Much like Kashmir or Iran, the Golan Heights have the dubious honor of appearing more often on newspapers’ front pages than in their travel sections. Since Israel captured the Golan during the Six Day War in 1967, this region, which stretches from the Sea of Galilee in the south to Mount Hermon in the north, has been one of the world’s most contested pieces of political real estate.

It’s also one of the Earth’s hidden gems. The Golan’s 1,200 square kilometers harbor a treasure trove of lush farmland and sky-scraping volcanic terrain, the fate of which forms the crux of one of the world’s most notorious geopolitical disputes. A visit to the Golan Heights grants travelers access to the natural and human worlds behind the headlines, challenging minds with a ground-level perspective of the machinery of conflict and resolution. (more…)

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I sat down at the slender, grey-topped table next to the leafy fence that marked the edge of the Gimbsheim Weinbrunnenfest. My company for the evening, all of whom were more than three times my age, could easily have been half the participants in any small town ladies night bingo club.

Expecting to slowly sip a glass of wine or two over conversation of knitting, gardening, or perhaps if it got a little edgy, how so-and-so had stolen someone else’s goulash recipe and passed it off as their own, I settled in with a mild sense of dread. (more…)

Tags: Abend, afternoon, age, air, answer, approval, area, ascent, awkwardness, bakery, bike, bike ride, bingo, bit, boy, breath, butcher, cathedral, chuckle, club, Coliseum, comment, commercialism, community, company, conversation, couple, dance, dancing, didn, dread, drink, drinking, edge, Eiffel, elderly woman, Europe, evening, evening festivities, Expecting, experience, farmer, fence, festival, floor, flung, Food, foot, Friday, garden, gardening, Germany, gift, Gimbsheim, glass, glass of wine, goulash, goulash recipe, grape, Guten, hadn, hair, haired woman, Hilde, hillside, housing, humor, July, ladies night, landscape, laugh, locals, mild sense, moment, monument, morning, Mosul Valley, music, narrow streets, Neuschwanstein Castle, next morning, night, night bingo, nothing, Oppenheim, Paris, postcard, recipe, region, Rheine River, Rheinhessen, ride, ridge, Riding, road, rock, Roman, round, Ruth, Scattering, scene, scenery, search, sense, shirt, shop, sightseeing, sip, site, someone, something, spot, Square, St. Mark, stand, stone, strung, table, three times, time, tourist, Tower, town, town ladies, translation, variety, War, wasn, way, weekend, Weinbrunnenfest, wine, wine festivals, wines, woman, world, year

Watch out! Here comes another one. We’re walking down the boardwalk in Oludeniz, Turkey which also doubles as a paragliding landing zone. It’s no wonder people leap from the surrounding mountains and glide down to a soft beach landing, into this bay that’s one of the most photographed areas of the Mediterranean coastline.

Oludeniz means “dead sea” in Turkish. The actual town is named Belcekiz, but if you walk a couple hundred meters down the beach, you reach a peninsula of sand which creates a sheltered lagoon. The still, deep blue water behind this spit of land is the “dead” calm sea.
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Tags: amphitheater, Antalya, bathroom, bay, beach, beautiful beach, bedroom, Belcekiz, boardwalk, breakfast, Bring, bungalow, Butterfly Valley, camper, camper trailer, Campgrounds, caravan, Chimaera, coast, coastline, Comfort, commute, comparison, contour, conversation, country, couple, couple hundred, dead calm sea, deep blue water, destination, dinner, down, electricity, energy, environment, Ephesus, experience, faint of heart, fall, family, Faralya, flag, foot, garden, George House, Hasan, heart, hike, hiking, Hippy, home, host, inn, jockeying, kind, kitchen, lagoon, land, landing, landing zone, Letoon, life, Likya, list, lot, Lycian Way, man, meal, Mediterranean, mediterranean coast, mediterranean coastline, mind, mini, mix, month, Mount Olympos, Muslim, night, olive, Oludeniz, oludeniz turkey, organic foods, owner, pantomime, part, peninsula, picture, place, plateau, position, possibility, private bathroom, quiet places, range, reason, road, Roman, run, sand, sea, section, side, side trip, sight, son, southern Turkey, spit, spring, Start, steep trail, stranger, tent, tile, town, trail, trailer, tree, trek, trip, Turkey, USD, valley, version, Vertical, vertical cliffs, village, Walden, walk, Watch, water, way, world, Xanthos, Yolu, zone

Switzerland is a country of picturesque mountain ranges and quaint little alpine villages. I had always wanted to visit this beautiful country and now I was finally getting my chance. However, having spent the whole day on a train, I was starting to wear down and my excitement was dwindling to say the least.

A bus ride was in order before we would arrive at our final destination, but as the bus approached, I fel sense of dread boiling up within. It was getting late in the evening and I hadn’t booked accommodations, so we would have to search in the rain for a bed. (more…)

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St. Valentine’s Day is noted for roses, but the holiday always reminds me that my wife’s favorite flower is actually the tulip, something that can be hard to come by in a snowy February in Vermont. Planted before the first frost of autumn, they’re quickly forgotten about until they emerge unexpectedly in the sunny warmth of spring. The red, yellow, purple, pink and white heads on single smooth green stalks begin to frame gardens and walkways around the country, reflecting our fascination with this simple and elegant flower from Holland. As a belated gift last spring, I took my wife to one of my favorite Canadian cities, Ottawa, which just happens to host an annual Tulip festival that showcases both the city and this wonderful flower. (more…)

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