Category Archives: Europe

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST 9.25.11

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media.

Water show, Bellagio hotel-casino, Las Vegas | © G. Gross

SORE SHOULDER?
When it comes to air travel between the United States and Europe, especially flying west from the Old World to the new, the “shoulder season” may no longer be quite “all that.”

My friend, Porsche, an American expat in London and a blogger in her own right (Spinster’s Compass), has been having an helluva time trying to find a decent airfare to get home during the pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday months.

Fuel costs to the airlines — and the fuel surcharges with which they’re hitting passengers — no doubt play a major role in raising ticket prices. Post 9/11 fees to pay for extra airport security are a factor, as well.

But there may be still other reasons why, to paraphrase Jimmy MacMillan, the fares are too damn high!

IBIT will investigate.

Meanwhile, if you can delay your European travel until deep into the winter — say, January or february — the Godfather of Travel, Arthur Frommer, suggests you check out the Irish national airline, Aer Lingus, for potential bargain fares.

DON’T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE
When it comes to dealing with bedbugs, some travelers are finding out the hard way that the cure can be worse than the disease.

Fatally worse.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting that consumers’ use of do-it-yourself pesticide treatments to fight the annoying little bed biters is proving to be more unhealthful than the bugs themselves.

Prolonged contact in beds with the poisons have led to score of people getting sick since 2010, and at least one person has died, the CDC reports.

Not only that, but these do-it-yourself chemical treatments seldom really work, anyway, according to the experts.

On the other hand, if you can delay your travel until deep in the heart of winter — say, January/February, there may be bargains to be had, especially going to Europe from the East Coast.

Meanwhile, if you’re traveling in bedbug country, your bed may not be the only thing you have to worry about. There’s a company called BugZip that sells sealed, zippered bags designed to keep the little nasties from crawling into your luggage and coming home with you.

At the very least, you should never leave any of your bags open when you travel. When you put something in or take something out, close it back, immediately.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from msnbc
Onboard wi-fi. Power outlets at every seat. Live satellite TV. In-flight programming you can download to your iPod. Welcome to the future of in-flight entertainment.

from USA Today
Don’t think airline baggage fees can affect you on international flights? Guess again, especially if you’re one of those folks who packs too much.

from CNN
Can an airline take away your frequent flier miles if you complain too much?

LAND
from the Wall Street Journal
Don’t look now, but there’s a new generational of jet-setters taking off to see the world. Okay, go ahead and look!

from Electric Bike Tour Company
Cross the Golden Gate Bridge on an electric bike, cruise down to Sausalito, return to San Francisco by ferry. With no big hills to climb, you don’t need an electric bike, but what the heck.

from Frommer’s
Nine great cities in the world to take a culinary vacation or attend a cooking school. Yes, travel can be delicious. SLIDESHOW

from National Geographic
And speaking of delicious, the NatGeo folks serve up a list of ten places around the world featuring some terrific annual food festivals. Any foodies in the house? Road trip! SLIDESHOW

from Lonely Planet
Thinking about doing a volunteer vacation overseas? The folks at Lonely Planet say there are some things you need to think about before you go. Ten things, to be exact.

SEA
from Capital Jazz
A jazz and soul music cruise set for Halloween week out of Miami aboard Carnival Valor, with stops in Jamaica, Mexico and Belize.

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AFRICA
from Shabait.com (Eritrea)
Peace and development in the East African nationao of Eritrea is drawing positive comments from foreign visitors.

from the Art of Backpacking
Three ways to immerse yourself in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

from the Daily Nation (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
It’s not just about safaris anymore. Kenya is developing into a hub for international sports tourism, a place where world-class athletes and wanna-bes alike come to train.

from the ​Daily Champion (Nigeria) via allAfrica.com
Nigeria’s Arik Air has won Category 1 status from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It will now be allowed to fly Nigerian-registered aircraft to the United States with Nigerian flight crews. They’re pretty proud.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from the New York Times
Brazil is no longer the cheap travel destination it once was, but in Rio de Janeiro, corner juice bars that double as restaurants are a cheap, tasty and healthy way to stay on budget.

​from the Travel Channel
Hotels in Boston that give you the most bang for your buck. At least, these guys think so.

from the New York Times
Exploring the rugged natural beauty of Maine by bike tour.

