The Travellers Warehouse

My life as a globetrotter has been an enriching and rewarding experience. That is the reason I want to set up this website. I want to share my experiences with others, and pass on important information about globetrotting in today’s volatile world.

There are so many things we have to consider in taking a trip now. We might want to see the Greek Islands, but would like it to be a joyful trip that will be fondly remembered.

Also, I want to share some of my favorite places on earth. There is nothing like a sunset on the Cornish coast in England, or a quiet moment in the Cathedral at Notre Dame in Paris. One of my favorite places on earth is the vista point at Waiemia Canyon on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.

I am fortunate enough to have friends all over the world, and sometimes I am able to visit them. Another favorite place is in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Some friends have a home there. This city sets in the famous Valley of Morelos south of Mexico City, and is a site of one of Hernando Cortez’s palaces which is home to some of Diego Rivera’s most famous paintings. Their home is situated up above the valley and early in the morning, before the fog sets in, the twin volcanoes that hover over the distant villages can be clearly seen. It is quite a site when the volcanoes are emitting smoke at sunrise. The whole sky and the panoramic sunrise manifests as a bright red. My friend’s patio at 5:30 AM is one of my favorite travel memories.

I can pass on what I have learned, and I hope it helps others. Not only that, there are products and tips that I can recommend that make a long trip easier. For example: China. I loved the place, but the laws and expectations are different there. I always believe that while a person visits the land of another that everything there is respected and honored. Because of that, there have been very few problems as I have traveled around the world—last count it was 37 countries.

I have always studied the lives of other globetrotters, like Marco Polo who was born in or near Venice in 1254. Before he died in 1324 he was the instrument for opening the minds and awareness of Europeans to the Far East—mainly China. He came from a whole family of merchants and adventurers who traveled into areas that far off land, and opened up new avenues of trade with the west. His adventures and recollections in his memoirs, Travels of Marco Polo, inspired and fired the imaginations of millions of people. His work was used by Columbus to fabricate a voyage across the Atlantic to find a better trade route to Japan and China. Instead, Columbus stumbled on the continents of North and South America.

I have studied those who loved travel since grade school. In my teens I came across the biography of Richard Halliburton, the famous American globetrotter who died at sea in 1939. It was in one of Halliburton’s books that I first came across the famous anthills of Ghana in Africa. They are tall peaked mounds that dot the landscape there. Halliburton is a good place for a budding traveler to start looking at the world. A listing of his books appears at the end of this article.

Recently while visiting the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island in San Diego I came across a wonderful book in one of the gifts shops there. It is entitled The Best Travel Writing. It is a great book to take on the plane to pass the time. This paperback is a compilation of travel stories by some of the worlds finest travel writers. For the casual or business traveler there is a lot of good information contained in the very entertaining stories.

My research never ends. I haven’t read Halliburton lately. It is probably time to go back read him again. That way I can travel all the time.

List of Halliburton books:

• Richard Halliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels
• The Flying Carpet

• Richard Halliburton, his story of his life’s adventure as told in letters to his mother and father
• The Royal Road to Romance: American’s Most Dashing Adventurer Explores 1920s India (Adventure Travel Classics)
• Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels: The Occident
• Richard Halliburton’s Second book of marvels;: The Orient
• The Glorious Adventure

• The famous adventures of Richard Halliburton
• The romantic world of Richard Halliburton
• Richard Halliburton: His Own Story of His Life and Travels

Other:

• The Best Travel Writing 2006: True Stories from Around the World (Best Travel Writing)

Paris, France is known as the City of Light, and is one of the most visited cities in the world. There is so much to see and do there. I will cover some of my favorite sites, and explain why they mean so much to me.

Paris is built on the Seine River, and had its roots and beginnings back to ancient times. We really start hearing about the French connection during the time of Julius Caesar when he brought Roman culture into Europe. He was a conqueror, and he was tough with all of the “barbarian” tribes of Europe. But, his journeys did change the course of Western History.

One of my favorite places in the world is the Cathedral of Notre Dame that sits on an island out in the Seine. There is the most wonderful feeling there, and I wondered why. I have visited a lot of holy and sacred sites around the world, but there was something special about Notre Dame. So, I started researching. One day I was in a used bookstore, and my hand literally landed on a book called The Biography of a Cathedral by Robert Gordon Anderson.. It is an incredible book, and is a must read before visiting the place. The book was written to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the completion of Notre Dame.

The saga begins in 32 B.C. Anderson talks about the island in the Seine all the way through to 1239 A.D. He talks about the fact that this particular spot was always special to someone or some culture. First, Druids came followed by the Romans, and then by the Christians. Some groups of individuals have always found something special about the site, and millions still find it inviting today.

There is so much to see in Paris. There is The Louvre , an ancient palace that has been made into one of the finest museums in the world. It is the final resting place of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It is true that the eyes of the painted lady seem to follow a person around the room. A tour of The Louvre might take up 3 days, and then that might not be enough. Just making a trip to take in all of the art that is stored there can easily take a whole day. Dress comfortably, and wear good walking shoes.

The Paris underground is an excellent way to get around Paris and surrounding areas. The rail service all over Europe rates five stars. A traveler can check into a EuroRail pass, and save a lot on travel. A short train ride from Paris is the Palace at Versailles, birth place of the French Revolution. Versailles was the home of the French Royal family, and today serves as a museum. The grounds are magnificent. One area to visit on the grounds is the buildings where Marie Antoinette lived and raised her children. She didn’t always stay at the larger palace, and preferred her own corner on the estate. A lot of the buildings are quite simple, and nothing like the regular palace area.

Paris is a town where churches, old palaces and museums thrive. The traveler should try to get to the Impressionist Museum before moving on to another city. Examples of all of the Impressionist artist\u2019s works are housed there. In The Louvre the paintings are sometimes huge, and can take up a whole wall, while the works at the Impressionist Museum are smaller. The impressionist ideas represented have a beautiful, esoteric, and ethereal quality to them.

Of course, the city is a wonderful place to shop, and is one of the main fashion capitals in the world. Other high fashion districts in Europe are Rome, London, and Munich. A Paris fashion show is really a major event all by itself. Then, of course, there are the sidewalk cafes, good food, and nighttime cruises down the Seine.

A French dictionary is a handy tool to have anywhere in France. In a lot of European countries English is taught as an additional language. In France, however, the people are very proud of their home grown tongue. It doesn’t hurt to take a short course in French before leaving. Making this effort could mean the difference between finding a good restaurant or a restroom (Toilette–to the French).

Paris can honestly be called “The City of Light.”