Day 890 – Winchester, England – The original capital of England

   Honestly I didn’t know anything about Winchester, I didn’t even know it existed. We were waiting out our two weeks after our covid boosters and looking for a place a bit less expensive than London with access to hiking…

Day 880 – El Puerto de Santa María, Spain – The Sherry Triangle (part 3)

   According to Homer’s Odyssey, after the Trojan War, Menestheus escaped through the Straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Guadalete River (modern day El Puerto de Santa María) where he established Menesthei Portus (Menestheus’s port). The port was…

Day 875 – Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain – The Sherry Triangle (part 2)

   The habitation of the area around the mouth of the Guadalquivir river can be traced back to the semi-mythical city of Tartessos and the lost Tartessians culture which had its own written language, contemporaries of the Phoenicians who later…

Day 871 – Jerez de la Frontera – The Sherry Triangle (part 1)

   Jerez de la Frontera is a town of just over 200 thousand best known as the production capitol of sherry wines. Here along with the two coastal towns of El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda (until…

Day 869 – Cádiz, Spain – One of the oldest cities in western Europe.

   Cádiz is a peninsular port city located in the south of Spain and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in western Europe. Founded around 1104 BC by the Phoenicians, this city has a very long history of…

Day 848 – Seville, Spain – The Best Tapas in Seville

   I travel for food. And I’ve been around the world in search of the best. Spain might be the best place in the world to eat right now. And my favorite Spanish food comes from Andalusia in southern Spain…

Day 795 – Chiang Mai, Thailand – The Buddhist Temples of Northern Thailand

   Having grown up in austere protestant American churches conspicuously devoid of ornate or lavish decoration, I never felt particularly connected to those holy places. My personal spirituality always manifested in elaborate, intricate, and shamanically hypnotic self-made shrines and environments….

The Best Khao Soi in Chiang Mai

   I have somewhat of an obsession with the northern Thai specialty, khao soi. It’s a typical northern Thai curry noodle soup that is ubiquitous in Chiang Mai but uncommon in American Thai restaurants and even uncommon in Bangkok and…

Day 795 – Chiang Mai, Thailand – Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields

   Northern Thailand. There is something haunting in the mist covered mountains and emerald rice fields surrounding the city. Something that I connect to. A reverence for the spirits of trees and nature. Of something beyond our earthly pursuits. A…

Day 754 – Istanbul, Turkey – Going native in Kadıköy on the Asian side.

   It is impossible for me to walk through the streets of Istanbul and not ponder chaos theory and particle swarm dynamics as a system of organization. The symphonic madness. The rivers of kinetic energy. The ancient flow. When I…