History

Mardi Gras, Carnival, Easter and Lent

February 13, 2018 by Notourguideneeded 1 Comment

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is celebrated around the world by Catholics (and non-Catholics who just like to enjoy themselves). The day is actually more than just one day as the festivities begin sometimes weeks ahead with glorious cakes and indulgence. Some parts of the world refer to it as Carnival, and they make a carnival of the time leading up to Fat Tuesday.

So what is this really all about?

Easter.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection occurred around the time of the Jewish Passover, which was celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

The Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) set the date of Easter as the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox. But here is the problem with that: the paschal full moon can fall on different days in different parts of the world, which would mean that the date of Easter would be different depending on where you lived. So, for the purpose of calculating Easter, the ‘full moon’ is always set on the 14th day of the lunar month (a lunar month begins with the new moon). The Church also set the date of the vernal equinox at March 21, even though it can occur on March 20.

Okay, so knowing that, in 2018 the first “full moon” by this calculation would be March 31 (March 17 is the new moon, add 14 days, gives you March 31, which is after March 21). The next Sunday is April 1.

Now that you know when Easter is, you can calculate LENT.

Count backwards 46 days. What?? You thought Lent was 40 days huh? Nope. It is 6 Sundays plus 40 other days. Technically the Sundays are not part of Lent and there is much controversy on if you can “cheat” on Sunday. Here is a link that might help you, which basically says to examine your conscience.

So, you count backwards and you get to a Wednesday, aka Ash Wednesday. This is the beginning of Lent. And because it is the beginning, you gotta get it all out of your system on Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday. As I said above though, different cultures have different ways of expressing Fat Tuesday, some starting weeks ahead. It can begin as early as Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day).

Carnival

The word carnival derives from Latin caro, carn- ‘flesh’ + levare ‘put away.’ So to put the meat away as Lent is a time of fasting.

Among the places that celebrate Carnival are:

The Caribbean
Venice
Rio – the largest in the world!

Mardi Gras

While Mardi Gras and Carnival are the same thing, in New Orleans, and most of the American celebrations we refer to as Mardi Gras. Technically Mardi Gras is just Tuesday but no one is counting.

Some interesting things you may not know about Mardi Gras are here on the History Channel.

Music NOLA New Orleans — You will see tons of performances like this. See the guys in the back? Do that – get a drink, stand against the wall and just enjoy! And don’t forget to tip!

Murals are not graffiti…

August 6, 2016 by Notourguideneeded 4 Comments

I love street art. The way an artist openly expresses their talent. Of course I have this internal conflict as what is right vs wrong – the artist did just deface property. The Philadelphia Mural Tour opened my eyes to the process of street art, the rules, and how to go about getting your own mural!

What is a Mural

After watching a guy in Berlin spray paint a fabulous work of art on the side of a building (and yes, he did make the building look better), I thought I should learn more about it.

So I signed up for the Philadelphia Mural Tour to learn more. A big thanks to them for working with me and accommodating us. The first thing I learned was the basics:

Murals are not graffiti. It sounds so weird to say that, but I don’t think most people really understand this. Murals are conversations between the artist and the building owner. The mural artist does not ‘tag’ a wall or randomly paint something. It is a process of talking to the owner, drafting up the art (usually via computer) and then printing out the image to be painted on paper. Then the mural is hung on the wall via a process.

There is a Process

As you stand in front of these majestic works of art you wonder how on Earth someone was able to paint on the wall. Once you understand the process of discussion, involvement, printing and painting and then hanging, it become much more real.

Each mural has a story to tell.

Each mural follows a process to ensure collaboration.

Types of Murals

There are four primary categories of mural “types”:

Restorative Justice – these murals are about healing. They help people in jail or victims of a crime tell their story. Give them a voice.
Porch Light – these murals focus on behavioral health, giving the homeless or addicts somewhere to express themselves.
Education – these murals work with school and education to teach various topics
Community murals – maybe you just want a mural on your home. You can get one.

An average mural’s expense is $35,000. The average row house mural costs $15,000. No, that is not a typo. The main cost is the scaffolding. How else to get the wall prepped and hung. And you must have scaffolding. Remember, this is not graffiti – these are murals. They are huge – taking up the full size of buildings. There are other costs too.. like do they have to occupy the parking lot, are permits needed, etc. This is serious business.

On a side note, if you want to study specific muralists, there is a list of them on Wikipedia where you can start.

