Hello, again, Blogonauts! Eagerness arises in many forms. For this solo trip to England, the anticipation has been fed & watered by the half-dozen or so English expats, most of whom are visibly thrilled that I am going to spend two weeks ricocheting around England. Even the driver of the van that carried me from Keene was born in England. He left there when quite young, but he said it still feels like home to him, and he wished he could visit more often.. ...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Yes, I am home, but not all the tales have been told. Here's another (largely) pictorial episode from the Czech Republic. Sedlec and Kutna Hora are a couple of Czech villages that sit adjacent to one another about an hour's journey by train from Prague.

Before World War II's Nazi invasion, Czechoslovakia's Jews numbered almost 200,000. Following the Nazi relocations to death camps, only between 10,000 and 12,000 survived. That means the death and murder of about 95% of the Jewish population.. Jews in Prague had often been mistreated for centuries. They had been ghettoized into a small area within the Old Town. Within this several-square-block enclave, they created their own culture and carried on lives that wer...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! My goodness, what a delightful city is Prague! Many European cities had to rebuild following WWII's aerial bombing, but Prague was spared the rain of explosive ordinance. Thus, most of the architecture worth preserving has survived. Not that Prague avoided incursions and upheavals. Many of the downtown buildings bear bullet scars, indicating the repeated moments where Wenceslas Square was filled with tanks and troops. In spite of retaini...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Although their notoriety is far from equal, Vienna has a neighboring national capital: Bratislava, Slovakia. In fact, at a distance of only about 40 miles, the two are the closest pair of capital cities in the whole world.  It seemed a shame to let little things like international borders, language differences, and a legacy of communism stand in the way of a nice sidetrip. So on Sunday, April 12, we boarded a Bratislava-bound bus an...