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ASIA/PACIFIC
from Wikipedia and Wikitravel
What do you do when the world’s largest city has no more room to grow? If you’re Tokyo, you build some artificial islands, fill them with ultramodern architecture, amusement parks, shopping and eateries, and call it all Odaiba, aka Tokyo Waterfront City.

from the Press Trust of India via MSN News
If you’re visiting India sometime in the future and you hear Russian being spoken, it won’t be an accident. India is looking to double Russian tourist visits.

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EUROPE
from the National Geographic
Belgian waffles…in Belgium! What a concept!

from As We Travel
Must-dos and sees in Sicily.

from Hike Bike Travel
Doing France with your family by bike? Some tips to make it fun — or at least bearable — for everybody.

from USA Today
Got a layover in London? Don’t just hang around the airport. There are plenty of short, fun tours to help you pass the time.

Black Paris in profile

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If you have an interest in Paris, especially black Paris, then Monique Y. Wells is someone you should get to know. In turn, she will help you get to know Paris, from a side that most guidebooks don’t touch upon.

There quite a few Web sites out there that touch on the connection between peoples of African descent and the city of Paris, especially the bond between the City of Light and black America.

My friend Monique Y. Wells has one of the best, Entrée to Black Paris.

Once a month, she features a profile on her site offering a fresh look at Paris through the eyes of a man or woman of African descent, be they from the United States, Africa or elsewhere in the world. They always make for good reading.

Now, Monique would like a little input from readers like you.

She is currently conducting a survey to determine how to take these profiles to that proverbial “next level.”

Take a look at some of her profiles. You’ll find the list on this page: Scroll down to Black Paris Profiles.

Then, kindly take a second to fill out this very short survey about her Profiles.

Trust me, it’s REALLY brief, a whopping total of four questions. Just click on your answers and send.

You’ll be done in no time. And you’ll be helping a creative, energetic and very knowledgeable black woman spread her love and knowledge of one of the world’s great cities.

Black American expats in Paris? Speak up!

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Rue Cler apartment, Paris | ©Greg Gross

If you’re a black American who’s living/working/studying in Paris, I’m Black and I Travel wants to talk to you about today’s Paris.

I want to ask you about what you’re seeing on the ground today in the City of Light, the kinds of things only someone who lives and breathes a place on the day-to-day would observe and understand.

If you feel that describes you, give me an email shout and let your voice be heard on IBIT!

In case of riot, read this

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Lambeth, North, London | ©Greg Gross

If your travel destination descends into chaos, there are some things you need to do before you depart and after you arrive.

By now, you know about the London riots, which have unleashed three days of chaos so far. Not only may it not be over yet, but there’s a chance it could spread to other British cities.

Faced with these conditions, the best thing would be to re-schedule your trip entirely. If you can’t, here are some steps you might take to protect your trip, your investment — and most of all, yourself.

BEFORE YOU GO
Whatever luggage you were planning to bring with you, reduce it by a third, by half if you can. If ever you wanted to travel light, it’s at times like these.

There is, however, one little piece of equipment you’ll want to add to your gear — little AM/FM radio, or one of those attachments that allows you to pick up AM and FM radio stations on your iPod. I’ll explain why in a minute.

Check with your airline/hotel/tour operator. Ask questions. If your trip is disrupted by events on the ground, what kind of help are they prepared to give you?

If you can find a travel insurance company that will cover your trip in the event of riot or other “civil disturbance,” by all means get it. Most, however, do not. Again, check around and ask a lot of very specific questions.

Major riots can throw a city’s transportation grid into chaos, leaving you unable to reach your final destination — for a few hours, a day or at all. Before you leave home, make a list of hotels near your arrival airport — addresses, phone numbers, Web sites.

You’re looking for places close by you can find a room temporarily, either until things calm down in the city and you can get to your actual destination hotel — or in the worst-case, a place you can be safe and comfortable while you arrange for an early return flight.

Regular IBIT readers already know to have a credit card with them strictly for emergency use, something to pay for that airport hotel room, meals, and if necessary, that unexpected early flight home.

Now, you know, too.

We’ll hope it doesn’t come to that, though.

