World Cup Fever & Other Fun in Amsterdam

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Fire & Ice: Ancient Pharaohs to Alpine Peaks

"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." — Pat Conroy

At last, I’ve landed. For the next 3 months (until Sept. 5), my address will be Dacostakade 114-1, 1053XB Amsterdam, NL. My apartment overlooks a tree-lined canal in the city’s quiet Oud  West District. It’s an easy walk to Leidseplein, Dam Square, Vondelpark and all the museums. I welcome summer visitors.

I’ve been gone from California since April 3 on a trip that’s taken me from Eagle Island, a private sanctuary off the coast of Georgia, through Spain, Israel, Egypt, Hungary, Austria and the Italian Alps. I’ve kayaked with alligators, couch-surfed in Jerusalem and Vienna, snorkeled in the Red Sea, ridden a camel to the Nile Valley, cruised the Danube, cycled from Italy to Austria, and watched the world’s greatest cyclists climb 24% grades at the Giro d’Italia. 

The contrasts in scenery and culture, from Southern bayous to cosmopolitan cities, alpine villages and the land of the pharoahs, have been staggering, visually and socially.

 

As a journalist on Egypt’s first organized bike-sail tour, I joined 9 other writers and photographers in  Hurghada on May 1 for a 10-day, police-escorted Middle Eastern adventure sagged by an air conditioned van carrying snacks, juice, water, a doctor, bike mechanic...everything but a shrink. 

If you think it’s crazy to ride a bike through dusty desert, you might not realize Egypt encompasses a  coastline of azure water rimmed by rosy dunes, high-end resorts and scenic wadis (valleys), as well as ancient ruins, grazing camels, inspired temples and serene native peoples.

Here are some highlights from the second half of my trip:

* Egypt is not all barren desert. Along the Red Sea, bordering what ancient Egyptians called the Dashret or “red land,” we cycled through mangrove forests, spied on endangered species in Wadi Gemal  National Park and sunbathed on Sharm Eluly beach on a stretch that looked more like Tahiti than a dry, Middle Eastern land to me.

* With a resourceful Bedoin as human GPS, we bore into Egypt’s Eastern desert in 4-wheel drive jeeps. Bedoins welcomed us with gourass (bread) baked in ashes on the ground and bonn (coffee) made from freshly ground beans mixed with ginger, poured from a gabana (an earthenware container with a long narrow neck) into tiny china cups. At one camp, our snack included garlic-infused gibna gemeli (camel cheese), which tastes surprisingly like herbed goat cheese from Trader Joe’s! Alas, there are no Trader Joe’s in Egypt.

* While thousands have cruised the Nile since Thomas Cook Ltd. replaced leisure-paced dahabiyas with speedy steamers that fueled a well-oiled Egyptian tourism industry, travelers have been unable to savor the region on two human-powered wheels until now. Egypt Bike and Sail, a partnership between Colorado Springs-based Beyond Boundaries Travel and Cairo-based Flash Tour, now offers 2 itineraries providing insight into one of Earth's oldest civilizations.

* After Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo urging “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” Egyptians are vociferously pro-American. Wherever we went, children stuck their thumbs up, beaming “Obama!” while adults pointed to stickers touting America’s leader.

* Nubians, known for their kindness and generosity, have earned their reputation. Stopping my bike to photograph a brown-skinned peasant herding goats to his village, he asked, “Bonbon?” While I rummaged through my backpack for goodies, he interrupted me. “I have wife, children,” he said. “You come, have drink.” He was not begging, as I had thought, but inviting me to his home! Needing to catch my group, I declined, regretfully. “Welcome to Nubia,” the peasant said, disappearing into his village to meet his family with his flock trotting ahead.

* Egyptians engage in social rituals involving shisha (waterpipes) from dawn to dusk. These smoke-infused interludes take place in fields,

cafés, night clubs, souks and any other spot where people gather. You can choose from many flavors; apple shisha has a sweet, tart taste.

* Driving is an extreme sport in Cairo, where turn signals are for decoration, lanes are mere suggestions and traffic lights are virtually non-existent. Full-body armor will be more effective than a seat belt; failing that, make sure your will is updated before strapping yourself in.

