I never thought I’d compare Spokane with Paris. But on a recent visit I found one similarity so compelling I just couldn’t help myself. The similarity? I can tell you in one word. Well, actually two. Dog poop. It was everywhere on the bluff overlooking the Spokane River near my friends’ house. It was prominent [...Read more]
I was recently asked the question “What makes you the most nervous?” The answers included: A) Making a presentation to 500 people; B) Meeting your company’s president; C) Taking a long car ride with someone you’ve just met. I’ve done both A and B, and am over being nervous about those. I’ve done C, too, [...Read more]
I love road trips. There’s nothing that says summer to me more than the open road ahead of me and several days of driving. Growing up, travel was defined for me by our family trips to North Dakota and Minnesota to visit the aunts and uncles and cousins. That made for some long days of [...Read more]
I just discovered something that Seattle and Europe have in common—very diverse cultures living side by side. It fascinates me how one can experience the laid back and random culture of Italy (“let’s drink some wine, go to the beach, ignore every traffic rule and park on the sidewalk”), then drive an hour and be [...Read more]
Exploring a new place and a new culture; that’s what travel is usually about for me. Seeing how other people live, gaining new insights into history, tasting strange foods, exploring unfamiliar places. But visiting a familiar place is special in another way; like seeing an old friend you haven’t spent time with for awhile. Finding [...Read more]
Like toothpaste being squeezed from a tube, I slithered sideways through the jam-packed aisle of the Moldovan maxi-taxi, a common form of public transportation in Chisinau. Built for 15, this one was carrying 27 people plus the driver, so it was pretty much breathing room only. Taking public transportation to see Orheiul Vechi was turning [...Read more]
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]