Don’t dress in a way that makes you stand out in a crowd, for any reason. Muted colors, nothing flashy. Leave the jewelry and other bling in the suitcase — or better yet, at home.

ONCE YOU’RE THERE
Keep your passport with you, on you, at all times and guard it with your life.

If you have a laptop, iPad or smartphone with Internet access in London, keep a close eye on the BBC News website for current information. Other London sites to monitor include the Guardian newspaper, SkyNews and ITV London.

Another good site to monitor: the Metropolitan Police.

If you don’t have a smartphone that works in the UK (or can’t cope with the obscene roaming charges), and you didn’t bring that radio with you from hom, stop in one of the airport electronics shops before heading into London proper and invest in a cheap little AM/FM radio, something that can pick up London radio stations.

Scan the dial until you find a station offering current info. Your best radio bet may be BBC London 94.9 FM, but troll around the dial until you find a station that’s helpful. It could be the easiest, cheapest and most constant of keeping up with fast-moving events, and figuring out which areas are safe, and which aren’t.

If you find that your destination is caught up in the turmoil, or you need to pass through riot-torn areas to get to final stop, I have three words for you:

DON’T GO THERE!

Neither out of curiosity nor out of some bullheaded determination to get where you’re going. You’ll only be putting yourself in Harm’s way, and there’s no guarantee whatsoever that Harm is going to step aside to avoid you. Just don’t do it.

Hang out at the airport awhile. Plot a safe route to your destination if you can. If you can’t, or if you’re even slightly unsure, check into that emergency hotel room for a night, catch up on the news and make alternate plans for tomorrow.

If things don’t look any better the next day, don’t go then, either.

Far better to try to figure out a way around a trouble zone than to try to get yourself out of one once you’re in it. Don’t get caught up.

Lastly, the emergency phone number in London is not 9-1-1. Over there, it’s 9-9-9. Easy to remember, but hopefully, you won’t need it.

Be smart. Be safe.

ALERT
Police are now reporting disturbances in Liverpool, making it three principal British cities now suffering civil unrest, London and Birmingham being the other two. This is no longer a “London riot.” It is now a UK riot. Adjust your approach accordingly.

ALSO CHECK OUT
When things go sideways

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media


BOURDAIN BUZZ
Anthony Bourdain, TV’s favorite antihero/contrarian/rebel-without-an-apron chef, has got a new TV show coming out this fall.

Anthony Bourdain

It’s a spinoff of his successful No Reservations globetrotting gastronomy gig, arguably the most popular show on cable television’s Travel Channel (which offers an amazing variety of shows that seem to have little, if anything, to do with travel).

It’s supposed to be called 24-Hour Layover.

Bourdain — or Tony, as his fans call him — is about as unpretentious and unstuffy as wealthy and world-famous TV chef who never actually cooks anything on TV can get.

And I mean that in a good way.

Oh, you want details about the show? The Huffington Post spilled a few of the beans here.

CELEBRATE JAPAN — AND PRAY
Long before Tokyo became the capital and cultural heart of Japan, that role was filled by Kyoto. Through wars, natural disasters and even Time itself, it remains unshaken and unspoiled.

©Chiharu | Dreamstime.com

July is the month that Kyoto traditionally celebrates the Gion Matsuri, a month-long festival held as part of a purification ritual to satisfy the gods who govern natural disasters — like earthquakes.

Which is likely to give this year’s Gion Matsuri a special poignancy.

Events are scheduled throughout the month, including some spectacular parades, featuring some floats that would put my beloved Mardi Gras in New Orleans to shame — like the one seen here at right.

Kyoto was untouched by this year’s catastrophic earthquake/tsunami in northern Japan and is not affected by the nuclear emergency that followed, so you can travel to this beautiful ancient city without worry.

If you can’t make it there this year, then vicariously jump on that float and send up your own prayers and good thoughts for the Japanese people during this important month in the country’s cultural life.

STRASBOURG IN SUMMER
I first fell in love with Strasbourg about four years ago during the Christmas holidays. I wanted to see how the birthplace of the European Christmas market celebrated Noël, and I wasn’t disappointed. Ever since, I’ve automatically associated Strasbourg, the capital of France’s Alsace region, with long nights, cold days, and hot, spiced wine, vin chaud in French.

