Author Archives: Ursula It is easy to hit over-load while travelling: too many wonderful sights, engaging activities, interesting people, and novel tastes and smells… This can be especially the case after spending time in an environment so sublime that it transports you, producing a nature-induced “peak experience”. We had just driven the length of Australia’s Great Ocean Road, a drive through scenery so magnificent that […]  Some time ago – last April, to be exact – I wrote about the breathtakingly awesome experience of meeting Sumatran orangutans in their wild jungle habitat (Ursula’s Weekly Wanders: Meet the Locals). Truly, it was a memorable encounter – one not easily matched. It was hard to leave the Gunung Leuser National Park, but our itinerary called for us to […]  A castle, cheese, wine and chocolate: what’s not to love about Gruyères? We were meant to be hiking around Leysin in the Swiss Alps, but it was raining, and had been for days. We went through the guide books and asked locals about alternative amusements (q.v.: A Trip to the Salt Mines). The medieval town of Gruyères was three train-hops away […] It is pretty impressive: the world’s tallest brick minaret, set in a complex of archaeological ruins dating back to 1193 AD, on a site that is much older than that. The stories behind it are quite something as well. Qutb Minar, sometimes spelled Qutub or Qutab, was started in 1192 by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the first Sultan of Delhi and ruler of North India from 1206 to […]  “Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.” -Brooks Atkinson There are those who sail just for sailing’s sake: for the feel of the wind, the rush of the waves, and the challenge of managing a boat and the elements. As much as I enjoy the physical activity of sailing, I also love it […] |
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