What to See on the Philadelphia Mural Tour

Here are some examples of the work you can see on the tour. It is better to just show you than try to explain:

As we walk around Philly

D - our tour guide! — D – our tour guide!

Shepard Fairey — You can see here that each mural has a label on it with whose work and the story behind it.

Fairey - The stamp of incarceration — The stamp of incarceration – Shepard Fairey – instagram/obeygiant

Philadelphia Mural Tour by John Lewis featuring the Philadelphia-born basketball star is on the side of Frank's Place — A mural of Philadelphia-born basketball star on the side of Frank’s Place

Isaac Lin’s new mural on Arch Street Philadelphia Mural Tour — Isaac Lin’s mural on Arch Street – instagram.com/tinwei

Isaac Lin’s new mural on Arch Street — Isaac Lin’s mural on Arch Street – instagram.com/tinwei

How to turn anything into something else - Philadelphia Mural Tour — Label for mural – How to turn anything into something else – Philadelphia Mural Tour

Shepard Fairey - Philadelphia Mural Tour — Shepard Fairey – instagram/obeygiant

Disclaimer: I partnered with Mural Arts to write this article but all opinion are my own!

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Everything I thought I knew about Berlin was wrong…

July 10, 2016 by Notourguideneeded 1 Comment

Why Berlin

When we travel we like to participate in festivals, local events, things that are different and not necessarily touristy. So, the hubs likes to run marathons. I don’t get it but he loves them. Running in another city helps us to satisfy the need to be with the locals and for him to run his socks off.

This fall he ran the Berlin marathon. He did quite well, and I must say I was very proud of myself to navigate the city, alone, to cheer for him at different mile markers.

First let me start by saying that the culture of North Germany vs Bavaria is almost as distinct as the North/South of the US. They are very very different, but still Germany. And while I love Bavaria, I did not expect to love Berlin as much as I did.

Hubs registers for marathon and off we go to Berlin.

The history of Berlin blew me away. Everything I thought I knew about Berlin was wrong. So very wrong. These are the things I wish I knew before visiting Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie

I started to get confused when we went to Checkpoint Charlie. Everyone said it was mainly a tourist area, and it was. It is a replica of what once existed and the stores around it are very touristy (think Ripley’s). However, there is a great historical display of a timeline just by the check-point that illustrates what the check-point is all about. And this is where I started to scratch my head…

Checkpoint Charlie closed in June 1990. Wait… what?? I thought this was post WWII stuff? 1990?

It was established in August 1961. Wait.. what? WWII ended in 1945. Wasn’t the wall put up just afterwards? No…

Wasn’t Charlie some guy that… NO… Think military. A, B, C. Alpha, Bravo, Charlie…

Checkpoint Alpha was in the British side. This link (HERE) sums it up much better than I can, and they have some pretty cool photos too.
Checkpoint Bravo was the main autobahn border crossing between West Berlin and GDR. It is known as Drewitz because that is the closest town to it. Here is a pretty good map: LINK

Why do we all know about Checkpoint Charlie??

Checkpoint Charlie had a few things making it popular:

It was on the American side of Berlin
Right in the middle
Only place that East Germany allowed Allied people (diplomats, etc) to pass into Berlin’s Soviet sector
French and British also had armies there to help monitor traffic across the border
And I think we can all agree it had a catchy name

Essentially if you were in West Berlin and you needed to get to East Berlin, you would need to go through Checkpoint Charlie.

Now that you know “what” Checkpoint Charlie is, let’s discuss it’s significance.

A bit of Geography

First let’s pause and make sure you understand something. Berlin sits in northern Germany. Germany was divided into four parts and Berlin sits in the USSR section. THEN they also divided Berlin into four sections. So, no the country was not split down the middle and one side is East Germany and the other West Germany. West Berlin sat in the middle of the USSR Controlled Germany.

Berlin was NOT 50% in East Germany and 50% in West Germany. It was 100% in the East Germany and controlled 50 % by US/Britain/France and 50 % by USSR.

Let’s talk about the Berlin Wall

There are a ton of reading materials out there on the Wall. I thought I did my research. I thought I understood what it was all about. Nothing can prepare you for seeing it.