But while Christmas may be “the big thing” in Strasbourg, the city and the region surrounding it are just as worthy of a visit in spring and now, in summer, as London’s The Independent points out.

Regardless of which season you choose to visit Strasbourg, getting there is a breeze thanks to France’s high-speed train, the TGV. From the United States, you can fly into Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), jump on an eastbound TGV without even leaving the airport and be in Strasbourg in a little over two hours of quiet, fast comfort.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from USA Today
The FAA and air traffic controllers agree on new rules to combat excessive fatigue on the job. Hopefully, this means no more controllers falling asleep on duty.

from USA Today
Should babies be banned from First Class on jumbo jets? Malaysia Airlines says “Ya!” (‘yes’ in Malay) — and they’re doing it.

from the Wall Street Journal
Do airplanes cause rain?

LAND
from SOSF.com
That’s short for “Streets of San Francisco Bike Tours.” Think The City is too hilly for fun and comfortable group rides? These folks beg to differ.

from laist.com
And speaking of bikes, can it be that the world capital of four-wheeled neurosis, aka Los Angeles, is finally discovering the bicycle?

from Forbes
The ten coolest places to get your vacation on in Latin America, as seen by a Brazilian travel outfit. SLIDESHOW

SEA
from InnerSea Discoveries
When it comes to cruising Alaska, bigger may not necessarily be better.

from Chris Cruises
The Zumba exercise craze comes to Princess Cruises.
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AFRICA
from Uncornered Market
Want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain? Here’s a breakdown on what you’ll need, and what you’ll need to do.

from allAfrica.com
Namibia opens a self-drive tourism route designed to show off the beauty of the flora, fauna and people of the Okavango River region. It’s one of 61 such routes created on the Mother Continent by an outfit called Open Africa.

from allAfrica.com
Want to get a taste of the caliber of film-making going these days in Africa? Check out The Mirror Boy — shot on location in West Africa. But this isn’t a Nollywood production. It was filmed not in Nigeria, but in the Gambia. Don’t sleep on this one when it comes to the States.

from allAfrica.com
US Embassy: Nigerians wanting to visit the United States have to apply for a visa a year in advance…at least. The reason: more applications than the embassy can handle.

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from Gadling
If you’re thinking about visiting Cuba, you need professional help. Here’s where you can find some.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Mexican chocolate. It’s nothing like the Hershey’s chocolate syrup you mixed into your milk as a kid. It’s way better. How it’s made, how it tastes and the best parts of Mexico to enjoy it.

from Food & Wine via Yahoo! Travel
How and where to stay in or near some of America’s most beautiful national parks — five-star or under the stars, your choice.

from CNN
NOW HIRING: State tourist police in Guerrero, Mexico. REQUIREMENTS: Must be gorgeous.

from France 24
Need a good laugh? Head to Canada.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from The Guardian (London UK)
If that ultra-modern new high-speed train connecting Beijing and Shanghai leaves you longing for just a touch of the old China, here are a few of the extraordinary things you’ll finding waiting for you at either end of the line that can take you back in Time.

from msnbc
China opens the word’s longest ocean-crossing bridge. How long is it? If you run across it instead of driving, you will have completed a marathon…and change. Officially, it’s 2.5 longer than the old record holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans. And the NOLA is already crying foul.

from the Los Angeles Times
An American couple tries to breathe new life into a still wounded Cambodia, one tourist at a time.

EUROPE
from France-Best-Restaurants
You keep hearing about all these fabulous Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, but who knows where actually are? These guys do.

from Budget Your Trip
Ten free things to do in London. Being one of the priciest world capitols on the planet, anything free is worth noting.

from CNN Travel
Despite its economic crisis and turmoil on the streets, Greece is actually expecting tourism to pick up this summer. The source — patriotic Greek-Americans, using their vacation dollars to try to help their homeland.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Bored with bicycling through the wine country in California, France or Chile? How about a bike tour through beer country instead? I’m speaking, of course, about the Czech Republic.

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST
Have you ever stood in a place where history happened, history that touches you directly? If not, you owe it to yourself to do that at least once in your life.

When history touches you, it changes you.

