Tag Archives: travel writing

Silence of the Monks

Monasteries and hermitages, a faint silhouette in a shimmering light. As we arrive by car, then foot, or by tortuous road, the outline thickens against the ochre stone and cliffs. They loom as minor fortresses, angled like a prism, slim … Continue reading

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Beyond the Green Azores Garden

Some might see the Azores, islands aboriginal and tending back to pasture green, as a perfect chance to return to the garden.   The undeniable lushness, the backing track of cooing doves, the garden both arid for grapes and tropical for papayas.   … Continue reading

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Santa Fe on Thinner Oxygen

How rare to travel as an amateur or emigrant, so ignorant of a well-trod place that you let the place’s magic play with your “free gaze.”   I, Rhode Islander, arrive with little knowledge of New Mexico.  D.H. Lawrence, Georgia … Continue reading

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Blue Cosmos, Greek Style

Struck by the linear perfection and balance of the Acropolis, a literary observer noted how nervous the ancient Greeks must have been – how high strung, highly sensitive, neurotic.  They were delicate and high maintenance, thus the ancient Greeks quested, … Continue reading

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Porto, with Love and Squalor

Historic Porto, on the Portuguese river Douro, is clustered with townhouses dressed up in patterned, colored tile.   They are stacked up on the steep hills, perched beside each other, faces looking out over the river as if waiting, watching for … Continue reading

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Spain with a Bang

“Spain is different,” the old advertising slogan goes. It’s true – the country has its own way of doing things. There can be something delirious about it, unmoored, seemingly irrational. Don Quixote was written here – Spain isn’t a slouch … Continue reading

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Sofia, Give Me Wisdom

Traveling reminds me of how little I know.   I went to a country admiring the soft, beautiful name of its capital city –  Sofia, Greek goddess of wisdom.  But what else?  I had to add wisdom in bits, little … Continue reading

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