Category: UNESCO World Heritage Site

ROMANIA'S SIGHISOARA'S CITADEL: A BLISSFUL UNION OF PAST AND PRESENT

1/2/2017

Marry the woman, marry the family; especially in Eastern Europe.

My motto?

Life’s a party. Let’s crash it!

Ok, so maybe Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn get credit for being the Wedding Crashers, but hey, this is 2016, a decade and then some beyond their 2005 antics. Somebody has to continue the tradition.

Crashing the party in Romania was easy.

ON FAITH & HEAVEN ON EARTH: ANTWERP'S CATHEDRAL OF OUR LADY

4/28/2015

The impossibly slender white-washed columns of the Gothic structure rose to dizzying heights, drawing the eye upward to soaring arched ceilings that defied gravity and left little doubt the connection between Heaven and Earth. But it was the brilliant light inside the enormous cathedral that truly rendered this majestic marvel of the Middle Ages a sacred place of worship.

I stepped into the nave of Antwerp’s magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady, drawn to the light and to the peaceful beauty of this World Heritage site, the largest Gothic church in the Low Countries.

BRUGES, BELGIUM OFFERS A CHARMING FAIRY-TALE VENUE

4/23/2015

The Dijver Canal is one of several that helped Bruges come by the title, "The Venice of the North."

I’ve always been a sucker for medieval towns (I adored Germany's Regensburg and fell in love with Austria's Salzburg); give me narrow cobblestone streets, stone footbridges, ancient city gates, an historic church gracing a charming town square and it’s a sure thing I’ll get lost in the magic; which is pretty much what Jimmy and I did several weeks ago, with good friends Joan and Jerry, during a day trip to Bruges, the capital of West Flanders in northwest Belgium.

Who knew a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site could guarantee such a fairy-tale experience!

HOLLAND'S KINDERDIJK A SERENE PICTURE OF THE PAST

4/20/2015

They were sentinels of the past shrouded in the early morning mist, a legacy befitting mankind’s ingenuity and fortitude when it comes to survival.

Perhaps it was the chill in the air that caused goosebumps to run up my arms as the World Heritage site came into view; maybe it was wonder and admiration for the Dutch, and for their foresight in preserving this charming testament to their determination to hold back the sea. Either way, in that moment, the destination had trumped the journey. I had to know more.

THE GIZA SPHINX: HUMANITY'S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS?

3/4/2015

Life is a mystery. Why should the Sphinx be any different.

As if finding meaning in my own little life isn’t enough of a challenge! Why must the Sphinx come with so many questions rather than answers?

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK: 7 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

10/17/2014

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I’m living proof that people are inherently lazy! I simply can’t fight eons of evolution.

Evolution suggests we’re wired to conserve energy needed to sustain life. Basically, beyond securing food, water, and shelter (and a healthy dollop of whoopee now and then), everything else is up for debate.

I debated doing my homework before our trip to Yosemite; considered researching park options; thought about devising a plan for maximizing our visit; fell victim to the frenzy (and excitement) of here and now at the expense of tomorrow. Yep! I lost the debate; the retired teacher who believed homework was as crucial to learning as teens were to angst failed to come through. All I can say is I wasn’t alone.

I learned a very valuable lesson taking on Yosemite National Park so unprepared.

We came, we saw, we did not conquer. Nobody conquers Yosemite in two days, homework or otherwise, not with 840 miles of scenic trails calling; not with 747,956 extraordinarily glacially-sculpted acres of landscape harboring the largest granite monolith in the world and some of the tallest and oldest trees in the world; not with 1,600 miles of streams and rivers feeding countless waterfalls. Info, by the way, I’d yet to absorb prior to my visit.

Yosemite in two days? What were we thinking!

We (my brother Chris, Jimmy, me, and my son Ryan) all look a bit light headed, don't you think?

Here’s what I now know having resumed intelligent thought.

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YOSEMITE'S OLMSTED POINT: THE WONDER OF IT ALL

10/9/2014

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The world is a magnificent place; if you’ve any doubt, take a walk in the woods with a 3-year-old.

“Wait!” my granddaughter said, grabbing my arm. “I need to go first,” Grace clarified, stepping up to take the lead.

“Okay, now you can go, Nana.”

Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter. She seems to come by her bossy tendencies naturally.

Grace doesn’t miss much, either; then again, being a three-foot-tall bundle of curiosity means the ground floor is certainly easy viewing.

I missed the mushrooms.

The are layers and layers of exploration to pique Grace's curiosity.

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HIKING YOSEMITE'S TUOLUMNE MEADOW & SODA SPRINGS

10/2/2014

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Couldn't ask for a more serene doorway into the universe.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

― John Muir

He’s often been called the Father of Our National Parks System. It was here, over a century ago, in Tuolumne Meadows, John Muir (1839-1914) introduced his friends to this mountain wilderness; here where conservationist Muir began the discussion that created Yosemite National Park 1890.

We entered Yosemite the same way the Miwok and Paiute Indians had accessed this area for thousands of years, via Tioga Road, a trade route through the Sierras originally called Mono Trail, also known as the Great Sierra Wagon Road. At one time, the trail linked the Miwok Indian encampments in the region of Yosemite Valley with the Paiutes of the Mono Lake region to the east.

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MASADA & THE MYTH

7/23/2014

It wasn’t the gaunt, majesty beauty of this remote mountain location that elevated this desert fortress to mythical proportions; nor the fact that the archaeological ruins we were touring, once part of Herod the Great’s elegant mountain-top stronghold, included one of the oldest synagogues in the history of mankind.

Talk about a room with a view!

It took about 30 years to complete construction of King Herod's mountain-top retreat.

Masada, Israel’s number one tourist attraction, includes a narrative of epic proportions that, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, makes this Dead Sea Judaean desert mesa, “a symbol both of Jewish cultural identity and, more universally, of the human struggle between oppression and liberty.”

TEL AVIV HIGHLIGHTS THE BEAUTY OF THE MOMENT

7/7/2014

It doesn’t matter what we have. It’s never enough. We always seem to want more.

Yep, standing on the balcony of our hotel room in Tel Aviv, watching the sun set on the edges of the Mediterranean Sea, I considered the 12 hours that represented our overnight stay, and for a moment found them wanting.

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