Tourist First

Travel notes and advice from around the world. Above, the daily flight from Managua at the San Carlos, Nicaragua, airstrip.

Monday, September 16, 2024

Contents and Quick Links

 2024 Posts:  San Diego's big swinging organ. A family visit to Milwaukee.  A quick visit to Red Rocks outside Denver. A July visit to San Francisco and its oysters. Six weeks in Spain, with links to Madrid, Valencia, Seville and other cities. Plus Joshua Tree and Death Valley, two California desert wonderlands.

Welcome to Stephen M. Bailey's Tourist First! I hope these photos and impressions from my travels will help you plan your own trips. 

These blog posts are not updated once they're posted. For example, my post about a July 2019 visit to Venice does not reflect the terrible damage done by flooding in November 2019. And some hotel links may no longer work, though I try to delete them when that happens. Small hotels and lodges, especially in less developed destinations like Nicaragua and Laos, often are short-lived and the ones I've visited may no longer exist. Please leave a comment or email me (stephenmbailey@gmail.com) if you have questions about any post or if you see errors. 

General Travel

In the Air, a Caste System
Here's What I Want in a Hotel Room 
And see what more than 1,000 of my New York Times readers want in a hotel room
Favorite hotels: Tripadvisor's list 
Travel Experiences With Minimal Expense
Strategies for Saving on Travel
My 2008 New York Times column on travel in a motor home or RV
My 2004 New York Times article on eco-resorts in the Caribbean (not all are still operating)
It's Easy to Avoid Credit Card Ripoffs Abroad
Road Trip: Though the Rockies on Interstate 70

Weekend Homes
This blog is primarily devoted to tourist trips and vacation explorations, but some people prefer to make the same trips over and over ... to their weekend homes. Instead of a month in Italy, they choose almost every weekend at the lake or in the mountains. Here are some of my New York Times articles about weekend homes: 
A Chesapeake getaway is an HGTV Dream House. 
A weekend home without beeps? Ditching technology.
Owning your own place in Mexico or Canada.
Thinking of a weekend home at a lake?
Dealing (or not) with problem guests.
Always pampered: A weekend home at a resort.

African Safaris
Itinerary for Six Weeks in Africa
My 2019 New York Times Article on Tips for Your First Safari
The Safari Experience
Botswana: Kalahari Desert
Botswana: Okavango Delta
Namibia: Chobe River
South Africa: Sabi Sand Game Reserve
Tanzania: Ngorongoro Crater
Tanzania: Serengeti

Argentina
Mendoza: Home of Malbec

Australia
Itinerary for 10 Days in Tasmania
Freycinet National Park: Beaches, Trails and Shellfish
Lake St. Clair: Not a Platypus in Sight

Britain
Wales: "Retiring" to a Canal Boat

California
Road trip: San Diego to Healdsburg
Anzo-Borrego State Park: A Desert in Bloom
Central Coast: Big Sur and Route 1
Idyllwild: Mountain Retreat
Joshua Tree: A Desert Adventure
Lassen Volcanic National Park: The Landscape of Disaster
Malibu: The Getty Villa and More
Palm Springs: A Fall Getaway
Paso Robles: A Focus on Wine
Point Reyes National Seashore: Isolation on a Grand Scale
San Diego County: Potato Chip Rock
San Francisco: Oysters and Alcatraz

Cambodia
Itinerary for Three Weeks in Southeast Asia
Small Airlines for Touring Southeast Asia
Religious Images: The Divine in Southeast Asia
Elephant Valley: Saving Asia's "Living Tractors"
Kep: The Place for Crabs (My Apologies to Chesapeake Bay)
Phnom Penh: Where the Past Is Past
Siem Reap: Gateway to the Angkor Region
The Angkor Temples: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Banteay Srei, and Ta Prohm. 

