Tasting Wine When Traveling

On July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips7 Comments

Regardless of where we travel to, we always taste local wines during our time in the country. Sometimes we go on an actual wine tasting tour where we visit several vineyards and taste several of the varieties that they offer. Other times we seek out wine bars that specialize in serving local wines and then try a couple of different wines. Even if we don’t go to anyplace that specializes in wine, we’ll still ask the local restaurants about any wines that they would recommend from the region. We often find that the people that live there are extremely proud of their country’s wine traditions.

Wine Purchased from a Wine Tasting in Strasbourg, France

There are certain obvious places like France, Italy, Spain, and California in the US that not only offer wine tastings and tours, but often target tourists specifically to visit for their wine. However, we have been to many other countries that are not necessarily known for their wine and found that they have a wonderful wine tradition. Places like Peru, Panama, Egypt, Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic all had wonderful selections. Obviously, Germany has many wonderful wines as well.

Grape Vines at Lorimar Vineyard in California

Another place where we did a wine tasting was in Budapest where we enjoyed a wonderful charcuterie board as well as sampling a variety of wines. The region that we heard the most about for producing excellent wine was Eger, which grows both red and white varieties of wine. As far as red wine from Eger, the Bull’s Blood or Egri Bikaver was really good and came with an interesting back-story. Legend has it that in 1552 a small group of soldiers were drinking wine in preparation for the upcoming siege of Eger and bull’s blood was added to the wine to give them extra strength and stamina. The group was able to successfully beat the larger group of Turks and the legend was born.

Many Varieties of Local Wine in Budapest

What was your favorite location to enjoy a wine tasting?

Church Towers and Skyscrapers Rising towards the Sky

On July 17, 2023July 17, 2023 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Chicago, Colorado, New YorkLeave a comment

We really enjoy seeing historic churches throughout the world and most of them can be found in the old town areas of the cities. There are times, though, when modern cities with skyscrapers surround the old churches and the images can be just as striking. Seeing the bell towers reaching towards the sky in parallel with the glass towers is quite a juxtaposition of images. Obviously it goes in direct opposition to the desire to have the churches and cathedrals be the tallest buildings in a city where people could see them from all of the surrounding areas as they ventured towards the city. Here are some of our favorite examples of churches and skyscrapers.

Bell Tower and Skyscraper Perfectly Parallel

Church Tower and Modern Buildings in Frankfurt

The Varied Wildlife of the Country of Panama

On June 29, 2023June 29, 2023 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Central America1 Comment

Although Panama is a narrow country, it is also a very biodiverse country with oceans and rainforests. There are so many fascinating animals that live in Panama and we were fortunate to see many different varieties during our time there. Seeing animals in their natural habitat is certainly a highlight of visiting any country like this and we took several tours specifically hoping to see some of the nation’s wildlife.

We kept our eyes on the tree limbs above our heads to see the different varieties of monkeys, sloths, and birds. We also saw a tree-climbing anteater as well as a somewhat cute rodent called an agouti. The tarantula spider that climbed out of the tree above our heads when we stopped to eat lunch was interesting and yet creepy at the same time.

We have been fortunate enough to see a wide variety of wildlife in various parts of the world, but we have to admit that Panama provided us some of our most interesting encounters. It is important to have your camera handy and having a telephoto lens often helps too, but when you get as close as we were able to get, it isn’t required.