Where I come from, our forests – while they do have their fare share of dangerous spiders and deadly snakes – don’t have predators with huge teeth and razor claws and can leave nothing of you behind except your chewed and bloody boots. Which will make you wonder why seeing a bear in the wild was number one on my wish list for visiting Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, USA.
I’ve done some stupid things in my time (no, really) but climbing the Grand Canyon down and up in one day really takes the cake. Thank the pixies that I took a short, mountain-biking Belgian Knight in Shining Armour along with me.
So, you’ve built the world’s largest personal fortune, discovered and developed Saudi Arabia’s oil, married five times and haggled over the ransom to get your kidnapped grandson back. What do you do for an encore? Why, you build a Roman Villa in your backyard of course.
New York City is a must-see destination, but untangling myth from folk-lore, political spin from native pride or salami from boloney can sometimes get in the way of seeing beyond the set tourist attractions. What you need is a local.
I love libraries in general, and great, towering, legendary libraries in particular. And iff you’re ever going to fall for your inner nerd, the Library of Congress is absolutely the place to do it.