Planning a Trip to Spain with Kids

Our nephews (9 and 10) attend a school where literacy skills are taught in English, but several other subjects, including math and science, are taught in Spanish. It’s a joy to see the boys use their skills. In 2016, they slipped unselfconsciously into Spanish when speaking with a server from Spain in our Edinburgh hotel.… Continue reading Planning a Trip to Spain with Kids

Madonna Writhed Here

I’m staying in an idiosyncratic 12-room hotel in the town of Ronda in Andalusia, Spain. My suite fills three floors in a tower: first floor, entrance and bathroom; second floor, sitting room; third floor, bedroom. I’m going to get a lot of exercise tonight. I’m pretty sure my bed is the same bed Madonna used… Continue reading Madonna Writhed Here

Travelling with Cultural Baggage

One of the challenges of travel is having to bring myself with me. If the trip is going to be more than passive entertainment, I have to try to erode my preconceived notions, prejudices, blindspots, and cultural programming. This week I felt shock when I first saw the scene pictured at the top of this… Continue reading Travelling with Cultural Baggage

Snapshots: Hiking the Rota Vicentina, Southwest Portugal

The Rota Vicentina is a 450 km trail system in southwest Portugal. It includes the Fishermen’s Trail along the rugged Atlantic coastline, the Historical Way that heads inland through rolling countryside, and loop trails that connect both worlds. The system is good for point-to-point hiking where we moved to a different place each day, and hub-and-spoke… Continue reading Snapshots: Hiking the Rota Vicentina, Southwest Portugal

The Emptiness of Social Media

  In the past couple days there have been over 13,000 views of the above post in my microblog. Thirty-nine strangers have “liked” it. Typically, at this point, there would have been about 100 impressions. My microblog is an exercise in gratitude for something about each day of my life. I use Twitter as the… Continue reading The Emptiness of Social Media