Nov 2nd, 2011 at 9:00AM:
It's dark when I wake up in Alicane, with heavy, blue-grey storm clouds twisting upwards through the Mediterranean sky. Somewhere, 10,000 feet above this small Spanish city the gods are fighting over weather patterns; there's a dash of clear blue sky here and a seam of storm clouds there, a maelstrom of wind, cloud, rain and energy hashed up atmosphere. In my view, it's the perfect condition ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Mediterranean posts
Volvo Ocean Race kicks off from Alicante, Spain
Nov 2nd, 2011 at 9:00AM:
It's dark when I wake up in Alicane, with heavy, blue-grey storm clouds twisting upwards through the Mediterranean sky. Somewhere, 10,000 feet above this small Spanish city the gods are fighting over weather patterns; there's a dash of clear blue sky here and a seam of storm clouds there, a maelstrom of wind, cloud, rain and energy hashed up atmosphere. In my view, it's the perfect condition ...Photo of the Day - Boats in Croatia
Jan 16th, 2011 at 6:00PM:
As a kid, I spent lots of summer vacations staring at boats in the harbor. I never had a good reason for it but today, Flickr user nicocrisafulli's photo brought all those boat memories rushing back. There's something childlike and wonderful about their motion, sound and colors: the way they chaotically bob up and down, the soft thwapping of the covers whipping in the breeze and their colorful ...Letter from Genoa: Savoring the atmospheric alleys of Italy's great insider city
Oct 14th, 2010 at 9:01AM: In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In 1493 he sailed the deep blue sea. Half a millennium later Genoa's ship has come in -- again.
Columbus was a native of Genoa, or so it's claimed. Though he sailed for Spain, he hailed from the capital of the Italian Riviera. The boomerang-shaped region's official name is Liguria. Stretching from Tuscany to Provence, Liguria includes the well-known ...Stonehenge burial may be prehistoric tourist
Sep 29th, 2010 at 11:30AM: Archaeologists call him the "Boy with the Amber Necklace", and ever since he was discovered in 2005 they've known he was special. Not only would his jewelry have been rare and expensive back when he was buried 3,550 years ago, but the choice of his grave site was significant too--just three miles from Stonehenge.
Now chemical analysis on his teeth has revealed something else special about ...Daily Pampering: 'Suite' ride on the Seabourn Sojourn world cruise
Aug 10th, 2010 at 4:00PM: If you're going to see the world, you might as well do it in style. The Yachts of Seabourn just unveiled its Seabourn Sojourn in London and is preparing the ship for a 2011 sail around the world.
The 110-day World Cruise from Los Angeles to London via the South Pacific, New Zealand, around Western Australia, Indonesia and Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and the Mediterranean will be beautiful ...White Collar Travel: Three perspectives on business travelers and their miles
Mar 18th, 2010 at 2:00PM: What would you do with 300,000 frequent flier miles in your account – not to mention enough hotel points to get you 10 days in the blissful destination of your choice? Your imagination is probably running wild, as mine did when I got my first travel-intensive gig a decade ago. I had visions of southern France: soaking in the Mediterranean sun, roulette in Monte Carlo and smoking Cuban cigars ...Pylon from Cleopatra's temple raised from the sea
Dec 20th, 2009 at 3:30PM: Archaeologists have pulled a massive pylon from the bay of Alexandria, Egypt, that was once a part Cleopatra's royal complex. The pylon, a pillar of red granite measuring 2.2 meters long and weighing nine tons, formed part of the temple of Isis and stood right next to Cleopatra's mausoleum in the year 30 BC. These and other building sank into the harbor during a series of earthquakes more than a ...Five reasons to visit Monaco next year
Dec 16th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Surrounded by France, except for a stretch along the Mediterranean, Monaco is a destination for the wealthy, as well as those with a penchant for auto racing or roulette. The only other ostensible reason to visit this tiny principality is curiosity -- especially for Americans, it's hard to believe that a plot of land that small could actually be its own country! Well, good things tend to come in ...Photo of the Day (8.9.09)
Aug 9th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Imagine renting a seaside studio in the South of France. Each morning, you throw open the windows of your balcony to a jaw-dropping view of the seaside village below, punctuated by tiny sailboats and the luminous yellow-orange glow of the early morning sun. If this was your vision, it's been fulfilled by Flickr user Michael Joseph Goldst ...etc. My favorite element of this image is the sunlight - ...History's Most Famous Travel Adventures
Feb 20th, 2009 at 8:32AM: There is no doubt that history has a level of influence on the places that many of us visit. We read about far off places and exotic adventures, and it fires our own imaginations, sometimes compelling us to take a journey of our own, and experience the things that we've dreamed about. Forbes Traveler has put together an excellent list of the greatest travel adventures from history, not only ...Send your friends and loved ones away
Dec 28th, 2008 at 3:00PM: Travel is a tough gift to give. You need to know the recipient pretty well to make sure your well-intentioned effort doesn't turn into a disaster. Could you imagine sending a wealthy friend through budget hotels in Romania? Or, putting a cities-only person on a beach for two weeks? The possibility for disaster is infinite. But, if you put some thought into it, your gift of a trip can be a big hit. ...Group vacations - French villas are hot!
Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:30PM: Want to make all your friends swoon? Rent out a villa in the south of France for an affordable, peaceful vacation. Want to make all your friends love you? Take them along! French villas have become one of the top destinations in the great tradition of group vacations. I love group vacations; it's like an extended party. Get everyone you like together and watch them interact for a week. It's ...Libya: A new place to head in your travels
Oct 21st, 2007 at 1:01PM: When I was in the Peace Corps one of my Gambian friends moved to Libya for some reason. This was back when the U.S. and Libya weren't on the best of terms. I wasn't ever sure why he went to Libya--all I know is that, once he went there, his wife and kids moved back to live with her mother and I didn't see him again. I only saw his family one other time.
Brett mentioned in a September post that ...Cannes Cam 2007
May 18th, 2007 at 1:46PM:
Can't make it to Cannes this year? Me either. But that's okay -- The IFC's website is streaming a live video feed from a camera hovering over the red carpet at Grand Théâtre Lumière at the Palais. According to IFC, "Most film premieres take place around 7pm and 10pm local time, or 1pm/4pm ET," but action on the carpet is dead right now (save for a few birds and honking ...One for the Road: Mediterranean Summer
May 18th, 2007 at 11:02AM: After four years of intense internships at restaurants in Provence and Italy, American chef David Shalleck was debating a return to the US when an interesting opportunity presented itself. A wealthy Italian couple challenged him to serve as chef aboard their yacht for five months, using only local ingredients from port cities and never once repeating a meal for the couple and their guests on ...Catalonia - Too Cool For Spain
Sep 6th, 2006 at 12:24PM: Blogging from Blanes, Catalonia: A sun-drenched, beautiful, Mediterranean coastal area of Spain, Catalonia still thinks it is too cool for Spain. A friend who has lived here for 8 years says that the Catalans consider themselves the hard-working ones, whereas the Southerners are supposed to be the slackers. (Californians - sounds familiar?) He says they are all equally relaxed about getting ..."Dream fish" poisons two diners in Mediterranean
Apr 19th, 2006 at 4:36PM: For all you gutsy travelers who feel that you have to taste the local specialties in order to truly know a place,
here's a story to keep in mind. Two diners in the western Mediterranean recently suffered intense hallucinations and
digestive problems after eating Sarpa Salpa, a type of Indo-Pacific reef fish (right). According to an article in Practical Fishkeeping, the LSD-like
hallucinations from ...
