Kids'-eye view of Europe

Dana and her friends enjoy camaraderie and a view of Venice.

Click here to read a story I wrote for the local paper about some of the high points of the kids' recent European adventure: cute gondoliers; rest areas with fresh fruit and pastry; never giving up on using Spanish with Austrians and Italians; and listening to "sick" chamber music in Mozart's hometown.



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Prague in color

Dana's home. She bought gifts in Prague.

Mike got a gorgeous ceramic beer stein, Adam got a black t-shirt with giant white letters reading, "MY SISTER WAS IN PRAGUE AND ONLY THING SHE BROUGHT ME IS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT," and I got this brilliant pen and ink drawing of the city's domes, roofs and signature powder towers.

Dana picked it because of the colors, and she knew exactly where I'd hang it: on the mustard-colored wall in the family room in a grouping of travel mementos with the same color scheme.

The Prague skyline has joined two beaded Masai wedding necklaces, a cobalt and yellow watercolor of the Brooklyn Bridge and Twin Towers lit by a full moon, and a flyer advertising a bullfight that I picked off a sidewalk in Guarda, Portgual and had framed.

A look at that wall takes me around the world in one quick, colorful eyeful.


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Kids on the loose on the Lido

Dana left today for her school's April vacation trip to Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic. Sixty-five kids, 10 adult chaperones. First stop, Venice.
Dana's been to Venice before, but most of the kids have never been to Italy. Indeed, for many this is their first trip out of the country. I envy them their first ride down the glorious Grand Canal. It's an experience that stays with you forever.

The group is staying at the Hotel Riviera on the Venice Lido, across the lagoon from the city's ancient historic core. The hotel looks like a wonderful value for the money, and some of the rooms have views of the sea.

While Venice proper is where the guidebook and postcard sights are, Lido is, essentially, a beach resort. A playground.

Hmmm.... A beach resort playground for 65 American teenagers in Europe without their parents.
I'll be writing a story about the trip for the local newspaper. This headline idea springs to mind: "Lido: The Chaperones' Challenge."

(These photos? Non-Lido Venice.)
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Ten Commandments of Travel

In April Dana's heading to Europe with a group from her high school. About 40 kids (who, according to Dana, are all "getting wicked excited") and a half-dozen adult chaperones will take in Venice, Vienna, Prague and points in between.

I was talking to a few girls who are going on the trip and I said, "What an itinerary -- Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic."

One of them squinted her eyes at me and asked, "Czech Republic? Who's going to the Czech Republic?"

"You are, Sharone, you are! You're going to Prague, where some of the buildings wear funny hats. Prague's the capital of the Czech Republic."

"Wow! I'm going to the Czech Republic..."

The teacher who organizes these annual spring trips -- and who teaches advanced placement history -- will no doubt be glad that Sharone knows the name of the country she's in when she's in Prague. The trip, which requires that the kids do research on their destinations before they travel, is actually a mini-course that nets the travelers two credits on their high school transcripts.

In addition to learning geography, history and culture, the teacher hopes the students will learn something about and from the travel itself, and at a recent trip planning meeting she offered these "Ten Commandments of Travel:"

1. Thou shalt not expect to find things as thou hast them at home for thou hast left home to find things different.

2. Thou shalt not take anything too seriously, for a carefree mind is the beginning of fine traveling.

3. Thou shalt not let others get on thy nerves, for thou art paying good money to enjoy thyself. (I think this commandment should be amended to read, "... for thine parents art paying good money -- which they now have a lot less of than they did when thou signed up for this trip -- to let thee enjoy thyself.")

4. Remember to take only half the clothes thou thinks thou needs, and twice the money.

5. Know at all times where thy passport is, for a person without a passport is a person without a country.

6. Remember that if we had been expected to stay in one place we would have been created with roots.

7. Thou shalt not worry, for he that worrieth hath no pleasure, and few things are truly fatal.

8. When in Rome, be prepared to do somewhat as the Romans do -- same goes for Venice, Vienna and Prague.

9. Thou shalt not judge the people of a country by the one person who hast given thou trouble.

10. Remember thou art a guest in other lands, and he that treateth his host with respect will be honored.

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Four travel favorites: Bridges

Bridges complete a place. They link, connect, bring people, places and ideas together. They make you wonder what’s on the other side and invite you to cross and find out. A beautiful bridge is a work of art, something to contemplate, experience, absorb. Here, four of my favorites:

• Brooklyn Bridge, New York City – I was born in Brooklyn and have a genetic attachment to New York City, the capital of the world. On every trip back, I take the subway to City Hall and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. After Central Park, there is no finer place to let the waves of this magnificent, pulsing city wash over you. Peek between the spaces in the pedestrian boardwalk to the traffic lanes below you, cars, trucks and cabs rushing between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The East River winds its way north toward the Bronx and south toward New York harbor and the Statue of Liberty, just visible. You’ll share the boardwalk with runners, cyclists, tourists, students, businesspeople. Revel in the superlative view of Manhattan’s skyline, pausing at the hole in the sky where the World Trade Center used to be.
• Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy – It arcs like a stone confection over the Grand Canal. Unless you arrive on one of the great cruise ships that arrive in Venice on the Lido side of the city or travel up the wide Guidecca Canal, you’ll likely leave your car or tour bus in industrial Mestre, or you’ll take the train to Venice. You’ll board a vaparetto that quickly delivers you into a sun-dappled, watery wonderland that is unique in the world. The Rialto Bridge greets you early in your journey down the Grand Canal. You take a deep breath and smile. You know this bridge, recognize it. You’re in Venice. The dream is real.
• Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic – This 600-year-old Gothic bridge spans the Vltava River (aka the Moldau – Smetana’s The Moldau takes you on a sublime symphonic journey down the great river) and links Prague’s Old Town with Lesser Town, or Mala Strana. (Lesser Town is old, too.) Gothic towers with tops that look like pointy black hats sit at each end of the 16-arch stone bridge. Thirty baroque statues and reproductions line the bridge’s sides, some statues rubbed to gleaming by people seeking good luck. You won’t be alone on the Charles Bridge, Karlov most in Czech. The bridge, commissioned in 1357 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, was built wide enough to carry four horse carriages abreast. The carriages are gone, but the wide expanse is filled with pedestrians, tourists, street vendors, musicians and performers. Karlov most is more than a bridge; it's a boulevard.
• Forth Railway Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland – From our hotel room in South Queensferry, Adam, Dana and I could stand at our window and see the two great bridges that span the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh. To our left, the road bridge carried car and truck traffic over the Forth. We’d cross the road bridge many times on sightseeing missions from Edinburgh to other Scottish parts. But it was the Forth Railway Bridge that captivated. Opened in 1890, the bridge’s three red-painted double cantilevers sail like butterflies above the Forth. Spectacular at sunset, the crimson marvel is engineering perfection and poetry in steel.
  

Click here to read excerpts from Ribbons of Highway: A Mother-Child Journey Across America

The Charles Bridge: A Prague gem

Prague's Charles Bridge is a vibrant public space and an outdoor sculpture gallery.