Return to home page
DEAN'S QUARTERLY NEWLETTER, Vol. 11, No. 2, 12/01/2007
HIGHLIGHTS OF AUTUMN 2007:
Trip to Europe: Similarly to last year, I
spent 19 November days mostly riding the rails of Western Europe, pausing to
catch up with my friend Gary and his family in Germany, his brother Greg and
his wife Beth in Italy, and my cousin Darin and his wife Anne in Belgium. A pleasant addition was my friend Igor, who
flew from Toronto, met me in Amsterdam and joined me for several
days with Darin and Anne in Belgium.
The trip got off
to a slightly disconcerting start when the airline misplaced my backpack. While waiting three days for them to locate
it, Gary kindly lent me his clothes. Due to start my Eurail Pass on the forth day of my
visit, I prepared to purchase a new backpack and new clothes when the pack
finally showed up (the correct pack, after an earlier mistaken attempt). In any case, much singing and guitar playing
with Gary, along with attending music performances with his
friends, served well to distract me during my visit.
The rest of the
trip went swimmingly (though I’m not a good
swimmer). I returned twice to one of my
favorite places from last year’s trip, Cinque
Terre, on the coast of Tuscany, Italy. So beautiful! So relaxed! It’s a
perfect place to downshift, particularly in the off-season when most of the
crowds are gone. During the rest of the
week in Italy, I visited places I hadn’t been before, including the spectacular Amalfi coast (a more developed version of Cinque Terre) and the northern city of Verona, home of
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Amalfi is where you imagine all those movies are made of
rich jetsetters driving fast Italian sports cars around mountainous curves with
spectacular coastal scenery. In reality,
the road is so narrow and at times so choked with traffic that the pleasure can
also be rather torturous, but the jaw-dropping view makes it a stunningly sweet
torture! Meanwhile, Verona seems largely
under-appreciated for its beauty relative to other famous Italian cities such
as Florence and Venice that are
loved too much.
Switzerland was as beautiful as I
have ever seen it, covered virtually from top to bottom in fresh snow. Aside from merely appreciating the view from
my train window for three days through the nooks and crannies of the rail
network, I also spent a night in Engi, the town where
generations of my ancestors lived since the 1500s and in the valley to which
they we trace them back to the 13th century.
After selling
their Colorado home, cousin Darin seems
to be settling well into Belgium, joining his wife Anne
who arrived months earlier. Aside from Belgium’s capital, Brussels, and their community of Flanders, they introduced Igor and
me to Leuven and Brugge,
two well-preserved historic cities.
After hearing about Brugge for years, it’s now bound for where most people would concur it
belongs, high on my list of “most beautiful cities”. There’s something about canal-based
cites such as Venice, Amsterdam, and Stockholm that attracts extra measures of
appreciation and efforts toward preservation over the centuries, and Brugge has well benefited from it. Even a cold late-November day, the old town
pedestrian area packs in the tourists, and we enjoyed a canal boat tour along
with the standard pleasures of Belgian food and drink.
Among other
things over the several days we spent in Belgium, Darin made a point of
introducing us to some of Belgium’s highly reputed
beers, and brought us on tours of traditional breweries as well as to Café
Delirium, which has over 2000 beers available, the world’s largest
selection. That combined with
Igor’s bottle of vodka and some boulevard-café wine lead to a
particularly special and memorably goofy evening wandering the streets of Brussels, and a great ending to
three weeks in Europe.
Weekend in Philadelphia: DC friends Janet and Carole joined me for one of the
days I spent checking out Philly. The
highlight was a visit to the historic Eastern State Penitentiary. Opened in 1829, it was the world’s
first penitentiary (from the word “penitence”, and based on the
belief, new at the time, that criminals could be reformed). Aside from that and the historic areas I
visited previously, I also enjoyed taking in Philadelphia nightlife, much more
hopping than I imagined, in the areas near Independence Park and along South
Street.
Movies:
Across the Universe ***, Musical fantasy. Although Beatles
purists might be put off by the interpretations made of Beatles songs in this
film, and the Beatles themselves likely wouldn’t have imagined them,
their whole philosophy was to welcome such creativity, and I believe they would
have admired the result. I met a young
20-something fellow who prior to the film only knew some of the Beatle’s
bigger hits, but found himself so inspired by the music in the film, that he
plans to collect the entire set of Beatle’s albums. For me, that says it all.
