Ravenna: The Beauty of Mosaics Ravenna is town in Italy that doesn’t get much notice when you toss it in with the better-known city destinations like Venice, Florence or Rome. It is a small town nestled down the coast from Venice that is best known for its majestic mosaics in the churches and mausoleums. These absolutely lovely mosaics are UNESCO World Heritage sites and this town contains eight of them. We find that unbelievable… 8 in one town. You’ve got to add this town to your travel list. Here’s a quick list of the sites so you can do your own search. The Basilica of San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placida,the Arian Baptistery and the Baptisteryof Neon, the Basilicaof Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, the Oratory of Sant’ Andrea or Archiepiscopal Chapel ... read more

After an amazing experience lead by the Travel Camel, it was time for another adventure…..this time just in the exclusive company of Dancing Dave and Denise. We’d decided long ago that after spending a couple of weeks in the wonderfully beautiful but rustic environs of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that a jaunt to a nearby nation was in order to try and shake off the dust and take a good look around at another Asian nation…..Armenia. The Dancing One and Denise had made all the necessary arrangements, so when we landed in Yerevan, we were whisked off to the Grand Hotel to sort of clean up our act……and also some of our clothing. It was simply grand to be basking it a bit of luxury and we took full advantage of the situation by pampering ourselves in ... read more

Months ago, we had read about a horse festival held the second week of August each year in Murghab. We were not certain if we would be in town on the right dates but as it turned out our timing was perfect and we were very fortunate to attend this local festival. As we entered the outskirts of this town, we turned to the right, went up a rather steep incline and there it was…..a gathering of locals and visitors alike….for the annual horse festival. We are not entirely sure how long they have been holding this festival, but it appears to be at least about 10 years since the first one. A website dedicated to the festival states that, the foundation named “Kyrgyz Ate” and the “Kirghiz NGO for the protection and the promotion of ... read more

As we described in our previous LA blog, the usual conversation about the Los Angeles area revolves around everything from the glam and glitz of Hollywood to the ten-lane highways where cars creep along at 20 mph to the multitude of venues to visit to quench the tourist’s thirst for excitement. This is all well and good as LA has much to offer along these lines…..but drive a little further outside of the confines of this megalopolis and you will find some natural beauty that any traveler would admire. We are keenly aware that most people have only a few days to a week to see this area…..but if you have a need for nature and the outdoors…well the LA area has that also. California Wild Flowers Earlier this calendar year, the annual rains came to ... read more

Many travelers around the world have Los Angeles on their short list of places to visit mainly due to the romance of the movies, endless sunny days and surfer dudes hitting the beaches. Los Angeles California is a small city of 4 million people, however the metro area is said to have more the 19 million inhabitants, which makes it the 2ndlargest U.S. city. A stream of entertainment must be available to keep all of these people busy. Having been here only a few short months causes one to try and get a good feel of what LA has to offer turns out to be quite a large city….especially area-wise. There in lied the struggle on whether or not to publish a blog about the museums and places we’ve visited as it is hard to describe ... read more