UPDATE: Looks like travel to Cuba is no longer an option (6/5/2019).
With the arrival of the New Year, we've already started to update our upcoming travel plans. As some of the journeys require advance reservations, deposits have been paid for four trips.
2019 Japan and Greenland
If the weather cooperates with us, we will be viewing cherry blossoms in Japan next Spring. The trip includes an eight day cruise, stopping at ports that many traditional Japan tours exclude. On the other hand, not wanting to miss these traditional tour stops, we will add a ten day land trip with Super Value Tours. We've heard good reports about these land tours and I'm looking forward to my first trip to Japan. Perhaps we might include a few days to visit with relatives living in Japan.
If you've been reading my blog, you probably know that we are attracted to visiting polar areas. On our last expedition trip to South Georgia and the Falklands, we heard about the exciting expeditions to East Greenland, in particular Scoresbysund. Scoresbysund was founded by William Scoresby in 1822, an English explorer, and considered the world's longest fjord (about 216 miles in length). We should see many of the Arctic birds, animals and plantlike we viewed as we toured Svalbard in 2017 -perhaps some polar bears once again. As an added bonus, this trip is timed for possible sightings of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights.
The challenge of this Greenland trip, and other expeditions that use small charter planes for one or two trip legs, is that you are restricted on both carryon (11 pounds) and checked luggage (33 pounds) weight. You can't carry much DLSR equipment with this carryon restriction. Photographing the Northern Lights will require a completely different technique. I'll have to pull out my tripod and practice in advance.
2020 Egypt, Holy Lands and Cuba
If world politics permit, we booked a trip that starts in Cairo, travels to Luxor and then along the Nile River via river boat to Qena, Edfu and Aswan. We're thinking of adding an extension to Petra, in Jordan. We have lots of time before this trip. We did purchase "cancel for any reason" insurance for this Egypt trip, though the insurance will only reimburse 75 percent of the trip costs.
Later in the year, we'll embark on a trip that will take us to Haifa and Jerusalem.
Our final 2020 trip will be to Cuba, presuming US travel restrictions will continue to permit this visit. We've reserved a cabin on a Oceania cruise ship that will provide five days in historic Cuban cities. We're looking forward to an overnight in Havana and visit to Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This latter area is known for its cultural role in the development of the 18th and 19th century sugar industry. The sugar industry helped the construction of buildings with Andalusian and Moorish influences, along with European neoclassical forms.
With the arrival of the New Year, we've already started to update our upcoming travel plans. As some of the journeys require advance reservations, deposits have been paid for four trips.
2019 Japan and Greenland
If you've been reading my blog, you probably know that we are attracted to visiting polar areas. On our last expedition trip to South Georgia and the Falklands, we heard about the exciting expeditions to East Greenland, in particular Scoresbysund. Scoresbysund was founded by William Scoresby in 1822, an English explorer, and considered the world's longest fjord (about 216 miles in length). We should see many of the Arctic birds, animals and plantlike we viewed as we toured Svalbard in 2017 -perhaps some polar bears once again. As an added bonus, this trip is timed for possible sightings of the Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights.
2020 Egypt, Holy Lands and Cuba
Later in the year, we'll embark on a trip that will take us to Haifa and Jerusalem.
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