Travel

Jess and I broke up in May 2011, and I find it remarkable that I travel more now than I did when I was dating someone who worked for an airline! Granted, most of my travel has been local (and as an adjunct to my work) but here's a list of all the places I've been over the past three years:

Dublin	31 Jan - 2 Feb 2014
Sydney/Wellington/Beijing	8 Jan - 26 Jan 2014
Coventry (Limmud)	22 Dec - 23 Dec 2013
California with Lucy	25 Oct - 10 Dec 2013
Birmingham	15 Nov - 17 Nov 2013
Bury folk festival	18 Oct - 20 Oct 2013
Liverpool	4 Oct - 6 Oct 2013
Ironbridge	20 Sep - 22 Sep 2013
Mom in England/Amsterdam	23 Aug - 4 Sep 2013
Israel	10 Aug - 17 Aug 2013
Edinburgh	2 Aug - 5 Aug 2013
Manchester International Festival	12 Jul - 14 Jul 2013
Salford	17 May - 19 May 2013
York	19 Apr - 21 Apr 2013
Amsterdam	12 Apr - 14 Apr 2013
Ireland (Ring of Kerry/Dingle)	29 Mar - 2 Apr 2013
Chester	1 Mar - 2 Mar 2013
Glasgow	8 Feb - 10 Feb 2013
San Francisco	19 Jan - 27 Jan 2013
Rome	7 Dec - 10 Dec 2012
Edinburgh fringe	17 Aug - 20 Aug 2012
Atlanta (Aunt's funeral)	21 Jun - 2 Jul 2012
Lake District	16 Jun - 18 Jun 2012
Amsterdam	27 Apr - 1 May 2012
Atlanta	14 Apr - 24 Apr 2012
San Francisco	28 Jan - 6 Feb 2012
Prague	24 Dec - 29 Dec 2011
Cape Town	10 Nov - 21 Nov 2011
Edinburgh Festival	12 Aug - 15 Aug 2011
Mom in England/Paris	21 Jul - 31 Jul 2011
Atlanta/California	25 Jun - 10 Jul 2011

My next trip will probably be a weekend in Geneva, and I am currently thinking of places to go over the Easter holiday in April.  However, as this is also over Passover, I want it to have a Jewish connection as well.  The obvious destinations are Germany, Poland and Hungary, but I'm actually interested in Moscow and St Petersburg.  Flights to Moscow are only £160 (US $260) and a good 3-star hotel is only £40 (US $66) per night, but the average high is 11C (52F).  If I wait a few more months, the average temperature in July is 23C (73F) and St Petersburg gets four more hours of sunlight per day!

Of course, the ultimate Passover trip would have to be to Egypt, where the average high is 28C (82F)!  I could get a flight for under £300 (US $500) and decent hotels in Cairo are as low as £10 (US $15) per night.  However, following the military coup in February, both the US Department of State and the British foreign office advise against travel outside of Cairo.  And besides, the whole story of Exodus -- the Jews enslaved in Egypt, the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea -- is completely without evidence.  Still, it's a nice story, and I'd love to see the pyramids regardless.

Lastly, Denmark makes an unlikely entry thanks to its collective effort to evacuate 7,800 Jews by sea following Hitler's occupation in October 1943.  I don't think I'd spend a week there, but 3-4 days would be worthwhile, flights are only £63 (US $105) and I'd get back in time for the communal seder at my synagogue.