Travel – Eat – Sleep

Here’s a quick dining tip… I decided to check out Tau Bay (not to be confused with Pho Tau Bay) today on the Southwest Freeway – a popular Vietnamese restaurant on the corner of 59 and Beechnut. Excellent place for pho. My boss and I went there for lunch and had two stout bowls of pho for $13.00. Not bad. A majority of the clients were Asian and the service was fast and efficient. Apparently the SW Freeway location is better than the Bellaire location as it is run by the original owner.

Tau Bay
8150 Southwest Freeway
Located in the same shopping center as the Carnaval night club.

So, I mentioned Sicily was off… well, where will be be going?

Karpathos

In fact, the page above, hosted by Sven Damm in Germany, is one of the main reasons we chose Karpathos, an island in the Dodecanese tucked between Crete and Rhodes. What a beautiful island! Gorgeous beaches, stunning and sometimes foreboding mountains, traditional villages and reasonable rates. It’s also a bit off the beaten path… that means it is off the radar of most of the masses. Good news for us.

The island is certainly larger than Milos but still pretty manageable. From what we’ve road, most of our time will be spent in the southern half since the northern half is mostly wild and untamed. Getting to Olymbos via the main “road” on the northern half of the island takes 3 hours… apparently three grueling hours.

Anyway, we’ll be staying at the Aegean Village (see below) in Amopi at the very reasonable rate of 70 Euro a night for a seaview room. Nice!

All we need to do now is rent a car and we’ll be good to go. Otherwise, our stay in Athens will be in familiar hotels… the Athens Gate and the Sofitel.

Beijing is the capital of the most densely inhabited country in the world, the People’s Republic of China. It is the political, economic, cultural and educational center and also China’s most important center for international trade and communications. There are many great historical sites in Beijing, including the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall passes nearby.

Beyond the modernity, Beijing offers bountiful attractions of tourism, including the fast-disappearing hutong, parks, architectural and cultural treasures and exquisite temples. Some of the famous tourist spots in Beijing are:

1.The Forbidden City
This is the number one of Beijing’s four must see tourist attractions including The Great Wall of China, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace. It is the world’s largest imperial palace complex, with massive courtyards and magnificent architecture.

2.Tiananmen Square
This is a very mesmerizing place. On the Northern side of the big Tiananmen Square you can see the big red Tiananmen gate. This is China’s one of the most famous views.

3.Temple of Heaven
This elegantly beautiful and iconic temple is situated in large, liberally forested gardens. It is surely one of the great cultural sites in the world. It was built along a north-south, celestial, axis lie the buildings where the Ming and Qing emperors came four times a year to offer sacrifices to the Gods and to pray.

4.The Summer Palace
The summer garden is a showcase of the art of Chinese gardens. It is made up of many interconnected lakes and numerous pavilions, bridges and halls. The gate of this place is unclearly reminiscent of the entrance to the Forbidden City, with an imperial marble bridge crossing the pool.

5.Beihai Park
It is one of the oldest and most genuinely preserved majestic gardens in China, with a Tibetan style white dagoba on the island hill in the lake. The North Shore Beihai Park is arguably the more beautiful and interesting of the two sides. Here you can see beautiful, decorative Nine-Dragon Wall, Five Dragon Pavilion, and many more temples, lake views.

6.Yonghegong – The Tibetan Lamasery
The Yonghegong is one of Beijing’s most attractive temples, having started life as a residence for a crown prince of the emperor. This temple is extremely beautiful, but it is heavily commercialized.

7.YuanMingYuan
The ‘Old Summer Palace’ has several lakes and rich landscaping. It once had more than 150 scenic spots until destroyed by invaders in 1860 and 1900. Some structures have now been restored.

These are some very exciting and thrilling places of Beijing that every tourist should surely visit.

Lanzarote, a Spanish island which is made up of volcanic eruptions, is the easternmost of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly covering an area of 125 km off the coast of Africa and 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula. It covers a large area and is the fourth largest of the islands. The island’s name in the native language was Titerroygatra, which means “the red mountains”.

