre. There are abundant Airbnbs to choose from in Monterosso, but sometimes you just need a curated experience and the Hotel Cabana, a charming farmhouse converted...
Cinque Terre: List of Ten
TopTen Recommendations for Cinque Terre Best time to travel in Cinque Terre is the shoulder seasons of fall or spring for better weather, fewer tourists, and better prices. If you don't speak Italian, you probably will never pronounce Cinque Terre correctly. Just give...
China Prologue April/May 2018
Visiting China--Yes, You Need a Visa! The lure of China wasn’t a burning quest for Raphael and me, but we knew we couldn’t ignore this monstrosity of a country, and we needed to go while we were still ambulatory. So, we signed up for a Viking Tour. Half of the...
We Never Wanted to Go to Beijing
The science fiction photos of pollution fog and mask wearing citizens convinced us to avoid this city. However, the tour cities are preset. Beijing was our first stop. Beijing defied our expectations. On our early evening arrival, we were picked up (perfect perk) and...
The Big Beautiful Wall and China Paid for It.
The Great Wall of China is deservedly one of the most visited spots in China and the world. Its sinewy, curvaceous, imposing beauty beckons one to climb. From Beijing, we went to the Badaling section which is about an hour and a half away. More like a theme park on...
Xian is Blade Runner Squared
My first glimpse of the city of Xian was everything I had imagined Beijing to be—unbreathable air, traffic pileups, and massive crowds that make New York look like Omaha, Nebraska. To be fair, we arrived on May 1 the International Workers Day, a holiday that...
Rolling, Rolling on the River Yangtze
After a short flight from Xian, we entered the Yangtze River at the Chongqing (pronounced Chong Ching) port, another massive city with over 17 million people and soaring skyscrapers. After a brief tour of their Farmers Market and a stroll on the waterfront, we were...
Serenely Chillingly Magical: Three Gorges
Three Gorges It's controversial. Our riverboat trip through the remote Three Gorges on the Yantsee River has some baggage. Building a dam on the Yangtze meant having the water level climb over 30 feet causing major disruptions to the populace and environment. Knowing...
Styling Shanghai
Ultra-Modern Ultra-modern, Shanghai is a newer New York with innovative architecture, double decker streets, soaring bridges, and bullet trains that zoom over 400 kilometers an hour. In fact, it was called the Paris of the East and the New York of the West in days...
List of Ten: China
Recommendations and Observations The ten recommendations and observations below are tidbits that I wished I had known I went to China. One: Home, home on the range where the sky is not cloudy all day. We never saw sparkling blue skies in China. Two: The official...