Day 8, Part 1 – The Cimitière des Chiens (or, I DO Wanna Be Buried in a Pet Sematary) (Continued from Day 7. Day 1 starts here.) Our eighth day in Paris started with a long train ride to the Northwest of Paris, to a suburb called Asnière-sur-Seine, for what turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Paris…
Day 7 – The Marais, Saint Germaine des Pres, and the Museum of the History of Medicine(Continued from Day 6) Le Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine is one of my favorite finds in all of my time in France. I’d never even heard of it ’til an American friend posted a link to it on my blog, asking me if I’d…
Day 6 – The Canal St. Martin, Belleville, and the Pere Lachaise Cemetery (Continued from Day 5) Our first full day in Paris began with a walk up the Canal St. Martin, and then a visit to the newly hip neighborhood of Belleville. To get to the canal, you take the Metro to Place del la Republique. This is where…
Day 5 – Goodbye Amsterdam, Hello Paris (Continued from Day 4) Day 5 of our trip was mainly a travel day, but we had the entire morning to do something in Amsterdam. I was considering the Rembrandt House, or maybe the zoo, but Udi was free that morning, and offered something pretty neat. He said that if we wanted, he’d…
Day Four in Amsterdam – Markets, Parks, a Cat or Two, and the Eurovision Song Contest (Continued from Day 3) Saturday was our last full day in Amsterdam. We were going to check out the newly renovated Stedelijk Museum, but there was a change of plans. Our friend Udi was free that morning, and he suggested we check out some…
Day 3 in Amsterdam – The Red Light District, Amstelkring Museum, and Westerpark (Continued from Day 2) No trip to Amsterdam is complete without a peek at the city’s oldest neighborhood, which has hosted the world’s oldest profession since the year 1200. The Dutch call this area “De Wallen” or “The Walls”, after the old city walls that once stood…
Day 2 in Amsterdam – The Six Collection, Electric Ladyland (the First Museum of Fluorescent Art), and EyeBar(Continued from Day 1) It’s amazing what 31 hours of being awake, followed by half an ambient and a comfortable bed will do for you. Woke up feeling very rested, and we faced the day with great anticipation, for today we were going…
I love to travel. It’s what I live for. Although I tend to seek out new and exotic lands, it’s nice to go back to familiar places now and then. I get to revisit restaurants and museums that I enjoyed the first time I visited, and I get to check out new neighborhoods, new exhibits, and new shops and stores. …
We had just gotten back from a ten day vacation to Morocco, so this seemed a little indulgent, but Mexico is inexpensive, and we hadn’t been to the beach in years. After my Morocco trip and before this Mexico trip, I did take one more photography class, and the added instruction did make a difference. So this blog post is…
Hard to believe, but our last day in Morocco is upon us. Today’s agenda is to explore as much of Tangier in one day as we can, and then head back home to our own cats, who we miss a lot. We started the day at the Gran Café de Paris. With its tufted brown leather seats impeccable service, and…
I’ve always wanted to visit Tangier. The city is at the meeting point of two continents and two seas, and it defies comparison with any other city in Morocco. For the first half of the 20thcentury, Tangier was an international city, with its own laws and its own administration. It attracted a lot of writers, including Paul Bowles, the American…
After visiting the Royal Granaries in Meknes, we decided to skip the medina in Meknes. It was a tough decision, but we had hired our driver, Naji, just for the day, and we had to decide what to do: explore the souks and food stalls in the Meknes medina, or visit the American Fondouk, a veterinary hospital just outside the…
Fes’s location allows for some neat day trips. A popular destination from Fes is the city of Meknes and the Roman ruins of Volubilis. Mark and I have always enjoyed Greek and Roman ruins, and the ruins and Volubilis were said to be impressive. So much so that the site was a key location for Martin Scorsese’s film The Last…
Today our itinerary was simple. Just stroll through Fes with no sites in mind and no agenda to speak of. There’s 9600 streets and alleys. Plenty to explore. We made our way to Bab Boujeloud, but this time we veered right, onto the other main artery, Tala’a Sghira, to see what we’d find. The first stretch consists of another market. …
After last night’s foray into the hectic maze that is Fes, I was ready to tackle it head on. Take a look at this map Your best bet is to make your way to the main entry gate to the medina, Bab Boujeloud, which is depicted as an arch in the lower left corner. Lots of signs pointing to it,…