Category: Travels for Fun
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THE LASHERMES OF VACQUIÈRES
The second principal destination of our Northern Hemisphere Friends and Family tour was Vacquières, a village of no more than 600 people just north of Montpelier, France. Two long-time residents are our friends from our Syrian Football Night Dinners, Philippe and Catherine Lashermes. Philippe and Catherine left Syria in 1992 and after a short stint […]
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A PITSTOP IN MONACO AND A FATAL HAIRPIN TURN
We could have driven through Monaco in 15 minutes, but Padma and I decided to park the car and explore the city-state. At 2.1 square kilometres Monaco is the second smallest sovereign state after Vatican City. We drove through the heart of the city, and I found a patch of very good bitumen which beckoned […]
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MEANDERING ALONG THE RIVIERA
I don’t have the patience to read travel guides and figure out what to see and where to go. Padma and I just drive and discover along the way. There are countless cute and picturesque seaside villages along the Riviera. How do you choose where to stay? I let booking.com do it for me. I […]
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THE WORLD’S MOST PHOTOGRAPHED LAUNDRY
Padma and I were loving Italy too much so we drove a short distance from Florence and spent an afternoon exploring Cinque Terre, a string of five seaside villages on the Italian Riviera. We had dinner in Manarola and hurried to catch the sun setting from the Vista Panoramica di Manarola. We weren’t alone. The […]
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ONE ON ONE WITH DAVID
Padma, Nahed, Peter and I were lying under a soothing Tuscan sun after a hearty lunch in the Piazza del Compo in Sienna, Italy. Having our heads to the ground gave us an impressive view of the Torre del Mangia. The plan was to go and see Michelangelo’s David later in the afternoon in Florence […]
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BOLIVIA 1989
When my folks told me that an exchange student from Bolivia would be living with them at the family home in northern Wisconsin I knew right away that a time would come when I would make it truly an ‘exchange’. In July of 1989, I gripped my seat on a plane landing at La Paz’s […]
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A TOURIST-FREE EGYPT, 1990
In December of 1990, there was a global fear of a regional war in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and was ignoring demands for withdrawal. There were fears the war would escalate well beyond the borders of Kuwait. And that made it a perfect time to travel to Egypt. Tourism in the […]
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FITZGERALD RIVER NATIONAL PARK
Fitzgerald River National Park is one of Western Australia’s largest parks but only comprises 0.13% of the State’s total area. Yet 20% of the State’s flora can be found in the park. It’s a ridiculously diverse region of the State where you can find 1800 species of flowering plants. About 60 of those species are […]
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STIRLING RANGE NATIONAL PARK
DAY 4: MT HASSELL I follow a Facebook group of the Wildflower Society of Western Australia and I have been seeing a lot of posts of gorgeous photos from the Stirling Range. As a newcomer here, I had never heard of the place. I Googled it and learned that it’s in the southwest of Western […]
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