Since I’ve stopped taking lunch at work and am more inclined these days with distracting myself with music rather than reading on my commute home, I haven’t been consuming books with the same rapidity I once enjoyed. In fact I have such a huge backlog of material to get through, that I’ve had to stop picking up anything else interesting that crosses my path.
However I’m hoping to turn that around, and get back to my old ways.
While we were in Istanbul, Nic stumbled across A Discovery of Witches by Deborah …

While many go to the Ayasofya to take in its majesty, some go with the sole purpose of sticking their finger in the building’s “weeping column” in hopes that their prayer for healing or other such miracles might be heard.

Taken from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus it now stands in the northern corner of the museum. Made of white marble with a bronze belt that circles the lower part of the column, a hole toward the base and the water which drops out of it are associated with …

With Nicole’s birthday on the approach, I thought I’d get last year’s first – of what will hopefully be many – Birthday Challenges. Seeing her birthday as an opportunity to face her fears, for her birthday in April 2011 we were visiting Niagara Falls, and Nic decided that she would take advantage of the Skywheel and put her fear of heights to the test. This is the short version of that video, and runs just over 4 minutes long.

I’m often asked why I cruise, and one of the top reasons I almost always give is the food. Pretty much anything you order in the main dinning room is going to be great, and leaves you thinking about what you’ll be having the next night. And so long as you don’t do anything more than a ten day cruise, you’re also unlikely to see much repetition in the dinning menu. On all the cruises we’ve been on, they’ve all done a great job trying to keep the dishes varied, …

While Ephesus’ history as a city is usually traced back to its founding as one of the twelve ancient Greek cities which comprised the Ionian League (circa 10th century BCE), its first inhabitance actually dates back much further to the Neolithic Age – some time around 6000 BCE – after nearby excavations discovered the artificial mounds (hoyuk’s) of Aryalya and Cukurici.
Even five centuries earlier in the Bronze Age before the arrival of the ancient Greeks, a burial ground from the Mycenaean era (circa 15th century BCE) was discovered close to …

A few years back I adopted the practice of prologues – or cutaways – at the openings of my sessions to help establish the events that were responsible for starting the plot moving, while providing some background details about the activities of the antagonists, and in general for signaling the beginning of the session and easing everyone into the game.
But I also find it a useful vehicle for letting the players see the impact of their characters’ actions on the unfolding plot. In fact I find this is good …

Chichen Itza is in fact the first Heritage Site that Nicole and I visited together thanks to her parents, who organized a family trip down to Mexico for Christmas a few years back.
Perhaps one of the greatest Mayan sacred sites on the Yucatan peninsula, the fusion of Mayan and Toltec civilizations from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries certainly makes it the most important example of this union, found upon almost every inch of the monuments and artistry that comprise the grounds of Chichen Itza.
And even though climbing the Castillo …

Because not all ports of call are for everyone – even I was having ruin fatigue at some points of our trip – not to mention there’s always going to be the day or two at sea while the ship’s transitioning between ports, cruise lines make sure that the days are packed full of activities – even if you’re more than likely going to be spending the day at the pools.
You can always count on the main theatre having a movie on during the day – which Nicole and I …

When we heard about easyJet’s Inspiration Initiative, and found that it coincidentally fell around our blog’s one year anniversary, we almost felt obliged to write our own Inspiration Initiative post! We hope that our stories of travel and the reasons why we do it help inspire others to head out there and see the world.
If you’d like to be part of the Inspiration Initiative (and maybe win a trip and an iPad2!), visit easyJet Holidays here: http://holidays.easyjet.com/holiday-ideas-inspiration.htm
Nicole

WHO
Every March Break, my parents drove us down to Florida for a week to …

The seventh port of call during our Mediterranean cruise with the Vision of the Seas was the Spanish city of Cadiz. Located on the southwestern coast of Spain, Cadiz is not only the principal port of the Spanish Navy – and has been so since the 18th century accession of the Spanish Bourbons – it is the oldest continuously-inhabited city on the Iberian Peninsula, but possibly all of Europe having born witness to over 3’000 years of history.
Uniquely situated on a narrow sliver of land jutting out into the sea, …