COMING UP NEXT QUARTER
(Winter): Trip to Arizona
Check in and let me know what’s up with you.
You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: mailto:%20mail@deanoman.com.
My address in Maryland: Telephone numbers:
Dean
Oman Home:
301-931-1144
10405
46th Ave., Apt. A204
Work: 301-504-2317
Beltsville, MD 20705
Review previous newsletters:
Summer
07 – Dean’s News Vol 11,
No. 1, 09/01/07 – Minnesota
Spring
07 – Dean’s News Vol 10,
No. 4, 06/01/07 – Ireland
Winter
07 – Dean’s News Vol 10,
No. 3, 03/01/07 – Colorado, Arizona, New York City
Autumn
06 – Dean’s News Vol 10,
No. 2, 12/01/06 – Western Europe
Summer
06 – Dean’s News Vol 10,
No. 1, 09/01/06 – Minnesota and San Diego
Spring
06 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
4, 06/01/06 – Hanging around Beltsville, MD
Winter
06 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
3, 03/01/06 – Minnesota and Arizona
Autumn
05 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
2, 12/01/05 – Minnesota, Toronto, Boston
Summer
05 – Dean’s News Vol 9, No.
1, 09/01/05 – Washington, Oregon and Northern California
Spring
05 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No.
4, 06/01/05 – Joshua and Dean’s Great European
Adventure
Winter
05 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No.
3, 03/01/05 – Minnesota and Bahamas
Autumn
04 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No.
2, 12/01/04 – Boston, Orlando, plus new digs in Beltsville, Maryland
Summer
04 – Dean’s News Vol 8, No.
1, 09/01/04 – Toronto, Minnesota, San Diego, Chicago
Spring
04 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No.
4, 06/01/04 – Italy, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, New York City
Winter
04 – Dean’s News Vol 7, No.
3, 03/01/04 – Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Arizona
Autumn
03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 2, 12/01/03 -- Minnesota
Summer
03 -- Dean's News Vol 7, No. 1, 09/01/03 --
California and Toronto
Spring
03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 4, 06/01/03 – Minnesota,
Boston
Winter
03 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 3, 03/01/03 – Arizona,
California and Colorado
Fall 02 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 2,
12/01/02 – Balkans and Turkey, Minnesota, Toronto
Summer
02 -- Dean's News Vol 6, No. 1, 09/01/02 --
Minnesota, California and Canada's Maritimes
Spring
02 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 4, 06/01/02 -- Nearly
arrested
Winter
02 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 3, 03/01/02 -- Arizona
and California
Fall
01 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 2, 12/01/01 -- Boston,
Minnesota, New York City
Summer
01 -- Dean's News Vol 5, No. 1, 09/01/01 -- Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia and Minnesota
Spring
01 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 4, 06/01/01 -- Baltic
Nations, Poland and Czech Republic
Winter
01 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 3, 03/01/01 -- Boston
and Arizona
Fall
00 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 2, 12/01/00 -- Colorado,
Minnesota and Gettysburg
Summer
00 -- Dean's News Vol 4, No. 1, 09/01/00 -- Minnesota
and Washington
Spring
00 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 4, 06/01/00 -- Eurailing in Europe, and Minnesota
Winter
00 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 3, 03/01/00 -- Jamaica,
Arizona and the Millennium
Fall
99 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 2, 12/01/99 -- The
Middle East and Minnesota
Summer
99 -- Dean's News Vol 3, No. 1, 09/01/99 -- Minnesota
Spring
99 -- Dean's News Vol 2, No. 4, 06/01/99 -- Pacific
Northwest
Winter
99 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 3, 03/01/99 -- Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Fall
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 2, 12/01/98 -- Germany, Poland and Czech Republic
Summer
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 2, No. 1, 09/01/98 -- A summer romance
Spring
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 4, 06/01/98 -- New York City and Minnesota trips
Winter
98 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 3, 03/01/98 -- Arizona and Colorado trip
Fall
97 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 2, 12/01/97 -- Venezuela and Trinidad
Summer
97 -- Dean's News Vol. 1, No. 1, 09/01/97 -- Toronto and Niagara Falls
Best wishes to all,
Deano
Return
to home page