This island is a very beautiful place and thousands of tourists come here every year from all around the world. This island has an exclusive mixture of fantastic volcanic caves and craters, breathtaking beaches and all year-round sunshine. Here you can see very unusual sights and scenes like the fertile agricultural fields among creepy formations of terrified lava, beaches of black volcanic sand and vineyards growing in the very center of volcanic craters.

Lanzarote also known as ‘Conejera’ by the natives is also called the island of 100 volcanoes. Its volcanic origin has created a landscape with more than 300 volcanoes. But this exotic island is the best for having summer fun filled activities. The palm trees, almost the only kind of native tree life found here grow in the banks of the barrancos and the bottoms of the valleys.

There are many places that you can visit in this island. Some of the places are La Cueva de los Verdes, Mirador del Río, Jameos del Agua, The Jardín de Cactus, International Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Park of Timanfaya and El Monumento a La Fecundidad. All these places are very exciting and can be visited by the tourists while they are in Lanzarote.

There are also many beaches which the visitors must see in order to enjoy their visit to the fullest. Some of the famous beaches of this place are Las Cucharas beach, Costa Teguise beaches, and Los Charcos and Bastian beaches, Beaches at Orzola, Beaches at Arrieta, El Reducto, El Cable, Guacimeta beach, Playa Honda beach, Playa Blanca, Playa de Los Pocillos, Playa de Matagorda, Caleta de Caballo, La Santa beach and Papagayo beaches.

The centre place of this island is a beautiful, azure lake populated by a rare species of blind, albino crab. There are bars and a restaurant around the lake, swimming pools and a concert hall with the seating for 500 people.

This island also has many exotic resorts, like the Playas de las Americas and Los Cristianos. So, if you really want to enjoy a fun filled summer under the sun, visit this place.

Ah, Italy! This place is known to be one of the more romantic countries in the world. Italy is located in Southern Europe, and looking at the country on a map, is well known for being shaped like a boot. Italy shares it boundaries with France, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia. The capital is Rome.

Now that you know a little bit about Italy’s background, it’s time for a review of the climate. If you are traveling in the summer time, it can be very hot. When in Rome, the sun can tend to be a little overbearing. Knowing this, it is often advised for a person to pack non-clingy clothes, hats, sandals, shorts and plenty of sunscreen! Even though the temperatures in Rome can be high, the overall climate of Italy is very diverse. Depending on your location, the climate can be humid subtropical (Turin, for example) or Mediterranean (Liguria) or snowy and cold in the higher altitude areas. Therefore, if you’re planning to travel all over the country of Italy, try to keep in mind the varying climates and what types of clothes best suit each destination.

That’s not all! There are many, many things to look at when in Italy. Historical structures such as the Parthenon, the Coliseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa are all major tourist locations. Even the Vatican could be a nice pit stop on your journey! Whichever tourist spot you end up picking, there is almost always a little bit of history for you to learn about.

When thinking about traveling to a foreign country, it is highly recommended that you know where that place is located. For this article, the destination is Greece. Greece is located in southeastern Europe, on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula.
In order to get to Greece, you’ll need to buy tickets. The prices for plane tickets vary depending on which country you’re coming from. If you’re traveling from a country that is closer to Greece, such as Albania, Bulgaria or Turkey, the fare may be considerably cheaper than if you were traveling from America. The fare is around $1,800 for a single person plane ticket to Greece from the JFK airport in New York, NY. This is using a regular commercial airline that flies overseas (Delta Airlines).

Next is to determine what you’ll need to bring with you. For clothing, you should most likely pack items that are versatile. Greece is a mixture of two types of climates: Mediterranean and Alpine. A person shouldn’t necessarily pack a large coat or anything like that but having something warm in case it gets a bit chilly is advised.

In general, it is always best to do your research before flying off into foreign territory. Sometimes you may think that the location is warm and humid but, when you land, it could turn out to be cold and dry. Having back-ups is choices very important!