TravelNotes of a Traveling Sage

I entered through Paris and headed for Andorra by way of Toulouse. On the 9th I skied at the Grandvalira resort. I moved to Barcelona on the 11th, and from the 12th I went around Valldemossa and Palma on Mallorca. On the 14th I moved on to Valencia.

On the 15th I saw the Rock of Gibraltar, crossed the strait from Tarifa and entered Tangier in Morocco. On the 16th I reached Marrakech by train by way of Casablanca and walked Jemaa el-Fnaa. I moved to Lisbon on the 19th and went out to Sintra on the 20th. On the 22nd I changed planes in Barcelona and arrived in Nice, and on the 23rd I visited Monaco and Villefranche-sur-Mer. I returned to Paris on the 25th, visited Chopin's grave in Père Lachaise Cemetery, and set off for home on the 26th.

I arrived in Shenyang on the 13th and stayed two nights. On the 15th I moved to Dalian, went around Lüshun, and returned home from Dalian on the 17th.

I changed planes in Tianjin and Xi'an and arrived in London. In London I visited Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, the British Museum and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and on May 1 I visited Grantham and Cambridge. On the 2nd I crossed to Malta and, until the 5th, went around Valletta, Birgu and Gozo.

On the 6th I moved to Prague by way of Bratislava. After reaching Riga via Warsaw on the 8th, I visited the Hill of Crosses at Šiauliai in Lithuania on the 9th and Tallinn in Estonia on the 10th. I photographed the northern lights on the 11th and left Riga on the 12th.

From Colombo I went down the south coast and visited Galle Fort and Matara. On New Year's Eve I headed inland to Deniyaya, and on New Year's Day I walked in Lankagama, at the entrance to the Sinharaja forest. On the 2nd I saw an elephant near Embilipitiya.

I visited the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy on the 3rd, Sigiriya on the 4th and Anuradhapura on the 5th. I moved on to Negombo on the 6th and returned home on the 7th.

In Manila I walked around the walled city of Intramuros and visited Manila Cathedral, then took a night bus to Vigan in northern Luzon. I went around Vigan's old town, the Bantay Bell Tower and Paoay, returned from Laoag to Manila on the 25th and went straight on to Taiwan.

In Taipei I visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, and on the 27th I went out to Keelung.

I entered through Frankfurt and went on to Basel, the Abbey of St. Gall in St. Gallen, and Vaduz in Liechtenstein. On the 13th I headed from Geneva down to Avignon in the south of France, and on the 14th, after seeing Orange and the Pont du Gard, I moved on to Paris. The 15th was the Panthéon in Paris.

I returned to Switzerland on the 16th, saw the Einstein House in Bern and arrived in Grindelwald. On the 17th I went around Jungfraujoch, the Eiger Trail and Lauterbrunnen. On the 18th I moved to Bonn in Germany and visited the Beethoven-Haus and Cologne Cathedral. From there I continued to Amsterdam on the 20th and to Brussels and Luxembourg on the 21st, and on the 22nd I returned to Frankfurt by way of Trier.

I arrived in Bangkok on the 22nd and went around Wat Pho and Wat Arun. On the 24th I changed planes in Siem Reap and reached Ho Chi Minh City, and the next day, the 25th, I went out to My Tho on the Mekong.

I moved on to Singapore on the 26th. On the 27th I crossed the border to visit Johor Bahru in Malaysia. I returned home on the 28th.

I changed planes in Helsinki and arrived first in Copenhagen. From there I crossed the strait by train and saw Malmöhus Castle and the city hall in Malmö, Sweden. Back in Copenhagen, I walked around the old observatory in the Botanical Garden and the statue of Tycho Brahe, Rosenborg Castle, the Marble Church and Nyhavn, and crossed to Iceland that night.

In Iceland I stayed in Grundarfjörður on the Snæfellsnes peninsula from December 29 to 31. I took in the view of Kirkjufell and photographed the northern lights on the peninsula on the 30th. New Year's Eve was in Reykjavik. After the New Year I headed south and saw the Seljalandsfoss waterfall and Geysir. On the 3rd I visited Grindavík on the Reykjanes peninsula and the lighthouse at Garður. On the way home I changed planes in Oslo and Helsinki.

I changed planes in Moscow and arrived in Vienna. I visited Beethoven's grave in the Central Cemetery and Schönbrunn Palace, and on the 21st I went out to Baden.

On the 23rd I walked both banks of the Danube in Budapest and visited Matthias Church and the Dohány Street Synagogue. I moved on to Warsaw on the 24th and returned home on the 25th.

I changed planes in Moscow and landed in Tel Aviv. I began by walking Jaffa's old town and Acre, then went on to Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and to Yardenit on the Jordan River.

Heading south down the Jordan Valley, I passed the Dead Sea, Masada and Beersheba and reached Jerusalem. In the Old City I visited the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, and in Bethlehem the Church of the Nativity. On the way home I changed planes again at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. When I stepped outside the airport for a while during the layover, everything was covered in snow. After that I changed planes once more in Shanghai.

I spent a month in Los Angeles to attend an intensive English course at UCLA Extension. During my stay I went around Hollywood, Little Tokyo and Union Station downtown, and Santa Monica, and saw the city lights from Griffith Observatory.

On the night of the 14th I set out for Las Vegas, and on the 15th I passed by Hoover Dam and went as far as the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I returned to Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles, and on the 23rd I went to Universal Studios Hollywood.