Are the ghosts of the art deco Cafe Imperial at peace with the fast-food giant McDonald’s, now occupying its former space on Avenida dos Aliados in Porto, Portugal? This ornate recently restored mansion is located in central Porto on Placa da Liberdade on the elegant Avenida dos Aliados, a street lined with beaux-arts and Neoclassical […]
This post on Porto is based on time I spent there last year. The city of course closed its borders with the onset of the pandemic and tourism was halted. The borders have been re-opened and the tourists are slowly returning, but they do not expect to have a full recovery until there is a […]
On February 13th, an exhibition called: “Levi Strauss, a History of American Style” opened at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. It covers (and will cover, hopefully, post COVID-19) the history of Levi Strauss & Co, from its early beginnings as a dry goods business serving the miners during the gold rush of the 1850s until […]
GINGINHA – THE LOCAL FIX Waking up in the morning in Lisbon, I would open the double doors leading to the balcony and be mesmerized by the panorama that stretched down into the valleys and up into the hills again, above the orange tiled rooftops and out across the city of Lisbon. It was one […]
The One and Only PASTEIS de BELEM. A featured snippet from Trip Advisor: 10,000 reviews January 17, 2018 Pastéis de Belém — meaning Cake of Belém, named after the iconic pastry from the Belém district of Lisbon — received over 10,000 reviews from travelers on TripAdvisor in 2017 – more than any other food establishment in the world. There’s a thing!! One bakery specializing in […]
LEVI STRAUSS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN STYLE Levi Strauss and blue denim jeans are embedded in our culture. Walking through this exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) was like spending time with old friends: surrounded by love, reminiscing about the past and comforted by warm memories. INTRODUCTION On February 13th an exhibition called “Levi […]
Rua Garrett in Lisbon is among the loveliest shopping streets, with a diverse assortment of vendors and a provenance reaching back to the 1700s. Every city has at least one outstanding street of elegant shops. London’s Bond Street, Florence’s Via Tornabuoni, Paris’ Rue Saint Honore. In Lisbon, it is the Rua Garrett. This is an […]
THE BEST THINGS TO DO IN TULUM, MEXICO Tulum has a long and interesting history as suggested by the breathtaking nearby Mayan ruins, dating back to the 13th Century. But skip ahead a few centuries from the Age of the Mayans and find yourself in the 1980s — more recent history. Backpackers came across this […]
This post is about finding an excuse to show some of the beautiful flowers that grow here in the spring. These were all flowers that were photographed growing on the side of the road, in shopping centers and gas stations and I never had to be invasive or get anyone’s permission to photograph. Nothing in […]
Pausing for a cup of coffee at Emilio, on Avenida Tulum, in the Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya is anchored by Cancun in the North and Tulum in the south; the drive of seventy miles takes about one and half-hours. It is an easy drive along the well maintained Federal Highway 307, with a dense […]