Canada
Montreal: Frenchy but Not Exotic
Niagara Falls: The Canadian Side, Please
Toronto: First Impressions
Toronto: Second Impressions

Colorado

Croatia
Itinerary for Two Months in the Balkans
Dubrovnik: Beach Resort and History Theme Park
Hvar: The Blue Waters of the Adriatic
Split: Ruins and 20th-Century Art
Zagreb: The City of Broken Relationships

Czech Republic
Prague: Music, Art and Architecture

Dominica
My 1997 New York Times article on the Caribbean's greenest island


Ecuador
Otavalo: My 2002 New York Times article on a New Years visit to the Andes
Quito: Mountain Capital

France
A Family Road Trip Finds the Best of France
Bordeaux: Wine Capital
The Loire Valley: Chateau Visits 
Paris: Trying to Avoid the Crowds

Greece
Itinerary for Two Months in the Balkans
Athens: Better Than I Imagined
Chania: Walls and Charm on Crete
Delphi: The Oracle is Silent
Heraklion: The Capital of Crete
Hydra: Quiet and Carless
Santorini: Island as Shopping Mall
Thessaloniki: A Party Town With Few Foreigners

Iceland
Reykajavik: Geothermal Wonderland

Iran
A 2016 Family Visit
What to Expect If You Visit Iran

Italy
Itinerary for a Three-Month Visit
Agrigento: Sicily's Valley of the Temples
Alberobello: Home of the Trulli
Capri: Another World
Catania: Gateway to Mount Etna
Lecce: Baroque Wonderland
Maratea: Italy for Italians
Masala: More Than Wine
Matera: Modern Cave Dwellers
Naples: One Night Isn't Enough
Palermo: Beyond "The Godfather"
Pompeii (and Herculaneum): What Vesuvius Wrought
Rome: The Palaces
Rome: The Churches
Rome: The Ruins
Rome: Dining
Rome: Walking
Siracusa: Outpost of the Ancient Greeks 
Taormina: Mountains and Sea in Sicily
Trieste: The Least Italian City in Italy
Trani: On the Adriatic
Venice: A Summer Visit

Laos
Itinerary for Three Weeks in Southeast Asia
Small Airlines for Touring Southeast Asia
Religious Images: The Divine in Southeast Asia 
Luang Prabang: Monks and Tourists 

Maine
Georgetown: Do it for the lobsters.

Maryland
Assateague: A Fall Afternoon
Annapolis: My 2008 New York Times article on Maryland's capital city
Baltimore: My 2002 New York Times "36 Hours" article on Charm City
Blackwater: My 2012 American Forests article on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Chesapeake Bay: A Fishing Trip
St. Michaels: My 2004 New York Times "36 Hours" article
Tilghman Island: Where I Lived for 10 Years

Mexico
Ajijic: Expat-Friendly Town on Lake Chapala
Baja California: Cabo Crowds and Peaceful La Paz

Minnesota
Boundary Waters: My 2011 American Forests article on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Mississippi
Ole Miss: My Alma Mater
Oxford: My 2008 New York Times article on Faulkner, Football and Food  


Montenegro
Itinerary for Two Months in the Balkans
Kotor: Small but Choice 


Morocco
Itinerary for a Three-Week Visit
Ait Benhaddou: Kasbahs and Movie Locations
Rio San Juan: Howler Monkeys and River Huts
Selva Negra: Ecology-Minded Coffee Plantation
Solentiname Islands: A Poet-Priest's Art Project
Solentiname Islands: My 2012 New York Times article and a photo slideshow

Panama
Bastimentos: Nature Inn and Chocolate Lodge
Bocas del Toro: Surfers and Backpackers
Boquete: A Coffee Estate in the Mountains
Panama Canal: An 11-Hour Trip Through an Engineering Marvel
Panama City: My 2014 New York Times review of the Panama City Waldorf Astoria 
Kuna Yala: A Cabin on the Water

Pennsylvania
Adamstown: My 1999 New York Times  article on Shopping for antiques in Amish country
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob

Peru
Itinerary for One Month in Peru
Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu: Mountain in the Rain Forest
Amazon: River and Wildlife Cruise
Amazon: Fatal Fire on a River Cruise Boat
Arequipa: Juanita's Story
Colca Canyon: In Search of Condors
Cusco: The Inca's Capital
Lima: Museo Larco's Amazing Pre-Colombian Pottery
Lima: Ancient Culture, Modern Life
Ollantaytambo: Life Amid the Ruins
Paracas: An Ancient Mystery Beside the Sea

