My blog has migrated to a new host and is being painstakingly reconstructed here. Please bear with me as I iron out wrinkles, hammer out the dents, and apply enough spit and duct tape to hold it all together.— Karen
MARCH 29 to APRIL 5, 2015 It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. You may have heard about Seville’s spectacular celebration of Holy Week, the run-up to Easter during which dozens of ancient statues of the suffering Jesus and weeping Mary are carried through the streets day and night, surrounded…
“How about taking the night train to Lisbon?” Rich said last week, as we were mapping out an upcoming trip to Portugal. “Didn’t they make a movie about that?” I asked. They did, and we watched it as part of our trip research, hoping to see what kind of accommodations and scenery we could expect.…
Not all rats are as clean & cute as this pet. Flipping through a book of travel tips the other day, I discovered this little gem: “ Scared of rats in the dark in a strange room across the globe? Be sure to wash your hands. Those cookie crumbs on your fingertips will be the…
I thought I was pretty savvy about the dangers lurking in hotel rooms; my bedbug checks are second to none, and I can chain a suitcase to a radiator in ten seconds flat. But then I ran across the Hotel Inspector and realized I had a lot to learn. It seems that today’s selfless manufacturers are…
I was skimming through some questions Johnny Jet sent me in preparation for appearing in his Travel Style Q&A section when I came to that one. My worst travel moment? A montage of hideous memories flashed through my mind. Heading back to base camp after our Amazon camping trip There was the time Rich and…
Charlie Sheen It’s easy to get the impression that long journeys have to be insanely expensive. You simply calculate the cost per day of your honeymoon in the Caribbean or your last business trip to New York, multiply that times 30 or 90 or 120 days, and try not to suffer cardiac arrest when you…
Inspiration for a story on siestas. “The trouble with my line of work,” a clergyman once told me, “is that every little thing that happens during your day makes you think, ‘Is this material for a sermon?’” Being a travel blogger has much the same effect. At home or abroad, even the smallest stuff –…
Howler monkeys: unimpressed with my freshly ironed dresses. Before Rich and I started our global wanderings, I had no idea how to pack. I remember on our honeymoon ( Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to 1987) taking contact lenses, must-iron cotton dresses, and a tiny steam iron that for some reason required salt. I used…
“Cleveland isn’t all smokestacks and slag heaps,” said the guidebook, in a desperate attempt to find something positive to report. This was 28 years ago, on the eve of our marriage, when a recruiting firm was trying to convince Rich to leave San Francisco for a job in Cleveland, a gritty industrial city defined by…
Been on an airplane lately? The one I flew on last week – a ten-hour jaunt from London to San Francisco – sounded like the hospital in one of those sci-fi movies about an outbreak of plague. Everyone seemed to be sneezing, coughing, and blowing their nose. But was I worried about catching anything? Not…
CELEBRATING GOOD NEIGHBORS These days I’m writing about Good Neighbors, exploring how the people around me are working to help each other get through these challenging times. My weekly posts appear on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on my travel and research schedule.
THIS BLOG IS A PROMOTION-FREE ZONE. As my regular readers know, I never get free or discounted goods or services for mentioning anything on this blog (or anywhere else). I only write about things I find interesting and/or useful.
