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A 2017 road trip from Calgary to Ottawa was part of our personal celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary. A highlight of that trip was Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Our top priority was visiting the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (85 Israel Asper Way, Winnipeg; 877/877-6037, humanrights.ca), at the Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers have been a gathering place for people for thousands of years. The museum, which opened in 2008, spans seven floors and included an excellent...

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Many of Palau's small islands, with forests reaching to the water, resemble green biscuits. Photos by Gene McPherson

Flying from Manila, Philippines, while on an around-the-world trip, my wife, Barbara, and I arrived at the airport in Babeldaob, Palau, at about 3 a.m. in late February 2019.

We went straight to the adjacent island of Koror and to bed at the wonderful Palau Central Hotel (1724 Main St.; phone +680 488 4500, palaucentral.com), right in the laid-back downtown. We saw nothing of Palau or Koror until we woke later that day, when we were greeted by bright sunshine and green forest as far...

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“Most people travel to UGANDA to see our wide variety of wildlife, but another kind of life is equally interesting: our people. We’re one of the poorest countries in the world, but we’re happy, and we like to meet visitors. When we’re working, tilling soil on steep hillsides or tending animals, we love to chat with our neighbors and catch up with village gossip. And if people from other countries ask us to pose for photos with a bundle on our head, we’re glad...

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Having traveled each winter for 45 years, I had limited options for foreign travel in winter 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel within Mexico was possible, so I decided to visit the Yucatán Peninsula.

From Houston, Texas, on Dec. 30 I flew to Mérida, capital and largest city in the state of Yucatán. In the airport, security checked my temperature and sanitized my hands and luggage (spraying it) before I left the terminal.

I took a taxi to Hotel del Peregrino (Calle...

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Giant Alcedo tortoises fighting for dominance. The one who raises his head the highest wins. Photos by Wanda Bahde

Friends urged, “If you loved Africa and Antarctica, you’ll love the Galápagos!” So, after much research, I found a cruise that fit my criteria. The 10-day “Galápagos Aboard National Geographic Endeavour II,” with Lindblad Expeditions (New York, NY; 800/397-3348, www.expeditions.com), was an expedition of a lifetime.

I departed Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 26, 2019, and met my cruise companions at the comfortable Hilton Colon Guayaquil in Ecuador.

The...

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Gardens of Villa Carlotta — Lake Como, Italy. Photos by Liz Fischer

My husband, Bill, and I have been to Italy many times, visiting Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples and the island of Sicily, but in the summer of 2018 we ventured to new ground in northern Italy, and it was spectacular!

After visiting Switzerland, we flew into Milan, picked up a very expensive small car from SIXT rent a car (in US, phone 888/749-8227, www.sixt.com) — paying €350 (near $425) for 10 days — and drove to beautiful Lake Como.

We stayed at Hotel...

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Our Germany trip’s first train ride passed by Burg Stahleck (now a hostel), overlooking the town of Bacharach, but this shot was taken from a ferry on the Rhine days later. Photos by Stephen Addison

A trip to Germany and Luxembourg that my wife, Paula Owens, and I made in May 2005 was a journey of four firsts: our first visit to continental Europe on our own (instead of with travel-savvy friends), our first international flight with only carry-on luggage (thank you, Rick Steves), our first rail pass, and our first big train travel blunder. Only three of these firsts were planned.

Our flight from Charlotte arrived in Frankfurt around 7 a.m., and we found our way to the Deutsche...

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On Nov. 21, 2020, moving to my new home, I flew from Vancouver, BC, Canada, to Nairobi, Kenya, on Lufthansa.

While I knew of Kenya’s Ministry of Transport’s directive that proof of a negative result of a PCR-based COVID-19 test, taken within 96 hours of arrival, had to be presented for entry into that country, what I wasn’t aware of was that it had to be presented at check-in at the airport before leaving Canada.

I was fortunate that my test result had arrived...

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