Category Archives: rtw

The scroaching summer sun cast a burning glare down on me. Down at my feet the heat had taken its toll on the rain starved ground and it was a mess of dust and sharp rocks. The slow whisper of … Continue reading →

August 11th, 2010.  A new moon.  Ramadan begins. It wasn’t our plan to land in Egypt at the start of Ramadan.  It just happened that way.  As the story unfolded during our sojourn through several Islamic countries in the Middle East … Continue reading →

Breathing slowly, the temporary vacuum in the mouthpiece forces open the regulator valve and brings in a steady stream of bottled air to fill my lungs.  Looking up I can see the canyon defined by the light blue of the sun piercing … Continue reading →

It was 8 o’clock in the evning and Hisako, Junko and I were passing beneath the soft glow of the San Miguel Market sign into an open air market for one of Spain’s most celebrated inventions – tapas. The freshly … Continue reading →

These boots are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you. Always our motto the first day in any city. Madrid was no exception. With map in … Continue reading →

Hisako Watanabe awoke slowly. An iPod was ringing in the darkness — a tinny, familiar ring.  She fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on.  Squinting at her surroundings she saw the sagging bunk with Joe fast asleep overhead … Continue reading →

Santiago de Campostela was crumbling in style.  The lichen were clinging to the decaying churches adding orange atop the yellow, faded sandstone.  Everywhere you looked there were signs dangling over the narrow cobbled streets promoting small bars full of tapas … Continue reading →

I walked 250km in two weeks back in 2000.  I was wandering through the Australian bush on spring break holidays from uni.  I know what it’s like to hike for days on end and pushed to your physical limits by … Continue reading →

Madrid offers a number of quick getaways with Toledo being one of them.  Being from Ohio, the pronunciation of Toledo in Spanish is not a easy task for me to tackle.  Whereas in Ohio we go with Toh-Lee-Doh, Spanish dictates … Continue reading →

The decision to go to El Escorial was easy, to see the largest building of the 16th century. At 33,000 square meters it’s a cavernous structure to house everything from a museum of monastery architecture to the crypt of kings … Continue reading →