Category Archives: Architecture It is no wonder that Budapest is called one of the most beautiful cities in Europe! Approaching it from the Danube River that runs between what were originally the separate cities of Buda on the right bank and Pest on the left, renders it magical: this section of old city along the Banks of the […]  The smiles from the windows and doorways along the trekking trail between Panauti and Namo Buddha in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, are as warm as the bright sun overhead. I was walking with a friend and local guide Angfula Sherpa (our porter had long since left us behind!) towards the sacred pilgrimage site of Namo Buddha, where […]  Is there anything that says “Mediterranean” more than bright sun bouncing off blue waters and old white-washed walls? Add fresh seafood and salads bathed in rich olive oil, and the picture is complete. The tiny islet of Tabarca, just off the coast of Alicante in Southern Spain, is the real deal. The island was originally […]  Vienna. City of Mozart. And waltzes. And that other Strauss: Richard – known for his operas, and familiar to my generation thanks to his fanfare from Thus Spake Zarathustra that was used in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. But when I think of Vienna, I always think of Billy Joel, or of Leonard Cohen’s melancholy three-quarter time […]  Oh, Saigon! It was a name familiar to those of us who grew up in the West: first as an exotic part of France’s colonial empire, until – as Saïgon – it achieved a hard-won independence in 1955, and then as a component of the evening news for its pivotal role in the Vietnam War; the city now known as Ho Chi Minh (HCM) has been at a […] |
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