* Best transportation value in Europe: Orangeways bus. For less than $12 I traveled from Budapest to Vienna via luxury coach with big windows, comfy seats, free cappuccino, beer for a buck (200 Hungarian forints), movies...even a toilet. Routes are available to major cities.

* Couchsurfing is a great way to keep expenses down while connecting with locals. And it's not just for student backpackers. In Jerusalem, I stayed with a family who invited me to temple and Sabbath dinner; in Vienna, a local host loaned me slippers, maps, guide books, an umbrella and keys to his apartment while he drove off to his summer house.

* The Dolomites—achingly beautiful peaks towering above alpine villages in northeastern Italy (formerly Austria)—are horizontal as well as vertical playgrounds laced with bike paths and ski trails for cyclists, hikers, mountain climbers and skiers. Those not fearful of heights might try a via ferrata (not a ride in a fast car but a mountain climb/trek on an isolated route using fixed cables and ladders). Book a custom vacation at any level of activity with Agustina, a feisty, Argentinean-born outdoor adventure guide and founder of Dolomite Mountains.

* Looking for a special place for a honeymoon or anniversary celebration? Check into Lagacio Mountain Residence in Alta Badia, Italy, where the South Tyrolean Dolomites create a backdrop for elegance and ecological commitment. With fresh coffee brewing or champagne chilling, take a sauna and Jacuzzi, don comfy robe and slippers, step onto your balcony for a panoramic view of the stone towers, bite into chocolate plucked from a pillow and wonder if you’re dreaming, just like this guy, found in my bed on the Nile Diva, or if this is for real.

Life on the Road: the Deep South, Spain, Israel & Egypt

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." —Miriam Beard

After a month that’s taken me from California to the Deep South of the U.S., Madrid, Spain’s remote mountains, Israel and the Middle East, here are some observations from my life on the road as an American journalist:

• Travel as Hero has an evil twin who can sear corneas, crash laptops and wreak travel havoc with volcanic ash. Moral of the story: whatever doesn’t kill or cripple you makes you stronger (and poorer).

• On a private island off Georgia’s coast, you can romp naked on a beach, spy on resident bald eagles, daydream in a swinging bed, soak in an outdoor hot tub warmed by a fireplace, and kayak amidst alligators. Bring along a dozen friends and decompress for a week for $2,500. Order groceries online and have Captain Andy Hill deliver them by boat.

• Southern delicacies include sweet Georgia shrimp, blue crabs, oysters prepared every which way and low country boil—a savory blend of shrimp, sausage, corn, carrots and potatoes, served up on newspaper for easy clean-up.

• Alligator tastes much like chicken, as does rabbit.

• Gab with Spaniards for 10+ hours a day and enjoy a FREE vaca at VaughanTown if your native language is English. Go to Gredos, 3 hours west of Madrid for 4-star accommodations or stay in a rustic collection of houses in the remote mountains of northeastern Spain at Valdelavilla.

• Israel is a troubled land and diverse melting pot where people can be unsmiling and unaccommodating. Most telling comment, overheard on a walking tour of Jerusalem’s Old City: “Welcome to Palestine.”

• Find cheap digs at Sky Hostel and Momo's in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Hostel in Jerusalem. Save more and gain priceless cultural insight by couchsurfing with broadcast journalist Idele Ross and her artist husband, Norman Slepkov, in Jerusalem's Arnona district overlooking the Dead Sea.

• Jews who dare buy property in Jerusalem's Muslim quarter may find themselves in prison-like conditions, under constant threat of terrorism in their own homes.

• Don’t expect to buy groceries, check into a hostel, catch a bus or even snap a picture of your observant hosts on the Sabbath in Israel, when everything shuts down. Of course, it’s lively as sin in Muslim quarters, if you care to engage in any.

• There’s no bus map for public transport in major Israeli cities, making getting around inefficient and confusing.

• Think you have problems? Visit Jerusalem's Yad Va-Shem Museum, where the suffering of millions of Jews during the Holocaust is memorialized and your schtick will seem very small.

