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)
March 9, 2022
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.
March 4, 2022
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
February 21, 2022
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
February 17, 2022
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….
Day 795 – Chiang Mai, Thailand – Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields
January 28, 2022
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.
December 4, 2021
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…
Day 748 – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – The end of the Camino.
November 6, 2021
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain was believed to house the remains of St. John the apostle and in the 10th century became one of the three great pilgrimage sites of the Catholic church (Rome and Jerusalem…
Day 731 – Porto, Portugal – There’s no place like Porto
October 31, 2021
Porto. I’ve been here before. The once familiar caress of an old lover. The ghostly remembrances of younger explorations. Embarrassingly inexperienced. Ridiculous notions of what to do. Fears. Words left unsaid. A gnawing regret for not doing things right. And…
Day 701 – Vienna, Austria – Beethoven, Marie Antoinette, and Rococo
September 16, 2021
I didn’t know what to expect from Vienna. One of my favorite movies, Before Sunrise, paints a painfully romantic version of the city that I didn’t hope to be a true experience. But I have to say, the place is…