Travel Monocle
My wife and I have spent a total of four months in Africa over 30 years: Egypt, the Seychelles, the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Our recent five-week trip was intense. Visiting the continent requires heightened savvy and willingness to tolerate some creature discomforts. However, it was enriching beyond expectations, as exotic wildlife…
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Many Caribbean islands are little more than water sports or beachcomber destinations. Jamaica is pleasantly different. The birthplace of reggae, her charms extend well beyond her saltwater shores and adventure opportunities. Now that her bauxite mines are mostly shuttered, vacationers are the new mother lode, drawing 4.3 million tourists per year. When we visited,…
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Eons ago (1969), my first vivid memory of Vietnam was a Viet Cong rocket cratering not far away from where I was brushing my teeth. For the most part, it got better from there, though it was difficult to appreciate the beauty of the place in a war-time environment. Asia’s answer to elongated Chile, this…
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When last in Norway, I enjoyed Oslo and the surrounding sights. Modern, chic, and progressive: Scandinavia on steroids. On another visit, I participated in Bergen’s Rain Festival, which, could have been celebrated on any of 240 days of the year. Norway will stun you with breathtaking scenery: high mountains, deep fjords, verdant valleys, massive forests,…
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An April The Wall Street Journal article touted a three-day sample of Switzerland’s charms using a special rail pass. It also inferred that things run like clockwork in that Alpine country. Having personally sampled Swiss efficiencies and maintained a bank account there, I would concur. Switzerland is landlocked, walled in by some of Europe’s highest…
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Article and photos by Joe Gschwendtner The last two weeks in February were spent giving the Sunshine State a thorough going-over, putting 1,700 miles on a red Mini Cooper. Unlike our laid-back trip to Florida’s panhandle last fall, we crisscrossed the state twice, putting a big toe into the Everglades before departing. If you’ve not…
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Article and photos by Joe Gschwendtner My first trip to Hawaii was for rest and relaxation from Vietnam in 1970, and I returned last month. Early on, there was some internal debate about the best island in the chain. Of course in paradise, there are no losers, but we continue to favor the Big Island.…
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Article and photos by Joe Gschwendtner Once the largest steel town west of the Mississippi, the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company dominated Colorado as its largest employer for a century. Founded by William Palmer to manufacture rails for his trains, it attracted skilled laborers from all over Europe. Now owned by Russian EVRAZ, a marvelous…
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Article and photos by Joe Gschwendtner My wife and I just returned from a fall colors trip out east. We went, expecting to see the Catskills and Finger Lakes of New York floundering economically, as much heavy industry along the Erie Canal has fled. What we discovered instead was a renaissance in process. Old towns,…
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Article and photos by Joe Gschwendtner My wife, Barb, and I just returned from Taos, New Mexico. A captivating and photogenic mecca, it is the same place New York elite artists, Bert Phillips and Ernest Blumenschein uncovered a century ago. The society of artists and their story is essential to understand if one is to…
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