I knew Berlin was a big city, but I never knew how big until I explored it on foot. I had seven days to see the major and not-so-major sites. Since the fall of its …
September 4, 2014
Travel: Must-See
Berlin in 7 Days or Less
Marseille: stay for the soup
Bouillabaisse [bu.ja.bɛːs]. For first timers, getting the correct pronunciation is hard. And it’s even harder to spell it. For first timers, it’s also easier to have a bowl of soup in Shanghai, Japan or even …
August 28, 2014
Halong Bay’s Emerald City
After an hour of downhill and uphill hiking immersed in semi-darkness, we finally emerge out of the bowels of Sung Sot Grotto, or Surprise Cave, into the sunlight, greeted by a sensational surprise: an eye-popping …
The Maasai: East Africa's ambassadors
There are some images so iconic, they're forever associated with a particular place. Certainly among the foremost would be the Maasai and East Africa. More than any other tribal culture, the Maasai embody both the …
Modern times in one of the world's hot spots: Israel
I was in Israel when three teenagers in yeshiva – Jewish seminary – had just been kidnapped. As I left the country, they were discovered to have been killed, which touched off a firestorm between …
July 12, 2014
Kafka's Prague: surreal moments in Old Europe
Prague is a strikingly beautiful baroque city and the prime gateway for Americans into Eastern Europe. The city has intrigued me ever since I became enamored with Franz Kafka’s books as a teenager. An Old …
June 8, 2014
Macchu Picchu, in style
It’s a well-worn theme, that of the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu. But bear with me: this time – my fifth – we did it in luxury, an experience so alien to me as a …
May 31, 2014
Journal from China: Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing
My first trip to China was unforgettable. It was a tumultuous time in my life, with the ending of a long-term relationship and studies that had kept me occupied for four years. I had no …
Papeete, Tahiti
Papeete is the capital city of Tahiti, in French Polynesia. Relatively easy to reach from the West Coast, it's an eight-hour nonstop flight from LAX. Upon arrival at Tahiti's Faaa Airport, we were greeted by …
May 20, 2014
Must-see Stockholm
Though Stockholm has much in common with other Scandinavian cities, it has a look and cultural legacy all of its own. This harbor city gets both American tourists and lots of fresh seafood. Stockholm seems …
April 15, 2014
Bamberg, Germany: the "beer city"
The nearly four-hour train journey north from Munich whipped us past a landscape of farmland, old Bavarian villages and rolling hills. Our destination: the historic city of Bamberg. We booked a small room at the …
March 25, 2014