The sixth smallest country in the world is often forgotten. Its capital of Vaduz doesn’t lend that grand capital city touch. It is small like most aspects to the country only 25 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width. The main landmark in town doesn’t allow visitors because I don’t think the monarch would approve of tourists traipsing through for morning coffee. Passing through on my recent trip to Switzerland, a light drizzle hits the windshield. Carefully in between the mist and fog is the Vaduz Castle. The Castle dates back to the 13th century. It is still the residence of the Continue Reading
Discerning The Connections of Travel On Lake Lucerne
With just a few more weeks left of my travels in Europe, I wanted to highlight each week a piece of what I love about travel. Perhaps in an effort to close out my time, I want to make sure I appreciate all that I have seen, heard, and experienced for I know not when I will return. This week, I am grateful to travel for the connections with time, people and places it lends. I quickly recognized this while strolling the pinched to perfection streets of Lucerne, Switzerland. A place so perfect has to have one scar or blemish. Where is it? Lucerne’s beauty mark can be found on every restaurant Continue Reading
Neuschwanstein Castle and The Bavarian Alps Wish You Were Here
This week's "Wish You Were Here" photos comes from Danee Gilmartin at Museum Chick. I was pretty impressed with Danee's photos and I suspect you might be as well. Be sure to check out Museum Chick and follow Danee on Twitter. The magical Bavarian Alps seemed to beckon with every step that I took hiking up the steep foothill from the quintessential Alps town of Hohenschwangau that lead to the Neuschwanstein Castle. I hardly noticed the huffing and puffing coming from my chest as the incline got steeper. Paved trails help the less coordinated but the Continue Reading
Maratea, Italy Wishes You Were Here
When you spend your birthday traveling after years of doing so at home, it is bound to feel somewhat strange, not really the big day with presents and cake unless you bring all of the bells and whistles with you. While I didn’t get any cake for my birthday, just gelato, I had the hard task of spending the big day in Maratea, Italy. Maratea rests along the Golfo di Policastro in the Basilicata region of Italy, blanketed with soft orange rooftops encased by green hills on one side and Tyrrhenian Sea on the other. The drive into medieval Maratea had me clutching my seat belt on a few occasions. A Continue Reading
Batty For Bolzano
I have found my perfect place, where the variety of food is actually existent, where Italian pizzazz meets Austrian order, where people don’t seem to speak English when I speak Italian or even Italian for that matter, where the setting doesn’t tell you exactly where you are. You may have to ask someone. Italy? Germany? Switzerland? Austria? Who knows, but no one seems to care. On a quest to get out of 100-degree temperatures in Florence, I did what I think every traveler does at one point or another, picks a spot on a map and just goes. Sure some research followed about this magical city Continue Reading
Pangong Tso, India Wishes You Were Here
This week's "Wish You Were Here" photo comes from Abhijit Gupta of The Corny Traveler's Chronicles. Located at a height of about 4350 m (14,270 ft) in the Himalayas of the Ladakh region of India, Pangong Tso is famous for its clear blue waters and is known to change colors according to the time of the day and the weather conditions. It also acts as a breeding ground for a variety of migratory birds. It can be reached after a 5-hour drive from Leh, the capital of Ladakh, after crossing Chang La, the third highest pass in the world. For more from Continue Reading
Travel Lessons From A 5,000 Year Old Iceman
One by one, they line up to pay their respects to an old man. Forming a snaking line, each person has their time to say hello and goodbye. What sounds like a normal funeral is somewhat different today. No one at this funeral knew the man behind the glass case. In fact, no one on the planet knew him. They don’t know his name. They don’t know the content of his character, the life he lived, or even why they are paying respects besides the fact that this man is 5,000 years old. The story of Ötzi, the Iceman, technically began between 3350 B.C. and 3100 B.C., before Stonehenge and the pyramids Continue Reading