by Lone Mørch Schneider
“A Queen cannot come from such humble beginnings,” Frieda objected, standing in the remaining rubble of her Transylvanian childhood home. We were in Zendersch, an isolated parish tucked into the rolling hills of the mountainous heart of Romania. Her highness was my mother-in-law. She’d proclaimed herself the Queen of Petaluma, a town [...]
by William Raney
Central Coast, British Columbia
6:15 AM:
I roll over. Speck of light. Time to get going. Today’s the day we cross Queen Charlotte Sound. I flip on the diesel heater and ease myself out of bed. They say you don’t need so much sleep when you are old, but if [...]
by Jan Burak Schwert
A man walked in, and my jaw hit the floor. I’d never seen the man before. It was my husband.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
My husband Ron and I had traveled to Konstanz, Germany in search of his ancestors. The city, on the banks of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) [...]
by Cindy Rasicot
Beep-beep-beep, an alarm clock rings, softly. I open my eyes to darkness.
“Turn the light on,” a voice says.
The alarm goes off ten minutes late. We’re all wrestling to get out of our sleeping bags, confused, sleepy and anxious. Even though I know the routine, it’s hard to wake up so early. Why do [...]
by Jeff Vize
Charlotte and I arrived in Istanbul in the throes of the longest day of our lives. A day earlier, we had woken in Sri Lanka at 5 a.m., flown into Dubai at 11 a.m., and spent the better part of sixteen hours wandering through the city. Our flight to Turkey had departed at [...]
by Catherine Watson
The ancient pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico, is perfectly nicknamed: Called the Sky City, it commands the most exotic location of any inhabited place in the United States — the top of a 376-foot-high mesa, a natural citadel of golden rock, an island in the sky.
It’s also amazingly well-disguised.
I’d driven [...]
by Scott Crawford
In 1540, a new instrument was invented in the Italian town of Cremona. It was called the violin. Over the next 500 years, the violin would prove exceptionally versatile and today is one of the few instruments to be equally at home adorning the shoulders of classically trained musicians in symphony halls or [...]
by Peter Mandel
Ecuador. The Equator. The Galapagos Islands.
There is unusual magic in these words. You can read and read about the blue-footed boobie. About Darwin’s five-week visit here and about the seals that yawn when you go near them and that will not scare.
Blue feet. Animals that are not afraid. [...]
by Tim Leffel
I believe we crossed the equator around three in the morning, though I don’t really know. The waves pounding our boat were just as furious on both sides of the dividing line. Perhaps if every toilet were not splattered with puke, I could have checked to see which direction the water was flowing [...]
by Bill Zarchy
As the Seine meanders aimlessly through Paris, Gustave Eiffel’s work of wonder appears to glide from one bank to the other. Our Batobus commuter boat docks in the shadow of the Tower, and I shepherd my small flock to the shore.
Rebecca, 14, and Danny, 11, have been troupers on this first trip to [...]
