Welcome to 2024! We are home from our six weeks in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, finishing with two days each in Berlin and Amsterdam. We met wonderful people (many helped us when we were lost, which happened a lot!), spent Christmas with families in Sweden, and enjoyed time on boats, trains, and buses. We loved the beautiful snow and endured some rain, dark days, icy walking, and record-breaking low temperatures.
Snowy night outside of the opera house in Riga, Latvia
Our “seat of the pants” travel had some surprises. The weather was record-breaking cold by the time we reached Tallinn, Estonia, which was beautiful in the snow with the Christmas market still going in full swing when we arrived on New Year’s Day. But, we soon realized we weren’t going to have time to see all the Baltic countries and make our way through Poland and Germany to Amsterdam unless we traveled nonstop, so we found a patient travel agent in Tallinn, who booked airline tickets from Riga, Latvia to Berlin for us.
We took a bus to Riga where we stayed in a hotel near the Latvia National Opera house. We had heard that the Latvia Opera was outstanding, and we were fortunate to get tickets to a stunning performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. We left snowy Riga before the first light in the continuing all-night snowfall. In Berlin, we rode buses and trams and visited two outstanding museums that were free on the first Sunday of the month.
Inside the Latvia National Opera House
Enchanting pastoral scene by Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central train staion)
First view of Amsterdam, looking back toward the train station
We took the train to Amsterdam, where we stayed in a lovely, quirky old canal house hotel with stairs that were almost like climbing a ladder. We spent an entire day in the Rijksmuseum, where I loved watching the docents working with school children. One energetic young man had the children so excited by the details he pointed out in Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” that they stood up, crowding around him to get a better look. Even though I didn’t understand Dutch, I, too, discovered details I’d never noticed before.
Home at last, we’re plunged into taking care of things ignored for six weeks, connecting with friends and family, and working on Kent’s Oasis talk, which is going to be brilliant!
In some ways, he succeeded; in others, not. Kedl reveals what he learned about himself and the world during seven years of adventure – crossing the Atlantic, cruising the Caribbean, sailing through the Great Lakes; and traveling overland through parts of Central and South America. Listen and learn about the grand experiment.Kent Kedl is the author of We Ran Away to Sea: A Memoir and Letters. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon and taught at South Dakota State University for 22 years. After returning to land in 2000, he taught philosophy for two more years in South Dakota. He moved to Albuquerque in 2011
For more information and to register click on the Oasis link below. Class number is 224, Cost is $12 plus a minimal registration fee to join Oasis
Book Reviews
See new reviews of We Ran Away to Sea posted in the book review section.
Also, good news! The book is now available at the Albuquerque Public Library and there is a waiting list for the two paperback copies we donated: The call number is 813.54 KEDL. Please request they order more copies!
If you know any place that would like to schedule a book talk, please let us know.
Jacana Press 