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A comment from Erica on my Travel: About page got me thinking again… I tried to answer it in a commen, but then I realised there was so much more to it than that.
It’s so hard to choose a favorite because places stick to you for so many different reasons. Somehow, I’ve managed to narrow it to a top three:

• Japan, specifically Kyoto and the Higashiyama district. While I think it’s likely that that she’s one of the many who dress for the day rather than a true geisha, things like this are still a stunning site. I don’t think you can get an idea of just how different Japan is until you see sites like this near Kiyomizudera. I didn’t have much of an interest in Japan prior to my first trip in 2001, but now it has its claws in me and won’t let go.

• Europe – all of it. The history. When in Prague for the first class last summer, a friend and I were on a cruise on the Vltava River for a different look at Prague. We ended up speaking Spanish with a Catalan speaking couple from outside Barcelona. They asked if we found the small cities a challenge compared with New York and my response was no, for their sheer history. I also like the closeness of the different cultures. Over a month in Prague, I spent each weekend in a different country: Poland, Italy, Germany and Switzerland (plus England if you count the day in London on the way to Prague). It was easy, convenient and a walking history book.

You walk down from the Piazza Venezia and there it is. I took a number of photos that weekend and they all jut spoke to the history of the city yet mixed with modern Rome. It’s something that we can’t even imagine in the US or Australia.

• Australia – yep another all of it. The natural landscape, the relative lack of pollution, the open spaces. Unfortunately most of my photos are off line but this picture of Darwin’s Mindil Beach covers most of it. I adored Australia and for natural beauty, I can’t imagine anything ever topping it: