I’m trying desperately to bring this blog up to date, and so, direct from London, here’s another post about New York City. A bit of New York trivia which you may find useful some day: It takes rather a long … Read More →

I’m on the road again, and this past week I made my first trip to New York City as  A Novelist. It was a pretty heady experience. On Wednesday morning I taxied down to Washington Square to have breakfast with … Read More →

The Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names by A. D. Mills is a marvelously helpful book if you’re writing a novel about 11th century England, and even if you aren’t it can be pretty interesting if you’re curious about names. … Read More →

In Roger Ebert’s review of the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 16, 2010) he describes a scene in a place where “rocks have been riven by deep cracks.” He goes on to observe that the … Read More →

Question: What do you do with a travel blog when you’re not traveling? Answer: Re-define the word travel. There are many kinds of journeys, and it’s a rare day when I don’t go somewhere – to the market, to the … Read More →

Yesterday’s post was short due to a fading laptop battery. Now that I am recharged and have paid the big bucks at the Hilton for some internet time, I want to write a little more about Budapest. Yes, we are … Read More →

Last Wednesday night, in Vienna, we attended a Mozart and Strauss chamber concert. The musicians, singers and dancers were sublime. The concert master, a renowned violinist with a Stradivarius under his chin, stood in front of the musicians to conduct … Read More →

Last Friday we woke to fog shrouded windows and beyond them, to frost on the rooftops of Fussen. Later, as we drove north along the Romantic Road, the outside temperature registered -.5 degrees. Frost covered the trees and fields, but … Read More →

Hohenschwangau The life of Ludwig II of Bavaria was enchanted, tragic and bizarre. It would make a great opera (he was fond of Wagner), and for all I know someone has already written it. We took guided tours of two … Read More →

Black Forest Next on our agenda was a drive through the Black Forest. I shall skim over the confusing, frenetic drive through crowded, trafficky Baden-Baden in search of a way OUT, and tell you that the Black Forest is lovely … Read More →