October 2-3, 2019
Walking Rouen has all the makings of meeting a fantastic, memorable city. It seems to have it all: history, architecture, parks, squares, cathedrals, and cafes. And brazen little sparrows who clean up you croissant crumbs while I enjoy a coffee. I am definitely putting Rouen on my list of favorite cities. There is much to see and do in this capital of the Normandy. And to hear: the bells of Rouen’s churches can be heard throughout the day.
Cambria is equal distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco along beautifully scenic Highway One. It is small village of about 6600 residents and home to many artisans, wine makers, musicians, and surfer dudes. The primary economic source is tourism based largely on the fact that Cambria is located on the central coast of the beautiful Pacific and has dramatic rocky cliffs, beaches, and towering pines. Nearby sights include Hearst Castle, Nitt Witt Ridge, the Northern Elephant Seal Rockery, the southern end of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and an occasional whale passing through.
(more…)Part Three
Mexico City, September 2019
INDIFERENCIA ES COMPLICIDAD
For a jolt to one’s system,
(more…)Part Two
Mexico City, September 2019
No one can visit Mexico City and not spend quality time with two of Mexico’s most famous personages and artists: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Cortés first settled and built his home within the neighborhood of Coyoacán. But is not Cortés which draws visitors, but the neighborhood’s most famous residents:
(more…)Part One
Mexico City, September 2019
I follow travel blogs and podcasts enough to know there is little originality in lists.
For decades, I have wanted to visit Mexico City. Though I traveled several times to the Yucatan and along the west coast of Mexico, I never made it to the “big city.” I’ve had connecting flights at MEX, enough to realize its air quality ranked somewhere beneath LA in the best of times, or Beijing about any time. I had a week free this month, so I invited a friend to join me in a few day’s exploration.
So, though I generally eschew travel lists, here are the things I loved, and a couple I disliked, about Mexico City.
(more…)August 2019
Love road trips. Even rural areas of Iowa look good when driving free and easy down America’s “super highways.” I recognize a lot of cities and towns; family roots appear around many corners and corn fields. My favorite finds were:
(more…)8 June 2019
“We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here, in the whirlpool of European races…What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?…Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier…And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars, and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey-land….” – Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula