This is the second of my “Europe Shorts” posts, which are aimed at people who don’t have a lot of time but want to read about cool destinations in Europe. VIENNA – This stunningly beautiful city is known for prancing stallions, high-brow music and fancy coffee shops. But there’s also a rich, vibrant modern side to this city, with rooftop bars that blast pulsating dance tunes, wildly inventive architecture, and funky shops based on Monty Python sketches. When I was there last year, tour guide Alexa Brauner, an engaging and enthusiastic art lover, took me on a three-hour walking tour Read more
Vienna
Time Magazine (remember them?) is out with a list of its top 50 destinations for 2023. Some of my fave places made the list, including Vancouver, Vienna, surprising Tampa and the Caribbean island of Dominica, where I spent five days in January. Also making the list on the Canadian side of the ledger was Churchill, Manitoba, which I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting. For Australia, placements went to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. There are six U.S. places on the list but none from the United Kingdom or Ireland, which is a little Read more
It was a pretty good year for travel outside Canada, with numerous trips to California, a couple to Hawaii, one to Florida, a river cruise in Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, and two weeks in Western Australia and New South Wales. From Santa Monica to Sydney and Maui to Vienna, here are some of my top experiences, fave foods and hotels of 2022. BEST ISLAND PHOTO: The Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia, as seen from my scenic flight with Geraldton Air Charter. We spotted pods of dolphins from the air. You also can take a trip that includes a nice swim Read more
A new list of the world’s most liveable cities puts three Canadian places in the top ten. Calgary came tied with Zurich for third spot, while Vancouver was fifth and Toronto eighth. No other country had three cities in the top ten, although Switzerland did have two. No Canadian cities made the top ten in 2021, so this is pretty cool. The Global Liveability Index is an annual ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that rates 172 cities around the world on over 30 factors, from healthcare, infrastructure, education and crime rates to access to cultural and sports pursuits Read more
Vienna is rightfully famous for its polished palaces and prancing Lipizzaner stallions, not to mention the rich, pure voices of the Vienna Boy’s Choir. There are historic churches from the Middle Ages and homes lived in by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Strauss. But there’s also a rich, vibrant modern side to this city, with rooftop bars that blast pulsating dance tunes, wildly inventive architecture, and funky shops based on Monty Python sketches. Tour guide Alexa Brauner, an engaging and enthusiastic art lover, recently took me on a three-hour walking tour that included both the old and Read more
