Some people travel for the exotic foods. Some travel hoping for foreign romance. Some to shop in international designer stores or to do extreme sports. Maybe they just want a vacation where they can lay in the sun or ski. There are many reasons one could travel.

As for myself, I travel to learn more about other lands. I enjoy standing in a location where the history of long ago events took place, to see the different architecture from centuries ago. And to hear languages that are foreign to my ear. There are sounds that make moments special that are like a soundtrack to my journeys. Whether it be early morning church bells from a old cathedral, horses hooves on cobblestone streets, the chiming of a town clock, or the call to prayer drifting into the air from a local mosque, they make the moment magical. And when the notes of a street musician travel to my ears it provides a marvelous soundtrack for the scene I am in.

Each place has left such an impact that it helped inspire me to include the sights and sounds of many cities into my books.

Sometimes I am amazed at how similar people are to Americans here. Yet in so many ways very different.

For instance in Turkey, I have seen a group of three middle eastern women in long skirts and head scarves taking multiple selfies until they finally got the right one they were satisfied with. Dressed so differently than me yet still wanting that perfect travel shot.

In Spain I saw young colleged aged couples at 7am in the morning walking home, the girls dressed in heels and nightclub attire coming from the nightclub. Ours close at 2am but not there. They are open all night.

Early one morning in a village in Holland I saw a young school boy on his bike with his school books, heading for his class. Different settings and language yet living lives as we do here.

These travel blogs are all taken from my travel journal entries that I have written as I have journeyed along. There is a bit of history, humorous happenings, interesting things that surprise me and also things that go wrong. No trip is ever perfect yet every one is an adventure that I was glad I experienced. I have never regretted even one. If any of it sounds boring it is because I never embellished but kept my journals as a true authentic experience of what a day in a certain place was like for me.

From one of my very favorite memories of sailing the Adriatic off the coast of Croatia on the historic replica ship Karaka, to a terrifying bus ride in the rain up to the hilltop of Taormina, Sicily, which left me in the wrong location, freezing, drenched with soaking wet hair and clothes, and lost, I have had highs and lows. But the lows are all part of the ride.

So come along and travel over twenty countries with me from Vancouver Island to Istanbul, Turkey. From Scotland to Tangier, Morocco. The Netherlands to Greece and everywhere in between.