Leipzig, in what was East Germany, was one of Europe’s most important music centers. I knew Felix Mendelssohn Barthody and Johann Sebastian Bach lived here. As it turns out, Clara and Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, …
September 30, 2013
Go Abroad!
Leipzig, Germany
A nature lover in Langkawi
Close your eyes. Now imagine a long stretch of dazzling white sand and the sun setting over the Andaman Sea. That's where I'm writing from. It's an island called Langkawi in northwest Malaysia. Currently flying …
September 24, 2013
Small-town Italy: Montelupone
The Marche region of Italy is rarely included among travel itineraries to Italy. It’s also scarcely mentioned in most guidebooks – yet this may simply enhance its appeal among travelers who yearn to forge a …
September 19, 2013
Arrest warrant issued for Kristin Rossum’s Australian lover
Arrest warrant issued (quietly) for Michael Robertson, the former boss/lover of Kristin Rossum, the former San Diego toxicologist convicted of poisoning her husband in 2000.
September 18, 2013
Bocas del Toro, Panama
A chill ran down my spine as we passed a burnt-out fuselage that sat rusting in the front yard of a home near the exit gate of the Bocas del Toro airport (left). It made …
September 17, 2013
About the beer: Oktoberfest in Munich
I took another swig of crisp, clean German lager as I spied the nascent Oktoberfest fairgrounds across the street. Only the steel frames and brewery names were up – the stark beginnings of the world’s …
Kenya's elephant orphanage
Greater Nairobi, home to more than six million people, has a reputation for mayhem. Its international airport just burned; the Kenyan capital’s nickname is Nairobbery. But visitors can still find some extraordinary pleasures. Ranking high …
Isle of Skye, Scotland
I had been here before. A deep breath of ocean air, a taste of mist, and I was in some beautiful place from my dreams – on the edge of water so still, I forbade …
September 3, 2013
Meteora, Greece: The Old Master
In the mountainous interior of Greece near Meteora, gigantic granite outcroppings, most of them topped with Christian monasteries, point skyward like fingers tipped in prayer. They are a stone’s throw from the pass of Thermopylae, …
August 29, 2013
Ten days from Cairo to Beijing
Russia is one of the most challenging countries in which to travel on a budget. Oh sure, your ruble might still go a pinto’s puff further out on the street than your yen, but you’ll …
August 27, 2013
Adventures in Myanmar
We arrived in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), in November. Instantly the heat had us deciding to take a bus to Chaungtha Beach, the most popular beach among Burmese vacationers and the closest to Yangon. Accommodation in …
August 22, 2013
Small-town Italy: Varenna
Varenna is a stunning, yet underrated, jewel on Lake Como just north of the more well-known and widely visited Bellagio. If you’re looking for a tranquil atmosphere to accompany magnificent views of the lake, Varenna …
August 19, 2013
Tonga: forgotten South Pacific
As I was being driven to my hotel by the hotel’s transfer service from Tongatapu’s international airport, the King of Tonga decided to provide me with a personal escort into Nuku’alofa, the capital city. Ok, …
August 15, 2013
Honoring the fallen at Ypres
Though the reasons for WWI are murky to most Americans – something about the assassination of an Archduke, as well as the unification of feudal-era principalities into modern nation-states – the war brought our country …
August 13, 2013