betsymarvin's VirtualTourist Home Page

We both love to travel, and had each lived outside the US, when we got together in the mid-nineties. My year in Venezuela and half decade in Germany could hardly compare with my husband's residences in Kazakhstan, Iran, Bulgaria, France, Belgium, England and more than a decade in Canada. Clearly, though, we shared an interest in seeing the world in a more profound way than simply being tourists.
We each began international travel with our parents, when we were 18, and apparently were bitten by wanderlust, never to recover.
Fortunately, his professorial position and my free-lance status allows us the flexibility to arrange longer-term visits than many jobs would. His interest in the history and politics of each region, and my work as writer and architectural historian fit well into our travels.

Our first trips abroad took us to Paris and Nancy, Antwerp, Gent and Bruges, Strasbourg, Lake Como and the Graubunden of Switzerland, Marburg and the northern shore of Lake Constance, in 1997-98.
In 2000, we took a three-week trip to South Korea in springtime, coinciding with Buddha's birthday in Pusan. Later in the summer, a meeting in London allowed us a meander around Cornwall, East Anglia and York.
And in November, we took off for Riga, Latvia, for nearly nine marvelous months, getting acquainted with the little former Soviet state and its Baltic neighbors. We also managed trips to Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia and Sweden, during our time there.
Since then, we have visited the Baltics every year, and spent time in Austria and several of the Warsaw Pact countries, especially delighting in the Czech Republic.

Within North America, we visit the Bay Area, northeast Kansas, Asheville NC and Ontario, Canada frequently. We've also explored the southeastern region, Chicago, the Maine coast, Austin TX and the Hill Country, northeast Tennessee and Yellowstone Park, among many places.