It might be ironic, but fitting in this case, to begin my first missive of the Great Ideas Tour talking about a horrible idea–the horrible idea of bureaucracy. I’ve become entangled in a hate triangle between Orbitz, Continental, and United Air. At this point, my flight itinerary has been changed about 4 times, making us…
Our last day in Lisbon found us wandering about aimlessly, with too much time on our hands to not do anything and too little to go to Fatima. We finally settled on going to mass at a church we stumbled upon in Lisbon´s city center. Even though it was held in Portuguese, we both agreed…
One man defines the streetscapes and skyline of the trendy Mediterranean city of Barcelona, Spain, and that man is the artist and architect Antoni Gaudi. After viewing the tenth store filled with Gaudi kitsch, Brett joked that he was the ‘Mickey Mouse’ of Barcelona. Barcelona is a laid back city with my kind of hours—breakfast…
After the fierce, hectic gallery life of Florence, the Cinque Terre is just what the doctor ordered—a perfect place to have some R&R, to kick back, to take it slow. We found our way to our accommodations at La Dolce Vita, the sweet life—and this place was appropriately named. We had an apartment, two bedroom,…
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times . . . just kidding. This is the tale of one city, the city of lights, Paris, France, and its sacred spaces. We arrived in Paris via an overnight from Barcelona. We stepped off the train into the brisk Paris morning and momentarily regretted…
Shh!!! Listen . . . Ghent is full of confluence. To some, this may be mistaken as confusion. The greys of industrialization are interspersed with the prismatic flowers the horticulturalists are growing. The city is alive, yet no stores are open. Here, you’ll hear Flemish, French, German, English spoken. Here, the 3 rivers get interwoven. Ghent…
Switzerland is a country known, if not for its peace, at least for its neutrality during war. To look around the landscape of Switzerland it is hard to imagine how anyone could feel anything but peaceful when surrounded by such sheer, crisp beauty. Lucerne is an interesting mesh of old and new, the old covered…
“Prague is like a pearl of the earth for me. I feel happy here as if it was the last city on the earth where there would be a place for artists left. You can tell it from the way the city is full of art and not commerce, from the way the people treat…
We felt it an appropriate start to the Great Idea of Empire to be picked up from the train station in a convertible Jaguar, driven to what would be our personal apartment for our stay, then driven out to John’s home in the countryside for dinner on the terrace. I felt like an Empress anyway. John introduced…
The Hill family was traveling through the countryside when their car broke down. Mr. Hill hiked up a mountain to the castle of a count. Nice Mr. Dracula allowed the family to stay overnight, promising he’d help them get on their way in the morning. Well, when the Hills all went to sleep, Count Dracula sucked…
