Back Home

-

So, I have returned to my home base of Miami and am staring at half a dozen bags that need to be unpacked. More dauntingly, I am realizing how much I have done and seen during the past few months, all of which I intended to blog about. To give a brief idea of the task ahead of me, I should point out that in the prior 2 months, I have visited 21 cities in 4 different countries, taken 1483 photos (not counting the many that were deleted for various reasons) and worked a total of 21 days. In the Netherlands alone, which was home base, I visited (in order): Amsterdam (of course), Marken, Volendam, Edam, Haarlem, Alsmeer, Almere, Lelystad, Delft, Gouda, Geithoorn, Zaanse Schans, Den Hague, Texel, Utrecht, Alkmaar, Maastricht and Rotterdam. Add to that some overnight trips to Copenhagen, Denmark; Brugges, Brussels and Krakow, Poland and you may begin to see my cause for concern. Oh and did I mention that I leave for a 10 day trip to Venice (the one in Italy, not the one in California) in 5 days? Oy Vey.

I am going to try to overcome my procrastinating tendencies and post some of the highlights of the above-mentioned places, but please be patient, it might take a while. Now, about those unpacked bags....


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five reasons why it's better to visit Yellowstone National Park during the winter.

-
Image
 It is well documented how much I hate the cold. I believe that anything below 65 degrees is just unnecessary. Anything below freezing, sheer lunacy.  Yet, here I was in Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend in February.  I was not exactly upset. This is an unspeakably beautiful state and one of the remaining four I'd yet to visit.  I just wish they'd show a bit more self-control when it comes to Winter. Why does it have to snow so much, even during a year when locals were complaining that there was not enough snow? They don't even blink at 20 below zero, an actual temperature that we experienced. It's simply too much!  Cold or no cold, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to visit the country's first national park, because of course I wasn't. The plot twist is that now that I have, I am firmly convinced this is the best possible time to visit. I can even give you five solid reasons why. 1. It's cheaper. The park, which covers almost 3,500 square miles a
Read more

10 Things that made me fall in love with Bilbao and the Basque Region- parte 2

-
Image
In my last post, I started listing all the things I loved about the six days I spent in the Bilbao region. At some point, it hit me that I had way too many photos for one post and didn't want to be responsible for anyone spraining a scrolling finger. With that in mind, let's continue with this Bilbao lovefest. 6. San Sebastian Beach resort, Belle Epoque architecture, the world's greatest number of Michelin star restaurants per capita and a viewpoint with bumper cars-this town has a lot to offer. It would be easy to spend a couple of days here. Since we were here on a day tour, we had a grand total of 2 hours. This gave us just enough time to glimpse some of the highlights. The Maria Cristina Bridge The San Sebastian Cathedral De Okendo Plaza, a monument to a Spanish admiral Constitution Square, formerly a bull ring now the city's main plaza Viewpoint from the Igueldo Amusement Park With more time, I would have happily done the Michelin thing, gone for a swim and gotten
Read more

10 Things that made me fall in love with Bilbao and the Basque Region- Part 1

-
Image
1.  The Guggenheim Museum I didn't exactly choose Bilbao as my next travel destination, fate (and Skyscanner) did. This is because the Skyscanner site has a cool feature where you plug in your dates, home airport and choose "everywhere" as your destination. It then gives you a list of options, starting with the cheapest. I decided I would go with whatever came up as the cheapest place I hadn't been. Bilbao was the winner  at a cool 155€ round-trip.  All I knew about the city was that it was home to the iconic Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum and honestly this was enough for me.  I was first introduced to Gehry's work in 2001 via an  exhibition  at the NYC Guggenheim. Ever since, I have actively sought out his work all over the globe. To see his most famous building in person had me giddy beyond words. Well, not all words. I did scream "Para, para, para!!" on a crowded bus en route from the airport to the city. It was my first time laying eyes on th
Read more