Category: STORIES

  • TANGIER | Rockin’ the Kasbah

    TANGIER | Rockin’ the Kasbah

    I was in Spain, a mere hop, skip, and a jump from Tangier. That was a temptation I could not resist. So I hopped the bus to Tarifa, skipped down to the port, and jumped onto the ferry, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, to Africa. Ahoy, Africa. I landed in Tangier and set off to…

  • COTSWOLDS: Broadway Tower

    COTSWOLDS: Broadway Tower

    When I realized I was in the vicinity of the Broadway Tower as the sun was setting, I hightailed it down the narrow road and screeched to a stop alongside the adjacent field. I confidently made my way across the field, heading to the tower. Excitedly, I ran up to the gatekeeper, an old man…

  • EYE ON DESIGN | Glasgow School of Art

    EYE ON DESIGN | Glasgow School of Art

    In 1896, a junior draftsman named Charles Rennie Mackintosh won a competition to design a new building for the Glasgow School of Art. The building was completed in 1909, heralding the birth of a new style in 20th-century European architecture and establishing Mackintosh as a design influencer in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau…

  • TRAVELING SOLO [Tricks of the trade]

    TRAVELING SOLO [Tricks of the trade]

    I’m a woman and I travel the world. Alone. (With some occasional exceptions.) Alone, I’ve stayed in a stone cottage on top of a mountain in Tuscany, an 11th-century fort on an island off the coast of Brittany, an estancia in Argentina, and a riad in Tangier. Alone, I’ve shopped in chaotic flea markets in…

  • Italy | Risking my life for damask

    Italy | Risking my life for damask

    [damask |ˈdaməsk| noun | A figured woven fabric with a pattern visible on both sides, typically used for table linen and upholstery.] Not exactly the kind of thing you’d risk your life for, right?

  • TANGIER | Rockin’ the Kasbah

    TANGIER | Rockin’ the Kasbah

    I was in Spain, a mere hop, skip, and a jump from Tangier. That was a temptation I couldn’t resist. So I hopped the bus to Tarifa, skipped down to the port, and jumped onto the ferry, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, to Africa.

  • INDIA | The Land of Dreams and Romance

    INDIA | The Land of Dreams and Romance

    In 1896, at age 60, Mark Twain traveled throughout India for three months.  As I read his words, I saw my photographs of India… “This is indeed India; the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and…

  • REYKJAVIK | About Those Sweaters

    REYKJAVIK | About Those Sweaters

    This sweater is iconic in Iceland. When I visited Iceland, I couldn’t wait to find out the ancient origins of the famous knitted patterns. I imagined that the traditional craft had been handed down from generation to generation, like a family heirloom. I was in for a surprise. Almost immediately, I noticed that the sweater…

  • CHIANG MAI | The day I rode an elephant and went into a tiger cage

    CHIANG MAI | The day I rode an elephant and went into a tiger cage

    So it all started with a taxi driver named M. He was nothing like the all-powerful M in James Bond movies. My M was an unassuming twenty-something Thai taxi driver, who became my personal tour guide the day I landed in Chiang Mai.

  • The Best Pad Thai in Bangkok

    The Best Pad Thai in Bangkok

    While I was in Bangkok, I went on a nighttime tuk tuk tour with a guide named Jeeb, and three people by the names of Baby, Junior, and Buddy.  The names were not the only peculiar aspect of the evening.