I also think that there are some assumptions when you read about the wall that you know basic 1960 history. Here is what you need to know:

WW II was from 1939 to 1945
- There were two groups… (now pay attention!)
  - Allies (major players)
    - Britain,France,US & Soviet Union
  - Axis (major players)
    - Germany, Italy & Japan
Potsdam Agreement
- July – August 1945
- Agreed to many many things, but the one you need to know for this is that it divided the country of Germany into East for the USSR and West for USA, France and Britain. Read more about it here.
- Note that the formation of the new country lines was determined in Feb 1945 (before the war ended) at the Yalta Conference.
East Germany is formed
- Also known as the German Democratic Republic or GDR
- The Allied Control Council (ACC) is formed for the four countries to rule the area cohesively.
- USSR leaves the ACC in 1948
Cold war “begins”
- There is no official date on when it began. It is generally recognized as the time between the end of WWII and 1990.
Stalin (March) Note – March 1952
- Stalin writes a letter to the ACC asking for the unification of Germany
- The US wants West Germany to be stable so they ignore the letter to stall. They determined that Stalin is not serious. Stalin sends several other letters.
- The only thing you really need to know (unless you want to spend a lot of time reading) is that there is, even today, a great debate on whether Stalin was serious in wanting to join the two or he was trying to drive even a further wedge.
April 1952
- Soviet leaders meet and determine that there should be restrictions on going back and forth between east and west.
Uprising of 1953
- East Germany construction workers held a strike on June 16, 1953. By the next day, it was a full uprising of the GDR.
- East Germany responded with tanks and violence.
- Uprisings spread across Germany for several days after. The German youth began protesting more and more.
1961 – The wall is built
Nov 9 1989 – The wall comes down

The official reason the wall was built was to keep out the capitalistic ideals of western Germany. But that wasn’t really it. It was really built to stop the influx of refugees fleeing the country. The history channel has a great write up on this HERE.

So, if the wall was just in Berlin, why didn’t people just go around the wall??

Remember that the wall only kept the Western Berlins out of East Berlin, not dividing East and West Germany.

The wall essentially sealed the West Berliners into West Berlin. Here is the best map I have found on it HERE.

Berlin History Summarized…

The Allies win WWII and decide to divide Germany. The French, British and US take half and USSR takes the other half. Just to be safe, they also divide up Berlin in the same manner. The then USSR decides it doesn’t like the US (and French/Britain) and begins to start conflict (although this is greatly debated). The youth in the USSR portion of Germany start rebelling, so they build a wall around the Western Berlin to keep the Eastern citizens in and West out. If you are west Berlin, you can move in and out of East/West Berlin, but Eastern citizens are to stay on that side. The wall shows up, checkpoints are created for people to move in and out, and they remain separate states until 1990.

I hope this clarified things from you.

There is a tremendous about of research there, so please continue to read. If you want to share with me in the comments, please do so.

Checkpoint Charlie – This is a replica. It is rather touristy but you need to see it to get an idea of how it would have looked.

The Berlin Wall — The remainder of the Berlin Wall. You can see the graffiti on it.

And on a lighter note, here are some photos from the marathon!

Alaska Cruise

April 8, 2016 by Notourguideneeded 4 Comments

Alaska.

Just go. Don’t even think about it. I hesitated and it is by far one of the best trips I have taken. It seems to be best seen, at least for your first trip, by cruise so you can experience it all. If you are not one for cold weather (me!) the cruise is great because you go out and do excursions and then you hop into your room, or the thermal spa.

Yes, I said thermal spa. If you are an experienced cruiser, you know what I am talking about and you are smiling right now thinking of the warm benches or the sea salt baths. BUT, if you are new to cruising like I was, you have no idea what is in store. I will write another post specifically about thermal spas, but let me just say it is a must. Especially in freezing Alaska.

Now, the hubs and I like to spend our money wisely and we weren’t too sure if we would like a cruise (we did) or Alaska (we did). Norwegian Cruises had a special where we could be in a balcony room for something really cheap. We decided to give it a try. We left for Alaska the first week of May. The bears weren’t even out yet it was so cold.

Getting there and logistics

There are many options for this cruise. You can start or stop in Vancouver, Seattle, or many other places. We opted for the most variety and chose to get to Vancouver a few days early, enjoy ourselves, and then return via Seattle with a day to see that city.

I would not go on this cruise in anything less than a balcony room. The view is amazing but one of the best parts of the trip was watching the whales from our balcony. The captain would announce which side of the ship the whales were on and we saw plenty. If you splurge in any area, it is this. It is worth giving up any excursion. Plus you are at sea for a few days and you still have great views.

