Tag Archives: travel
The chin-chin hairs on the rock drawings in Hell
Before we went to Norway I did a bit of research and then I emailed a tourist information office who forwarded me to someone at a museum… ….who scanned me a hand drawn map… …which directed us to a train station called Hell…. …and a short walk through a moss covered forest… …where we found […]
A slacker pilgrim’s guide to Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim
Did you know Norway has a pilgrimage? Well, I didn’t until we stumbled on it. The pilgrimage is called St. Olav Ways—“ways” because you can choose one of several routes, as long as you end up at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. Here I am at Old Aker church in Olso next to kilometer marker 639 (that […]
A walking tour of Ålesund’s window eyebrows for you, my fellow off-season tourists
Norway’s tourist season is mid-June through mid-August, meaning that’s when most attractions outside of Oslo (besides ski hills) are open. Traveling here in April has been a relief after over-touristed Portugal, but you should know about the challenges too, particularly in Ålesund. Our main reason for visiting Ålesund, a windy town in the western fjords, is […]
“Full Fart Forover” in Røros, Norway
Oh hey, we’re in Norway. I know, I know, why would cheapskates like us be traveling in one of the world’s most expensive countries? What happened was, I was looking at airfares online and I saw flights to Norway for $333 round-trip from Chicago. How could I resist? So I bought two tickets to Oslo with […]
The butter babies of Igreja Matriz
Fellow church hounds, I know you get it: the delight of stumbling on an unexpected and, more importantly, unlocked church. With an unanticipated free afternoon in northeast Portugal’s Vila Nova de Foz Côa, HOB and I were lucky to find the 16th century parish church Igreja Matriz, smack in the middle of Foz Côa’s main […]
The Unfinished Chapels of Batalha: architecture shocks sky
There’s a monastery in the town of Batalha that looks as it is carved from crystalized honey. One of my finer life choices was to spend an entire day looking at it. (Okay, full disclosure, I probably would have crammed in at least one other monastery in our itinerary that day had the bus schedules […]
Draw your family: prehistoric rock art of the Côa Valley
Arriving at the site of the 22,000 year old rock art in northwestern Portugal was uncomplicated—too uncomplicated. I enjoyed getting there so much that I was hoping to drag the experience out more. After sharing jeep ride with our guide from the Museu do Côa and another couple, we hiked a short distance through a […]
Are we Trunk-Slammers? The dubious ethics of cultural tourism
Growing up in the rural Midwest, I lived for several years in a resort for well-off city dwellers. (My mom had remarried and some of my stepfather’s family owned and operated the place, and for a while he worked there too.) The resort had artificially created lakes, golf courses, a concrete castle, and hilly roads […]
Funniest travel moments of 2018
Oh 2018, you were a lot to handle. The Manchurian Cantaloupe spent the year calling the free press the enemy of the people, changing cabinet members more than I change my sheets, putting babies in cages and licking the posteriors of authoritarian leaders. I did my best to maintain a sense of humor (dicey at […]
Jerónimos Monastery: first person to spot the phallic gargoyle wins a free corn dog
Do yourself a favor and go see Jerónimos Monastery, a Manueline-style UNESCO World Heritage Site just outside of Lisbon. Do yourself another favor and get there early. HOB and I did arrive early, though not early enough to avoid a giant line. While this was annoying and the catalyst of predictable marital discord (why, […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 