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shoshtrvls

599 Blog Entries
45 Trips
27 Photos

Trips:

South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia (2004)
Bhutan and India (2006)
Around the World (1987)
Australia (1990)
Turkey and Greece (1996)
Morocco (1991)
Portugal (1995)
Antarctica and South America (1992)
Greece (1993)
Spain (2001)
Italy (2002)
France, Belgium and London (2003)
Western Caribbean (2008)
France, Austria and Russia (1984)
Europe (1980)
Peru (1989)
Israel, Jordan and Egypt (2008)
Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia Herzegovina (2013)
Iceland (2013)
Costa Rica (2011)
All Around The Country (2011)
Bermuda (2015)
Central Europe (2015)
Riviera Maya (2012)
Berlin (2014)
Curacao (2010)
Art in Amsterdam (2012)
Dublin (2010)
Alaska (2005)
Italy (2016)
Cuba (2017)
Northern European Captials (2017)
Medellin (2017)
Southeast Asia (2012)
Borneo and South Korea (2018)
Central Mexico (2018 - 2019)
Tanzania (2019)
Panama (2021)
Madrid and Valencia (2022)
Paris and Western Europe (2021)
The Caucuses (2022)
Tunisia (2022)
Camino de Santiago (2023)
Belize, Guatemala and Honduras (2009)
Ecuador (2016)

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/shoshtrvls


Welcome to my travels. On this site you'll find recent trips and some very old trips. You'll note that for some trips I wrote very detailed reports (at least in the beginning), for others, I didn't even take notes of where I was on what dates. Nevertheless, I've done my best to document, to the extent I can, all of my major trips.

Day 4

Madrid, Spain

More exploring of Madrid.

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on September 30, 2001 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Spain (2001)
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Day 3

Toledo, Spain

A nice little side trip, including a visit to the small antique shop that my mother and I discovered almost 15 years earlier.

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on September 29, 2001 from Toledo, Spain
from the travel blog: Spain (2001)
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Day 2

Madrid, Spain

Touring Madrid, often with some portion of the Campbell family.

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on September 28, 2001 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Spain (2001)
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Day 1

Madrid, Spain

Doing our part to recover from 9/11, we set off.

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on September 27, 2001 from Madrid, Spain
from the travel blog: Spain (2001)
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Day 17

Rodos, Greece

Not one to waste a minute of vacation, the last night in Rhodes night didn't really start until midnight when we met the pension owners and their two daughters at a small club for three hours of traditional Greek music and dancing -- not a tourist in sight, this was "the real thing." The music was wonderful, played on traditional instruments such as the lute, and as the wine and liquor flowed so did the clientele's inhibitions (if they ever had any). Women got up and really belly-danced, sans the costumes (like I said, this was not a show for tourists) -- which is incredibly difficult to do if you've ever tried it (which I can now say that I have). Men did the hands-on-shoulders, stomping and kicking, knee and heel slapping numbers, and everyone joined in the Israeli-like line dancing. (The pension owners were surprised at how quickly I picked up the steps; I refrained from telling them that the hora is the hora is the hora, whether it be at a bar mitzvah or a Greek nightclub). We didn't crawl out of there until almost 4 a.m., a mere two hours before I had to be at the airport. So, rather than even attempting to sleep, I spent my last hours of vacation repacking my luggage, filling out the details in my (hand written) journal, and desperately wishing that all of life were a vacation . . .

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 18, 1996 from Rodos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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Day 16

Rodos, Greece

My last full day of vacation. Originally, it was to be spent on the ferry to Athens, but rough seas forced the cancellation of the hydrofoil and thus I was lucky to have gotten one of the last seats on tomorrow's early morning plane flight to Athens which arrives there just in time to get me on my plane home to the states. So, taking advantage of the extra day, Mark and I rented a little Suzuki Samurai and went exploring. Our first stop was Faliraki beach -- lots of people, warm water, and lots of activities ("no Mark, I see no reason to do that crane bungee jumping; remember, I jumped out of a real plane"). Despite the crowds, it certainly was not a bad spot. We stayed for 2-1/2 hours baking in the sun and splashing in the non-surf (nary a wavelet in sight) before heading on to Cape Vagia for lunch at a tiny little beach, fairly unspoiled and uncrowded. Then it was down the coast past Lindos where the tourists thinned out and goats were the far more prevalent mammals. We finally selected a nearly deserted beach in a secluded cove near the town of Lardos for the last hour or two of sunning.