We thought (maybe like you are now) that we could get an inside cabin and then just go to the main area. One, that is what everyone else thinks too. Two, there isn’t enough room for everyone to see. Three, it is probably going to be cold. In our case it was very cold. So, having the balcony, I could wrap myself in a blanket and sit outside fine.

Different ships and ports do things different, so keep that in mind.

Excursions

You have to remember that you are going to small towns. Depending on what time of year you go, there may not be many options of things to do. That might be okay with you and maybe not. I’m listing below things we did, and wish we did. However, Alaska is so pretty that I am not sure you could go wrong with anything if you had the right attitude.

Vancouver

I had always heard that Vancouver was fun, but it is on my list of places that I would like to return to someday. A few places that you should probably check out:

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is super cool. I wasn’t that familiar and I wish we had planned to spend more time there. I could have spent a full day walking around and we only budgeted about 4 hours. (4 hours is enough, I was just greedy :)). Check out the link above and if you don’t do anything else go there. There are lots of tree houses and tons of interactive things. Get the passport if they still have them and play the game of getting stamps. You are on vacation, you can be a child too!
I know that some people really dig the whales, but you are about to go to the middle of the sea, where you will most likely see whales for free. Choose wisely. If you must see whales, go for it. If you are thinking that is just something neat, make sure you have done the bridge before you spend the money on the whales.
The Olympic Cauldron. It’s there. Take a photo. Move along.
Stanley Park is great if the weather is good. We drove around it but it was much to cold for us to enjoy the park.

Juneau

This little town of 33,000 is only reachable by boat or plane. It is a popular spot for vacation because it does have a lot to offer. The main one is the dog sledding that will put you back several hundred dollars. I wanted to go but was torn to pay that kind of money. The universe decided for me, as it was a late Spring and everything was still frozen. We opted to take a photography whale watching excursion and a stop over at the glacier. Not disappointed with either of these.

First, we stopped off at the glacier.

and then we saw it…

The guide said it was one mile from where we were standing. That is how big the glacier is!!

You can read more about the glacier from the visitor center, and I highly recommend you check it out.

One thing I do wish we had time for was to walk on the glacier. I thought it was kind of a dumb idea sitting in my kitchen researching excursions. “Walk on a chunk of ice.. who wants to do that?” I thought. Well, now I do. After seeing the glacier in all its glory, I wanted to walk on that sucker. It’s not like you can just walk up to it either, so one for next time! (Plus, we saw a lot of whales off our balcony, but there was no guarantee of that).

Then we were off to check out the whales!

Now, I had never been on a whale watching tour before. What do they do to get the whales? Do they feed them? Well, they have spotters. And the whales are pretty habitual so the boat drivers talk to each other and then they follow the whales around. You don’t want to get too close because the boats are small and the whales are huge. It was freezing and raining, but it was super cool to be outside with the nature and seeing the whales.

Then we did something I wasn’t expecting. We went to see eagles. Now, after being in Alaska for a few days, I learned that eagles are everywhere, but early on the trip this was just amazing. (there are many eagle watching tours. think about this when booking one. there is no guarantee that you will see an eagle on your own, but based on what we saw, I’d be surprised).

Ketchikan

We stopped in at the Totem Heritage center. It’s a good stop and very interesting history. Not long but a good deal to see.

There is lots of shopping and little craft stores. I bought myself a wooden owl there.

The big thing is to go fishing, but if you aren’t into that, the city gives enough to do just walking around.

The city has a lot of history and it is well documented. It was once the seen of a red-light district and you can take a very cheesy, but good tour of the house.

Skagway

Skagway is a VERY small town. Unlike Ketchikan, there weren’t that many shops. Most people took the train up to the Yukon to see the beautiful scenery. Not us. We did it like they did during the gold rush – we rode horses!

They are very accommodating and even if you have never been on a horse, you will be okay. They do not let you go free with the horse and there is always someone around to help. I highly recommend this tour!

There were many muddy parts but the horses didn't mind! — There were many muddy parts but the horses didn’t mind!

Glacier Bay

As I said earlier, get yourself a balcony room if you can. For the main part of glacier bay, we did go to the outside of the ship because the ice was calfing (why can’t they just say dropping??).

Seattle

We only had a day in Seattle, but we got to see the highlights.

This is the famous public market. It was impressive!

