Category: Travel
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Berlin: Ritter Sport World of Chocolate
Beautiful Berlin! City of Culture, Museums, Galleries, and … “Ritter Sport Colorful World of Chocolate“! This is the flagship store of the Ritter Sport Chocolate Empire. Unlike the Lindt Home of Chocolate in Zurich, it doesn’t have a museum, but it does have a delicious all-you-can eat chocolate fountain. And the store sells the full…
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Zurich: Lindt Home of Chocolate
Why visit Zurich? Well, there’s lots of historic sights and then … there’s Lindt’s “Home of Chocolate“. A museum and homage to chocolate, with an all-you-can-eat tasting bar. Yes, really! I survived my visit. But it was a close run thing. I hadn’t realized there would be three all-you-can-eat chocolate tasting areas. The museum also…
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Tianjin: The Kiev
I’m in Tianjin, China, visiting the Kiev, a legendary 1970s Soviet aircraft carrier. Once the pride of the Soviet fleet, it was sold off in 1996 and is now a Chinese Theme Park. 😞 At 45,000 tons and 273m long, it’s a little smaller than the USS Midway, which I visited in San Diego a…
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Tibet: Mount Kailash
Holy Mount Kailash, the abode of Shiva, sacred to a billion Hindus, site of holy pilgrimage. I was only visiting as a tourist, but I saw others making the sacred kora circuit around the mountain. The Chinese government isn’t issuing visas to Indian citizens this year, but I saw a modest number of non-Indian Hindu…
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Tibet: Everest
We started with a distant view of Everest, from the Pang La pass. The pass is at 5159 meters and offers stunning views on a clear day. And today was clear! The next shot is a (relative) close-up from the Rongbuk Monastery. This now hosts the so-called “Tourist Base Camp” which is as close as…
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Uzbekistan: The Aral Sea
I’m in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, visiting the Uzbek arm of the Aral Sea. I had visited the Kazakh arm of the sea in 2015, so I was curious to see the Uzbek side. Unfortunately there was heavy rain the night before the trip, so the normally extremely bad dirt tracks became extremely muddy, extremely bad, dirt…