http://kimbell.de description Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:24:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ... continued from part 1 I was very nervous about spending a 7 day on a boat in the Galapagos. I mean, couple of tortoises, few shacks and iguana or two.. what more is there (apart from sea-level air you can breathe)? I packed travel backgammon, bought water proof playing cards, ... http://kimbell.de/2010/01/breath2/ -0.4596670 -90.2713928 Journey to Peru So I finally make it, arriving at midnight (after a 23 hours of traveling) in Lima, Peru – my first footfall in South America and the luggage carousal had jammed and my bag was still in the USA. The first night at the really upmarket airport hotel was ... http://kimbell.de/2010/01/breath1/ -13.2189999 -72.5390015 Nature is a curious thing. In my experience it either comes as the Disney tra-la-la everything’s perfect, humming bird and butterfly option or as the nasty, bitey, itchy, cold and smoky option. My first US vacation (my, how I slip in to the vernacular) had elements of both. [geo_mashup_map] Disney Nature - ... http://kimbell.de/2009/09/postcard-from-the-edge-of-nature-2/ 37.8499222 -119.5676651 Winchester Mystery House Visit This house was the home to 4’11” tall Sarah Winchester, wife of the millionaire gun magnate William Winchester, from 1884 until her death  at 84 in 1922. During this time she spent the equivalent of $70 million, constructing the house 24 hours a day, 365 days a ... http://kimbell.de/2009/08/postcard-from-the-edge-of-the-usa-2/ A Trip to the Market One of the big things to do on a weekend in San Fran, is to go to a "farmers" market - which is not dissimilar to a "normal" market, except it has the word "farmers" in the title. But as usual in the USA these are ... http://kimbell.de/2009/07/usa/ 37.8271942 -122.4234009 Moving is not an easy thing to do, apparently after death, divorce and being arrested it is the most stressful thing you can experience – you uproot your entire life and typically forget something, e.g. cancel the milk. However, given the opportunity to move for a six month period is ... http://kimbell.de/2009/07/move/ 37.4004631 -122.0730057 With the cost-reduction “thou shallst take holidays” edict still in effect and having just been in the UK for a lovely wedding, it seemed like a good idea to go somewhere far, far away for the subsequent Christmas weeks - but where? Well, the island of Borneo looked interesting, and ... http://kimbell.de/2008/12/postcard-from-the-edge-of-a-rainforest/ 4.5000000 114.6666641 Reaching your 80th birthday is something to celebrate. So when the Leading Hotels of the World reached that magic number, they celebrated by offering (a limited number) of hotel rooms for $19.28 (having been founded in 1928). But how to distribute the rooms? Well, to show how far the company has ... http://kimbell.de/2008/12/postcard-from-the-edge-of-a-bridge/ 45.2500000 13.0000000 So with the current financial crisis cost-cutting, it was with great reluctance that I phoned the travel agency to downgrade my luxury, high tech, hugely spacious business-class seat to the wooden bench that forms Lufthansa economy-class. Regardless of the 10 hours of discomfort, this wasn't a trip I was going ... http://kimbell.de/2008/11/postcard-from-the-edge-of-a-wall/ 31.1002693 121.3856583 In one of my favouite films, The Andromeda Strain, there is a scene where a slightly wacky scientist is being driven to the huge top secret, massively underground laboratory in the middle of nowhere by a no-nonsense marine. As they drive along a tiny, meandering dirt track to the innocuous ... http://kimbell.de/2008/10/postcard-from-the-edge-of-a-bunker/ 52.7920723 13.5489750