It’s surprising that something so automatically associated with Switzerland, should be one of England’s top tourist attractions. As a kid growing up in Great Britain, and even then seeking out offbeat things to see and do in travel, I loved the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway. Situated in a setting of steep, ruggedly rolling green hillsides alive with unequalled beauty, …
Breathtaking. Mind-boggling. I am reading about Alex Honnold’s free climb of El Capitan in Yosemite but my mind cannot gain a firm foothold on what Alex does and how he ticks. However, reading the story of his El Cap climb rekindled memories of my first experience dipping my toes into the dimensions of what he does. Welcome to a story …
No doubt about it, Richard Lester has “the knack”: considerable intelligence, explosive visual invention, unequalled cleverness with a camera. Petulia, his latest, parades these virtues – and reveals the defects which prevent him from becoming a major artist. Petulia starts with an almost insurmountable disadvantage...
Austria is over 1000 years old and up until the 20th Century was one of the world’s largest empires. Austria became a European power not by warfare, but by strategically marrying into the other royal families of Europe thereby neutralizing any enemies. A good example of this is Empress Maria Theresa’s daughter, the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, who married King Louis XIV and ended up losing her head.
The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has a 35 mile linear park, called Niagara Park, with seemingly endless attractions stretched along the full length of the Niagara River. I recently spent several days driving to each, sampling fantastic wines and great food while enjoying the rugged beauty of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It became one of the shortest …
The narrative has now come full circle as the “band of merry media” – 18 travel writers and photographers invited by Insight Vacations (Insight) on its Treasures of Irelandjourney – gather for the very last time in colorful Dublin, the starting and ending point of our incredible week on the Emerald Isle. Greeted warmly with “Céad míle fáilte (One-hundred-thousand welcomes)” …
My father died while I was roaming through Northern Italy. He was 52. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in his home in Florida. I found out about it at the American Express office in Istanbul three weeks later when I opened a letter my brother sent me. This was 1970. There were no computers, no smartphones, no Skype. …
The late stand-up comedian-slash-social critic George Carlin once observed, “The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.” You know, George was right. The poor lumbering caterpillar did all of the heavy lifting, actually lots of eating, just so he/she could eventually go into total isolation encased in a silky cocoon awaiting his/her rebirth as a …
The Cold War started in Ottawa! In September 1945, a Soviet cipher clerk named Igor Gouzenko who worked at the embassy in Ottawa defected with proof that the Soviets were spying on their supposed allies in the West! You can learn more about the repercussions of the revelation at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name of my Traveling Boy feature IS “Travel With a DIFFERENCE,” it’s important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and they’re absolutely worth a visit. One’s in Scotland and one’s in …