Touring Through Turkey

April 30, 2025May 14, 2025Leave a comment

Darlene and I enjoyed a three-week trip to Turkey earlier in April. Our first twelve days was with a small group tour booked through Explore Worldwide that was mostly focused on visiting many ancient historical sites and ruins in western Turkey. All of Anatolia (including western Turkey) is actually an amazing crossroads of ancient civilizations, including Hittite, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman influences across several thousand years that are still clearly visible and continue to be uncovered in archeological sites.

A six-minute video montage of our entire trip across Turkey.

We had a great, fun group of nine for the Explore tour and a particularly exceptional local guide, Timucin Sahin. Tim is wonderfully enthusiastic and incredibly knowledgeable about the rich and complex history of Turkey, tracing it all the way back to the earliest civilizations in a way that is easy to follow and understand. He was also able to share insights on other topics like flora and fauna, as well as present-day politics and culture. I think having Tim as our guide really made the trip for everyone in the group.

Pamukkale Hot Springs (and travertine terraces)

After completion of the Explore tour in Antalya, we flew to Keyseri and caught an airport shuttle to our hotel in Göreme to spend the next four days exploring the Cappadocia region, known for its otherworldly landscapes, wind-sculpted rock spires, and centuries-old underground cities. We had a tour guide booked through Intrepid Travel for two of those days and were accompanied by another couple for one day. Unfortunately, while our local guide was well-intentioned, he tended to ramble a confusing stream of details and anecdotes that was even harder to understand through his heavy accent and somewhat broken English. Also, we didn’t notice that our trip planning brought us to Cappadocia on Easter weekend and the crowds were very heavy at the primary tourist attractions.

Still, we had a wonderful time in Cappadocia and very much enjoyed taking in the amazing sights and scenery. Even the hotels in the area are fascinating as many are built into the surrounding rock, mimicking the thousands of older dwellings carved into the rocks throughout the area.

The definite highlight was soaring over Cappadocia on a sunrise hot air balloon flight – it was gorgeous and magical. It’s amazing that so many dozens of balloons (apparently upwards of 150) are launched by dozens of companies almost every day (weather permitting). It’s an incredible sight – and an impressive logistics challenge.

A five-minute video featuring our sunrise hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia.

The other activity I was really looking forward to on this trip was getting to spend a day mountain biking some of the many trails in the area. Unfortunately, after we booked the bikes for the following day, I got sick with a nasty cold the night before. I decided to try to push through it anyway and take on the captivating 18-mile route that was mapped out for us by the bike shop. What we did get to see and experience was really great but as I became ever more exhausted by the illness, we had to cut the ride short.

After four days in Cappadocia, we flew to Istanbul to spend three days in the old city district, visiting famous sites like Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and the underground Basilica Cistern. We managed poor timing again with crowds by inadvertently choosing to visit on a national holiday, but then there was a significant earthquake midday which closed all of the historical sites and sent everyone away for the day. Still we managed to squeeze in visits to the sites on our following final day in Istanbul and Turkey.

The Blue Mosque interior (left), Basilica Cistern (right)

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Revisiting New Zealand

October 25, 2024May 14, 2025Leave a comment

Darlene and I joined her sister Shel and Diane, Regina, Rochelle, Lori, Brianna and Rachel on a trip to New Zealand this past month. Darlene and I had both visited New Zealand before but individually, before we met. Rachel, Darlene and I flew out to meet the others in the South Island, in Christchurch and Rachel got her first experience on electric scooters. From there we drove to Akaroa for a boat cruise looking for dolphins and other wildlife. We continued down the Otago coast hitting up the very cool Elephant Rocks near Oamaru and the Moeraki Boulders on our way to Dunedin. We stayed several nights in Dunedin, visiting sights like Tunnel Beach, Larnach Castle and Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. We also did a bit of hiking, saw the glowworms at Nicols Creek, visited the Royal Albatross Centre and got to spy on both the Yellow Eyed and little Blue penguins in the wild.

We continued on to Queenstown, where we enjoyed a steamship cruise to Walter Peak sheep farm for a BBQ dinner and sheep shearing demo. We took in the views via the gondola to Bob’s Peak and had a blast riding the wheeled toboggans down the Queenstown Luge. We visited an ice bar (and lots of shops) in town, I spent a day biking around Lake Wakatipu while everyone else went zip-lining in Glenorchy.

At this point, we split up with some of the group heading home and others continuing on to the west coast. Darlene and I stayed a couple more days in Queenstown doing some hiking before heading south to Te Anau. Some late winter weather closed the road to Milford Sound for a day or two but luckily the weather cleared up again and we were able to make a day trip from Te Anau with lots of stops to enjoy all the waterfalls and snow-covered mountain views both along the road as well as in Milford Sound on an afternoon boat cruise. The day was only marred by an attack of Kea birds damaging our rental car while we waited our turn to pass through the tunnel.

