On The Roam Again
Photos by Jan Behmer Text by Steve VandeGriek April 2022 It finally happened. We got our travel feet wet again. To be honest, it was a default decision. Almost three years ago we booked airline tickets to France, but had to extend them when Janet fell and broke her arm. Several months later we changed…
I’ll Be Home For Christmas…
…you can count on me. Text by Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer December 1, 2021 My large family’s large and deep in the countryside Vermont homestead was lost to us a few years ago. Christmas hasn’t been quite the same since. That farmlike forum was where the generations of us, with significant others and…
All Packed Up And Nowhere To Go, Or, What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about?
Photos by Jan Behmer Text by Steve VandeGriek Copyright April 1, 2021 Plans evanesce. Late October, 2019. We were packing to go to France for a month, in part so Janet could tour the early Christmas markets. Then she fell and broke her shoulder. End of that plan. We unpacked. Spring, 2020. A good surgeon…
If We Were Going
By Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer Copyright 2021 If we were going to a far off country somewhere, but of course we aren’t these virulent days, I would try to learn the language spoken there, but of course I never will. The Japanese have a term – Yoko Meshi- to describe the awkward feeling…
The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Moo…
Text by Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer Copyright 2020 The New York Times recently covered a news flash from postcard perfect Austria. Dairy cows in their Alpine summer pastures were attacking hikers trespassing through their domain. I suspect that the human source of this story was Twilight Zoned in Gary Larsen’s Far Side. I…
My Wife Left Her Dress in Hemingway’s Room
Text by Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer Copyright 2020 The Camino de Santiago is a centuries old roughly five hundred mile walking pilgrimage from St. Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France to the shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostella in northwestern Spain. The first leg of the journey is a fifteen…
A POSTCARD FROM SCOTLAND
Photos by Jan Behmer Text by Steve VandeGriek Copyright 2020 Two hours north of Edinburgh, on a summery Saturday afternoon, my wife and I stepped off the train at our destination station, Dunkeld. Or so the sign read. The “station” was a low uncovered platform resembling a two by four sheet of plywood. Deserted. In…
Cinco de mayo Cocina
By Steve VandeGriek; Photos by Jan Behmer ©2017 The city of Puebla lies roughly one hundred miles southeast of Mexico City. On the fifth of May in 1862 it was the scene of a battle early in the French-Mexican War. Six thousand French soldiers assaulted the city from the north. An improvised army of about…
Spanish Semana Santa Sweets
SPANISH SEMANA SANTA SWEETS By Steve VandeGriek; photos by Jan Behmer ©2017 My wife and I have a thing for Spain. We’ve been going there on occasion for more years than I care to admit having under my belt. And under my belt is the issue here. Spanish food is a rustic joy. Any region,…
Fa La La La La from Flanders: Christmas Comfort Food
By Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer ©2020 My wife and I grew up in the north and, like many transplanted Floridians, we snicker in February at the folks we left behind. But when winter is new and the holidays approach we can feel them snickering back. A few years ago we went to Belgium.…
Another Curbside Attraction
ANOTHER CURBSIDE ATTRACTION By Steve VandeGriek ©2013 Photos by Jan Behmer ©2013 Rewarding travel is often the result of being seduced by a tangent you hadn’t anticipated. My wife and I had planned to visit several central Mexican cities – some familiar, some not – with no particular agenda in mind. We were not…
At Home in the Languedoc
AT HOME IN THE LANGUEDOC Published 4/28/13 by the Tampa Bay Times By Steve VandeGriek Photos by Jan Behmer © 2013 I stand in a crowd at a corner of the Sunday market on the main square in St. Chinian, shaded by plane trees and hypnotized by a large rack of chickens rotisserie-ing over a…
Photos by Jan Behmer * Text by Steve VandeGriek 