Portugal
Itinerary for a Three-Week Visit
Belmonte: Mountain Retreat
Evora: Cusine and Cork
Douro Valley: Where the Grapes Grow
Lisbon: Riverfront and Seafront
Obidos: Old Walls and New Buddhas
Porto: The Sweet Life
Sintra: Royal Aerie

St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Bequia: The Moonhole Experience
Bequia: A Happy Island
St. Vincent: My 2004 New York Times article on Petit Byahaut and Other Eco Resorts
St. Vincent: My 2004 New York Times Slide Show on Petit Byahaut

Slovenia
Itinerary for Two Months in the Balkans
Ljubjana: Cozy Capital
Piran: At the Concrete Beach

South Africa
Robben Island: A Visit to Mandela's Prison
Sabi Sand: Safari Satisfaction Guaranteed
Western Cape: Beyond Cape Town and the Wine Regions

Spain
Itinerary for Six Weeks in 2024: Madrid, Valencia and Southern Spain
Valencia: Is There a Better City in Spain for Food?


Tanzania
Zanzibar: As Exotic as Its Name

Thailand
Itinerary for Three Weeks in Southeast Asia
Small Airlines for Touring Southeast Asia
Religious Images: The Divine in Southeast Asia 
Bangkok: River Metropolis

Turkey
A 2010 Vacation, Istanbul and Beyond
Aboard a Gulet for a Blue Cruise
Istanbul: Seth Kugel Does It on the Cheap
Istanbul: Visiting a Hamam

Utah
The Marvels  of Arches National Park

Vietnam
Itinerary for Three Weeks in Southeast Asia
Small Airlines for Touring Southeast Asia
Religious Images: The Divine in Southeast Asia 
Ha Long Bay: Two Nights on a Junk 
Hanoi: Swarming and Sophisticated
Hoi An: Fine Dining, Fine Silks 

Virginia
My 2008 New York Times article on Virginia's Eastern Shore

Washington, D.C.

Washington State

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park: Morning Glory Pool and Other Wonders  

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California: San Diego's Big Swinging Organ

 

Raul Ramerez performs at a Saturday morning
fund-raisung brunch. Only 15 of the pipes
visible here are active. The rest are merely
decorative. But don't they look great? Below,
a peak at what goes on inside the organ's
wind chest when it is being played.

      Balboa Park is one of the great attractions of San Diego. In addition to its world-class San Diego Zoo, the Comic-con Museum, the San Diego Automotive Museum, several art and other museums, its Spanish Village artisan market, and its amazing gardens, it also has what is called the world's largest outdoor musical instrument, the Spreckels Organ. A video offers a great introduction to this amazing 110-year-old instrument, which is supported by the city and by its own Spreckels Organ Society.  

      These days, the primary organist is Raul Prieto Ramirez, who holds the title Civic Organist.  Guest organists appear often too, either at the every-Sunday-at-2pm-rain-or-shine concerts or at special events, such as an evening concert around Halloween with old silent horror movies (if anything with Buster Keaton or Stan Laurel could be considered a horror movie) and the organ providing the musical soundtrack. All performances, even those with movies, are free, and the many benches almost guarantee everyone a seat.

       The last two of the summer 2024 Monday evening concerts were the Buster Keaton movie "Steamboat Bill Jr." with David Marsh on the organ, and, on Labor Day, Raul Ramirez's  performance of music by the Doors and Pink Floyd accompained by the Spreckels Organ Pavillion's own rock band, the Organization. We went to both and each was amazing.  The organ can toot like a steamboat, honk like a car and provide almost any sort of sound effect along with the musical score that movies need.  The rock concert opened with the organ intro to "Light My Fire" and only got better. The band's vocalists hit the right notes and struck the right attitudes. And "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" made full use of the organ's range and volume. A light show was customized for each number; for example, stacks of bills and floods of coins tumbled down the front of the pavillion during Pink Floyd's "Money."

