When my wife and I decided to visit my old friend Ralph and his wife KC in Cairns for a week, I had no idea what this Northern Queensland city was all about. I thought it was some remote town whose only claim to fame was its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. Boy, did…
Read MoreCategory: history
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls! The name alone stirs up images of thundering water rolling over a vast cliff and plunging 160 feet to the gorge below. The falls were formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation, the last North American ice age which happened from 75,000 to 11,000 years ago. The receding ice carved out the Great Lakes and…
Read MoreA Man’s Home is his Castle
They say a man’s home is his castle but it is rare that a home really is a castle. We generally think of European royalty, but there is a distinctive group of wealthy industrialists who built homes that resembled castles. The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California is one notable example. Another is the Boldt…
Read MoreCraigdarroch Castle Photo Gallery
Here are some additional photos of our visit to Craigdarroch Castle. And that concludes our tour of this unique piece of Canadiana. If you have the opportunity, do visit. It’s a beautiful piece of our heritage. xx
Read MoreThe Other Antigua
When we think of Antigua, we usually think of the Caribbean island, but there are in fact three others. Two of them are small towns, one in Australia and one in the Canary Islands. The subject of today’s tour is the ancient city of Antigua in Guatemala. Founded in 1543 as Santiago de los Caballeros,…
Read MorePhoto Gallery: Guatemala
Some additional photos of Guatemala.
Read MorePhoto Gallery: Parque Central, Antigua, Guatemala
Here are some more photos from Central Park, Antigua.
Read MoreTransiting the Panama Canal
The Panama Canal was listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World in a BBC miniseries produced in 2003. A marvel of engineering, the story behind it is truly incredible. Almost everyone has heard of it, but few know much about it. We had the privilege of taking a cruise from Fort…
Read MorePhoto Gallery: Panama Canal
Here are some additional photographs of the Panama Canal. That completes our Panama Canal transit. A truly amazing experience.
Read MoreCartagena, Colombia
When we booked our excursion online for Cartagena, we knew nothing about the city. Since we booked a tour of a 16th century Spanish fort, we thought it might be a sleepy little city like Cadiz or Malaga in Spain. Malaga is actually a good size with around 570,000 people but it doesn’t seem large….
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