When I planned my trip to Krakow in 2006, I had no plans to visit nearby Auschwitz. I was told I’d regret it; that the visit would be memorable. I’ve read a whole booklist of Holocaust books (probably my ethnic German background trying to come to terms with the Nazi German regime) and even visited [...Read more]
When you can’t count on rain in Seattle, what can you count on? Rain seemed to be a necessary ingredient for visiting a rain drum exhibit, so we chose a day when the forecast was for rain. All day long—9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. But as we headed east from Seattle on I-90, the sky [...Read more]
The French have a reputation for being rude. Especially the Parisians. Especially to tourists. Especially to American tourists. But when I was there in 1993, they didn’t live up to that reputation at all. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to be friendly. Maybe it was traveling in October when they [...Read more]
I didn’t know which should concern me more—that I’d just gotten into a car with a strange man I’d found on the street who didn’t speak any language I did or that the talismans hanging from his rear view mirror ranged from a stuffed leprechaun to an icon of Jesus. But he had parked right [...Read more]
My flirtation with duct tape as an indispensible travel accessory started in Ireland. I was at the beginning of a two-month trip through Europe when my favorite hair conditioner tube sprung a leak. While I knew this was somewhat less than a tragedy, I still didn’t want two months of bad hair days from using [...Read more]