The big thing at the public market is the flowers. They are beautiful and everywhere to buy!

Again, the trip was great, and I would go again if other people were going too. Or maybe if there was a sale. Or to see the bears, because it was too cold when we were there. Or maybe to so salmon fishing..

Check out some other blogs that talk about Alaska and the parts that I didn’t go:

Tips on Going to Machu Picchu Peru

March 16, 2016 by Notourguideneeded 1 Comment

Machu Picchu is on my bucket list and I wanted somewhere adventurous to visit for my Birthday in 2015. So off to Peru we went.

The Peruvian people are some of the most warm and friendliest people I have ever met. Everyone was friendly. Everyone. It seemed like people just wanted us to enjoy life. The food was fabulous and the nature was unbelievable.

So, planning a trip to anywhere in South America is not easy and Machu Picchu is not the exception. We didn’t want to take an organized tour and we are glad we didn’t because you really don’t need one.

Options

From Houston (and most US) you fly direct to Lima. You will probably get in around midnight or so. Then you have options. You can hang out in Lima, or go directly from Lima to Cuzco. From Cuzco you then take a train ride to Aguas Calientes. That is the city you stay at for Machu Picchu. Then from Aguas Calientes, you take a bus up to the ruins.

You can also walk from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, known as the Inca Trail. We did not do this option so I am not going to have much information on it. However, we met a lot of people who did walk it and everyone raved about how great it was.

We decided to go straight to Cuzco from Lima and take the 4am flight. Our flight was cancelled and we had to wait until 8am for the next flight. Lima Airport has plenty of options.

The Lima Airport…

There are things you should know about the Lima Airport.

1. United operates only during certain times, so there is not a United rep there all the time. On the way out, we got to the airport 10 hours early and we were told to come back in 8 hours.
2. The Lima Airport does not close. You can sleep there. Lots of people do. On the floor, in the chairs, everywhere. There is a hotel connected but it runs about $200 a night (why spend $200 when there is the floor??). There is a very very tiny lounge in the domestic area. When you land, you are landing in the domestic area (I know it is odd). BUT, on your way out, you can hang out in the VERY VERY NICE international lounge. I could have spent the whole day there. Unfortunately we needed to check bags so we had to wait for the United rep to get there until we could get to the lounge.

3. Behind the stairs is an official baggage hold. Since we had to wait for United, we checked our bags there and then got a cab to sight see. It wasn’t cheap but the alternative was to hang out in ticketing. Boring.

4. There are LOTS of cab drivers at the airport. They are aggressive and everywhere. The guys in Green are reputable.

5. You can easily see most of Lima in 6 hours. We went downtown, saw the churches, went to the beach and took a bus tour. I highly recommend you check out the city.

Cuzco

Our trip had us in Cuzco twice. Here is our itinerary

Houston to Lima (air)
Lima to Cuzco (air)
One night in Cuzco
Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (train)
Two nights in Aguas Calientes
Aguas Calientes to Cuzco (train)
Five nights in Cuzco
Cuzco to Lima (air)
Lima to Houston (air)

Cuzco is a great small city. Everywhere was walkable except to the ruins. You can take a tour to that but we just took a cab and I think that was really all we needed.

Here is the big issue. Altitude sickness. Cuzco is 3.400 m up. Altitude sickness can begin at 2,400 m. You are high up.

Many people choose to go to the other cities around Cuzco first and gradually make their way up. I’ve been to high places and never had a problem. Until this trip. So, altitude sickness feels like you have ingested way too much MSG. Or, remember back in college when you had one too many shots and you just wanted to feel normal. With a headache and nausea. It was odd to walk down the hallway and have to rest and not know why. The whole experience is very unpleasant. I tried to walk up the stairs and just couldn’t. I had to put my head between my legs because it was like I just ran up 10 flights of stairs, when in reality it was just ten steps.

So, keep this in mind. We stayed at the JW Marriott in Cuzco and they were the most accommodating hotel I have ever stayed at, ever. The hotel staff saw us as we arrived look pale and disoriented. They sat us down until our room was ready. They have a person on staff who administers oxygen when you cannot take it any longer. Not to mention the hotel was beautiful inside. And the spa was just wow. If you go, get the chocolate massage. You will thank me later :).

