Forget the modern city of Copenhagen for a moment. Let its sleek trains transport you some 800 years back in time and into the countryside. Yes, the coffee shops, markets, and housing of Helsingør and…
Greenland is supposed to be the snowy icy sister to Iceland. Its ice sheet covers 80% of its huge land surface! And only 50,000 people reside along thousands of kilometers of coastline. For sure, each…
Our destination, Disko Bay, was spectacular, but the ferry journey to it along Greenland’s western coast was also memorable. The Journey: Ferrying from village to village Sarfaq Ittuk Ferry cabin Our mobile, floating home for…
Though preceded by others for millennia in mastering the challenges of Greenland, the Inuit and Norse arrived a thousand years ago with very different aims. The Norsemen (Vikings) As the Sagas tell us, in 982 AD,…
We were thrilled during our long, leisurely visit to “Superstar Pharaohs,” a rewarding exhibition at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. We took our time to peruse 250 pieces that show how the history of the…
In brief: Two palaces with origins in the 17th century made for a visually entertaining and historically fascinating celebration of Portuguese heritage in Lisbon. One weekend across Portugal in September, citizens and tourists honored the…
In brief: On a beautiful October day, we once again enjoyed the birds, greenery, waterways, and guide, within the scenic wetlands of Samouco and EVOA. On a beautiful fall day out in nature, we once…
The World Heritage hilltop city of Toledo, our last stay during our trip to Spain, was long a capital: for the Visigoths, who succeeded the Romans; for the Umayyad Muslims who overran Spain; for the…
In brief: We located paintings by El Greco across Toledo, from its principal churches to the El Greco Museum. Toledo still hosts many paintings by El Greco, the Cretan artist who lived the second half…
In brief: The native son of Zaragoza, Goya could capture the light of the spirit and the dark of human failings. The works viewable within the city show that range. The artist Francisco José de…