Neve Tzedek, my favorite little neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Got off the bus solo and wandered around Tel Aviv’s first and oldest neighborhood away from the “balagan”, the chaos of city life. A tangle of narrow streets and limitless eclectic portraits, the “artsy section” and oldest of the city with a rich, cultural history. Neve Tzedek was established in 1887, over 20 years before the City of Tel Aviv was …
On my last trip to East Africa, another of my female traveling companions and I were the fortunate guests of a Masai Village at the base of the Ngong Hills in the Masai Mara region of Kenya. This nomadic, warrior tribe which once held vast swathes of pre colonial Kenya, still retain many of their traditions as they live largely unaffected by modern day civilization, in areas surrounding Masai Mara. …
I’m always asked if I liked Vietnam so for the record, yes, I LOVED visiting Vietnam. Even though my trip coincided with the moment that Covid was silently enveloping the world in March of 2020, I was experiencing my first solo trip to Southeast Asia with a tour group whittled from its original twenty-four to just eight intrepid travelers, I loved the adventure. Is Vietnam safe for a solo, senior …
One of my most treasured purchases from a recent trip to Jordan is a pendant depicting the Tree of Life, a relic of Byzantine art, in amazing, microscopic mosaic detail. I was fortunate to meet the artist, a young man in his 30’s and the shop owner who detailed the seven month-long process he used to create the natural stone piece, requiring the aid of a super-strong magnification tool. He …
I love chocolate. And yes, there is a big difference between “ours” and “theirs”. We celebrate chocolate. Thinking about the gigantic red hearts filled with bite-sized confections in their pleated brown nests, the foil-wrapped eggs in Easter baskets, the Hershey bars we drop into Trick-or Treater’s bags and the chocolate coins and Santas we stuff in our little one’s Christmas stockings. Everyone knows how beautifully the Swiss craft their chocolate …
Famous for its location on the River Cher in France’s magnificent Loire Valley, evidence of a woman’s touch is evident in every design element and architectural aspect of this unique chateau. When gifted to his mistress Diane de Poitiers by Henry II, the storied improvements began with an extension of the beautiful arched bridge on one side of the castle and buttressed stone terraces creating four separate gardens were built, …