An Unexpected Voyage
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Catching Up Part II, or, The French are Striking
The state of France was this: The government has been making plans in a common-sense direction. The retirement age has been set at 62, but they are changing it to 64. Of course this is unpopular with the union workers. And what does that mean for us? A nationwide rail strike of course. And we…
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Catching up
Seems I’ve done some lately, with the foot situation, and my propensity to stop and look around. I’ll attempt to catch you all up on the state of things. We’ve just boarded a train to Rome, after a morning spent on Mount Vesuvius. I realize I’ve left this journal in a lurch. The beautiful green…
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A few days later…
Our train pulls up in old Napoli. We step out into another world. The south of Italy is vastly different than the other European locales we’ve seen. Hamburg, Strasbourg, Bern. I shall tell you more, when I find some time.
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En Route
Four days have passed since anything transpired on this site. I shall recount the most distant of those days, as I recall it. The morning in Amsterdam was rainy and gray, cool and brisk. In the busy street in front of Princess Hostel, bicycles upon bicycles flew past, commuters on their way to work. Taking…
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In which we walk among the Dutch
I’m writing this from the room in Amsterdam in which I’ve recently caught a much-needed few winks. Walk we did. Yesterday morning at around six, we landed at AMS, and decided it would be prudent and wise to hit the ground running regardless of rest reserves. We started catching trains. Catching them can be easy,…
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In which the travelers embark
I drove to Hiawatha last night after work and arrived at Titus’s place about 9. Titus met me at the door and after chatting with his folks and beginning an interesting conversation or 3, we buttoned up some last minute prep, made sure the shoes and backpacks seemed ready (new backpack is awesome by the…
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In which the backpack zipper fails
I have this old blue backpack. It’s a trusty friend, ever since I found it in an incongruously ritzy shopping mall in India. From stowage compartments of Airbus A320s, sometimes under the seat in front of me, to overnight train trips, used as a pillow once or twice, to office life, lugging my laptop and…