Europe '23

Although I didn't post photos here from our recent trip to Denmark, Norway, and Brittany, I did post photos on Facebook. Here are the daily links. With commentary, and the occasional odd photo.

Departure from SFO (5/12)

We landed at our friends Jan & Catharina's, just north of Copenhagen, and took an afternoon stroll to the little lake nearby:

A beautiful day on the water in J&C's sailboat, and a visit to the Swedish island of Hven, home of astronomer Tycho Brahe

A rest day—i.e., a hike around Sjælsø, the lake pictured above

A day in Copenhagen, wandering about the town

Another day in Copenhagen, visiting museums 

An excursion to the island of Møn

Helsingør and the Louisiana Museum of Art

Our last full day in Denmark: more sailing (sort of), a walk along the shore, and a last luscious dinner out  

A final morning walk, then . . . on to Norway, by ferry!

A walkabout in Oslo, geocaching 

And another wander, close to home, including the botanical garden 

Frognerparken, one of my favorite spots in Oslo, and downtown Oslo

And then we flew to Kirkenes in the far north (Finnmark) for a week of birds and beautiful stark landscapes 

May 26, our first full day in Finnmark, in three parts: buying shrimp at the dock in the morning, traveling up the coast to see birds and witches, and the midnight sun

A trip to the end of the world—or at least the end of the road 

A day hanging around our little peninsula of Ekkerøy

Last day in Finnmark, with a visit to the Russian border—and our flight back to Oslo 

One last day wandering around Oslo

And so we move on to new surroundings: Brittany, by way of Alençon, Normandie

A driving day through Normandie and Brittany as we head toward St-Benôit-des-Ondes

A walk up the coast while we await our niece, Erica, and her husband, Terry 

A visit to St-Malo

A coastal walk at Pointe du Grouin, near Cancale 

Dinan, a charming medieval town

Cap Fréhel, another coastal walk 

Mont St-Michel

La Plage des Chevrets and Île Besnard 

Moving on to our final week, in the southwest of Brittany near Quimper 

The forest of Huelgoat, followed by a visit to the church of Pleyben

A ramble along the Bélon estuary 

Carnac 

Point du Van to Pointe du Raz—another coastal walk

Pointe de la Torche and Bigourne Bay

Quimper and one last geocaching excursion  

Heading to CDG and home

Book Report: The Plot

13. Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Plot (2021) (7/23/23)

I keep trying to read these novels that are touted as "breathtakingly suspenseful," hoping they really will be, but I'm always disappointed. (Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train.) Not only that, but I end up feeling cheap and dirty. This was another of those. Yes, I want a page-turner, and yes, this one was (in part because, finally, I just wanted to get it over with), but I also want something where there's redemption, not merely trickery. In any case, the moment the "bad guy" appeared, I had my suspicions, and there was no one else it could ever have been. Totally predictable. And the plot itself? utterly preposterous. When will I learn my lesson? With this one? Can I hope?

All that said, the writing itself was good (except for the excessive parenthetical asides), and there are moments when it works as literary satire. But that's not enough. As the protagonist of this book would have agreed. 

For the record, I read this because of something I read online—a book review, I think—by the author, and liked what she had to say, so thought I'd check out one of her own works. It got good reviews, and was on the New York Times 100 Notable Books 2021 list. Apparently, this genre just isn't my cuppa.

Two poems

I have been neglecting the blog, busy traveling. Though why I don't blog when I'm traveling, I just don't know. Instead I post everything on Facebook. Soon I'm going to provide the links to my daily travelogues here, so I can find them again, if for no other reason. But for today, I wanted to share a couple of poems that are, sort of, related, also not. 

The first is by Ross Gay, writing in honor of Eric Garner on the first anniversary of his murder on July 14, 2014. He was killed by police in a prohibited chokehold, and left us the immortal phrase, "I can't breathe." (As did George Floyd.) The second, by Philip Larkin, I heard read in a movie, Empire of Light, which I watched flying from Paris to Toronto last Friday. 

A Small Needful Fact

Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe. 

                                —Ross Gay

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh. 

                                —Philip Larkin