I trust that I well established in these pages that a trip to Scotland is never about just whisky for me. The itinerary may be defined by the distillery locations, but points in between also get a modicum of attention. Herewith is a small array of depictions of such points.…
I already mark the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site as visited (#74 on my list) on the strength of the brief stop in 2015. Considering that the inscription lists 414 locations, a passing look at a single one clearly stretches the definition of “visited”. Improvements are welcome.…
On my third visit to Edinburgh, a full day exploring the wonderful city center was the least I had to set aside, including several landmark visits and a large walkabout circuit. The skies were dreary in the morning, turned cloudy blue for a short time midday, and then reverted to…
With World Heritage exploits on top of two unmissable distillery visits, the day we spent on Mainland Orkney had more designated activities than any other day of the trip. In between those, taking advantage of a relatively bright day, I caught a few nice perspectives around the island. Probably the…
While in Orkney on the recent trip, we mixed a history-seeking outing into our scotch-centric itinerary. A group of monuments known as the “Heart of Neolithic Orkney” offers a remarkable record of life on this remote archipelago that dates back 5,000 years. Of the four locations, two can be visited…
Multiple travel quarters mark the island of Skye as one of the most impressive destinations in the country that sets a pretty high bar when it comes to magnificent landscapes. Since our whisky trips are never about just scotch – or so I’d like to believe – I was very…
As previously mentioned, the recently concluded trip was larger in scope and time than its predecessors – we visited 20 distilleries over the course of a week-plus, of which 15 were first-time visits. Following my traditional approach, I will start the series of trip retrospections with a quick round of…
Whenever we venture outside of the major urban centers on our travels, I drive. Not having to depend on strangers for transportation and enjoying the unconstrained ability to stop and explore something of interest along the way are a couple of reasons that always tip the scales toward getting behind…
The pattern established in Arenal continued on the Pacific-coast leg of our Costa Rican trip. We went on a number of excursions in the Manuel Antonio National Park area – beaches, surfing, driving ATVs, dipping into the waterfall cascades – and in almost all instances my camera remained at the…
I doubt that anyone would ever expect surpassing nature photography from me. Therefore, you will not be overly disappointed by the realization that I have little in the form of exceptional from our stay in the Arenal National Park area in Costa Rica. We went ziplining, dipped in hot springs…
Hardly anyone budgets time for San Jose beyond an overnight stop on the way to other destinations in Costa Rica when the flight schedule dictates so. Spending time in the capital city in a country that is famous for its sun, sea, rainforests, and fauna sounds a bit wasteful. That…
To state the obvious, you can only see so much of a place when time is limited. While in Panama City on a layover that spanned two nights and one full day, we managed to set foot in three major locations of interest. Casco Antiguo and the archaeological site of…
The World Heritage site in Panama City, inscribed for being the oldest continuously occupied European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas, comprises two components. Both somewhat confusingly have the moniker “old” in their names. Casco Viejo (or Casco Antiguo) is the historic heart of the city but is…
Our trips frequently include boat rides of different varieties, and this stay on the French Riviera was not an exception. On one of the days in the area, we planned to spend a few hours on a sailboat going up and down the coast between Nice and Monaco. For reasons…
The Principality of Monaco is among the more curious countries. It is a constitutional monarchy whose ruler, while not being styled “the King”, has probably the most powers over his domain than any other remaining monarch in all of Europe. It is the second tiniest sovereign entity in the world.…
The village of Sainte-Agnès sits in the mountains high above Menton. It holds the designation as one of the Most Beautiful Villages in France. That entitles it to a separate look in our travel recaps. As with many such villages, there is not much in terms of defined points of…
Menton was one of the places we had not been to before and specifically targeted for a brief exploration this time. Literally “the last” point on the French Riviera – you cannot move eastward of Menton without crossing the border into Italy – it is a resort town famous for…
The capital of the French Riviera may enjoy continuous fame as “the playground for the rich”, but it is in essence a big city with big-city attractions. Certainly, there are plenty of visual highlights to be found in town, and yet its cultural offerings – museums, theaters, varied cuisine –…
This visit to the Riviera included a number of places that we had never managed to visit in the past. One was St-Paul-de-Vence. It is both a picturesque hilltop medieval village and one big art gallery. A large percentage of commercial establishments in the village core are contemporary-art boutiques. Makes…
I am starting this post with the same panoramic vista of Villefranche Bay that has already been posted a few weeks ago. Utterly mesmerizing! And then, somewhat gratuitously, here are a few other shots taken from the same spot on our apartment balcony, differing by the time of day, lighting…