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AN AUSPICIOUS DAY: A Shinto Wedding in Osaka

By
judithworks

on

March 31, 2013

When I heard that it was an auspicious day for baptisms and weddings it seemed a good time to head for Osaka’s Sumiyoshi Taisha Shinto shrine despite the grey clouds and spring showers. The shrine, which contains a temple designated as one of Japan’s national treasures, is dedicated to various interesting and helpful deities, called kami, who ensure safe travel, good fortune in marriage, safe childbirth, business prosperity, family welfare, military valor and beauty. Because of its association with marriage and family it is an especially favored spot for traditional weddings.

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Deruta Italian Ceramics Italy Madonna del Bagno

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN

By
judithworks

on

February 15, 2013

The Madonna delBagno is a small church nestled inconspicuously near the main road to Deruta. It is famous for painted ceramic tiles affixed to the walls by worshippers in thanks to the Virgin for rescue from near death.

In the 17^thcentury, an itinerant merchant, one Cristoforo Merciaro, or Christopher the Peddler, found a ceramic fragment on the ground. Fourteen years earlier, a Franciscan monk had placed the little piece, painted with a primitive image of the Madonna and Child, in an oak tree for safekeeping.

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Haiti

HAITI BEFORE THE EARTHQUAKE

By
judithworks

on

January 26, 2013

Not too long before the terrible earthquake that struck Haiti I had occasion to visit on behalf of the United Nations. Now when I look back I see that Port-au-Prince was paradise compared with current conditions with the lack of housing, education and jobs, and the presence of cholera increasing the suffering resulting from their tragic history.

* * *

The airport in Port-au-Prince was a madhouse. Suitcases tied with string, plastic bags and cloth-wrapped bundles circled the conveyor belt.

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Africa The Gambia

THE GAMBIA

By
judithworks

on

January 1, 2013

The mellow sound of a marimba and harp-like kora welcomed us to Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. It was a Friday in this heavily Moslem country. Prayers were finishing at mosques, which despite being in abundance, were insufficient in size so that even gas stations were used for worshippers. Later, streets and walkways were filled with men walking home with rolled up prayer mats under their arms while holding on to their little boys’ hands.

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Italy Venice

BE READY FOR GOOD FORTUNE

By
judithworks

on

December 13, 2012

A Guest Post by fellow traveler, Janette Turner:

One summer I traveled to Italy with my husband’s business school and set out on a side trip to Venice. My companion was another wife amusing herself while her spouse was in class. As I sat in the back seat of a student’s rental car next to Barb, she revealed why all the other wives had gone off without us.

“Slow down!” said Barb every few minutes, even though the young driver was motoring in the right lane, letting cars pass.… Read more

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Alto Adige Bolzano Italy Mummies Otzi

THE ICE MAN

By
judithworks

on

November 28, 2012

It was disturbing to gaze into the vacant eyes of a 5500-year-old man who could possibly be one of my most distant ancestors.

Otzi, as he is known after the location where he turned up, is sleeping in the northern Italian city of Bolzano between Verona and the Brenner Pass. But Otzi doesn’t rest in peace because he was a murder victim in a case that will never be solved, and because some scientist or another is always wanting to study him or check on his health.

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cruisng Kamchatka Petropavlesk Russia Sled Dogs

GOING TO THE DOGS

By
judithworks

on

November 1, 2012

It was a long way to travel to see sled dogs – well, I admit that it wasn’t the only reason for the trip but it was one of the more interesting stops along the way.

We left Kodiak Island in a huge storm with an ocean-going tug escorting us because of jagged rocks so close to the ship I felt we could have stepped off for a hike if we were feeling foolhardy.

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Galata Bridge Golden Horn Istanbul Restaurants in Istanbul Turkey

WHERE THE GOLDEN HORN MEETS THE BOSPHORUS

By
judithworks

on

October 17, 2012

Guest post from David Joslyn:

Finding the Galata Bridge on your first visit to Istanbul is like discovering the center of the universe, where dozens of cargo barges, huge water taxis and tourist cruise ships crisscross the golden Horn that flows under it in a never ending mish mass of maritime movement, a constant flow of ocean vessels visible in the distance carrying oil and grain, sharing the narrow Bosphorus passage with naval ships of all sizes as they move from the Mediterranean through the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea and back.

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Africa Cape Coast Castle Elmina Ghana Slavery St. George's Castle

THE GOLD COAST

By
judithworks

on

October 9, 2012

This old drawing doesn’t show the the Gold Coast in Australia, Long Island or Florida. It depicts Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast in Ghana. The gold that gave its name to the Ghanaian coastline wasn’t only the shiny metal from the African hinterland. After the establishment of plantations in the New World it was the money earned from the trade in slaves who supplied the labor that made the plantations of coffee and sugar cane so obscenely profitable.

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Iceland

AN ICELANDIC GARDEN

By
judithworks

on

September 26, 2012

We set out from the small port town of Isafjordur on Iceland’s northwest coast, just below the Arctic Circle. The sun was out; the glaciers were sparkling, white against black. Waterfalls gushed down the steep hillsides. As we moved inland an amazing sight came into view – vast spills of purple lupines covered the grassy hillsides. The flowers are an invasive species but one that created dreamy vistas in all directions.

We were on tour that took us on a visit to what must be one of the more northerly gardens in the world: Skrudur, the first Icelandic botanical garden.

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