Category: Europe

 

I never tire of visiting the many countries that make up Europe.  I share all my stories, photos and travel experiences from my many travels to this continent.

PhotoPOSTcard: Just Me and the Sweeper

Burano is a popular day trip from Venice. Most people go for just a few hours and seem to stay on the main canal paths to get their photos, shop and eat. During the day, this main plaza is a  hub of activity. Restaurants and cafes have put out their chairs and umbrellas. Waiters are taking orders and serving food. Shopkeepers display their wares. Tourists are milling about, eating, drinking, shopping and wandering. But at 6 in the morning, no one is up yet, and it is just me and the sweeper.

Thanks for visiting.

Rose

PhotoPOSTcard: On the Island of Burano

I love Venice, but I love the little island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon even more. Its intimate, compact size and the popsicle colored housed reflected in the canals are a photographer’s dream. On this visit, I spent the night and had the island practically to myself in the evening after the day trippers left, and in the morning before everyone woke up. In this case, the early bird caught a great photo.

Thanks for visiting

Rose

European Waterways La Bella Vita Cruise Review – Discovering Italy On a Luxury Barge Cruise

Barge cruising with European Waterways is one of my favorite travel experiences. In this La Bella Vita cruise review I share all the details of my fantastic 6 day barge cruise in Italy.

There is a reason that a European Waterways barge cruise has become one of my favorite travel experiences – actually, it’s a lot of reasons. A week long cruise always includes incredibly attentive service, fantastic food, exceptional local wines, and specially curated excursions. And all this is provided in an intimate, small group setting. What’s not to love about that!

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Reflections From 2022

My annual review in words and photos from an incredible year of travel.

Wow! I have been so very fortunate to have had the most incredibly memorable year for travel! And what a difference 12 months can make!

It’s taken me a while to write this up as it was a very, very busy year, but I am continuing my annual end of the year post tradition by reflecting on where I’ve been in 2022 – and sharing some of my reflection photos in the process.

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Handmade and Artisanal – The Best Chocolate In Switzerland Comes From Lucerne

I discovered the best chocolate in Switzerland at a little boutique shop in Lucerne.

The Swiss are known for their banking, for their watches, and for their chocolate. The well known Swiss Lindt chocolate brand produces globally recognized treats that grace grocery store shelves around the world and duty free shops in every airport that I pass through.

Cocoa may have come to Switzerland from the Americas, but it was, in part, Swiss engineering and know how that resulted in the sweet and creamy milk chocolate treats we enjoy today. Since the early part of the 19th century, Swiss ingenuity contributed one innovation after another to the chocolate making process.

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Beautiful Storybook Norway Photos to Inspire Your Next Trip

I visited Norway on a cruise which was a very easy way to discover the beauty of this highly scenic country. I am sharing my best Norway photos to inspire you to plan your own trip to Norway.

As I cruised through peaceful fjords surrounded by mountain peaks, and visited colorful towns and villages in Norway, I could clearly see the inspiration for a fairy tale movie. As a photographer, I found the scenery to be point-and-shoot beautiful and it didn’t take much artistic license to take Norway photos worthy of a high end magazine spread.

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Norway Shore Excursions – How I Spent a Day in Norway’s Most Popular Cruise Ports

In this post I share the Norway shore excursions that I did during a cruise to Norway and the Arctic Circle. Use this information to plan your sightseeing stops on your next cruise to Norway.

I have always wanted to take a cruise along Norway’s coast, so when I saw a great last minute offer with no single supplement from Princess Cruises, I jumped at the opportunity. The cruise was at the end of August on the new Sky Princess, and you can read all about my experiences on the ship in my story Cruising Sky High – A Complete Sky Princess Review With Photos.

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Cruising Sky High With Princess – A Complete Sky Princess Review With Photos

In this sky Princess review I am sharing my personal cruise experience with lots of information about the ship, the itinerary and the excursions I did, including many photos for inspiration.

As I sit on my balcony, drink in hand, I am mesmerized by the scenery that slips by. On this day it’s not the typical frothy ocean blue. Today, the water is a calm, deep, sapphire shade, reflecting the surrounding emerald green slopes where waterfalls slip and slide for hundreds of feet and little, red roofed cottages look like something out of a fairy tale.

I am cruising through Norway’s longest fjord and I am wishing that this day will never end!

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An Intimate European Waterways Loire Valley Barge Cruise on the Renaissance

A week long Loire Valley barge cruise with European Waterways was a truly relaxing and slow paced journey with intimate service, gourmet food and wine, and visits to out of the ordinary sights in the French countryside.

Before there were planes, trains and automobiles, France developed a vast network of canals that were used to transport goods from one part of the country to another. These canals connected to the major rivers and also to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The canal network made it easy to move all manner of goods from one part of the country to the other, and in particular, allowed Parisians to easily taste the delicacies from all corners of their realm.

Today, the canals and their many locks are used primarily for recreation.  European Waterways expertly manages a fleet of 12 luxury barges that ply the many canals of France on a variety of itineraries. I had already experienced a wonderful cruise along the Burgundy Canal on the La Belle Epoque and was quite familiar with this unique way of touring France’s less visited countryside.

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My Latest Article About Halkidiki, Greece is Now Live in the Summer TWI Issue

I loved my trip to the Halkidiki region of Greece last summer. It was a great combination of historic sites and beautiful beaches. I wrote about it for the summer issue of Travel World International Magazine: Add Halkidiki to your Greece Travel Plans.

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