Trips posted in
Alfred O’Neill
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Angkor Wat: Overwhelming feat and it changes you, but it is up to you how…
While this post focuses on Angkor Wat, I have to start in the middle of the full day guided tour we took. This specific temple was the most haunting and impressive; each tower and column with a different carved face. Each face stood perhaps 40 feet tall. The feel of the mystical and painfully human…
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SF Hilton: A huge but good hotel…gateway to North Beach
First, Hilton’s mobile check-in/pick-a-room was very cool. In the in-between worlds of North Beach and Chinatown…and some rooms have a great view of the Transamerica tower. For this hotel to claim they are in the Financial district is foolish. It is deep in Chinatown and a short walk from North Beach. We found the location…
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The 1,000 year-old leather tanneries of Fez Medina, Morocco
At the heart of the labyrinthine Medina of Fez, Morocco lies the very ancient leather tanneries; they are a site unlike any other you will ever see. As you should always have a tour guide in this maze, it is inevitable to end up in the leather shops that overlook the many swirling pools of…
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Osaka sushi, the best in Chestnut Hill Philadelphia (with a caveat!)
The best quality sushi in miles. Good service. Fresh fish. Nice people. Great take-out. Only draw back is the Specialty rolls are waaaaaay to pricey. The caveat of course is that they take too long for pick-up and do not have the option of brown rice instead of white. http://www.osakapa.com/
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Abruzzo, Italy: Remote. Requires patience. Unbound beauty.
There will be a series of posts over the next few weeks on the Italian region of Abruzzo. Abruzzo is one of the most remote, poorest and least touristy areas in Italy. The seven days we were there staying at a rented farmhouse. This Journey will include food, towns, churches, mountains, food and the essence…
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Hyatt Place, Princeton, NJ: Go Nassau or anywhere else!
Hilton Garden Inn is better all around I always judge any hotel first and foremost by the people who work there. It was late in the evening when I checked in, and the lobby had that mix of small bar, tables and pastry display — all of which seem to me the faux pretense of…
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Hilton, SF Business District: Good value, great location.
San Francisco, being the consummate tourist city, is awash with hotels of all sizes, flavors and styles; I think the first real boutique hotel I ever stayed in was there in the early 1990’s. But it is also a very tricky place to chose a hotel that is right for your type of vacation or…
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Fez, Morocco: La Maison Bleue: Exotic Berber music surrounds a wonderful meal
After a day in the Fez Medina, being lead while getting lost in the maze of stores and stalls, passing donkey’s wearing diapers and people smiling and trying to catch your eye, we ended the day with a quiet sunset stroll to this amazing restaurant and riad, La Maison Bleue. The area past the door…
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Miracle staircase of Loretto chapel, Sante Fe
The Loretto chapel, now privately owned was a story completely unknown to before I arrived. Dutifully, looking for a guide book as I paid to get in, my immediate feeling was: now this is a small Gothic church. Diminutive would be a good word. In fact, by odd comparison, the church we visited in the…
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The Legion of Honor: A long drive, but SF best museum
While San Francisco has a multitude of things to do, I would not call it a museum-city. In fact, I have been unimpressed by their MoMA in SOMA and the DeYoung in Golden Gate Park. Average, to say the least. But not so the Legion of Honor museum. My uncle, who has lived in the…
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La Maison Bleue: Dinner in Fez…Exotic Berber music surrounds a rainbow of spices and dishes
After a day in the Fez Medina, being lead while getting lost, but not since we had a guide, in the maze of stores and stalls, shouting merchants, copper-pounding artisans, passing donkey’s wearing diapers and people smiling and trying to catch your eye, we ended the day with a quiet sunset stroll to this amazing…
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So why didn’t we visit a distillery in Scotland? (Blame it on Robertsons!)
…because on our way to Erdradour distillery, the smallest of all distilleries, based in the tourist town of Pitlochry, we got waylaid by the incalculable whiskey knowledge of the owner of the town’s main whiskey store — Robertson’s. The tour we received was from one of the top ten experts in Scottish Whiskey, Ewan McIlwraith,…
Outspoken Traveler 