It happens to all senior wanders. No longer as smart and spry as we were in younger traveling days? If you want your family to know you’re okay while away, before your trip register with the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.

The application allows you to register travel schedules, check-in times and other plans. Then, in case you have an emergency, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate will deal with your on-site problems and family contact.

The woman leader of the city recently called for tourists to cool it in the famous red-light district. She insists the gawkers make it "unpalatable" and "humiliating" for the so-called sex workers. Over 20 million visitors now come to Amsterdam annually, compared to just 10 million in 2000.

Of course, the ladies of the night pose in their brightly-lit shop windows to hustle up business, and in Amsterdam are as legal as any other. And if they are as attractive to gawking, selfie tourists as the Mona Lisa and Girl With The Pearl Earring, so be it.

Within the next few years, airport face scanning and tightened security will be the norm. A new program, called “biometric entry-exit system,” will work like a super-sophisticated police line-up. It will instantly compare your features with millions of other faces on electronic file, including criminals, terrorists, anarchists, mental cases and other dangerous people.

So, next time you’re in an airport, don’t be surprised if a Sherlock Holmes scan happens to you. Sometime, somewhere, someplace when you least expect it, something gets into your face and says, Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

I can believe it. Your travel4seniors.com editor hikes twice a day along several miles of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The final 20 miles of nationwide Route 66, runs from downtown Los Angeles to the oceanfront beaches in the city of Santa Monica.

With growing numbers of homeless in the area, I encounter at least five or six beggars daily. In some locations, such as next to posh restaurants, bars and supermarkets, they get steady handouts of tax-free dollar bills and more.

Advice: Because many street people have mental and addiction problems, don’t hand out money to them in your travels. Too often it goes for drugs and alcohol. You’ll help much more effectively by contributing to your local Red Cross, Salvation Army and other agencies that help the homeless. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6791637/Homeless-beggars-making-200-DAY-reveals-ex-soldier-says-11lb-streets.html#comments