After our Tauck tour had ended, we spent an extra day in Malta and arranged for a private tour through Amy at guidedtoursmalta.com. Although Amy was unavailable on the extra day we had in Malta, she arranged for us to tour with one of her colleagues. We chose a full day tour of Gozo, but we were able to customize it since it was a private tour. Our guide picked us up at our hotel with a driver and we…
Our last port of call in Sicily was Siracusa or Syracuse. It has a 2,700 year history and was once a powerful city-state, one of the largest cities in the ancient world. It was founded by Greeks but was also ruled by the Romans. Because my husband is a retired physics teacher, I must mention that Syracuse was the birthplace of Archimedes. He is famous for Archimedes’ Principle, which says that the buoyant force of an object placed in water…
Our next port of call was Palermo, Sicily. We drove to Monreale to see the Cathedral of Monreale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As we looked at the exterior as seen in the first two pictures below, we would not have guessed the cathedral made the UNESCO list. There are two bell towers on either side of the porch which seems plain with the exception of the inlaid marble. The porch was added in the 18th Century. When you enter…
Back on board the Le Ponant, the sails were raised for the first time on our cruise. We had been at Tall Ships in Chicago and saw sails raised with ropes. On the Le Ponant, this process was mechanical – but still a beautiful site! When attending the briefing given by our tour directors, we learned that we would be passing the island of Stromboli overnight. Stromboli is home to a “constantly active volcano” and I decided to set my…
After we left Herculaneum we drove to Naples where we boarded the Le Ponant. It is a French ship and has three masts which can be used with the engine when there is wind. We were two of the 53 passengers on board. The cabins were small but efficient. The pictures below were taken as we left Naples and of the sunset our first night on board. The next morning we were anchored off the Amalfi coast and went ashore…
We left Lake Louise and headed for the Jasper Park Lodge via the Icefields Parkway. The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks are a UNESCO World Heritage Site both because of their beauty and fossils that can be found in the area. Our drive took us into Yoho National Park, Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. The drive was one of incredible scenery with snow-covered mountains, glaciers, beautiful blue lakes colored by glacier sediment, and waterfalls. The next pictures were taken…
On a day when our son and daughter-in-law were more heavily involved in wedding preparations, we toured the Changdeokgung Palace. When visiting Korea, we found that there were far fewer people who spoke English when compared to other countries we have visited. The hotel concierge wrote down where we were going and gave us a card with the name of our hotel which we could give to our taxi driver, ensuring that we got to where we were going and…
After finishing our cruise on Marlborough Sound, we went back to the airport in Blenheim and flew to Te Anau. Te Anau is in the southern part of New Zealand’s south island, just a little more than 3,000 miles from the South Pole. Today our tour would take us to Milford Sound – and there would be incredible beauty every step of the way. Our first stop was Mirror Lakes. These are small lakes very close to the road on…
We visited several small towns in the Umbria region of Italy which include Orvieto and Assisi from my last post. Umbria is famous for medieval towns, wine and beautiful farmland. We stayed in Torgiano, also in the Umbria region. The oldest part of Torgiano is still partly surrounded by a wall. Pictured below is the Torre di Guardia which is a defensive tower dating back to the 13th Century. As we walked to see this tower, we came across the…
This will be the last “Beijing” post and will focus on the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. The Summer Palace was originally commissioned in 1749 but was damaged in two wars. It was rebuilt in 1886 at the direction of Empress Dowager Cixi. She is said to have been one of the most powerful women in Chinese history. She was widowed when she was 26 and her five-year old son was next in line to serve as emperor. …