I found that out on my second visit to Washington DC, the day I decided to take a walk down to the Washington Mall to see the Vietnam Memorial wall.

I got as far as the Lincoln Memorial.

There, I climbed the steps until I found the one where Martin Luther King Jr. had stood in 1963, the day he gave his immortal “I Have A Dream” speech.

I just stood there, transfixed. Seeing the same view he’d had across the great mall, feeling the impact of that day and those words, a seminal moment in our nation’s torturous — and as yet unfinished — trek toward equality.

The man who eventually left that step was not the same, and never would be again.

That spot has since been marked by the U.S. Park Service. It’s one of eight sites listed by the folks at Tripbase where famous people spoke to the world, and changed it.

The King speech places sixth on their list. Not surprisingly, it ranks a lot higher on mine.

MEET THE LOCALS
One of the biggest challenges for a traveler is to move beyond the tourism structure in the places you visit and get to meet and interact with residents — the regular, non-professional folks who give those places life. This is especially true when the place is outside the country and the culture that you call home.

So I’m always on the lookout for ways of doing that.

One of them is the Global Greeter Network. These are groups of volunteers in popular travel destinations whom you can hook up with for your own private walking tours, conducted from the perspective of a life-long resident who loves their city and delights in showing it off to visitors.

You can find walking tours in major cities all over the world, but those are usually for groups. With the Greeters, it’s just you and your guide for a very special hour or two.

The first of these I ever heard of was the Big Apple Greeters in New York City. The guide was an energetic, gray-haired retired teacher who could walk you out of your socks and make you love every step. It was one of the best days I ever spent in Manhattan.

In addition to New York, the network has greeters in Chicago and Houston. Even better, it has volunteers doing the walking tour thing in Paris and five other cities in France, two in the United Kingdom (alas, not London), as well as Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Serbia, Canada, two in Australia and Buenos Aires.

They even say they can find you a greeter in the Ivory Coast in West Africa. (This would be a great concept for other African nations to emulate to boost their own tourism. hint, hint)

Other programs are designed to let you break bread with friendly residents, literally. Eat With A Local is designed as a kind of cooking exchange. You agree to fix a home-cooked meal for a visitor traveling in your area, and in return, you can get together with an EWL member on your vacation for a meal and a get-together away from home.

“If you’d like to get involved, but you can’t host people for some reason, you can always offer to meet up and go out for a meal together instead!” EWL says.

It’s all part of a quietly growing Local Travel Movement, aimed at “getting in touch with the local people, seeing a place like a local!”

Works for me.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from USA Today
The competition between Airbus and Boeing at the Paris Air Show helps determine what the airlines will be flying over the next decade. And as this year’s show wraps up today, the word is that Airbus kicked Boeing’s tail assembly.

from the New York Times
Tips on how to make your own great airline food from some folks who ought to know: professional chefs.

LAND
from GotSaga
If crowds give you the creeps, these are five places to scratch off your list of travel destinations. Four are in Asia, and the fifth has the added disincentive of being a periodic conflict zone.

from The Guardian (London UK)
Exploring canal-laced, table-flat Amsterdam by bike. Your choice of three specialized routes geared to three very different sets of tastes.

SEA
from USA Today
U.S. health inspectors from the CDC board the Queen Mary 2, one of the world’s newest and priciest ocean liners, and find dozens of health violations, including roaches in areas where food is prepared? Oh, HELL no!

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AFRICA
from allAfrica.com
The good news: The nations comprising the East African Community are setting up a system to allow travelers to visit all EAC-member countries on a single visa. The bad news: Some EAC countries are moving on this faster than others.

from allAfrica.com
Kenya plans to add five world-class international hotels within the next two years.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from Travel + Leisure
The T+L folks evidently like starting arguments. Exhibit A: Their list of the 15 best American cities for beer lovers. Who’s number One? Portland, OR. Who’s at the bottom? Just about every traditional American beer town you can think of. Let the foaming begin!

from IncaRail
A train trip to Machu Picchu? Sign me up!

from the New York Times
And speaking of Machu Picchu, there’s more than one way to climb to the top. And naturally, it may be the hard way that’s the most rewarding.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Speaking of booze, if a summer tour of the Northern California wine country sounds appealing, but the blazing heat is threatening to peel your skin off, seek shelter underground…in a wine cave. Less sunblock, more Zinfandel. Sounds like a plan to me.

