TravelProf

We were once again lost in a foreign city. We had been trying for the last hour or so to find Mercado do Bolhão in the center of Porto, Portugal. We seem to spend quite a bit of our travels, Frances and I, lost in the bowels of one city or another. Most of the time this is intentional because it is one of the best ways to get away from the maddening crowd, thereby seeing ‘sites’ that the masses tend to miss. (You know who I am referring to, the confused looking German, English, American, etc tourists, seemingly always beefy, always pale white, except for their faces that are always flushed from being herded by their flag-carrying guides.) We were lost again, but this morning was different because we had only a few hours before ... read more

“Your husband does realize, doesn’t he, how very dangerous they can be?” “He does, but unfortunately he never seems to care about such things.” These statements, reported to me after-the-fact, culminated a conversation between an Australian gentleman and my wife as they watched me approach and photograph an adult emu at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in southeastern Australia. The concerned Aussie finally turned away with a shake of his head likely thinking that the world had too many Yanks anyway, so the loss of one wouldn’t really do it any harm. It is actually correct that, if upset, emus can, with relative ease, eviscerate a human using their long claws/nails. However, during our six years of living and working in Australia, we found them to be more pest than threat. As when one strolled brazenly up to ... read more

“So, who was St. Fillan?” I asked this question as I tried to peer through the bars and cross-shaped metal adornment that blocked the opening of his ‘cave’. My host Richard and I had been wandering through the tiny, and beautiful, coastal village of Pittenweem, Scotland when we happened upon this famous – at least to Scots and the religious – site. According to no less an authority than the BBC, St. Fillan spent most of his remarkable life “…as a hermit in the cave in the fishing village which came to be named after him (Pittenweem means ‘place of the cave’), it was said that he managed to pray and write in the secluded gloom of the cave by means of a light which glowed from his left arm as he wrote with his right.” ... read more

One of Frances’ self-confessed guilty pleasures is chocolate; one of mine is the work of Rodin. Why guilty? Well, for one thing, biographies of A. Rodin reveal him to have been a fairly self-absorbed, manipulative, egotistical human being – in other words, a lot like many, including myself. So, for me, his sculptures act as a kind of mirror, reflecting my own faults. In this way they are healthy reminders of the way I can treat others, especially those with whom I interact most closely; this includes family and friends, and colleagues I see daily. There is another, not so healthy, reason that Rodin is a guilty pleasure. This relates to my culture’s (southern, religious, conservative, American) obsession with ‘stop it or you will go blind.’ I hasten to add that I am unapologetic in my ... read more

For me, when it comes to enjoying museums, public buildings, art galleries, etc., size really matters, with my mantra being “the smaller the better.” So, give me Dickens' home (London), Rodin’s home (Paris), The Alamo (San Antonio), The Scottish Parliament House (Edinburgh), Jervaulx Abbey (Yorkshire, England), Peneda Monastery (near Porto, Portugal), Kesava Temple (Somnathpur, India), Pantheon (Rome) and you can keep The Vatican, St. Peter’s, The Louvre, or the inside of any of the large buildings in Florence, Italy. I know the latter are celebrated by all and sundry as being the best-of-the-best, but I just find them repetitious and, dare I say, boring. I am not passing judgment on those who enjoy these sites, they’re just not for me. But, even more than the small museums etc, I am captivated by those special events and ... read more