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Luxembourg
I am in the capital city of Luxembourg, sitting in the glassy downtown library. I have very limited time, because I just spent a large portion of my Internet time filling out a "next of kin" form for Tristanian authorities. It is a requirement when one is given passage aboard the S. A. Agulhas II research vessel from Cape Town to the island. So ( Read more... ) -
Amsterdam
Yesterday Mark and I went out for a rijsttafel dinner at one of the many Indonesian restaurants you can find in Amsterdam. Sixteen mini-courses served in small rectangular bowls plus an Indonesian beer to go along with it. Afterwards we went to the red light district, which has to be seen to be believed. It really is like you read about it: barely- ( Read more... ) -
Reykjavík
I am using the free Internet station at the ITC Hotel in Amsterdam, so I will write a little bit about Reykjavík until a guest comes, breathing down my neck to use the computer. The landing at Keflavík Airport seemed like a landing on cotton, not only for its gentleness but also for its appearance. The ground was shrouded in thick mist. I could ( Read more... ) -
In Amsterdam now
Mark and I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday late at night after spending a full day in Reykjavik. We are walking along the canals looking at all the houseboats. One has to look in both directions whenever crossing the roads as not only cyclists, but trams can suddenly appear out of nowhere and run you over. It rained last night but we didn't have our ( Read more... ) -
Born in the 1800's
I find stories of human longevity fascinating. The chapter on the oldest people in the Guinness Book of World Records kept me captivated as a child, reading it every year. The book is a tabloid freakshow now, not worth the paper it's printed on. There are several websites devoted to celebrating the super-old, the super-centenarians: those who have ( Read more... ) -
5 countries
On Friday, July 26, Mark and I are going on holiday to see five countries: Iceland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Norway. We each have been to only one of these five nations: Mark has been to the Netherlands before, while I have visited Norway on a number of occasions during my trips to the Arctic. Oddly, I have never been to Norway south of ( Read more... ) -
The twenty worst airlines in the world
I found this link on the CNN homepage yesterday, for the twenty worst airlines in the worldFortunately, I have only travelled on one of the twenty. I have however made a total of five separate trips on the airline that ranks #5 ( Read more... ) -
Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire
I fancy myself as another Simon Winchester. For not only does he have a passionate interest in dictionaries, as seen in his remarkable story The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, but Winchester is also a geography nut who likes to travel the world to the most unlikely tourist ( Read more... )