•You can get a good burger and nice chicken in Israel, but mostly anticipate an endless litany of falafel, shawarma and hummus on your plate.

• Expect to be frisked and scanned at Israeli bus stations, malls and landmarks. Steer clear of soldiers with oozies on every corner.

• Allow 3+ hours for security at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Be ready to answer questions encompassing everything shy of your favorite sexual position and what you’re going to name your illegitimate child. I arrived at 7:30pm and barely made my 11:30pm flight to Jordan for connections to Egypt.

• Hurghada, Egypt is a model for what seaside development should NOT be. On a more positive note, find great snorkeling here and stay at a sprawling resort, in a massive room overlooking the Red Sea, for $30/night, including lavish breakfast and dinner buffets.

• Don’t show any interest in any souvenirs in Egypt or Israeli souks unless you’re prepared to haggle for a LONG time. Of course, bargaining is half the fun and you can come away with some cute knickknacks for your time and trouble.

That’s it for now. Bike tour down the Nile to Luxor, starts tomorrow. Stay well and keep in touch.

Travel as Hero

“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” —Charles Dudley Warner

A long time ago, when I worked at an advertising agency as a copywriter, I learned about the genre of ads we called “food as hero.” In these snippets of salivation-inducing marketing, a giant hamburger can become an edible superhero in less than 30 seconds, driving hungry carnivores straight to Carl’s or Wendy’s in search of beef oozing with mouth-watering drippings. For vegetarian types, more tempting spots might feature ripe summer fruit from Chile, like the current one with the pop-off-the-screen, please-squeeze-me grapes and mellow-yellow bananas. For me, a 50-something freelance journalist who will eat practically anything, travel has much the same delicious, hypnotic effect. It activates something in my brain—endorphins, if you will—that makes me feel happy and at peace with the world.

So let me say a few words about globetrotting as I prepare to launch my next adventure—an exercise in cultural overload that will take me from Eagle Island off the coast of Georgia to Spain, Israel, Egypt, Italy and the Netherlands. It’s likely I’ll evolve along the way, for travel has a way of changing who we are and how we see things. “Without travel, said actress Lauren Hutton, “I would have wound up a little ignorant white Southern female, which was not my idea of a good life.”

Solo adventure travel has potent, drug-like side effects. It boosts stamina, improves powers of observation and makes operating on auto-pilot impossible. It enhances our ability to make decisions and solve problems. Most significantly, it shows us how other people live and see the world. According to author Miriam Beard, “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

And so it has been for me. On all my recent adventures, I’ve become a cultural chameleon, embracing foreign customs and cuisines. Now I wonder if I’ll be eating with my hands in Egypt and gasping for air on a bike or on foot in the Italian Alps. On the plus side, I’ve become better at ignoring the inevitable potholes, enjoying the journey and turning situational lemons into traveler’s lemonade. I know a missed connection can become an opportunity to visit a new town and an overcrowded hostel can yield tips not available in guidebooks. Now certain I can’t control the universe, I accept the reality of flights at insane hours, long layovers and uncertain accommodations—all small trade-offs for the wonders of independent travel.

My upcoming adventure will blend planned stops with serendipity. The former will include a return visit to VaughanTown in Spain, where I'll earn my keep (just as you can if you're a native English speaker) by gabbing with Spaniards for 10+ hours a day; a bike-sail tour down the Nile; and a stay in the Dolomites (the Italian Alps) for hiking, cycling and watching pro-cyclists on the Giro d’Italia. I’ll couchsurf in Jerusalem, ride buses through Israel and return to my beloved Amsterdam for an extended stay.

Whether you’re a real or an armchair traveler, I invite you to become a follower and share my journey. We launch on April 3 and who knows where we’ll actually go, for as Jewish philosopher Martin Buber observed, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Come along, share tips and discover the world with me!

Resolution for 2010: Take a Bike Tour in Europe!

