Features

December 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Discovering Finland's Lake District plus Helsinki and the Savonlinna Opera Festival

by Beth Habian, Features Editor

They call it “The Land of a Thousand Lakes,” although the brain behind that marketing campaign should have invested in a calculator, as the actual number is closer to 200,000! Whatever the number, Finland’s lake-filled landscape is one of the major draws for visitors to this relatively remote European country.

In July ’07 I had the opportunity to visit Finland’s Lake District, the largest in Europe, and get a glimpse of modern city life in...

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December 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Reflections from the world's most-traveled couple

Robert Pine, Boulder, CO

In the March ’06 issue (page 2), Editor David Tykol included a mention of Robert and Dorothy Pine, recognized by the Travelers’ Century Club as the first couple in the world to have visited all 315 countries on the organization’s list. In response to readers’ feedback, Robert Pine is sharing more of his and his wife’s story.

I have always been interested in seeing the world. When I graduated from the University of Kansas in 1941, I immediately joined...

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December 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

West Africa: from Bamako to Timbuktu and on to Dogon country

by Jim Sill, Silverado, CA

Intrepid travelers begin their overland journey through West Africa in Mali

Culturally rich and diverse, West Africa is a unique place for the adventure afforded by independent travel, offering unusual places to visit and cool stuff to buy.

My January-February ’07 visit added a fresh perspective to my 62 years of life experience that only Africa could provide. It was about experiencing minority status in a place unlike that where I live. It...

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December 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Old meets new in the heart of Japan’s Honshu Island

by John Penisten, Hilo, HI

On a March ’07 trip to Japan, my wife, Susan, and I wanted to experience something of the country’s hectic urban life as well as the slower pace of its small towns and countryside. We got both during our train trip through the heart of Honshu Island.

The small, sedate market town of Kurashiki, the vibrant city of Hiroshima and its solemn atomic bomb museum, the quiet majesty of Miyajima’s temple, the simple seaside village of Amanohashidate...

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December 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

A child's-eye view of London

by Dee Poujade, Portland, OR, photos by Michaela Gonzalez

Okay, I’ll admit it. Ever since my first trip to London in 1985, I have been an addicted Anglophile. Starting with the occasional visit and progressing to once-yearly trips — even spending three months in the English countryside the summer after my retirement — I have to keep going back.

In 2003, when I returned from my extended trip, my then-four-year-old granddaughter, Michaela, asked plaintively, “When will you take...

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November 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Driving Namibia

by Joyce Bruck, Ocean Ridge, FL

My longtime friend Winnie Outcalt joined me in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 18, 2006, for an adventure to Namibia. My interest in Namibia began when I saw pictures of the Skeleton Coast with its sand dunes, animals and shipwrecks. As I did my usual extensive research, I discovered there was so much to see, it was hard to decide what to include on our 2-week itinerary. I reserved tours online so I wouldn’t miss anything that was important to me...

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November 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Bangkok & Chiang Mai — a tale of two Thai cities

by Marilyln Lutzker, Sunnyside, NY

Bangkok is a constant assault on the senses. Its pollution, traffic and crowds may make you shudder, but its palaces and temples will make your eyes dance. After seeing them, I wonder if there is any gold leaf left in the world! The glitter, the shine, the sparkle, the overwhelming splendor, the sense that within the enclosures of these monuments I was encased in a globe of vibrating colors: it all will remain with me long after I have forgotten much...

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November 2007 issue | Appears on page 0

Umbria, unlocked and overlooked, offers backroads surprises

by Arlene Wills, Lynnfield, MA

Of the 20 regions of Italy, Umbria, which lies very near the center of the peninsula, is the only region without a sea coast. Relatively small in area (only about 1,500 square miles) and with less than one million inhabitants, it’s often overlooked by travelers in favor of Tuscany, its better-known neighbor to the west.

Where Tuscany’s cities, villages, villas and fields show more obvious signs of prosperity, in Umbria aspects of the working man’s...

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