Heading back to Prague, I drove through Slovakia, the 105th country I visited to-date. I was very much looking forward to seeing and doing some exploring in the Tatras Mountains, a lovely, landscaped area in this country and partly in Poland. None of it happened. The weather simply did not cooperate; even when the rain occasionally stopped, the cloud cover precluded me from seeing anything other than what was right in front. I overnighted in the town of Martin, hoping for mor

Had to be up at 4:30 to drive myself to the Pržemysl train station and try to beat the immigration line so as not to miss my train. Because of the war and much expatriation/repatriation, you are required to go through meticulous security, much like at an airport. I had been told that many people end up missing their train. I did not miss mine. Reality hits as soon as you arrive The fast-moving train took two hours to reach Ukraine’s largest eastern town, L’viv. Immediately I

I had always wanted to visit Auschwitz; to touch with my own hands and see with my own eyes that a place where acts of such incomprehensible atrocity does indeed exist. Not that I ever doubted it. Left the hotel early enough to get to Oswiecim (the Polish name of the town; renamed Auschwitz by the Germans), as I expected to have to stand in a long line to buy tickets. So said AI. I tried to book on-line, but all I found on offer were tours which included hotel pick-up, which

So much for visiting Ostrava today. The road there was closed, due to some unknown (to me) reason, so I had to opt for another route that took me over several freeways, state, and rural roads, which took much longer, leaving no time for Ostrava, but I managed to get a lovely hotel across the Olza river that separates Chechia from Poland and I now find myself in the small city of Ciezyn. Poland is on the left bank and the Czech Republic on the right of the drier than usual Ol

I arrived in Prague yesterday afternoon. By the time I picked-up the car and found my way to the hotel it was already close to dinner time. The hotel I'm staying in is called the University Hotel. I expected it to be close to a university, but I had not expected it to be in the VSE University actual campus. It's actually pretty cool. Young people all around, a great many of whom are foreigners studying Economics (that's the specialty of this university). There are plenty of g

Kigali, Rwanda (Hotel view) The zipline drone medical deliveries service The royal cattle, Nyanta, Rwanda Crazy backroads Nyangwe National Park Cyangugu, at border with Democratic Republic of Congo Kibuye. Lake Kivu in the rain. Lake Kivu Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda Farming. The hoe is the national tool. Close encounters. The highlight of the trip Gorillas in the mist Border crossing into Uganda Uganda street scene Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda Quenn Elizabeth N.

A post with little in the way of excitement, but I wanted to post some pictures from our latest stop in Uganda; beautiful, tranquil Lake Bunyonyi. The place is so serene and spectacular that it is not surprising it is one of the country’s premier destinations. What is surprising though is how little has been done to make it more accessible. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once you are off the main road, signage is non-existent and the roads are all but impassabl

Well, the papers for the car were at last delivered, at 10PM! I had one goal in mind for the day, which lamentably I had to give up, seeing the rare prehistoric Shoebill Stork in the Entebbe swamp; I was not going to chance missing out on getting the papers delivered, hence we had to stay close to the hotel. Seeing the shoebill was to be my second biggest highlight for the trip, but we certainly cannot complain. Instead, we visited the nearby Entebbe Botanic Gardens, within w

Well, our car was finally delivered at around 6:30PM. We lost a day that had previously been planned, but we did enjoy the lodge’s facility, which we had all to ourselves. Grey crowned cranes The pool at the lodge. Diane is at left-center. The car that was given us as a replacement is, however, not insured for Rwanda and is missing the proper paperwork to return to Kigali, so we will have to meet once again with the manager to exchange it for our old car, which should have be

So, it’s time to bring you, once again, up to date with our whereabouts and our activities. When I left you last, we were heading up to the town of Fort Portal, a fairly large place with good restaurants and activities. Along the way, we traveled from the Southern Hemisphere into the Northern, meaning that we crossed the Equator, once again in our lives, and paused to take the obligatory photograph. Diane is half in the Southern Hemisphere and half in the Northern This man of

An exciting day awaited us today, our first African border crossing, which is quite different than arriving by air. The drive from our Volcanoes N. P. lodge to Uganda only took 45 minutes. Volcanos at dawn Some of the lovely staff at Volcanoes Overview Safari Lodge The border was only slightly chaotic, the worst part was the lack of signage and clarity about where to park and where to go, so we hired a facilitator, which made the whole thing smoother and much faster. The whol

Most of today’s long drive went without a hitch. Once again, as it is every day, the entire road was lined with people walking (Rwanda has a very high population density), many pushing their bikes loaded with all sorts of sacs, others with nothing but a hoe leaning on their shoulder; many were mothers with their baby strapped to their back, wearing most colorful dresses. We crossed many villages; hectic activity. Fishing boats stay out all night, return early morning These be

We know that a few of you look forward to our daily blog and might have been disappointed that there was no posting yesterday. In truth, we actually had planned it as a rest day. Our hotel was super, the views of Lake Kivu magnificent, and it needed to be enjoyed. I spent the afternoon listening to the Sampdoria game from Italy, then enjoying an early evening 90-minute divine massage at the spa, while Diane enjoyed reading, and almost finishing, an entire novel. This beautifu

Today was not the first day that our “trusted” Google Maps behaved erratically. We had entered directions for Nyungwe National Park, which should pretty much have been a straight shot, a pretty routine one-hour-forty-five minutes’ drive on a major road. Soon though, the “voice” told us to turn left into one of those rutty dirt roads that we’ve grown quite familiar with. Oh, oh! The local population helps maintain the road As it turned out, what we had thought would be a short

Today we left Kigali, heading southwest, toward the city of Nyanza, the previous capital of the country. Hazy view of Kigali this morning The distance is not that far, but the restrictive speed limits of the country, coupled with considerably heavy traffic in some parts, made this drive much longer than one would imagine, just looking at a map. Halfway along the road, we made a short detour to visit a place that had caught my interest when I first saw it on YouTube. In Rwand

Hello from pretty much the center of the African continent. We are in Rwanda! I know some of you are asking “where?”, and “what the hell are you doing in Rwanda?”. Well, the answer to the first question has already been answered in the first paragraph, and as to why are we here, we’ll have an entire blog over the next several days that will answer it. So, we arrived last night, after an extremely long flight that took nearly a full day. Of course we got practically no sleep

Iffy weather again. It’s strange how the skies can look so threatening, yet when it comes to actual precipitation, it usually amounts...

I had never been to Santuario de Chimayo yet had always wanted to visit. Chimayo is a minute town, in what is possibly the most Hispanic...

Today we spent the entire day in Santa Fe, my favorite capital city in the whole USA. You could drop me off blindfolded in Albany,...

Let me tell you about our “hotel” last night. The Luna Mystica is unique, inasmuch as all the rooms are actually mobile homes scattered...