If you’re both serious and organized enough about self-improvement to be among those now busy listing their goals for the coming year, you might be thinking about such terminally boring objectives as losing weight, quitting smoking, embarking on a new career or finding any career, for that matter. But for cyclists with a taste for different cultures and cuisines, there’s no better resolution than taking a European bike tour in 2010.


For fully immersing yourself in a foreign country’s sights, sounds, scents and rhythms, a bicycle seat provides an ideal vantage point. With no glass or steel shielding you from sprawling vineyards and bucolic pastures, you’ll see Europe’s sights up close and personal. While some challenging climbing may be required to see majestic castles and forts perched atop islands or steep hills, you’ll be rewarded with local color like the donkey trains and families of gliding swans I encountered serendipitously on my 2009 tours in Holland and Greece.



While American firms like Backroads and Vermont Bicycling Touring specialize in making all arrangements for clients, their fees are often considerably more than what European firms charge. Even considering the weak dollar, an 8-day bike-barge tour in Holland booked through BikeToursDirect, a Tennessee-based firm that represents more than 40 European tour operators, runs about a third the cost of a similar VBT tour. The same is true of a 6-day cycling tour through Spain: roughly $4,000 for a Backroads tour vs. less than $1,800 for a tour arranged through BikeToursDirect.



Learn more about European tour options and booking at http://weuropetravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_book_a_european_bike_tour.

Amsterdam Must-See Attractions

I'm now proud to be a contributing writer for Suite 101.com, an online publication fueled by Google AdSense. I'll be sharing information about my travels abroad, as well as my passion for cycling, writing and Dutch culture in my articles on this site.

I invite you to check out and comment on my first two Suite 101.com stories on Dam Square, the social and historical heart of Amsterdam, and Vondelpark, a 120-acre urban oasis that softens the energy of the Netherlands' capital city. Find them at http://netherlands-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/dam_square_heart_of_amsterdam and http://netherlands-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/vondelpark_a_breath_of_fresh_air_in_amsterdam.

Final Top Tips (#10-13) for Solo Adventure Travel

If you've been following my posts on solo adventure travel, you may be experiencing a bit of wanderlust. Not to worry; a cure's as close as your nearest keyboard—one of your best tools for researching and planning an independent journey. Whether it's your first foray outside the world of organized tours or just another venture into the unknown, a trip embarked on without the help of travel professionals is guaranteed to give you a new sense of power, freedom and wonder.

It's a big world out there. To help you explore it, here are the final tips for solo adventure travel from my baker's dozen. Access all 13 in a picture-packed document from a link at http://wordgeisha.com/WGblog2008.html.

10. Break out of your comfort zone. When visiting a foreign country, things won’t be as they are at home. You may dine at midnight in Spain, hand-pick dinner from the kitchen in Greece and eat with your hands in Morocco. You’ll drive on the left-hand side of the road in London and forgo your bottomless cup of coffee in most European cities. By adapting to local tastes and customs and partaking of native specialties, you’ll enjoy the best quality and service for the lowest price while having the richest experience possible.

11. Be a citizen of the world. If you don’t like something, figure out how you can accept it. If you’re not enjoying a place, learn more about it so you can enjoy it to a greater degree. Remember that every culture and place has something unique to offer—something that will broaden your perspective and possibly give you something to weave into your own character and world view. Optimize your travel experience by stepping outside your ethnocentric cultural bubble and opening your mind.

12. Don’t be an ugly American! Europeans perceive Americans to be rich, rude, loud, naive and sometimes unrefined. Don’t give them any more ammunition than they already have: lower your voice and be respectful of cultural differences. Above all, be humbled by the fact that while millions of Europeans might be curious about America and alternatively amused and worried about Yankee ways, few would trade passports with you.

13. Bring your most extroverted self. You’ll meet more people and have more fun if you open up to folks you meet. Look for people you can connect with in hotels, hostels, coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, museums, tourist attractions, walking tours and anywhere else you find yourself in a foreign city. Opportunities abound when you’re waiting in line for breakfast, tickets and any attraction worth viewing. Be open and open minded in your communication. If excitement is waning on your trip, stir some up by talking to the people you encounter on your journey and making your own fun!