When my son was four years old, we flew from Ottawa to Victoria, B.C. – in February. As the doors opened at YVR airport and the mild spring air kissed his cheeks, he exclaimed, “Mummy, it’s summer in this place!” Travel can be magic. At its best, it surprises and delights us. But it also …
For the last leg of our Italy trip, Julian and I parted ways – amicably of course. He had signed up for a self-guided biking tour around the heel of the boot of Italy (Puglia), while I did a small group tour of the same area focused on wine and food. He will write a …
We spent the next two weeks in Sicily travelling the triangle formed by the city of Palermo on the north-central coast, the island of Marettimo off the west coast, and the former Greek city of Agrigento which is located on the south-central coast. Our first stop was Scopello, a tiny hamlet that exists exclusively to …
On the advice of a you-tuber, we took the train from Naples to Syracuse in Sicily. Staff at our Naples B’n’B’ were politely incredulous. “That’s romantic,” one said. Romantic is not quite what we were going for. Most travellers take the ferry to Sicily — or fly Ryan Air for 10 euros. But we wanted …
Sodom and Gomorrah: that’s how Chiara, the charming owner of our Naples B’n’B described the rivalry between Naples and Rome. I remembered that Gomorrah was associated with sinfulness, but I had to renew my acquaintance with the Biblical story to understand exactly what Chiara meant. It turns out that both cities were destroyed by God: …
This pandemic has lasted nearly 18 months. Needless to say, we haven’t travelled. However, I did undertake a different kind of travel: a journey into the past. My father always said that he knew next to nothing about his parents’ families. A subscription to the family history website, http://www.ancestry.ca, helped me answer basic questions about …
Like many people, I think I’m a pretty good cook. I’m able to put together a dinner party menu that nets the requisite appreciation. Even Julian’s ski buddy Antonio, who is a professional chef, rubs his tummy. My mother was a good cook, so when she gives me a thumbs up for my risotto, I …
Some of our best trips are serendipitous. And some of the most interesting things I learn while traveling also are serendipitous. We came to Spain the first time because we were looking for a last minute trip somewhere warm, in November. This year’s trip also came about by accident. The main event is a cooking …
Edinburgh is a gorgeous city — as the nearly 4 million tourists who visit every year can attest. That’s a lot of tourists for a city of half a million people. The residents of Edinburgh, like those who live in other tourist hot spots, are beginning to wonder if all this attention isn’t ruining their …
Overtourism. A word so suddenly relevant that the Oxford Dictionary included it in the 2018 list of new words. Around the world, popular tourist spots are struggling with a massive influx of visitors. Rome introduced a list of rules for good behaviour. Iceland closed vandalized caves. Amsterdam simply asks us to stay away. I want …
The last two days of the C2C are brutal. Back-to-back days, that clock in around 35-40 km each, terminate in Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea coast. The first day took us from Claybank to the village of Glaisdale, and the second from Glaisdale to Robin Hood’s Bay. I committed to walking the first …
Reliable luggage transfer is an essential component of long distance walking. Few people want to carry their luggage for the 300 km length of the C2C, so most use a luggage transfer company. Reliable companions also are critical. You want to walk with someone who has your back, just in case the wheels come off. …
Like any sensible person who’s spent four days warming up for a long distance walk, I took the next day off. There was a logic to my choice. The last four days of the C2C are brutal. They are either extremely long (37 km) or intense. The walk from Richmond to Ingleby Cross is a …
At the end of a 24-hour trip from Canada, I was greeted by the lovely Deborah in her new SUV nicknamed “Veronicar.” She whisked me away to her home with Stu, which is tucked into a Cumbrian dale. There we ate, drank and made merry for three days. Two of those days coincided with a …
This year’s long distance walk is England’s Coast to Coast path. The unofficial path was stitched together by Alfred Wainwright in the 1970s. It starts in St. Bees on the Irish Sea and ends in Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea. The Coast to Coast path — or C2C (sea to sea, har, har) …
If crowds of tourists snapping a phone-pic of the Mona Lisa send you screaming for the exits, you are my kind of tourist. I had the good fortune to see the Mona Lisa in the 1970s. She wasn’t even behind plexiglass. My friend and I walked right up to her, admired Leonardo’s brushstrokes, concluded that …
When we planned this trip, Dianne was keen to visit Ronda and the white villages of Andalusia. They are both beautiful, but I stayed in the area for 8 days just over a year ago, so I decided to spend the extra days in Seville instead. I’ve been here for 7 nights, which has given …
I came to Granada for the Alhambra. I didn’t know much about it, except that my parents visited several years ago and my mother raved about its beauty. Mom is usually more interested in food and handicrafts than she is in buildings, so I thought it must be spectacular. On our first day in Granada, …
Julian and I try to find slow ways to travel even when we’re visiting touristy places. One of the ways we slow travel down is literally, by walking. Last year we walked from one “white village” to another in Andalusia, Spain. I loved both the walking and the white villages, but I felt that I …
After two young women, Maren Ueland and Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, were murdered a couple of weeks ago, one could patently say, “No, women travellers are not safe in Morocco.” But earlier in December Grace Millane was murdered while travelling alone in New Zealand. None of us would conclude on that basis that New Zealand is …