Afternoon (2 to 6 PM) Drive into Death Valley National Park from I-190 and stop at the Stovepipe Visitor Center to pick a map and get the latest info on trails first easy hike on the Mosaic Canyon trail that takes you through narrow canyon lined with polished rocks and marbles Attempt the easy hike on Mosaic Canyon trail that takes you through narrow canyon lined with polished rocks and marbles. After the hike, make the 90 minute drive to Ubehebe…
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Istanbul is one of the most visually stunning cities that we have ever visited. A mix of the ancient and the new, every corner is bustling with life, color, and unexpected experiences. It’s one of those places in the world that should be experienced at a slow pace with lots of aimless meandering thrown in. Day 1: Leisurely visit to the Hagia Sophia Take an easy first day and try to get over your jet…
Winters are the perfect time to curl up in a stuffy chair and grab a glass of hot chocolate (or wine) and lose yourself in the pages of a good whodunnit. My personal favorite mystery novels are the ones with a closed room murder in a lavish country house somewhere, a fixed number of suspects and lots of motive! So basically, every other novel by Agatha Christie ? Since I am a big fan of…
First Impressions The plane circled the skies waiting for its turn in the queue for the landing strip. I craned my eyes to get a glimpse of this ancient city over the winter rain clouds. Istanbul was a mosaic of red rooftops, mosque domes, and minarets. Smoke escaped from the chimneys of the houses in the early morning, and the grey sky promised a cold and cheerless day. After exiting immigration we searched the exit…
As part of my Around the World in Books Reading Challenge, my pick for Albania was the Man Booker International Prize winning novel by Ismail Kadare. The General of the Dead Army is a dark and depressing work of fiction. It chronicles the journey of an Italian general who goes to Albania with an important mission. He and a priest travel across Albania exhuming bodies of dead Italian soldiers who died fighting in Albania during…
Starting the day with Turkish Breakfast Hotel breakfasts in Istanbul are a fry cry from the dry toast, boiled egg and stale Danish pastries affairs that I have often had in the US. The morning buffet had bread, croissants, cookies, salads, marmalades of orange, lemons, and cherries, fresh strawberries, cranberries, figs, olives, dates, prunes, sweetened yogurt with muesli, egg and sausage rolls, omelets, cold cuts, cheese, cakes and a glorious view of the Bosporus. I…