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ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Los Angeles Times
A $215-million theme park devote to Hello Kitty is in the works for Shanghai, China.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Mention Azerbaijan to most Americans and the first word likely to come to their minds is…”HUH?” But this former Soviet republic wedged between Russia and Iran is mixing the old and the new with a diverse culture and a great location on the Caspian Sea. SLIDESHOW

from the New York Times
Going to Beijing? Already there? Want to find the restaurants in China’s massive capital where they’re doing regional Chinese cuisine and “keeping it real?” The NYT’s Xiyun Yang will hook you up.

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EUROPE
from the New York Times
Not many world capitals can boast a UN World Heritage Site two hours out of town. Lisbon can: the city of Évora.

from The Guardian (London UK)
Matt Brown offers up his nominees for the ten best pubs in London. This one may require considerable in-depth research. Yep, definitely. Considerable…

from the BBC
Dover Castle is not just about ancient British history. It also was the command center where the British ran the evacuation of Dunkirk, which saved 380,000 British and French soldiers from Nazi capture (and God knows what else) in 1940. Now, you can see a new exhibit in the underground passages beneath the castle that re-creates those desperate days.

BERLIN: New walls for old

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Potsdammer Platz, Berlin | ©Greg Gross

Today is the official anniversary of the dismantling of one of the most controversial — and hated — pieces of construction ever erected, the Berlin Wall.

If you grew up during the Cold War, the Wall was a powerful symbol of the decades of struggle between East and West, a divided city in a divided nation, what were then East and West Germany.

If you actually lived in Berlin, of course, it was much more than that — a forced divider between two very different ways of life. A barricade whose builders were looking not to keep an invader out, like the Great Wall of China, but to keep their own people in.

From the moment the first sections of it were knocked down until its official dismantling began on this day in 1990 by the East German army, it more or less defined both Berlins.

Any traveler can see the changes that have taken place in Berlin since the Wall came down. One of them, Potsdamer Platz, is pictured above. The Wall used to run right through where that shot was taken.

Had I tried to take that pic from that location in 1971 or 1981, I might’ve been shot.

There’s some history behind this public square that goes much further than the Berlin Wall. Back in the day, Potsdamer Platz was to Berlin what Piccadilly Circus is to London and Times Square is to New York, the commercial crossroads of the city.

It’s where the big-time department store and theaters were, where the restaurants and beer halls were, where the great hotels and the bangin’ nightlife were. It was the beating heart of hip, cosmopolitan, sexy Berlin.

Then came World War 2, which did a number on the entire district, along with the rest of Berlin. What American and British bombers didn’t reduce to rubble, an avenging Red Army did.

The debris piles were cleared away — just in time for the Wall to go up. Nothing much else would go up in Potsdamer Platz for the next 28 years.

Once the Wall came down, obviously, all of that changed. So many construction cranes went up in this area, it looked like a flock of gigantic storks.

It’s all part of a calculated attempt by the German government to transform Potsdamer Platz into the ultra-modern focal point of the new Berlin.

Next time you’re in Berlin, take a U-Bahn subway train to Potsdamer Platz, spend a day and see if you think they succeeded.

Never forget

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Today is Memorial Day, a day we set aside to remember those who served and died for this country.

As Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

But my Memorial Day may feel a bit different from yours. There are specific people I need to honor.

Like the ones in the video above, marching across France.

They are the Harlem Hellfighters of World War 1, the all-black, all-volunteer 369th Infantry Regiment, who fought with the French army — after the US Army concluded they couldn’t fight.

In 191 straight days of combat, the most of any American unit in the war, they never took a backward step.

If you ever visit the French Champagne region, stop by Sechault, one of the towns they liberated from the Germans. There’s a granite obelisk there, dedicated to the 369th.

Perhaps their greatest tribute, though, is their nickname, the Hellfighters.

The Germans gave them that.

THE BATTLE OF HENRY JOHNSON
Few soldiers ever win any nation’s highest decoration for valor. Fewer still get a battle named after them.

A member in the 369th Infantry, Henry Johnson and fellow private Needham Roberts were on a two-man sentry post when they were attacked by German trench raiders, numbering between 20 and 24.