On the way back to Rhodes proper we made one final sight-seeing stop, to Tsampika Monastery. The monastery (a small one to be sure) is set atop what appears to be the highest promontory on the coast, visible from the road as only a tiny white dot at the top of a craggy peak. To get there one must first drive a few kilometers of a steep, narrow switchback road which ends roughly 1 km below the monastery. The last little bit on foot, while a short distance, is a good little hike up -- seriously *up*, the paved "trail" even having handrails to keep one from being blown off the mountain and onto the rocks below. And the reward for all of this? Not the monastery actually but the view . . . an incredible panorama of the entire east coast of the island from Lindos to Ladiko.

Our final dinner is at a small taverna near our pension, recommended by the pension owners, with excellent fish and even reasonable prices. We then made good use of the Suzuki, driving around the walls of the old city at night, beautifully lit with flickering lanterns (and some help from modern spotlights strategically placed).


permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 17, 1996 from Rodos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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Day 15

Rodos, Greece

This morning began with yet another walk into the old city of Rhodes, touring it more carefully this time. First we visited the museum within the city's castle. And, frankly, it is the castle itself, with its massive stone rooms and high vaulted ceilings, which is more impressive than the actual collection, which consists of the by now all-too-familiar pieces of pottery, roman coins, statuary, mosaics and the like. We then walked along the Harbor and through a bit of the new city (pretty much a city like any other) before catching a bus to the town of Lindos, 1-1/2 hours away

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 16, 1996 from Rodos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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Day 15 (Continued)

Lindos, Greece

Well, what can one say about Lindos except that what we had been told was dead-on accurate. Yes, Lindos is a picturesque little town above a crystal clear blue bay, white-washed buildings tumbling down a mountainside dominated by a huge fortress. And yes, more tourists squeezed into narrow cobblestone streets than are usually found at Disneyworld on a Sunday in June. And the shops (pretty much the only things in Lindos besides the restaurants) lacked any sense of "authenticity" -- tee shirt shops, souvenir shops with ashtrays emblazoned with the words "Lindos, Rhodos" on them, "handicrafts" made in Taiwan. Welcome to tourism run amok. As a result, Mark and I stayed just long enough to (1) run into our USC boys, seriously hung over from a night of raucous drinking; (2) climb to the fortress, and (3) spend exorbitant amounts of money on a late, mediocre lunch. But hey, the view from the restaurant was great, watching the sailboats from the city of Rhodes make their way in and out of the bay. Now, if we just could have gotten those obnoxious Texans at the next table to talk a little softer . . .

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 16, 1996 from Lindos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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Day 15 (Continued)

Rodos, Greece

Our return from Lindos was somewhat delayed by having gotten on the wrong bus to go home (and you should see the way people cram into the buses in the afternoon, like a Tokyo subway at quitting time), but eventually we found our way back to the city of Rhodes for yet another evening of strolling and shopping (my final purchase, a beautiful hand-painted gold-lief icon, perfect for a good Jewish girl like myself) and dining before returning to our little hotel

permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 16, 1996 from Rodos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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Day 14 (Continued)

Rodos, Greece

We arrived in Rhodes at about 6:30. If you've never been there before, it is impressive. The old city is surrounded by massive fortifications and sailing into the Harbor through the two pillars where the Colossus once stood is really a sight to see. When we arrived, we realized that not only did we not have any place to stay, we also didn't have a guidebook for Greece or any clue as to where to look for decent lodgings. Fortunately, as luck would have it, two Australian women who were heading out on a ferry for Crete told us about a wonderful little pension about five minutes walk from the old city.

After settling into the pension, we walked about a block to a small neighborhood restaurant recommended by the pension owner, a wonderful woman, and had a great meal -- my first real tzatziki in three years. I love tzatziki, and could live on it if given a chance. Then it was a stroll through the old city of Rhodes window shopping . . . a tourist destination to be sure, but somehow less aggressive and offensive than most. In fact, it reminded me somewhat of the old part of Santa Fe . . . many, many shops and cafes that somehow didn't ruin the experience.


permalink written by  shoshtrvls on June 15, 1996 from Rodos, Greece
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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