A Homeward Odyssey
The good, the bad & the unexpected during a long journey When I headed for Israel for the Society of American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting, I knew the journey would be long, requiring an overnight near Newark International Airport (EWR). El Al is the only airline I can think of whose transatlantic flights leave the East Coast in the early afternoon, [...]
Jerusalem’s 9/11 Memorial Quiet & Uncrowded
By the time the World Trade Center memorial was dedicated with great fanfare on September 11, 1911, in Manhattan,, the considerably more modeet 9/11 Living Memorial a few miles outside of Jersulem had been open for nearly two years. Of course, it is thousands of miles from the World Trade Center. The memorial is a bronze depiction of a of an unfurling American flag on a granite base that includes a piece of steel from the WTC rubble.
Egypt: What a Difference Two Years Make
Revolutions might inconvenience travelers, but they change nations If you really want to go somewhere, my advice is: go while the going is good. Egypt had been on my to-visit list for a long time before I grabbed the opportunity to visit exactly two years ago. I left the U.S. on January 29, 2009, and [...]
Will High-Tech Border Fence Become a Tourist Attraction?
Other walls that kept people apart eventually draw tourists together Walls are sometimes meant to keep people in (prisons, for example) and sometimes to keep them out (fortresses). The Great Wall of China to keep the Mongols out, Hadrian’s Wall to protect the Roman presence in Britain against raiders from the north, the Berlin Wall [...]
Israel Bulldozes East Jerusalem Hotel
Provocations, one after another, test Palestinian patience — and challenge tourists to visit When I was in the Palestinian Territories/West Bank/Palestine last June, I tried to keep my feelings about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians measured as I wrote about my experiences and observations. I believe in the principles of the International Institute for Peace Through [...]
O, Isolated Town of Bethlehem
Bethlehem, largely isolated behind a high wall, remains the symbol for the hope of peace Last June I spent more than a week in Palestine, AKA the West Bank and officially called the Palestinian Territories or some such phrase that denies the validity of independent statehood. My group’s first stop was Bethlehem, cut off by [...]
"Overrated" Travel Sites Still on My Bucket List
Graduate-degreed people dis world sites that I still want to see I live in Boulder, Colorado, which has again been named the “smartest city in America” — most recently by The DailyBeast and previously by Forbes. I sometimes think that I am virtually only person in town over the age of 25 without a master’s degree — [...]
Emirates Orders More Boeing 777 Aircraft
Dubai-based airline expands its large Triple Seven fleet Emirates Airlines, the Dubai-based, award-winning international carrier, has ordered 30 777-300ER aircraft to add to its 71 already on the books, of which 53 of this model are currently in service. The Triple Seven a long-range, wide-body airliner is the world’s largest twinjet. Quite unsurprisingly, even before this latest $9.1 [...]
Mummies and Melodrama
“Reality” TV strikes again in creating a dreadful television series I’ve been captivated by things Egyptian since I visited Egypt last year as part of a Society American Travel Writers Freelance Council meeting that included an audience with Dr. Zahi Hawass, the media-savvy, imperious and very gifted secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Dr. Hawass [...]
Palestine: Reflections
Headlines provide signs of hope that Israeli-Palestinian tensions will ease and that peace will prevail As I was recounting my Palestine/West Bank travel experiences and observations, I made notes to myself about how I wanted to wrap it all up. After all, this wasn’t just a sightseeing trip featuring antiquities and sacred places. It was [...]
