Category: Uncategorized

Time to debut the most belated travel blog ever – I ran into WordPress difficulties while down under which were never resolved until now.  Still, it’s never too late to pull out all the Australian stereotypes and stereotropes (is that a word?) plus this trip was such a big deal for us that I’m going…

As JFK said in 1963 in West Berlin, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, meaning that all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and not, as I now sheepishly discover, donuts.  Yes, Eddie/Susie Izzard led me astray many years ago by propagating the urban legend that, on that day, JFK told the 120,000…

With the weather finally improving we’re heading out into the countryside of Occitanie which, for those who care, was, mostly, the province of Languedoc prior to 2016.  There’s an excellent regional train and bus system so, at least for the short-term visitor, there’s not a pressing need to rent a car.   We’re going to hit…

Tired at the end of our Camino, we took it easy in Santiago for a day before departing, with the wet weather giving us an excuse to lounge around.   We hope to get back to Santiago and Galicia in general, as we didn’t see much beyond the cathedral and the countryside on route.  Then, a…

Back on the trail after a day off was tough, relative inactivity resulting in all moving body parts coming to a creaking halt; nevertheless, the thing about the Camino is that you’re expected to keep going, so we put one foot in front of the other and got back in the swing.  Our subtle strategy…

At Porto Cathedral we picked up our Credential de Peregrinoas, a little fold out booklet in which we collect ink stamps, aka sellos or timbres, at stops along the way to document our progress.  Could be at your accommodation, at a church, tourist office or, even, at a trail side café.  They’re all different, so…

All roads now seem to lead to, not Rome, but rather, Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, NW Spain.  There is an amazing network of long-distance trails across Europe, from as far away as the UK, Ireland and Germany, heading to this Western outpost of the European continent.  I don’t know what St James, whose remains…

Oh no they say he’s got to go, Go go Godzilla yeah Oh no, there goes Tokyo, Go go Godzilla, yeah (apologies to BOC) We’re feeling a little like Gohira, as the giant kaiju is known in Japan, as our time there is rapidly coming to a close.  An easy flight from Ishigakijima brings us…

Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis, the Iriemote wild cat, is a subspecies of the leopard cat that lives only on Iriemote Island in the Yaeyama group of Islands in the very South of Japan.  In Japanese it’s “Iriemote Yamaneko” (mountain cat) and the locals call it “yamapikaryaa”, (that which shines in the wild).  They’re lean, little guys…

Harry Belafonte just passed away (Good innings, well played Sir) so the title of this post came to mind.  We wanted to experience the real, natural Okinawa, so here we are, arriving at Ishigakijima (jima = island).  Just a puddle jump from Okinawa Island, and 2.5 hours from Tokyo, but a world away.  There’s a…