Views of London. Different perspectives open different discussions. On a quick visit to London this weekend, I had a chance to get to the View from the Shard; the 72nd floor of London’s newest and Europe’s tallest building. The view is staggering and I am sure will spawn a new meme of London panoramas. This …
Author Archives: colindotpdx
Moving History from Lycia to the British Museum. Earlier this year we sailed along the Lycian coast in southwest Turkey with a few friends and our own archaeologist on board; Peter Sommer. Peter walked 2000 miles in the footsteps of Alexander the Great to discover Turkey when he was a graduate student and now takes …
Istanbul: Ground Zero For All Our Modern Problems … Istanbul is a staggeringly beautiful and fascinating city. It feels ancient and modern at the same time. It is booming economically but its politics could explode at any moment. It seems mysterious and exotic and distant and unimportant but this is the place that has bequeathed …
Flying Monkeys…… Riding through Greenville this morning on California Highway 89 just south of Mount Lassen, we saw this sign that said “Leathers, Denim, Coffee”. Not a sign you can pass. At Flying Monkeys we had an absolutely delightful visit with Chris Biggs who sells leathers to bikers and denims to loggers; or the wannabes …
Impossible Roads. There is a special anticipation and excitement looking down a road that is clearly impossible. The map says there is a road but the eye, the mind, and common sense do not believe it for a moment. Then you continue and find a road that exploits the natural contours of the land but …
The White Rim Trail in Utah’s Canyonlands … Don’t let anyone try to tell you that this is an easy/intermediate ride; it is not. It is one of the most challenging and exciting and spectacular ride as you will find in America. As soon as you drop into the Green River, the next 90 miles …
Monument Valley – has been used in so many films that it seems to define how we think of the American West. John Ford shot “Stagecoach” here with John Wayne and then returned nine more times and there is now John Ford’s Point in the park in his honour. Since then there has been “Easy …
Snapshots from Lesotho. Lesotho is a country landlocked inside South Africa. It was once Basutoland, a British protectorate since Queen Victoria agreed to keep it from the Boers and independent from Britain, other than having Marmite in the shops, since 1966. It is one eighth the size of Oregon with a GDP half that of …
Meet Hubert Kriegel Just when you think you are a pretty hard core adventurer, heading up one of the highest road passes in Africa after days of rain has turned the surface into mud, you meet this guy coming down the other way – riding his Ural in an old ski jacket, no socks, and …
Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift. 1879 Britain decided to consolidate a few more chunks of Africa; it worked in Canada so why not here? First order of business was to annex the independent Zulu nation and 15,000 troops were sent off to get the job done. The first encounter was at Isandlwana and turned into Britain’s …
Colin's Travel Journal 