        It's worth noting that the organ has no electronic amplification. All the sounds are "real."  The drum? There's a real drum inside with the pipes and it is mechnically struck as needed. Cymbals, too. There are also a glockenspiel, chimes and bells. All controlled from the organ's keyboard or footpedals.  A walk-in wind chest is the heart and lungs of the whole thing. 

       On a September 2024 Saturday morning, we joined about a hundred other organ afficiandos for a brunch on the pavillion's stage, a presentation on how the organ works, a brief concert (Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a highlight, along with Mussorgsky's "Great Gates of Kiev") and a tour inside the organ itself. This was a fund-raiser for the Organ Society.

      The links at the beginning of this post tell and show you much more about the organ than I can. The video also lets you hear the organ; this platform allows only very brief audio-video. Here are a few photos:

Buster Keaton's 1928 "Steamboat Bill Jr."  is a 70-minute comedy complete with the sort
of stunts that Keaton was famous for, including an iconic scene in which the facade of a 
house falls on him during a cyclone, but he's saved because he was standing where
an open window landed. It was darker than this when the movie started.

That's Raul Ramirez in a red shirt at the organ during the Doors/Pink Floyd
concert on Labor Day 2024. The rock band Organization performed on the
left side of the stage, but they're obscured in this shot. The area in front
of the stage was filled with people dancing during much of the concert.

The organ console is moved from the 
pavillion to the open-air stage
for performances.


Civic Organist Raul Ramirez showed off the organ
during a Sept. 14, 2024, fund-raising brunch. The
devices at the far left are examples of the types
of pipes in the organ, and all worked to
produce various sounds.


Leather bellows such as this power the organ.
 Collectively these bellows are called "the
leathers" and are due for replacement
 at a cost of a quarter-million dollars.


Almost all of the organ's more than 5,000
pipes are hidden in the pavillion.



When the organist wants the sound of a
snare drum, this produces it.



Cololnnades reach out from both sides of the organ pavillion to partially surround the seating
area. During concerts, passers-by stop to listen in the area where these people are.










































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Friday, August 23, 2024

Colorado: Live at Red Rocks

 

Sandstone formations, colored by oxidized
minerals, give Rod Rocks its name,

          An August 2024 weekend stopover in Denver gave Jane and me a chance for a quick visit to Red Rocks to see the celebrated amphitheater and a bit of the 740-acre park that surrounds it.  Our nephew, who lives in Denver, drove us to the park, which is about 30 minutes out of town though it is owned by the city of Denver, and accompanied us on the popular Trading Post Trail, a 1.4-mile loop wending around rock formations. It's rated moderate, but on a 90-degree-plus sunny day, it wasn't moderate enough. At a road crossing and with probably less than a quarter-mile to go, we found a shady spot to wait while our nephew sprinted ahead and came back with his car for us.  

        The amphitheater, which has hosted performances since the early 1900s, took its present form during the Great Depression with help from the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. It has since seen performances by the Beatles (1964), the Grateful Dead (at least 20 times), Jimi Hendrix (1968) and many others. It's where the concert film "U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky" was filmed in 1983. In 2021, Red Rocks Amphitheatre was the top-grossing and most-attended venue of any size anywhere in the world, according to Billboard Magazine.

      Here are a few snapshots:

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre has seen musical performances of all types for more than 80 years.

Performances were held here for several decades before
the seating area and stage were completed in 1941.

Formations such as this seem to change shapes as you view them from different angles.


Stairs make some of the steeper sections
of the Trading Post Trail a bit easier.


There's not a lot of shade on the Trading Post Trail.





A hiker takes a break.


The elevation change on the Trading Post Trail is more than 300
feet, but it seemed to me that the trail went up and down
that much more than once.

Our nephew knew a good spot for a selfie.


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Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Wisconsin: Family-Friendly Milwaukee


Milwaukee seems like a great place to grow up.
Lake Michigan beaches let toddlers
get their feet sandy.

