China: a place both ancient and modern, well known and unknown, distant, different: a powerful contemporary nation that is still little known and even less understood by most people in the west.
Montenegró is one of the best kept secrets of the Balkan region. Despite being sandwiched between the summer hot spots of Greece and Croatia, it remains relatively untouched by tourism. It’s hard to see why, when Montenegró boasts 294 kilometers of breathtakingly blue Adriatic coastline, stunning limestone mountain cliffs reaching for hundreds of meters, real Eastern-European culture, and old towns with all the history and ambiance you could ask for.
“Welcome to 1816.” Magdelaine La Framboise’s spirit greeted our arrival to the island she had loved. The Odawa-French fur trader, who had fascinated me for years, invited my husband, Bob, and me to stay at the Harbour View Inn. In its prior life, the current B&B had been her home. Its construction was overseen by her son-in-law, Captain Benjamin Pierce, brother to future President Franklin Pierce. The gentle breezes whispered Magdelaine's words, “I apologize that I can’t spend more time with you.
The rainforest often seems like it is another world - full of animals, plants, and cultures that are unfamiliar to us. Yet something about this area draws us to learn more about it. I've recently read an extraordinary book that documents one journalist's many years among the people of Central America, in the cradle of the Maya civilization.
In 1926, America celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. To mark the occasion, citizens of Poland – more than 5.5 million of them – signed a unique birthday card, The Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship. Now, all 111 volumes containing more than 30,000 pages – many beautifully illustrated or accompanied by photographs – are digitized and accessible on the Library of Congress website.
If your family includes history buffs, this is the ONE thing you need to make time for when you visit Fredericton, New Brunswick - a town that we just love.
Twice a day in the summer, there is a changing of the guard.
Gettysburg, Pa.– The Gettysburg Foundation will open the historic George Spangler Farm Civil War Field Hospital site to visitors on weekends, June 9 through August 13. Visitors will be transported back to July and August of 1863 as they walk in the footsteps of those who experienced the carnage left from the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg.
Have you ever read a memoir that you couldn't put down? They are rare, but I've found one: A World Erased: A Grandson's Search for His Family's Holocaust Secrets. Author Noah Lederman (we've shared his book, Traveling the Cambodian Genocide, here) delves into his family's past - both in the United States, and at different concentration camps and towns in Europe.
