Guidebooks - Lists, references, and personal opinions and reviews.

Travel Miscellany:

• While browsing the web, I came across a photo of a road sign (Road signs are one of the delights of travel.) that reminded me of one I've laughed about many times over the years. Photo and accompanying anecdote are here.
• Learn Spanish: A FREE online tutorial - If you have any desire to learn Spanish, go to this site. This is one of the best free self-teaching programs for anything I have ever seen. (They also have a program to sell.)
  
  
• Patrick's Site: Note that laptop! Either click on the image or go to his site http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/gallery/rockt001.htm and then the next seven screens. This guy knows how to travel! I can't rave about his site enough! Patrick is a fine photographer, and I first discovered his site when I was browsing and came across a photo taken in Kuching, Sarawak. I then discovered that at that time he was cycling across China, sending out messages while doing it, using a laptop computer. By getting onto his mailng list, and then giving him feedback, I ended up exchanging a few messages with him while he was traveling, and reliving a trip I had made over the same terrain several years earlier. I did it on a hard seat train, and then buses, though, when I was about fifty seven years old. (It was one of the best trips I ever made!) His site now has photos of that trip in China, and they are wonderful. He also has photos of travels in the USA, and other world travels, and many of them are now available to buy through his site, using modern technology. In addition to the photos, his journal from the trip is there to read, and lots of other stuff. I've spent lots of time on his site, and have definitely not exhausted the excitement yet. Oh, yes, he also is very proficient on the computer, and that shows. It is beautifully presented. There is great professionalism, as well as a nice personal feeling in the notes. (Be sure to check out the pictures of all the gear he had packed on his bike. The URL above will take you to photos of it packed to go and then all spread out, and an amusing anecdote about taking the photo. The laptop is in the last one.)