When I mention my tour of Benelux, people sometimes ask “What is that?” This is understandable, since Benelux, like Holland, is not on any map, even though most of the people asking the… Continue reading
Romania is a place of endless human stories, kings and autocrats and invaders and defenders and the people caught up in all of it. But the day after walking on a church’s rampart… Continue reading
Grand clashing tides of history shaped our world, but it’s hard to feel the normal humans within them. How do you get a feeling for Napoleon when he first woke up in the… Continue reading
On that late September day in Timisoara, summer had dumped the last of its heavy heat into the afternoon hours, like the hardest teacher who surprises you with a brutal final exam. But… Continue reading
It’s possible hell is being a dog walked by someone wearing ear buds. Paris today offers a succession of such tortured pooches I’d love to pet, all proudly Parisian. Or maybe it’s the… Continue reading
Romanians curse a lot. My favorite of their more playful profanities is when they tell someone to go away. We might use two simple words to form an expression that makes very little… Continue reading
The obvious highlight on Day 3 of our Tour of Romania is the opulent yet intimate royal palace of Peles. I’ve written about it before and there is much more to say, but… Continue reading
Initially, Bucharest’s Athenaeum looks like just another nice neoclassical building of columns in front and a dome on top. Very European. So European that it’s familiar everywhere they sailed, ubiquitous in statehouses around… Continue reading
I love to hear different languages overlapping in the summer air. In Bucharest on Day One of this year’s Romania tour, the languages were varied and the air was nice and toasty, like… Continue reading
Hello fellow travelers and curious minds. When I tell people I lead a small-group tour of Romania I am often met by blank looks. The honest will admit “I don’t know anything about… Continue reading
