Meet a very unusual woman. Miss Erna Haselgruber, octogenarian and artist who stumbled on her ultimate passion late in life. It all began one dreary Austrian fall day when, out of the blue, inspiration struck. 69-years young back then, something compelled Erna to buy a paintbrush, art supplies, and enroll in an art class. What…
The stifling heat couldn’t stop my adventurous self, trading my air-conditioned hotel room for a stroll along the famous River Walk right in the historic heart of downtown San Antonio. www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com. The call from the river below my window was just too strong. Heading downstairs and out the cool lobby, I stepped up to the…
Shaped over millions of years ago, rising amidst yellow-red sandstone cliffs, the Echo Amphitheatre in Northern New Mexico is quite a dramatic sight to behold. Towering over the dry desert landscape along Highway 84, about 15 miles north of Abiquiu and past the Ghost Ranch, these spectacular rock formations just take your breath away. According…
I’m stepping off the ferry from Long Beach and like every other time I have set foot on Catalina Island, I fall in love all over again. No wonder. Such perfect romantic setting. Locals call it the ‘Island of Romance,’ Hollywood has featured these sun-kissed shores in many of its movies and flocks of love…
Santa Fe, New Mexico. City Different, so the slogan goes. And indeed, when strolling around the historic Plaza past the chic clothing and extravagant jewelry stores, one notices immediately the staggering difference to the world beyond this oldest capital city of the United States. Maybe it’s the dry desert air coming over the Sangre de…
In Linz, that’s where it begins. IT. A product launch. A new invention. A travel adventure. Whatever. The possibilities are endless. This slogan of my hometown was the going phrase the day I kissed my parents good buy on a snow drenched December day in 1981. And today, after thirty years, the saying has morphed…
One cannot help but think of Princess Scheherazade’s fantasy tales of 1001 Nights when gliding into the frankincense dusted world of the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Sprawling along the pearl white Arabian Sea shore, this magnificent structure featuring shimmering blue mosaic domes, arched facades and cooling fountains looks like a transplant from Arabia’s…
After a few days soaking up the humid air and stinging sun at the golden beach, we decided to head up into the hills for a bit of a cool off. Our destination was Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage site nested in the emerald hills 116 km east from Colombo and about 500 meters above…