 When I lived in Chicago in the late 1970s, I visited Milwaukee a couple of times (once for a Kinks concert at what was then called the Performing Arts Center), but I never knew the city well.  Now living in San Diego, I find myself in Milwaukee more often than when I lived 90 miles away in Chicago. My son has lived there for years now, met his wife and got married there, and graduated from law school there. They're raising their twin sons (almost nine months old as I write this) in this clean, friendly and surprisingly woke city.  When Jane and I first came to visit them here, we toured tiny neighborhood cocktail bars, beer bars with multiple pinball machines and trivia nights, and some excellent restaurants. Visits these days revolve around nap times and eateries that can accommodate a double stroller. 

       Jane and I just spent eight days there, giving us a chance to revisit the trendy Third Ward and to spend a few minutes walking along Lake Michigan. In the past we've stayed downtown at a Hilton Garden Inn just north of the Third Ward, and at the Saint Kate, a hotel near the Fiserv Forum (site of the 2024 Republican National Convention). This time we picked the Journeyman, a lively Kimpton hotel in the heart of the Third Ward with a far-too-popular rooftop bar.  Next time we think we'll return to the quieter Saint Kate, which is just a few blocks north of the Third Ward and has an excellent and serene  Champagne lounge.

       Jane and I had dinner a few times in the Third Ward, including at our hotel's restaurant, Tre Rivoli,  which makes a decent pizza. We had Indian food at Saffron on a deck overlooking the Milwaukee River. Saffron has one of the most unusual cocktail lists I've ever seen, some served with smoke-filled bubbles.  Edison, an old-school place on Broadway, the main drag, provided Jane with a perfect branzino and me with a succulent pork chop. 

       The Third Ward has interesting shops and restaurants, but it's the neighborhoods north of downtown that our son has lived in, in a couple of apartments before buying a condo in a neighborhood known as Downer Woods, with Lake Michigan to the east and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee campus to the west. It's a neighborhood of small multifamily buildings and stunningly large single-family mansions, many of them a century or so old and most of them in immaculate condition with manicured grounds. The shady sidewalks seem made for pushing baby strollers and the park playgrounds promise idyllic childhoods. We took the boys on a stroller ride through the campus, which I think should count as their first college visit.

      Jane and I had one lunch by ourselves and then a dinner with our son, daughter-in-law, and the twins on the patio at Cafe Hollander on nearby Downer Avenue. Cafe Hollander is a Belgian-style brasserie with several locations and reliable moules-frites. Another good outdoor family dinner was at Sala, a stroller-friendly Sicilian cafe a few blocks from their condo.

       Although I've been in Milwaukee a good bit in recent years, this is the first time I've posted about it. In the past I've visited the magnificent Santiago Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Museum of Art, but I didn't photograph it and I didn't see it on this last trip. The snapshots below, all from my August 2024 trip, offer a very limited view of a great American city:

Much of the lakefront north of downtown looks like this.

You can try, but there's no point looking for
whales in Lake Michigan.

A huge residential tower downtown as seen from
the Milwaukee's lake front.

Here's another view of that tower. We saw some swimmers,
 but there were more dogs than people in the water.

The Public Market is at the northern edge of the Third Ward and the 
southern edge of downtown.   


Inside the Public Market are candy counters, seafood
stalls and other vendors.

As it passes the Third Ward, the Milwaukee River
is lined by a restaurant-dotted walkway.

The patio at Cafe Hollander.

Throughout our son's posh neighborhood we saw
signs that Milwaukee is surprisingly woke.

Wokeness, an awareness of social injustice, is evident
in many yard signs. These are not uncommon in
Southern California, where I live, and I was
pleasantly surprised to see them in the Midwest. 
I like the idea that my grandsons will be growing up 
in such a community.




A Black Lives Matter sign adorns a lawn
in a neighborhood of mansions.

Shade trees and large houses line the streets in Downer Woods.


Who wouldn't want to push a stroller 
down this sidewalk?

One of many impressive homes 
in Downer Woods.

Two baby swings are just what these twins need.


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