By Marianne Bohr
Mother Nature always wins.
The Tour du Mont Blanc, affectionately known to its devotees as the TMB, is one of the world’s classic long-distance footpaths and is a capstone event on our European itinerary. Experiencing the Alpine wilderness in the presence of the dramatic ice-capped peaks is the proverbial icing on our backpacking, sabbatical-year cake. [...]
By MJ Pramik
Seeing the world anew.
When I hit sixty, my eldest daughter said, ‘Sixty is the new forty.’ These words spawned in me a wanderlust the likes of which I couldn’t believe, and weeks after my birthday I challenged myself to go alone to Antarctica. After cavorting with flocks of frenzied penguins and climbing out [...]
By Bill Grant
Running with the bulls in Pamplona and oil wrestling in Istanbul.
I vividly remember running through the narrow and winding cobblestone streets of Pamplona that early July 7th summer morning - hearing the thundering hooves of a dozen aggressive bulls getting closer as I approached the funnel-like entrance to the bull ring. The adrenaline [...]
by Bill Zarchy
Bowling for Budget in Tokyo
On our first night in Japan, Randy dragged us up the hill behind our hotel to go bowling.
Shinagawa Lanes was an electronic wonder attached to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, a large tower with tiny rooms, where Randy had stayed on his first visit to Japan years [...]
by Joshua Berman
The author experiences World Cup fever on the Gold Coast
It was a two-day journey to Tamale, where Mammah Tenii was waiting to connect us with Chief Kansuk, who everybody called “Chief.” It was the summer of 2006 and the national soccer team, the Ghana Black Stars, was playing in [...]
by Tim Leffel
In a hidden stadium at the end of a dirt road in central Mexico, impeccably dressed women ride in an intricate ballet of galloping horses.
We had already been there at least an hour, watching a few rounds of contestants showing off their equestrian skills, before we noticed the most amazing [...]
by Cheryn Flanagan
Deep down I knew I didn’t belong there-I wasn’t at the monastery to live an ascetic life, gain a greater spiritual understanding of the world, or to learn Gung Fu (known to us in the West as Kung Fu). I was simply there because I thought it would make a cool story, and [...]
by Mary Jean Pramik
An hour before sunrise on a June morning, Puglia beckoned. Stepping out into the dark, the blackened narrow meandering streets of Alberobello opened like a labyrinth before my trullo. I was determined to maintain my marathon training schedule. Often when traveling, my resolve to keep up my running fast dilutes with the [...]
by Kathleen Kelly
Truth is, I only signed up for that 5K because my husband tricked me into it. Stretched across the bed, he was the picture of innocence as he watched TV and flipped through a running magazine. I was deeply submerged in some online reading when he sent out the first ping. “There’s an [...]
by Julie Hammonds
I am lingering late over breakfast on a quiet summer morning, talking parasailing with the hotel manager. The brightly colored wings that dot the Alpine sky every sunny day here in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps have frequently caught my eye as I hike. Tim, who is earning his parasailing pilot’s certification at a local [...]