More on Cuzco

The city square is really pretty. There is a market that sells anything you could possibly want. There are several art museums and chocolate museum is a must. The big drink there is a pisco sour. I wasn’t a fan as they put egg whites in the drink but after a few days they grew on me. The food was great everywhere we went. Read my trip advisor reviews here:

Cicciolina
Don Carlos
JW Marriott

I would recommend you stay at least three days in Cuzco. Many people were shocked that we spent five days but it was just a really relaxing city. Plus the first two days we really felt bad and had we left then we wouldn’t have experienced the city like we did.

On to Aguas Calientes…

There are several ways to get to Aguas Calientes. We opted for taking the train rather than walking/camping. The train ride was super cool. First, it was my birthday and they had the train singing happy birthday to me, complete with an apple pie and candle! The staff just had fun the whole trip and the scenery was awesome. The trip is narrated so you know what you are looking at most of the time.

Here are my thoughts on where to stay:

Stay at El Mapi or if you want to go cheap stay at a hostel. Do not spend a lot of money for the main hotels. We stayed at El Mapi and it couldn’t have been better. We took a bird watching tour at the sister property (that charged $800 a night) and it confirmed we were happy with our hotel choice. BUT do the bird watching tour! The guide is super knowledgeable and I saw so many amazing birds. They have a humming bird area too (you could go there for free but you are paying for the guide’s knowledge).

Aguas Calientes exists for no other reason than for people going to Machu Picchu.

It is a cool little city with a great market for take home items (I bought a bunch of stuff and I never by things) like pillow cases and little wooden owls. Don’t expect much of this city, but it is cute. We stayed two nights because we did not want to be rushed. You would not need three nights, but the two nights was nice.

Many people took the morning train to AC, then went straight up to Machu Picchu, then took the train back to Cuzco. But here’s the thing… if you are going to go through all the effort to get there, why not take it easy and enjoy the place??

Machu Picchu

We opted to go to Machu Picchu in the morning and using a private guide. I am glad we did because they handled the logistics of standing in line for tickets and such. There were various reports of when was the best time to go up. I think the guides want to space people out so they try to convince people that the afternoon is the best time to go. But there really isn’t a BEST time to go. Many people line up to get there as the sun is coming up. However, the actual ruins are covered in fog many mornings and it is kind of in a valley of other mountains, so sun rise isn’t all what it is expected. There were some people who stayed at EL Mapi with us that went in the morning and it was packed so they went again in the afternoon.

Weather

Regardless of when you go, remember to take rain gear and mosquito repellant. It was sunny and bright and within an hour it went from hot to cold to raining to hot ‘after rain’ feeling. Take layers, layers and layers.

There is no shelter so when it starts to rain, you are going to get wet.

Getting to Machu Picchu

Our guide was very knowledgeable but you didn’t need to have a guide if you had a book or reference materials. We used a guide because the process was little confusing. Now that we know, I will share:

1. You go down to buy your tickets. You must take your passport with you.

2. Pick your time and get in line for the bus.

3. Get on the bus.

4. Travel up a very windy road. Some people walk it to save money. Don’t do this. There isn’t a pedestrian path and you could get run over. And remember the weather?

5. Get off the bus, go through check in, follow the signs.

There are no toilets inside the gates so make sure you go (for a fee) before you go through the gate.

Our guide was from the area and his family held a lot of the traditions so it was interesting to hear his perspectives. I still sort of recommend getting someone to help you for the stories but it isn’t necessary. The hubs thought it was a waste of money, so take your pick.

I hope you have a wonderful time. Let me know how your trip goes!

Mardi Gras

Easter.

Now that you know when Easter is, you can calculate LENT.

Carnival

Mardi Gras

What is a Mural

There is a Process

Types of Murals

What to See on the Philadelphia Mural Tour

Why Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie

Why do we all know about Checkpoint Charlie??

A bit of Geography

Let’s talk about the Berlin Wall

WW II was from 1939 to 1945

Potsdam Agreement

East Germany is formed

Cold war “begins”

Stalin (March) Note – March 1952

April 1952

Uprising of 1953

1961 – The wall is built

Nov 9 1989 – The wall comes down

So, if the wall was just in Berlin, why didn’t people just go around the wall??

Berlin History Summarized…

Options

The Lima Airport…

Cuzco

More on Cuzco

On to Aguas Calientes…

Aguas Calientes exists for no other reason than for people going to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu

Weather

Getting to Machu Picchu

Check-in date

Check-out date

Contact: [email protected]

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