After Te Anau, we continued our road trip to the south coast and the Catlins region, stopping off at Gemstone Beach (we came away empty-handed) and lost the afternoon in Invercargill dealing with a damaged tire (unrelated to the Kea birds) and swapping out our car rental. As a result, we arrived after sunset at our somewhat remote accommodation (Mohua Park, lots of dirt roads to get there but oh so worth it) and we were still blown away by the gorgeous setting in the hills, surrounded by a sheep farm. As nice as the location was though, we spent our two days there out exploring and hiking along the Catlins coast.

From there we headed back north, all the way to Aoraki and Mt. Cook Village where we spent a couple of days enjoying fantastic hikes both below and partway up the surrounding mountains. We also managed to book a helicopter sightseeing tour when we saw the weather was likely going to clear – it was a spectacular flight on a gorgeous day, soaring among the peaks of the “Southern Alps” and landing on one of the glaciers.

After a long drive back to Christchurch, we took an evening flight to reach Auckland on the North Island. From Auckland, we set out for the Hobbiton Movie Set near Matamata, stopping off at a surprisingly creative and captivating botanical garden, the Hamilton Gardens. The Hobbiton afternoon tour, dinner banquet and night walk was all really great and we were incredibly impressed by everything they’ve done and how well it’s maintained and presented.

We filled the following day with a couple of cave tours in Waitomo to see cool cave formations and more of the famous New Zealand “glow worms” as well as a visit to a bird sanctuary where we could see nocturnal kiwis among other native New Zealand birds, albeit in captivity. With our last day and a half in Auckland, we enjoyed the Weta Workshop tour, went up the Sky Tower, rode scooters out to Mount Eden for the city view, tried our hand at a couple of escape rooms and explored an amusing “sensory maze” experience. But then it was time to fly home again… until next time!

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Sightseeing in Switzerland

June 30, 2024September 23, 2024Leave a comment

Just another dramatic backdrop in Mürren

Topping off our extended Europe trip, Darlene and I flew from Stockholm to Geneva to spend three weeks traipsing around Switzerland in June. In Geneva, we walked around and rented electric scooters over a couple of days. One day we took a train to walk around the medieval town of Annecy in France. After that we were off to the other side of Lake Geneva to visit Lausanne, Vevey and Montreux – checking out the Olympic Museum, the wonderful Chaplin World and the historic castle Château de Chillon.

10-minute video montage of highlights from our time in Switzerland

Then we were off to stay a couple of nights in the tiny walled medieval town of Gruyéres – known of course for its cheese and fondue. We visited the castle museum there and the surprisingly extensive HR Eiger museum. We also enjoyed tours at the cheese factory La Maison du Gruyére and the chocolate factory Maison Cailler in Broc.

Continuing on, we spent a few hours in Bern after dropped off our rental car to continue by train to the main attraction for our trip, the Jungfrau region. We broke it up by spending four nights in Wengen, three nights in Grindelwald and two nights in Mürren. With so much to see and experience in the region and so many tremendous vistas in every direction, we could have happily spent many more days exploring the area and following the many hiking and biking trails – and perhaps we’ll come back someday to try out the many ski areas.

Besides gawking at all the incredible views every which way, some of the other highlights of the Jungfrau region were seeing the thunderous subterranean Trümmelbach Falls, ascending to Jungfraujoch and traversing across the top of the Aletsch Glacier, walking through the Grindelwald Glacier Gorge, hiking beneath the peaks of Eiger and Mönch, visiting Schilthorn peak and the Piz Gloria above Mürren and taking a side excursion into the St. Beatus-Höhlen cave system near Interloken.

The view among the wildflowers looking up to Eiger and Mönch.

After the Jungfrau region, we traveled to Zurich, stopping mid-day to see some sights in Lucerne. We had three nights in Zurich and wandered about a bit. We missed out on getting a tour through the Lindt Home of Chocolate (d’oh!) but our day excursion to go see the amazing Rheinfall (Rhine Falls) was so worth it.

There’s still lots more we haven’t seen of Switzerland and so I’d love to go back – and maybe in winter for some skiing in the Alps!

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Exploring Sweden

June 9, 2024August 8, 2024Leave a comment

View from Skulebergets nature reserve along the High Coast

Continuing our extended Europe trip, Darlene and I crossed over from Copenhagen into Sweden in mid-May. We had two weeks to explore a bit of Sweden, starting in Malmö. We visited several connected museums in Malmö before venturing out to the southern coast to see the standing stones at Ales Stenar. After Malmö, we made our way north along the west coast, stopping in Helsingborg, staying overnight in Falkenberg, visiting Tjolöholm Castle and an automobile/aviation museum before reaching Gothenburg where we spent three days exploring the city via foot, bicycle and canal tour.

After Gothenburg, we left the west coast to traverse across the country and north to the more remote High Coast region of Sweden, stopping along the way at a castle, Läckö Slott (apparently just missing the one daily midday tour) but then overnighting in Skultuna. Our destination was the city of Örnsköldsvik, from where we went hiking in Skuleskogen National Park, kayaking in the bay, climbing up Skulebergets and touring the coast.

Our last five days were spent in Stockholm, walking and/or electric scooting around the city, visiting several museums, including the spectacular Vasa museum which houses the world’s best preserved 17th century ship – raised and recovered from the harbor sea floor.

