One of the hotel associations that Natasha occasionally checks out in her travel planning routines was holding an anniversary online sale a couple of weeks ago. The promotion offered tremendous discounts on short stays at upmarket member hotels. Even though I do not have vacation days left this year, a…
You realize that you truly became a cosmopolitan individual when you sit in your house in London, and your lunch consists of gazpacho accompanied by garlic naan and then spaghetti ai pollo con funghi. With a glass of chardonnay. Just saying.
All good things come to an end. Unfortunately, life is not fair that way. And our big summer holiday is now over. It was grand by any measure. Total distance driven: 5106 miles. Countries whose license plates we encountered along the way: 29. Airports used on my hops to get…
Man, I seriously hate England right now! It is becoming a nagging refrain this summer, but sunny skies and hot but bearable temperatures see me off at our latest stop – this time, in Tuscany, – and overcast and cold weather is what greets me in the Blighty. Heavy rain…
I’m told that the weather in London has been its customary gloomily rainy for the last week that I’ve been away. On the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and France, conversely, clear skies and balmy temperatures prevailed throughout my latest jaunt. We spent the last few days on Costa Brava just…
… you see exposed breasts of various colours, shapes and sizes. From perfectly toned ones to amorphic sagging what-letter-in-the-alphabet cups. And that’s just men’s. About one in five women, by my estimation, goes topless at the beach these days as well. The Germans are at the forefront of the movement,…
Spent the day in a bustling and vibrant Barcelona, went to sleep in the God-forsaken Mottingham… Fun life I lead sometimes! The big summer holiday took off splendidly, the long two-day trek from London to Costa Brava notwithstanding. We arrived to a beautiful setting, gorgeous weather and, most importantly, the…
Despite my self-sustained image of the world traveler, I have only been to 37% of European countries. Natasha is actually one up on me, in a way that I fear will keep forever, – she has been to Belarus as a child. The map below outlines the gaping chasm of…
One of my new UCF friends, Jeri, has reminded me with one of her recent posts of a topic that I wanted to expand on since that huge “about me” meme (see #39 on that): Which of the 50 US states I have visited so far. This list is bound…
We are in between visitors, for a few days anyway. My mother-in-law departed back to Russia this morning. Her trip’s first leg took her to Frankfurt from the London City airport, which again impressed us in terms of check-in and controls experience. You can literally be at the gate within…
My loving children will forgive their old man for saying that it is infinitely nicer to travel without them. Our weekend getaway to Belgium was neither a dream trip nor even a particularly fascinating one, but it allowed Natasha and I, for the first time in ages, to spend time…
Southernmost part of continental Europe turned out to be not warm enough for a dip in the Mediterranean Sea at the end of May. That was the only negative about our week on the Costa del Sol. The weather was sunny, the resort that we stayed at provided all possible…
Ahh, Paris… There is nothing like it in the whole wide world. Not for us, at least. I don’t know what it is, honestly, but we always feel entirely at home in this most romantic of cities. This time around, we benefited from exceptionally bright skies and warm weather, which…
It is the most basic and universal of any advice that an international traveller can get: Never forget when your passport expires. My parents, who leave the shores of the U.S. of A. about once a year on average, were going for a tour of Paris, followed by a stay…
Simply going to the Keukenhof gardens for a few hours – which was the main point of our latest expedition – was worth the trip. There are literally thousands of varieties of tulips on display there, not counting the other flower species, of which there are plenty as well. Natasha…
This has not been the most exciting of trips, for two main reasons. First, it was mighty cold and, unlike in London, where not a single snowflake has graced us with its presence this winter, we had nothing less than intermittent hail following us through the northern part of Wales.…
A hot-off-the-presses update to the compendium of trivia about me: Q50. Yes, although only on a brief weekend trip that did not take me much further than Dublin’s immediate surroundings. Q121. Getting there. DC excluded, the number is now exactly even (still, shockingly low). We had a grand…
My cousin Alex – who, in our family parlance, would be referred to as my brother – is on a work assignment in Dublin for the next couple of weeks. Obviously, we wanted to come and visit. And the truths exposed in my onetime editorial on the costs of European…
I admittedly do not like packaged vacations. There are few things in this world that annoy me more than having to waste my time on account of strangers. Coupled with the penchant I have for being punctual, I would certainly waste disproportionate amount of time if I joined a tour…
We are back from our excellent Alpine adventure, and since I am sure that everyone is anxious to hear about it, here is a brief recap. Yes, the skies were azure, the snow was sparkling, the setting was altogether gorgeous, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. My three ladies…