Parr Planet – Travels with Stephen & Kathleen
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Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan. It was originally established as Bozok in the 8th century and was built into a sprawling modern city with huge boulevards, mosques, civic buildings, monuments and etc. by 1997, when it replaced Almaty as the capital. Not much that is historical remains here and it is mostly interesting as a modern, …
Not on the way, but the simplest way to navigate the flight to Astana, we ended up flying to Dubai and laying over for the night. It was dark by the time we got in but we had booked a room at a hotel next to the Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world, and …
Back in Tbilisi, we now have one full day to explore the city on our own. We started our day with a soak at one of the city’s fine hot mineral baths, where we had our own private bath suite and two attendants to wash and exfoliate us….delightful! We then wandered up the hill nearby with its …
Intent on seeing the Goris Cave Dwellings, we embarked on an overnight trip which would take us out to Akhaltsikhe and back again seeing the beautiful terrain, wonderous caves and some more fantastic monestaries and cathedrals. The Goris Caves are thought to have been in use since the 4th Century BC with the area and …
The easiest way to get from Yerevan to Tbilisi was to hire a driver to take us on the five hour drive. We got someone to take us to see various sites along the way so it turned into a nine hour journey, but it was still a nice day. In Tbilisi, we relaxed on …
Many things to do around Goris before heading back to Yerevan. This is just beautiful country with a whole lot of history. In Goris, we stayed at a hotel up on the hill with an amazing view and had the treat of watching a local wedding reception going on right below us.
We took an overnight trip to visit the wonders of southern Armenia and were not disappointed. The terrain is amazing here and spring is extraordinary, so green, flowering trees everywhere, mountains with snow….we were truly amazed at the natural beauty of this country. The amazing history, from prehisitoric to Christian era was icing on the …
Our lovely 3 PM flight from Italy to Armenia was moved to 8 PM which means we didn’t arrive in this capital city until 12 PM our time, 2 AM in Yerevan. True to its travel book descriptions, Yerevan was still hopping at this time on a Saturday night. Folks were still in cafes and …
The last time we were in Rome the forum was completely open to the public. We could wander around, climb on things, and generally frolic with a moderate amount of folks around. It seems that the crowds just grew too large for them to accomodate this and luckily we were able to nab some tickets …
Back to Rome after 29 Years It has been almost 30 years since we visited this ancient city. We were travelling by train then and things looked much different. It is amazing, in spite of that, that Rome seems in many ways the same. It is still a thrill to wander the streets of the …