"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list."
Our borrowed Lonely Planet guidebook for Japan and websites such as www.japan-guide.com/e/e2001.html devote several paragraphs to “slipper etiquette”. The when, where and how to wear the correct choice of slippers inside and outside a traditional hotel, restaurants, and homes in
After visiting Tokyo and the day after the sumo tournament, we headed for Japan’s second largest city, Osaka. We went on the Shinkansen (bullet train) because on our first trip to Japan we took conventional rail and had a bullet
The much anticipated day for the Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament finally arrived! We had a relaxing morning with another soak in the natural hot spring onsen in our hotel and then walked through the Sensoji Temple area (photos are in
Our second trip to Japan began with a direct flight from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo’s huge Narita airport. We flew on JAL (Japan Airlines) and even at YVR we were reminded about just how orderly and efficient just about everything
In less than a week we head off to Japan. Friends who had recently visited Tokyo told us about their tour to see a sumo wrestling practice, so we decided to check out attending a practice. But to our surprise,
Tourism Fiji recently launched a contest to promote travel to Fiji using Wilson from the movie Cast Away as the centrepiece. After recovering from our initial surprise (Cast Away was filmed in Fiji? It’s been 25 years?!?) their promotion made
After catching a bus from Senlis, then a train from Chantilly, we arrived at Gare du Nord and made our way via the metro to our hotel in Paris. Although we have been to (or through) Paris somewhere between 5
After a month in northern Africa, we finished off our trip with a week in France. We spent most of an entire day flying from Marrakech, through Casablanca, and then on to Paris. It’s always great to fly into Charles
We had already returned home when we finished selecting the last of our images from northern Africa and writing up the text. So, we decided to take a break before adding the photos from a week in France to the
After our North Morocco Adventure, hitting seven cities and towns in just 10 days, we really appreciated the time to see Marrakech in depth by staying in the old town and visiting lots of the historical attractions and museums. Not
The morning after our Intrepid tour, we woke up at the crack of dawn to go hot air ballooning just outside Marrakech. Due to a scheduling issue, it was already sunrise when we were approaching the takeoff point, but with
For our first eight days in Morocco, we did something a bit unusual for us; we joined a small group tour with Intrepid Travel. We were attracted by their itinerary that included all of the hotels and logistics for visiting
After our week in Tunisia, we caught an early morning flight westward, across the breadth of Algeria (the largest country in Africa), landing in Casablanca, Morocco. Casablanca has a reputation for being thin on sights. For many tourists it is
When we left Constantine, Algeria for Tunisia, annoyingly we had to fly west to Algiers then backtrack east flying directly over the city we’d just left! All because of uncertainty about being able to cross the land border. Consequently, most
We had three great days to visit two UNESCO world heritage sites (Djemila and Timgad), and Constantine (the “City of Bridges”). Constantine was also a major crossroads of the Roman empire, known as Colonia Constantiniana. Three fantastic sights in three
A peculiarity of the Air Algerie schedule is that all flights seem to have to go through Algiers, and ususally with a terrible schedule! So when we left the desert in Ghardaia, we had to fly back to Algiers before
We spent a full day seeing 3 of the 5 ksour (fortified towns) of the UNESCO-listed M’Zab Valley. An intriguing mixture of markets, medinas, and mosques that in some ways seemed to have not changed in 900 years since the
A camel looks like something put together by a committee. Attributed to T. R. Quaife in “Reader’s Digest” As we as we said in our “Will You Ride a Camel?” post before we departed on this trip, we were unsure
Our first day in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the M’Zab Valley was split between the oasis and the Sahara. In the morning we walked through the palmerie (palm grove) of the town of Ghardaia, the largest of the
A more appropriate quote for the day would be Pepe le Pew’s “… you do not have to come weeth me to zee Casbah: we are already here!“. (See the Youtube clip below.) Our first real day in Algeria (post