Two final days to wrap up our adventures in Nepal. We are healthy again (thanks for your prayers) and had an easy bus ride back to the capital. We arrived just in time for the fourth day of celebration of Tihar. We were blessed to spend this celebration with Prarthana's parents at their home in …
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Layover in Dubai
Dubai was on my list and our layover provided an inexpensive way to experience the city. Although we were exhausted from the two flights that got us here at 6am, we had 9 hours to explore and we couldn't waste it. Things got off to a rough start. Our arrival terminal was completely disconnected from …
Marrakech, Morocco
Africa! Wow, what an introduction to the continent. I prebooked our airport taxi through the hostel to keep our arrival logistics simple and stress free. When the taxi dropped us off on the other side of town from our hostel and a new guy started guiding us on foot, I was a bit apprehensive but …
Madrid, Spain
This is a great city. I was underwhelmed by Lisbon, but Madrid has been everything I look for in a city: spacious parks, nice museums and monuments, inexpensive yet delicious coffee and pleasant streets for walking. Spain has several distinctive regions and it has been great to explore Catalonia, Andalucia and now the capital city. …
Lisbon, Portugal
Lisbon, like Rome is the city of seven hills, and we climbed all of them. We decided to slow our pace and spend an extra few days in Lisbon. We saw the famous monuments on day one and Sintra on day two, and that left us two days to wander the neighborhoods and read in …
Lagos, Portugal
We just spent three days in Portugal's version of Santa Barbara—the coastline reminded me of home and the hostel reminded me of Isla Vista. Lagos is a party town that draws people from all over Australia, and I can tell you categorically that Australians are very friendly and can party hard. These eighteen-year-olds drink and …
Southern Spain: Seville and Córdoba
Like Granada, Seville and Córdoba's architecture is heavily influenced by the Islamic rulers from the late 700s and then overlayed with Catholic and Gothic themes from the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. Córdoba was about 100 degrees for the two days we were there and we didn't love the city. We saw the Mezquita Cathedral …
Granada, Spain
I have wanted to see the Alhambra for years and I am so excited to visit in person. While the Alhambra was the full reason for visiting this city, I really loved Granada. We are finally in a city where we can speak the language (I had one year of French Canadian and in Barcelona …
Barcelona, Spain
We wanted one last Mediterranean beach before enduring the inland heat of sunny Spain. Barcelona has a great sandy beach plus Antoni Gaudi's legacy of architectural wonders. We arrived just after a thunderstorm because our flight was delayed two and a half hours to wait for that thunderstorm to pass. We got to know the …
Vacation within a Vacation
We are spending this week lounging on the beaches in the South of France. It is a fantastic change of pace. I love hiking, but reading on the beach and floating weightlessly in the water is great recovery. I lived on the Pacific coast for eleven years, and while I loved seeing the ocean regularly, …
