In the footsteps of Heidi in the Swiss Alps

MAIENFELD, SWITZERLAND — The alpine meadows. The soaring mountains. The cute little goats with bells around their necks, chiming away in the shadow of a hillside chalet.

 

In the footsteps of the Civil War - the Northern perspective

Baltimore, MARYLAND – The first bloodshed in the Civil War occurred here in Baltimore not on a battleground between Union and Confederate soldiers but when a riot broke out.

 

In the footsteps of the Civil War - Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, VIRGINA — The woman at the Confederate museum gift shop eyes the $50 bill I try to hand over.

 

Literary Travels - Angel Island, California (Part 2)

Angel Island, CALIFORNIA – Today, Angel Island is a tranquil 30-minute ferry ride across the bay from Fisherman’s Wharf past Alcatraz Island.

 

In the footsteps of the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Varmland, SWEDEN – One of Sweden’s greatest writers, Selma Lagerlof, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in this historic province.

 

The Montgomery, Alabama of Zelda Fitzgerald

Montgomery, ALABAMA – Before she became the world’s most famous flapper, she was known around her hometown as Zelda Sayre

 

Literary Travels: Alabama's Gulf Coast

Gulf Coast, ALABAMA – Stare straight ahead towards the horizon at the edge of the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

 

In the footsteps of McTeague - San Francisco's Tenderloin Neighbourhood

San Francisco, CALIFORNIA – Elijah Glasper knocks on his own door before pushing it open into a wide wedge, allowing light from the hallway.

 

Travels in Zurich: Fraumunster and Marc Chagall

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — Artist Marc Chagall was already a tired old man in 1967 when he was invited to sit facing the blank windows of this town’s most famous church.

 

St. Petersburg and the world of Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoyevsky used the slums of St. Petersburg and Leo Tolstoy used the trappings of its upper ranks in society to make the same point in their novels.