When we disembarked from the ship on Saturday morning, we had an hour or so to look around Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. Then headed to the airport for our “on time” flight to Toronto. Not sure why we had
The Long Road Home
Why Canadians are “Snowbirds”
According to Wikipedia: A snowbird is a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter. The southern locales include the Sun Belt and Hawaii in the United States, as
Planning for 2025
We follow Audley Travel, not because we travel with them frequently, but because they always have some inspiring destinations. They recently published an article “5 Travel Trends for 2025“. In case you don’t have the time nor the inclination to
Best Travel Camera?
A lot has been written about selecting the perfect camera for travelling. The most recent article is this detailed post from National Geographic: “The 10 best compact cameras“. We have to agree with their selections of of some really great
Being a Tourist at Home
Sometimes it’s good to return to tourist sights close to home. “Home” for us is Vancouver, BC on Canada’s Pacific coast and we spent the day yesterday hosting relatives and showing them just a few of Vancouver’s splendid attractions, made
Ireland Added to Our List
Yes, we do keep track of the number of countries that we have visited! After returning from our “England and Ireland” trip we added the Republic of Ireland to our list of UN countries that we have seen and we
Starting our England and Ireland Trip
On April 30th, we jumped on a plane and headed off to London Heathrow to spend 2-1/2 weeks in England and the Republic of Ireland. Upon arriving in mid-afternoon the following day, we did not immediately head for London as
Tall Ship Sailing in the Caribbean
We have booked a cruise on the Royal Clipper and will be sailing through the Windward Islands of the Caribbean for our first trip of 2025. In just eight days and seven nights we will visit six different countries. It
Returning Home; the Good and the Bad
After our 3-flight, 40-hour odyssey to return home on South African Airlines and Lufthansa through Jo’burg and Frankfurt, we settled into our post-trip routine. There’s always both pros and cons to arriving home. Let’s get the bad points over with
Looking forward to Cape Town, South Africa
In our trip planning for our “Namibia and Nearby” trip coming up in 2024, we came across a great article in the Audley Traveller Autumn 2023 edition about Cape Town. We’re looking forward to our first visit to Cape Town,
Country Count Updated to 122
On our Australia VI and More trip in September and October 2024, we visited four countries, but only one was a new destination for us; Timor-Leste. You can read our posts about Atauro Island and Dili for a description of
The Goroka Festival…2024!
The Goroka Festival in Papua New Guinea just finished its 2023 run, and PNG’s The National said “Goroka Show hailed a success“. So we’ve begun making plans to attend the 2024 version a year from now. We’ve started a website
Wildlife at Home!
We’ve seen some amazing wildlife on our trips, but sometimes we don’t even have to leave home; the animals come to visit us! One recent weekend, we had a visitor on the front doorstep, and then an hour later another
Country Count Updated to 121
On our “Barcelona to Berlin” trip we visited the 17th smallest country in the world, Andorra. That was our first visit, so we have updated our “Countries Visited” counter on the website to 121. We also visited the second smallest
“Nit de Foc” (“Night of Fire”)
Every year on June 23rd, Catalonians celebrate La Nit de Sant Joan, the evening before the feast day of St. John the Baptist. Of course this Saint’s day is celebrated everywhere in the Catholic world, but the celebrations of the
“Whisky War” Armistice Day
Celebrating the first anniversary of the end of a war in Canada (a war that nobody even knew about!). Apparently, when we were off in Australia for most of 2022, Canada quietly signed a peace treaty ending a war that
“Ghosts of a forgotten town”
The brown hyenas of Kolmanskop, Namibia We shared a BBC Facebook post about the only remaining inhabitants of the former diamond mining town of Kolmanskop, Namibia. You can also watch that video on the BBC YouTube channel. (Link at the
“They replaced Vimy Ridge…”
Earlier this week, Canada introduced a new passport design which was immediately met with some (OK, a lot of) criticism. Here’s a link to an online article from CTV News. The quote that caught our eyes was from Pierre Poilievre,
Is there a Botswana–Namibia–Zambia–Zimbabwe quadripoint?
(And if there is, who cares?) A quadripoint is a spot on the earth where four countries (or smaller geopolitical areas) meet at one point. When we were on our first trip to southern Africa, on a boat on the
“Midnight at the Pera Palace”
It’s always so much fun to be watching a movie or TV show and be able to say “We’ve been there!”. That happened to us the other night as we flicked through Netflix and came upon the series “Midnight at