Category: Geography Lesson

SUMMER SOJOURN PORTUGUESE STYLE

AUGUST 16, 2024 – Today we concluded our long-anticipated trip to Portugal to celebrate a special occasion “back in the village”: our grandson’s baptism combined with his first birthday party. This celebration accounts for the nine-day gap in my blog posts. The only other interruption of this length occurred five years ago when we traveled …

THE WORLD AT MY FEET (PART II OF II)

APRIL 30, 2023 – (Cont.) Having escaped confinement, however, the World was now in open defiance of the laws of the universe. In reaction to my errant toe, the Big Ball shot across the carpet and rotated clumsily into a lamp stand, then like a billiard ball, banked left, straight for a chair. POW! In …

POLAND AS A VENN DIAGRAM

APRIL 7, 2022 – I can best characterize my impression of Poland in September 1981 via a giant Venn diagram depicting Polish: 1. Social unity; 2. Catholicism; 3. Sophistication in the arts and understanding of history and politics; and 4. Hatred of the Russians. Within the substantial overlap of these “circles” I found the essence …

LOFTY LOFOTEN

APRIL 3, 2022 – If you run your finger on the map along the fjords of Norway from Bergen northward, way past Trondheim and beyond the Arctic Circle, you’ll come to Bøda. Facing it to the north and arcing into the Norwegian Sea are the spectacular Lofoten Islands. From the largest and most rugged— Austvågøya—the …

HOME SWEDE HOME

APRIL 2, 2022 – After slipping away from L’Abri, I took local trains to Zurich, then an overnight train north to Hamburg, and on to Copenhagen. From there I took the hydrofoil to Malmö, Sweden (the Øresund Bridge, connecting Denmark and Sweden, was 19 years in the future). My landing in Sweden was a homecoming. …

PATHS DIVERGENT

FEBRUARY 3, 2022 – From the sea, I turned to Kuranda in the rainforest along Queensland’s northeastern “fringe.” Other travelers had recommended Kuranda as a “Bohemian outpost in Eden,” and the pathway was well established. Joined by Karen and now my romantic interest, Debbie, we hiked to the heights of towering waterfalls and admired the …

“IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL”

JANUARY 30, 2022 – When people outside NZ think of that paradise, they consider flora, fauna, and geography. But of all the countries I’ve visited, none exudes the civility of NZ. This assessment overlooks historical injustices toward the Maori and the anomaly of the 2019 mosque attack, but NZ’s well-established, civilized reputation is otherwise fully …

BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT

APRIL 18, 2020 – Daily for a fortnight I’ve been doing “deep breathing” exercises for meditative reprieve from anxiety.  One of the exercises calls for sitting comfortably, eyes closed, and thinking of a word, five or six times, as you inhale, then another word, again repetitively, as you exhale. The selected words should relieve stress—like, …

“BACK COUNTRY” SKIING

JANUARY 29, 2020 – Every evening during winter, I enjoy Little Switzerland. For years I’d ski the groomed, 5 km course. After several bad snow years, I adopted the habit of skiing repeatedly just the portion that included two good hills.  This season, however, involves a new routine.  I ski the groomed trail only to …

MY AMERICAN FRIEND FROM “SOMEWHERE ELSE” (PART II OF II)

JANUARY 17, 2020 – Undaunted, he worked doggedly for admission into another Polish university, less selective than Jagiellonian University, but nonetheless, boasting a top-flight history department.  He labored under the tutelage of a legendary scholar/professor, and then made a second attempt at Jagiellonian University.  He passed. (In a “small world” aside, my wife and I …

BLOGGER SCORES HISTORIC TOUCHDOWN!

SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 – Friday, while at historic Fort Snelling just outside Minneapolis, I was struck by a map of Minnesota on which just a handful of names appeared—neither of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) being among them.  The map depicted important sites in the lore and history of the Dakotah Indians who …

CORTIÇOS

JUNE 18, 2019 – Today my wife and I are bound for “Cortiços” (pronounced, “cor-TEE-sōsh”), a magical place unknown to us until a year ago. It is a village whose population matches its years—400. It lies amidst the olive orchards of Trás-os-Montes (“behind the mountains”) in the extreme northeast part of Portugal. What takes us …

CONAKRY

APRIL 15, 2019 – Every Wednesday I have lunch with my friend Steve, a veritable polymath and successful entrepreneur. After a quick meal, we saunter through the skyways of downtown Minneapolis, often stopping at a donut shop where Steve buys a load of high-fat dough smothered with sugar. Starting about two months ago our route …