Niagara Falls — coming soon to a town near you?

    Why is water beautiful? That human beings find water almost hypnotically alluring is something we all just seem to accept without question. People across the globe, from disparate countries, religions and ethnic groups, all find the substance covering 70% of our planet's surface irresistible. We want to live near it, vacation in it and will travel great distances just to admire it. Being no different than the rest of humanity, Soo and I happily traveled a great distance to admire the 5.7 million liters of water cascading every second over the limestone cliffs at Niagara Falls. We set off from Toronto for the two-hour train ride to Niagara, ... [Read More]

The Beer Blog

Benjamin Franklin said, "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." He was a pretty intelligent guy, but he probably never had the fantastic experience of going on a 'pub crawl'. Our journey began at The Terminal Brewhouse in Chattanooga, TN and ended at The Bluegrass Brewing Company in my home town of Louisville, KY. I've been to The Terminal twice previously and introduced to it's amazing fare by my friend Marque, who is a connoisseur of all things beer. I was thrilled over the prospect of sampling their consistently delicious beer and food once again. Although many brewhouses don't serve or are ... [Read More]

Size matters in the Canary Islands

   I arrived in the Tenerife, largest of the Canary Islands, to the following message from my colleague in Barcelona: "Mr. Jones! I think you made my eruption!" I couldn't think of any way to translate that into something I wanted to hear, so I declined to respond. Sometime later I received the following correction: "Sorry, I meant the eruption! You hear about volcano?" This made me simultaneously relieved and nervous. It turned out that just as Soo and I were arriving in the Canary Islands an underwater volcano erupted, near the Island of El Hierro, forcing the evacuation of more than 600 local resisdents. (El Hierro hasn't had the easiest of ... [Read More]

Çeşme – made for summer and spas

  February is the wrong time of the year to visit Çeşme, a small Turkish coastal town nestled on the Mediterranean Sea. And it’s not just because the temperature hovers near freezing (yes, my husband really brought me to a resort on the Med in the middle of winter.) The oddest part about visiting Çeşme (pronounced Chezmay) in February is that it’s a ghost town. Most shops are closed as many of the city’s residents are in-town only during the warmer months of April – October. During this season the town bustles to life with tourists sprawling the sandy beaches, sailing the aqua blue waters. And enjoying ... [Read More]

Adventures in Traveling

  There are a lot of airlines on earth. Some are good (Delta, Qantas), some are excellent (Emirates, Singapore), and some are utter crap. Sliding futilely into the latter position I present Vueling, a low-budget Spanish airline duking it out with Air India for the top spot on my ranking of world’s worst ways to fly. On what should have been a quick, easy domestic flight from Barcelona to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Vueling instead set about mashing up our journey from the first opportunity, and never let up. Once at the airport Soo and I proceeded to the Iberia desk, since we had Iberia tickets. Some readers ... [Read More]

Style, service and sangrias in Spain

  It's easy to like Barcelona (pronounced Barthalona by the locals. Truly – I spent my first two days here convinced everyone had a lisp.) I decided upon arriving in Catalonia's capital city that it was my duty to sample Spain's native drink in as many places as possible. (This perhaps has less to do with the fact that it’s Spanish that it does with my fondness for sampling drinks – tequila in Mexico, grappa in Italy, vodka, well, everywhere. You get the idea.) And I wondered if being full of sangria would, among other things, help me understand the bizarre and wonderful style of Gaudi, the 19th-century architect whose ... [Read More]

Notes on Oktoberfest

It seems I was not alone in being slightly off-put by Oktoberfest this year. I suspect those carted off after a drunken brawl were a tad miffed, too. They’re common enough that police only record the ones that involve someone having a beer stein smashed into his head (there were 58 this year), but cram a jillion drunks into a small space and fights will happen. The Italians are considered the biggest troublemakers, the Germans and Russians the most likely to break into song. There were 48 children lost during Oktoberfest this year, but all were eventually found. It’s not true that many of these were simply traded ... [Read More]

Oktoberfest and the Madness of King Ludwig

    It seems I'm becoming irritable and dull in my old age. I recall once enjoying Oktoberfest, but this year the annual celebration of beer evolved from raucous fun to annoying frat-party. Munich, the birthplace of Oktoberfest, is home to 1.4 million permanent residents. More than seven million visitors showed up for the annual two-week beer-swilling festival this year, of which I believe about 4 million should be shot. None of these people whose demise would considerably improve society have personalities much improved by the addition of alcohol, nor is their regard for personal space. The 14 beer-tents seat about 100,000 people, leaving the rest to mill around the 100-acre ... [Read More]

Hiking Georgia’s Blood Mountain Wilderness (AT) – Part 2

When you’re hiking the Appalachian Trail, miles removed from civilization, the biggest concern isn’t crossing the path of some lunatic escaped from a mental ward or coming between a black bear and her cubs. No, the real danger is much simpler; it's dehydration and lack of access to water. On average everyone in our hiking party, and mind you there were eight of us, should be carrying no less than 2 liters of water. That’s per person, per day. This is especially true on a “strenuous” hike and we were about out. The challenge laying before us was how to scavenge water from the Bird’s Gap ... [Read More]

Sex and Drugs in Amsterdam

  No city home to both the Sex Museum and the Vodka Museum could fail to be entertaining. Amsterdam doesn’t disappoint. The best way to navigate Amsterdam is by bike (Amsterdam is perhaps the most bicycle-friendly city on earth, with bike paths along nearly every street, and nearly 40% of all commutes around town made on bike. The city even actively discourages traveling within the city by car.) Soo and I weren’t quite that energetic after the sleepless overnight flight, not to mention being genuinely lazy, so we opted for the second-best way, by boat. Known as “The Venice of the North,” Amsterdam has more than 1,500 bridges spanning ... [Read More]