From the Pyrenees to the jagged coastal coves of Costa Brava, Spain's Catalonia stirs inspiration and saccharine summer dreams.  IT was hard to say when summer arrived in the Alt Empordà, the upper part of Catalonia, tucked away in the northeast...

Vienna allows a traveler to indulge in a waking dream, and there is nothing more real than setting foot in Austria's alluring capital.  Between Vienna’s imposing Parliament Building and its famous university, which dates back to medieval times, there sits...

If there is a place that has a certain hold on everyone, it's called hometown. Whether we love it or loathe it, and no matter how much we try to run away from it, it's a place that we...

Postcard-perfect Lisbon with its dramatic scenes and slopping terrains, there's no better place to experience all that Portugal has to offer than its capital.   Lisbon is in no hurry. It takes its time. The city wakes up when it wants to...

In Madeira, Quintas are becoming the new cultural touchstones and enduring icons that define Portuguese hospitality.  It was the best of times. I am traveling to Madeira. It was the worst of times. The plane that would take me to...

Vienna was Freud's perfect place for his theories on the human psyche. Austria's pulsating capital can also be every traveler's waking dream and art aficionado's nirvana.  Otto Ernst Wiesenthal does not need a palace. He is happy in his thriving...

The French Wine Country is a fairytale landscape of chateaus and idyllic vineyards. Bordeaux invites everyone to enjoy a tipple and dream altogether.  In many ways a story can always be written and, at times be told. If I have...

From a rocky gorge to Spain’s oldest bullfighting ring, Ronda is not just a place to see monumental architecture but also dreams and dramas.   Through the large glass paneled windows blurred by the cold mist of the Andalusian winter, the...

High up in the French Alps and away from the crowd, ordinary afternoon walks become sublime experiences with soul-rousing natural beauty playing the ideal backdrop.  Ona steep, narrow country road at 1,150 meters above sea level, my travel partner accelerated...

Seville is a city of story and souls—from its flamencos, architecture, and multi-layered faiths. Dazzling and bewitching come night or day.  He could have been a converso. But he is definitely a gitano. He has the song that echoes of his...