Mérida hosts free cultural shows essentially every night of the week, either in Centro Histórico or a nearby park. We did not go out every night of the week, but selectively made our way to a few events. On Thursday night we stopped by Parque Santa Lucía to see the Yucatecan Serenade, an hour of…
Author: Garrett and Stephanie Estep
Retired early to travel the world.
Mérida, México (February, 2024, Part II).
Paseo de Montejo is the main boulevard through town, stretching from the outskirts of Centro Histórico to the Monumento a la Patria. It is one of the few streets in town with wide tree lined sidewalks. Every Sunday morning the road is closed to vehicle traffic for walkers, joggers, and bicyclers. The beauty of this…
Mérida, México (January, 2024, Part I).
One day last week (in January) the high temperature in Memphis was 19° F. It was gray and overcast outside, with several inches of snow on the ground, paralyzing the city for several days. Today it is 90°F and sunny in Mérida. We should have come a week earlier. We flew into the Cancun airport,…
Karlovy Vary, Czechia (November, 2023, Part II).
Knowing the weather was not going to be the greatest during our visit to Karlovy Vary, we intentionally chose to do several indoor tours rather than looking for outdoor activities. Luckily the dates and times we chose for the tours coincided with some of the worst weather. The Moser Glassworks Tour (350 Kč each, or…
Karlovy Vary, Czechia (November, 2023, Part I).
The positive: there are almost zero tourists in Karlovy Vary in early November. The negative: the weather is mostly overcast, occasionally rainy, with temperatures in the mid-40s° F (about 7° C). In hindsight perhaps we should have visited Karlovy Vary prior to our stay in Prague. I bet the weather would have been much nicer…
Prague, Czech Republic (July, 2009).
Before concluding our series on Prague we decided to briefly mention those places we visited during our vacation in 2009 but skipped in 2023. All of these are popular sites that we recommend first time visitors to Prague consider. Petřínská Rozhledna (Petrin Tower): Inspired by the Eiffel Tower (though at 1/5th the size), Petrin Tower…
Karlštejn, Czechia (November, 2023).
Karlštejn is very small town in the middle of nowhere. Okay, it is only about 30 kilometers / 18 miles southwest of Prague, but it seems much farther away. Karlštejn is not much more than one road – lined with tourist shops, restaurants, and hotels – leading from the train station up the valley to…
Prague, Czechia (October, 2023, Part V).
Independent Czechoslovak State Day is on October 28, celebrating the country’s declaration of independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. A national holiday in Czechia, we spent the day visiting four branches of the Národní Galerie Praha (National Gallery of Prague, or NGP): Schwarzenberský Palác (Schwarzenberg Palace); Šternberský Palác (Sternberg Palace); Veletržní Palác (Fair Trade…
Prague, Czechia (October, 2023, Part IV).
In 2009, we used Rick Steves’ Prague & The Czech Republic to plan our day-to-day activities. Not this trip. We quit using guidebooks years ago. Now our planning is based around internet articles, YouTube videos, and recent reviews from other travelers. Generally a cursory scan of about a half dozen articles or videos touting a…
Prague, Czechia (October, 2023, Part III).
Of all the places we visited in Prague, perhaps none was more eagerly anticipated by Stephanie than Zoo Praha. We visited the zoo in 2009 and immediately decided it was one of the best. If anything, the zoo has only gotten better over the years. It took us about 40 minutes to reach the zoo…