10 x Missions
16 x Fishing
19 x Death Valley
17 x French Quarter
13 x Music
18 x Bretagne
12 x København
11 x Père-LachaiseDachau to Berchtesgaden
The shortest route between heaven and hell is exactly 181km long and less than two hours by car.
Jeanne Darc
Was she the craziest woman in history? Either way, she became one of those symbols people twist and turn in an effort to bring meaning to whatever absorbs and excites them. Her actual history is a mass of contradictions, none of it reliable. She was—and still is—whoever and whatever anyone wanted her to be.
The Taj
If this all reads a bit gushy, the gush is deserved. The Taj might not be the best hotel on the planet, but it certainly feels that way.
Magyars
The Magyars who overran the Carpathian Basin and settled in Budapest around the first millennium were fast, brutal, clever, smallish raiders on light horses with minimal armor whose use of the latest technology–spurs–allowed them to plunder and outmaneuver enemies as far away as the Iberian peninsula.
18 x Bretagne
It’s no wonder that Brittany was the last of the great French historical provinces to be subdued by the French crown–to the extent that it ever was. Celtic roots, both cultural and linguistic, still run deep here.
12 x København
For years, København has been ranked the coolest city on the planet and the international city with the highest quality of life.
The Raj
The loss of India was in effect the end of the British Empire. And all it took to terminate three centuries of worldwide expansion by one of the greatest military and industrial powers in history was one very smart, determined, and, above all, patient old man in a homespun dhoti.
Boston
In the venerable Little Italy of Boston’s North End, some things change and some stay the same.
Mumbai
Funny some of the things you can count as accomplishments. But as a local college student puts it when trying to sell us his guide book, there’s more to travel than just seeing stones.
Fatih
What happens when fifteen million people all rush out at the same time to go shopping in the same impenetrable warren of urban alleys, bazaars, and arcades? That’s what it feels like in the Fatih District of Istanbul around five o’clock on a holiday eve.
Armistice Day
I remember an evening sitting through one of those ghastly, self-righteous arguments about the Vietnam War that seemed to plague any attempt at serious conversation in the 1970s. The wild-eyed beard next to me showed no interest whatsoever and seemed to regard all the hot air as little […]
