Christiansø, Denmark ...

July 2002. Herring-lovers' paradise ...

Quote: Tom Robbins ...

"From Whitman to Steinbeck to Kerouac, and beyond to the restless broods of the seventies, the American road has represented choice, escape, opportunity, a way to somewhere else. However illusionary, the road was freedom ..."

-- from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 1976

Blackfoot, Idaho ...

June, 2007. The potato museum ...

Quote: Lawrence Durrell ...

"Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them are willed or determined by the will -- whatever we may think. They flower spontaneously out of the demands of our natures -- and the best of them lead us not only outwards in space, but inwards as well. Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection."

-- from Bitter Lemons, 1957

Cay Caulker, Belize ...

November, 2004. A near-perfect beach ...

Quote: John Steinbeck ...

"Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, I don't improve; in further words, once a bum always a bum."

-- from Travels with Charley: In Search of America, 1962

Montevideo, Uruguay ...

May, 2004. La Rambla statue ...

Quote: Samuel Johnson ...

"He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins.

"A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish, and the postilion brutal. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crouded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected."

from "Expectations of Pleasure Frustrated," in The Idler, 1759

Buchanan, North Dakota ...

April 2006. A forlorn monument ...

Quote: Thurston Clarke ...

"What child has not traveled by spinning a globe? I owned an illuminated one. I switched it on and darkened the room and it became the glowing, revolving planet that introduced travelogues and newsreels. Then I closed my eyes, stabbed at it with a finger, and imagined going wherever I landed. My journey began this way on a snowy February evening in New York when I grabbed a globe off a friend's bookshelf and spun it into a whirling bouquet of continents and oceans. Then I held it in front of a frosted window and watched places I might never see race past. "

-- from Equator: A Journey, 1988

Grants, New Mexico ...

September 2008. The Uranium Cafe ...

Quote: John Julius Norwich ...

"There's no doubt about it: the easier it becomes to travel, the harder it is to be a traveller."

-- from A Taste for Travel:An Anthology, 1985

Honolulu, Hawaii ...

May, 2008. Waikiki ...

Quote: Hans Christian Andersen ...

"To travel is to live."

-- letter to a friend, September 17, 1871

Berlin, Germany ...

October, 2001. The way to travel ...

Quote: William Shakespeare ...

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's works expired.

-- from "Sonnet XXVII," c. 1594

Salzburg, Austria ...

October 2001. A famous garden ...

Quote: Graham Greene ...

"Everything is going to be different; life is never going to be the same again after your passport has been stamped."

-- from Another Mexico, 1939

Sanderson, Texas ...

January 2008. The fading West ...

Quote: Robert M. Pirsig ...

"Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive."

-- from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974

Chacaltaya, Bolivia ...

September 1998. Huayna Potosi ...

Quote: Frances Mayes ...

"Seeing new places always brings up the possibility of other new places."

-- from Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy, 1996

Portbou, Spain ...

November 2005. Changing trains ...

Quote: Herman Melville ...

"I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts."

from Moby-Dick, 1851

Leadville, Colorado ...

September 2008. Mining town ...

Quote: James M. Cain ...

"There's nothing so dark as a railroad track in the middle of the night."

-- from Double Indemnity, 1943

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic ...

October, 2001. St. Vitus Church ...

Quote: Craig Nelson ...

"Whenever I tell my family where I'm off to next, in fact, my mom always has one question: "Why on earth would you want to go there?"

-- from Let's Get Lost, 1999

Vacherie, Louisiana ...

August 2004. Oak Alley ...

Quote: William Shakespeare ...

"Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place: but travellers must be content."

-- from As You Like It, c. 1599