Knowing I have a train to catch fills me with joy. Rail stations are always a fascinating hive of activity, people and machines on the move. Some stand out, most blend in. The human zoo in all its glory. I take great pleasure in observing the madness while turning inwards and entering what I call […]
It’s a good hour before sunrise as our party of six board a Blackfin powerboat. A thin mist of rain dissipates as the first light of dawn emerges from the brooding clouds in the distance. Our vessel cleaves through thankfully still waters as we leave the port of Barbate in southern Spain. A cool poniente […]
No doubt about it, this is a dream job. Even if there comes a point on every research trip when my inner traveler werewolf sprouts a hairy back and howls at the moon. One too many luxury hotel visits or carefully plated amuse-bouche pom poms and the revolt is inevitable. What’s the remedy? To the […]
Are you one of those cooks who tends to get distracted doing 300 things at once, and ends up burning some of your meals? If so, this dish is for you – here you intentionally burn your pasta (to a certain degree). You heard that right, my friend. Spaghetti all’Assassina, or killer pasta, has you […]
Trieste is a city that seems to have been unearthed from the bottom drawer of a well-travelled desk—forgotten for a while, perhaps, but still scented with ink, salt, and old ambition. Here, on the northeastern edge of Italy, I recently spent several days drinking in the atmosphere of this unique city with its Venetian, Slavic […]
There’s a particular hum that fills a museum when it opens for the day. Footsteps on polished floors, whispers bouncing off tall walls, the occasional squeak of a bench being shifted for a better view. It’s comforting, familiar. But what if you could skip all that? What if it was just you—and the art? In […]
An early embedded memory for me is the black and white haze of the 1934 film Babes in Toyland. It aired often during the holidays on various channels. Not that there were many channels. In those days, in our house, we had 3, and that weird UHF channel thing that had the clicks and lots […]
Norway is a place of abundance, where luxury comes not in form of five star hotels (with a few noteworthy exceptions) but in striking natural beauty at every turn. I’ve been lucky to have visited this magical world of fjords and trolls, glaciers and waterfalls many times, but there was one place that always eluded […]
It’s not lost on me that it’s easy to become a bit “over-churched” when travelling through Europe. As beautiful as all those architectural wonders can be, after a week or two they often have the tendency to merge into one another. However, to my tastes, there is one church that defies this trend, and one […]
Have you ever looked at a dog’s nose? I mean really studied it closely. It’s cold (most of the time), wet (generally) but the most fascinating thing about it is the texture, a kind of ‘scorched earth’ granularity. Go get your dog, if you have one and stare at that snoot… Now, what does it […]
Some 500 years ago when the Portuguese began settling Pico island in the Azores, nobles, merchants and farmers found rocky, inhospitable terrain that nonetheless was rich in the typical nutrients found wherever one finds volcanoes. Olive and wheat production was initially a failure, so this shifted to growing timber, vines, and fruit trees. If you’re […]
There are many things I look forward to when visiting Belgium, but without fail, the first thing I want to check off my list is sitting down at a brasserie table to eat stoverij. Also known as stoofvlees or carbonades Flamandes, in its most basic form it’s a beef stew made with beer, slow-cooked until […]
In a sea of gondolas and fast motor boats, the Eolo — a fully restored Venetian bragozzo, or flat-bottom fishing boat, painted with the classic black and white decorations — proudly unfurls its trapezoidal rust-red sails to the winds: quite a proclamation, visually and conceptually, even from afar. Irreverent, you might think, yet very much […]
Most folk arrive into Iceland in the early morning after an overnight flight, the dreaded red-eye, and so it’s a good idea on arrival to take it slow and easy. However, many trips to Iceland tend to be quite short, so there is a counter tendency to want to hit the ground running. On balance, […]
At over 3,172 kilometres in total, Ireland’s coastline is the longest per head of population in Europe. That’s a lot of sheltered, stony coves, and blustery, sandy strands for not a lot of people. Growing up near a seaside village where others flocked to on holiday, the most important question was often: “which beach should […]
I think, therefore, I Ham. It’s been bitingly cold and dreary (as far as that is possible) in Sevilla and I need a cure, I need to infuse myself with greenery, sunshine, a delectable meal. Looking gnawingly through the cupboard I see our jamón supply is at critically low levels, so in a moment of […]