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Our Copenhagen Visit

May 25, 2024August 4, 2024Leave a comment

Continuing our European vacation, Darlene, her sister Kathy and I spent four days in Copenhagen – first time for all of us. We did some sightseeing around the city, from the top of the Round Tower astronomical observatory to inside Frederik’s Church, we enjoyed a boat tour of Copenhagen’s waterways and very interesting Danish architecture. We visited the immersive Museum of Danish Resistance and climbed up Copenhill, a surprising combination of waste-to-energy power plant and recreational site for year round hiking, skiing and climbing. We rented bikes to tool around a bit like proper Copenhageners, enjoyed an open air street food market and strolled some of Copenhagen’s famous streets and waterfronts like Nyhavn and Strøget.

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Six Days in Ireland

May 24, 2024August 4, 2024Leave a comment

I joined Darlene, her sister Kathy and her aunt Judy on a trip to Ireland last week – a return visit for me but their first time in the Emerald Isle. Darlene organized the itinerary which included seeing the Book of Kells at Trinity College, taking the tour at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, visiting Blarney Castle and grounds, spending a couple of days in Killarney and touring a portion of the Ring of Kerry.

Here’s a video montage of our trip:

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Northern India: Delhi, Agra and across Rajasthan

February 15, 2024August 4, 2024Leave a comment

Darlene and I joined a small group trip in Northern India in late January, booked through Explore!. The tour began in Delhi and traveled across much of the Rajasthan region of northern India before finishing off in Agra and returning to Delhi after two weeks. We then took a little extra three day excursion to Rathambore National Park in search of tigers to cap off our visit to India.

We had a fun group of the nine of us (everyone from the UK but us), plus our wonderful Indian tour leader Inder Singh (“Indu”). We also had an additional local guide at many of the historical sites we visited. India proved to be quite the experience – from the crazy anything-goes, honk-to-be-heard traffic of every form and size to the innumerable historic sites and temples to the massive crowds of super-friendly Indian people everywhere. Oh and of course so many curries and other Indian dishes to try!

Here’s a taste of our adventure in the form of a 10-minute video montage:

A 10-minute video montage of our trip. (Smaller/lower quality version here)

Starting in busy Delhi, we visited a number of temples, tombs and a mosque over two days before traveling by train into Rajasthan. In Ajmer, we visited one of the oldest mosques in India and, not being a place visited by foreign tourists, we were approached by lots of folks wanting to take selfies with us. That evening we stayed at a rural Maharaja’s palace now converted into a heritage hotel where we were treated to an ox cart ride into the neighboring village.

We visited the massive Chittorgarh Fort the next day on our way to Udaipur in the south. In Udaipur, we saw a performance of Dharohar folk dancing and toured the City Palace before Darlene and I succumbed to a tiring cold and missed out on the boat tour across Lake Pichola as well as a demonstration of miniature detail painting. We were feeling better the next day as we continued on to Jojowar, stopping off at a beautiful Jain temple.

Our next stop was to see a demonstration of handcrafted Dhurrie rugs by Roopraj Prajapat – and have the whole group tempted into buying some rugs! We then continued on to visit the Mehrangarh Fort and Palace as well as visit another busy street market in Jodhpur.

Then we were on to a long drive and our deepest point into the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, to Bikaner. Along the way, we visited the Karni Mata “Temple of Rats” where tens of thousands of rats make a home and are cared for, worshipped and given offerings. (While Darlene waited in the bus. ;-) In Bikaner, we were given a tour of the Junagarh fort and palace, saw some havelis (traditional highly decorated mansions) while exploring a street market, visited another miniature painting artist and the girls got painted in henna while the boys played foosball.

On the way to Jaipur, we took a driving break to see some more havelis in Fatehpur. With two days in Jaipur, we toured the Amber Fort and Palace, visited the astronomical observatory park of Jantar Mantar and the City Palace but also were treated to more Indian handcraft demonstrations – few came away from there empty-handed!

And yet on we continued to Agra for the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort of Agra and the Baby Taj mausoleum, with a stopover at another red sandstone fort at Fatehpur Sikri.

On our return to Delhi, the rest of our group headed home to England while Darlene and I boarded a train for Rathambore in hopes of seeing Bengal tigers in the wild. Unfortunately, none were to be found on our three excursions into the park over two days. Hey, but Darlene bought some more Indian handicrafts!

It was a great trip overall but I admit to being put off by the constant street crowds, the noise and air pollution and the garbage strewn everywhere – lining the streets and filling the river beds. However, we’re both still happy to have had the opportunity to visit India and we very much enjoyed our group and Indu’s enthusiastic guiding.

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Nacho & Adriana’s Fiesta en España

May 4, 2023July 25, 2024Leave a comment

As a follow-up to their “Not-A-Wedding” in Costa Rica last August, Nacho and Adriana hosted another party in late April – this time in Palencia, Spain so that more friends and family could join in the celebration. Darlene and I were able to join and we made an extended trip out of it with a coastal hiking trip in Portugal and a multi-city tour through Spain before joining everyone in Palencia.