We have met many Dutch travelers over the past year, and after hearing their stories we were happy to discover that the cheapest way back to America is through Holland. A little wrinkle is that we will land in Toronto, not the US, but close enough.
We spent our last overseas weekend hanging out in a beautiful city. Between the tree lined canals, countless old churches, row houses, cafes, and the start of the fall foliage it was impossible not to be charmed by the city. We went on the …

Another visitor arrives! Lori, our fourth, and probably final visitor, met us in Madrid and we spent a few short days in Spain and Gibraltar. Even though we were only in the country for about three days, we did our best to see a few things as we passed through and still had time for tapas and three pitchers of sangria.
In Madrid, we walked around the city center area. Puerto del Sol, the Grand Via, Plaza Mayor, and the royal palace were all great to see. The royal palace was …

After a marathon of ferries, we still had trips on a train and city bus to reach our final destination. We found a farmhouse outside the city of Perugia that is now a hostel. The place is super nice and has great views of the rolling hills. They have decided to maintain a little of the farm atmosphere, complete with a few horses, geese, ducks, chickens, a dog, and of course you can’t keep the farm cats away. These cats were huge, we wondered if one of them was half …

What a difference a plane ride makes. Obviously, but we were now in Europe. Istanbul does a good job of looking and feeling like Europe. We were greeted with efficient public transportation, cute streets full of cafes, real coffee, and public green spaces. Despite the fact that we didn’t get to our hostel until 8pm, we were still able to enjoy the hustle and bustle of evening activity. This may have been enhanced with the evening Ramadan activities, but it was great to see people having a good time.
Istanbul also …

Only four months behind Mike, Heather can check off her seventh continent. We had to track down a cold beer to celebrate the occasion. Being in a predominantly Muslim country, we didn’t have a lot of choices. We found an “Irish Pub” located inside the Hilton. Heather actually had wine and Mike tried a Luxor beer.
Our first day out we took it slow and meandered around the Egyptian Museum. The place is huge, more like a warehouse than a museum. The impression we got was that the first archaeologists to …

When the British got tired of the heat they went to the mountains, we were hot and tired in Kolkata so we went there too. Apparently this happened to them a lot, so they found a little patch of fog in the Himalayas and built a small city up there. Posters on the walls of travel agencies offer views of Mt Everest from town, but the reality for us, in the middle of monsoon season, was just clouds. The fog would roll in and out all day, but never cleared …

That was our first thought when we landed in Kolkata. The airport was built in the 1930s and it appears that little has changed. No computers at immigration, customs was a joke, no ATMs anywhere, and once you step outside you find a fleet of yellow taxis made circa 1950, lovingly called Ambassadors.
The drive to our hotel revealed the modern side, complete with neon lights. The whole city is an interesting mix of old and new. Many colonial buildings remain but most in dismal shape with vegetation growing from …

Only our second land border crossing of the trip: China to Hong Kong. Despite being a part of China, Hong Kong maintains separate border controls. It also has its own money, they drive on the opposite side of the road as the mainland, and English is widely spoken, after all it has only been thirteen years since the Brits left town.
Something we noticed right off the bat, private companies print money here. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, or HSBC, is a large bank we have been seeing …

An inspiring article in an in-flight magazine a few months back convinced us to add Shanghai to our list of places to visit this summer. It turns out that the World’s Fair is being held this year, and an event that gave us the ice cream cone and the Eiffel Tower is surely not to be missed. Mike was a little disappointed to learn that the event is not actually called the World’s Fair anymore. Now it is just known as “the Expo”, which sounds a lot less spectacular. Even …

Mike’s birthday, we easily memorized our first full day in China months ago. Without a lot of research and given the convenience from our hostel, we hit up some of the most well known attractions on the first day out. We visited Tiananmen Square and the final resting place of Chairman Mao. Interesting that he is covered with red blanket with the Soviet hammer and sickle. Most of our afternoon was spent inside the Forbidden City. We quickly learned that everything is set up along the cardinal directions, with north …