I have only a moment, so let me be brief. After a drive to Nashua, a bus ride, two airplane journeys, and two train rides, I finally landed in Nuremberg. (Here's a quick quirk: Germans spell it "Nürnberg." English-speakers, however, consider an umlaut to be gaudy. So somehow, over the years, the English world decided to spell the city's name like we heard it, which is a surefire formula to create chaos and confusion among those who communicate via text. Let me...

Hello, again, Blogonauts! Testing...1...2...Testing...1...2... Welcome to a renewed attempt to leave some verbal breadcrumbs to show where I've been. In about an hour, I will be off on another transatlantic jaunt, this time mostly to Germany. It will be a chance to take in lots of history, architecture, and art, from medieval times, through World War II, and on to the present day. Plus my language skills (or lack thereof) will be put to the test—decipherin...

Hello again, Blogonauts! The last few days we have been high in the Himalayan foothills, in the former summer seat of British India's government, Shimla, in the state of Himachal Pradesh. We climbed to this lofty height via a narrow-gauged railway that took us from the valley floor town of Kalka on a slow trudge through hundreds of tunnels and over hundreds of bridges. The train was crowded, there was no additional provision for luggage, and so movement within...

Hello again, Blogonauts! This will be a quick entry, mostly to point you to the photo album of Amritsar and the Golden Temple. Amritsar has seen more than its share of tragedies (slaughter at the Jallianwala Bagh at the hands of the British, the mass murder and displacement during the partition between India and Pakistan, and in the 1980s, attacks against the Sikhs by the Indian government). Yet it is a joy-filled and generous place. The Sikh Golden Temple fee...

Hello again, Blogonauts! Before I hop aboard a flight from Delhi to Amritsar, let me alert you to several photos I took yesterday while winding my way through the streets and bazars of Chandni Chowk, a cacophanous shoping district near the Red Fort, in New Delhi. This is the festival of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. In celebration, some folks are dousing themselves and their friends in vibrant colored powders. MOST of the time it is voluntary. I have a ...