Joys from a Finnish Smoke Sauna
My friends, Martti and Kaarina, as is common for many Finnish families, own a summer cottage on a lake shore. When I first visited their site a few decades ago, the only…
Tribute to a Friendship
It began in Illinois decades ago, four young men having no idea they were forming a lifelong friendship. They were just having fun. “Friendship does not arise out of necessity, but out…
Rounding up Reindeer
Although I’ve inhaled the pure air of Finland for no more than a few months, I’ve had an array of happy adventures while there. If you’ve read other posts in this blog,…
Iberian Travels, Part 4
Pedro, Bruce, Ken, and Alvaro – Four lambs about to be clipped As I mentioned at the end of my last post, pleasure was blooming in our cabaret. Pedro, Bruce, Alvaro, and…
Iberian Travels, Part 3
During one of the amazing lunches at our Madrid boarding house, Pedro and Alvaro struck up a conversation with a pair of Spaniards seated across the table. The friendly pair had been…
Iberian Travels, Part 2
By the time our train stopped at the border between Portugal and Spain to be checked by customs officers (a hassle no longer required when traveling between countries of the European Union),…
Iberian Travels
The Iberian Peninsula is a vague corner of Europe for me. I’ve traveled there only twice, my trips decades apart. On the last one I jetted to Madrid and caught a high-speed…
Italian Holiday
As I mentioned here earlier, my Air Force assignment in Germany provided plenty of time for me to breeze around Europe. And, like all airmen of any rank, I had a precious…
Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate: Conclusion
Note: If you’re new to this blog, or if you don’t remember details of my first experience at the Brandenburg Gate recounted in an earlier post, you may want to go back…
One on One in Kuopio
After a refreshing night in my Kuopio hotel, I took on a hefty breakfast before getting down to the business I had come for. I opened the dissertation of the doctoral student…
