Disclaimer: There is a currently a travel advisory issued against all non-essential travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Government of Canada and the State Department have advised all Canadians and Americans to avoid all non-essential travel due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, all major cruise lines have suspended operations around the world until at least mid-April. I am not promoting any travel during this time. Please do not travel. I am just sharing my past travels and continuing to work on my blog while we are all practicing social distancing. If you are reading this ..read more

The next day, we visited the Old City of Shanghai. The first attraction we visited was Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan Garden is a classical Chinese garden. The garden has beautiful greenery with many grand stone sculptures, and classic Chinese architecture. There is a beautiful pond with koi fish in the middle of the garden. Koi fish attract good luck and fortune, which is why the Chinese hold such a high regard for these fishes. At the time of our entrance, the admission fee was 10 RMB. The garden is inside the bazaar. The bazaar is a maze but the garden is not hard to find as there are signs that lea ..read more

Hello! We're back from our trip to Japan, and I'm extremely behind in blogging. I'm skipping 2018 altogether, and I'm fast forwarding to our first trip this year to keep up with the momentum, and also my memory. We went to Shanghai in May, and we had an amazing time! Despite the travel advisory, which had come out after we booked our trip, we felt very safe in the city and we had no problems during our time there. The Chinese were generally very welcoming. The food was delicious and the Metro system was extremely easy to use. We were able to get a lot of things done this trip, including Shang ..read more

This blog entry is dedicated to the Notre Dame. This is a special entry for me. I grew up with the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Esmeralda's independence and Quasimodo's heroism inspired me. In high school, I attended Notre Dame Secondary for a year. It was always a part of me, and on my mental bucket list, I promised myself that one day, I will visit the cathedral and climb its tower. While we were in Paris in October 2017, we had the opportunity to visit the Notre Dame de Paris. We were very fortunate to climb the towers as well. Sadly, earlier this year, on April 15, a structural fire broke out ..read more

Friday, the 13th, was our first full day in Paris. At the time, we were still engaged, and we started off our day with a Flytographer engagement shoot early in the morning. We met our photographer at Trocadero, and took some pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately with our luck, the sun didn't break through the clouds until after our photoshoot. When we arrived at Trocadero just before 9 am, the crowds were just forming. However, you can see larger crowds in the photo below, that photo was taken just after 10 am. The crowds gather fast in Paris! We went back to our Airbnb ..read more

Our cruise was a Southampton to Southampton round-trip, however, we decided to disembark (downline) early in Le Havre to finish our trip in Paris. Paris has been a dream destination for my entire life; so I was ecstatic about our stay. This was our first time disembarking early on a cruise. From what I've been told, downlining is not permitted on Caribbean cruises but common on Asian and European cruises. Le Havre is a port city in Northern France; it is a three hour train ride from Paris. As soon as we left the ship, we took a taxi to the train station, and boarded the train with our pre-pu ..read more

This cruise is running long, eh? I don't blame ya, it was a 14 day cruise - a lot of ports, and a lot of sights to see! But here we are, the last port for us. We weren't expecting much from La Coruna. We were at the end of our cruise, and ready for Paris, so we just wanted a mellow day around town. We were happy to be back in Spain as they are known for their tapas. We discovered so much within the medieval old town in the Plaza de Maria Pita and the narrow alleyways. We found great food, beautiful coastal views and so much culture in the little, but long seafront city in northern Spain ..read more

From here on out, I'm going to speed things up as this review is now a year and a half overdue! We had an adventurous day planned in Arrecife, Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of the seven Canary Islands of Spain. With its subtropical desert climate, it is known as the "Island of Eternal Spring." The island has breathtaking volcanic landscape with vast craters and uniquely shaped rock formations. We started the tour with a short camel ride in the volcanic lands of Timanfaya, where subsurface bubbling belies the quiet landscape. I have never been on a camel before, and I was a little surprised the ..read more

Morocco was the main reason we decided to book this cruise. The port of Agadir was only on the itinerary once a year, so it was what sealed the deal for this cruise for us. We had a sea day in between Lisbon and Agadir, Morocco. So we were well rested for our day in Morocco. Agadir is a beach resort destination, but the port is a commercial. It was not very welcoming as there were stacks of containers in a very industrial environment greeting us. I really desperately wanted to love Morocco - and I tried, but things just weren't in our favour. Marrakech was about a 3 hour drive away, so a 6 h ..read more

Lisbon is a city of both modern culture and unique heritage. It just seems like one of those cities that has sunshine all year round. There's something just so warm and inviting about the city. We wanted to see as much as Lisbon as we possibly could in 9 hours, so we hopped on a sightseeing bus to take us around Lisbon. We literally got on the first bus operator who approached us, and that was Yellow Bus. We had a few hot spots on our list, and luckily, this bus route took us to all (but one) of them. We got off the bus at the stop along the Tagus River, where the Belem Tower and the Pad ..read more