In another symbol of me traveling like a 12 year old, I wanted to see the Amsterdam zoo called Artis Royal Zoo. Ali had some museum urges and doesn’t really like zoos, so I went on my own. It was a fun morning despite the hordes of schoolchildren. The Artis Zoo in Amsterdam is one [...]
When you think of the Netherlands, what images come into your mind? Is one of those images of tulips? Rows and rows of brightly colored flowers in wide fields under the watchful eye of a windmill? Well tulips are very related to the image of the Netherlands, so it makes sense. That is what is [...]
During our few days in Luxembourg, we wanted to see something more than just Luxembourg City. I had been to Vianden years past which is pretty much how I knew about it. Vianden is a small town in the north of Luxembourg almost on the German border with a castle that perches on top of [...]
Turkey is a quite varied country. It is also bigger than it seems on the map. When we started planning our honeymoon trip, we made a list of things we wanted to see and Cappadocia came to the top of both of our lists. Then we started looking at what it meant to go there. [...]
Last year, Ali and I spent our honeymoon in Turkey. Just under two weeks across Turkey is really not much time, but it gave us a look around the country. Cappadocia was our middle stop on the trip. We were only there a few days and like the whole trip, this was not enough time [...]
Cappadocia is a rocky region near the center of Turkey. It is a region of sweeping vistas and gorgeous scenery. Most of these scenes are due to the nature of the rock in the region. The rock of Cappadocia is very soft. It has been eroded over centuries into valleys like the Ihlara Gorge and [...]
Painted tiles are very common in Portugal. We saw them all over Lisbon and Porto, where they line the outer walls of buildings both as decoration and as insulation. We saw a tiled station in Pinhao. They are not unheard of on train stations, but right in the center of Porto lies São Bento station. [...]
Continuing the series of looking in depth at the sights we saw on our van tour around Cappadocia. The main destination of the tour route we picked was Ihlara valley. It is a long winding gorge south-east of Goreme about an hour and our next stop after leaving Derinkuyu Underground City. The gorge is made [...]
As a part of our few days in Cappadocia, we decided to take a van tour on the green route around the region. The route heads south and visits a few places. The last thing we saw before heading back toward Goreme was the Selime Monastery. I don’t have as much info about this place [...]
As a part of our trip through Turkey we spent several days in Cappadocia, a rugged and beautiful interior region. We didn’t have a car, so opted to take a van tour. The green route tour that we took went through the Derinkuyu Underground City, one of a number of underground cities dug into the [...]