Get travel inspo in your inbox every week from storytellers Marilee and Paul. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, and meaningful travel experiences in the USA, Europe, and beyond – currently, GREECE. 100% original content by Paul, the photographer, and Marilee, the writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
✨The newest bridge in New York
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The Empire State’s brand-new bridge opened on June 13th, 2025, in the 19th-century town of Brockport, New York. The serpentine bridge gently curves around the existing guard gate and gracefully spans the Erie Canalway. The stair-free design incorporates slopes, promenades, and landscaping to make the Brockport Pedestrian Bridge and environs accessible to everyone. It’s a fitting (and fabulous) demonstration of the Erie Canal’s two centuries of ongoing transformation, connection, and inspiration. So of course, Paul and I traveled to Brockport promptly upon arriving Stateside from Greece! In a few days, international canal professionals and aficionados alike will gather in Buffalo, New York, for the 2025 World Canals Conference. The international conference concludes with a one-of-a-kind celebration: A 2025 interpretation of Governor DeWitt Clinton’s 1825 Erie Canal inaugural voyage aboard the Seneca Chief. Hundreds of volunteers worked for several years to build entirely by hand the replica Seneca Chief canal boat. The new Seneca Chief now gleams in bright yellow, jaunty green, and crisp white paint. The Bicentennial Voyage will follow the legendary route from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east, thence south down the Hudson River to New York City. All along the way, the Seneca Chief will dock at Erie Canal communities to educate, engage, and inspire children and adults alike. And surely, the beautiful new Brockport Pedestrian Bridge over the world-changing waterway should have a feature role in the Bicentennial festivities. Reader, here’s to celebrating transformation, connection, and inspiration. In travel and in life. Until next time, Travel on, sparkle on, meaningfully✨ Marilee + Paul Kostadimas PS: If you’d like to learn more about the Erie Canal, and plan your own bucket-list adventure, click HERE to read our article “Erie Canal, New York: Travel the Legendary Route.” PPS: Do you know friends or family who’d like a little inspo in their box? Please forward this email. They can subscribe by clicking the button below:
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Slow travel with the Hidden Gemologists
Get travel inspo in your inbox every week from storytellers Marilee and Paul. Discover wonderful places, delightful hotels, and meaningful travel experiences in the USA, Europe, and beyond – currently, GREECE. 100% original content by Paul, the photographer, and Marilee, the writer behind Spotlight Sojourns.
You’re likely familiar with the European Union’s upcoming program for visa-free countries: the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). The EU originally planned to roll out ETIAS in 2025; however, the target date is now Q4 2026. However, another new EU entry program launched on October 12, 2025: the European Entry/Exit System (EES). Similar to the ETIAS, the EES is a digital registration system specifically for citizens of visa-exempt countries at the point of entry and...
The carefree spirit of late summer lingers in the gentle warmth and golden leaves of early autumn. Still, Reader, now is the time to begin planning your holiday travel, especially your holiday flights. Remember those days when last-minute airfares would offer irresistible deals on unsold seats? Paul and I do. We gladly took maximum advantage of travel opportunities that suited both our pocketbook and our schedule. Alas, those days are gone. And remember those rumours that booking flights on...
All roads lead to Rome. Because in the 1st century AD, Emperor Augustus raised the Golden Milestone monument in the Roman Forum, marking the origin of all roads. The Roman Empire’s most strategic road, the Via Appia in Italy becomes the Via Egnatia upon crossing the Adriatic Sea. The Via Egnatia runs the entire length of the Balkans. It connects Rome to the great cities of Thessaloniki and Constantinople – the “New Rome” founded by Emperor Constantine, now modern Istanbul. And everywhere...