With Roberts quickly disabled, Johnson fought on alone, throwing grenades, firing his rifle until it jammed, then clubbing the Germans with it.

When they still kept coming, he reached for his bolo knife. He singlehandedly killed four German soldiers, wounded and routed the rest.

When two German soldiers tried to drag off the wounded Roberts, Johnson, already wounded 21 times, went after them with his bolo until they dropped his friend and fled.

The outpost remained in his bleeding hands.

He was awarded France’s highest medal for bravery, the Croix de Guerre. Back in the United States, however, he was still a second-class citizen who couldn’t get a job.

He died a broken man in a Veterans Hospital in 1929.

Since then, Johnson has been posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross. A campaign is underway in Congress to award him the Medal of Honor.

The small but desperate night action that brought him fame as a soldier but no respect as a man, has been known ever since as the Battle of Henry Johnson.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with the rank of sergeant. Section 25, Lot 64.

Black Americans fought against Francisco Franco and his Nazi-supported Fascists in the Spanish Civil War.

Others went to Ethiopia to help Emperor Haile Selassie resist the invasion by Italy.

Then there were the 11 black GIs from Alabama, captured by Nazi SS troops in the Belgian town of Wereth during World War 2.

They were mutilated with bayonets, shot and their bodies left in the snow.

For two months.

One of them was Pvt. Curtis Adams, recently married and with a newborn son.

Pvt. Curtis Adams, 333rd Field Arty Bn | © The Ardennes Group, LLC

The Army forcefully prosecuted the massacre of white American soldiers at Malmedy during the Nuremburg war crimes trials after the war.

Of Wereth, the Army said nothing. Not a word. In published government lists of atrocities committed against American servicemen by the German military, it was not even mentioned.

Today, Wereth survives as one of those picturesque little European villes nestled amid green fields and forested hills, not far from Brussels.

There, you’ll find a memorial to the Wereth 11, placed there by townspeople who didn’t forget. You’ll also find the graves of seven of those Alabama GIs.

Including Curtis Adams.

There are others, of all races, who deserve memory this day — the merchant seamen lost with the more than 2,700 ships torpedoed by German U-boats in World War 2.

They never wore uniforms or fired a shot. But the war would’ve been lost without them.

We’ll never know exactly how many perished; the Pentagon apparently didn’t feel their deaths merited detailed records.

We do know there were an awful lot of them, including my grandfather.

They have few monuments, and no graves except for the bottom of the cold Atlantic.

For me, this is a day to honor men like Curtis Adams and my grandfather, who also died, again in Lincoln’s words, “that freedom might live.”

Someday, God willing, it will.

POSTSCRIPT
Have you ever wondered how the French, especially in Paris, acquired their love for jazz?

It was the Harlem Hellfighters’ regimental band, led by James Reese Europe, who introduced them, and the rest of Europe, to it.

The same regimental band in the video above.

On my list: TURKEY

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One of an occasional series

Blue Mosque, Istanbul — © Steve Allen | Dreamstime.com

In all the economic and political sturm und drang in this country over China and India, the rising star that is Turkey is sometimes overlooked. Expect that to change, and soon.

I love how folks react when I tell them I want to visit Turkey. Especially that initial blank, incredulous, nonplussed look that silently ask, “Why there?”

To some folks, Turkey is perhaps the least likely of European travel destinations. Others refuse to believe that Turkey is part of Europe at all.

They think it’s in Asia, or the Middle East or some other region that lies just off their cultural radar.

Well, it is a part of Europe. It also is a part of Asia. Which makes Turkey a kind of giant land bridge of cultures.

How else can you describe a land with one city that has had not only three different names in its history — Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul — but has been the capital of three of the world’s great empires?

The Greeks. The Romans. The Ottoman Turks. They’ve all been here. But it’s the Ottomans I know the least about.

They lasted some 700 years and made it all the way into the 20th century. They gave us art, architecture and a whole lot more. And yet, to the average one of us, “Ottoman” is a piece of furniture.

If you made a list of the countries whose history did the most to shape the world we now live in, Turkey would surely be among the top ten. If you said it belongs in the top five, I probably wouldn’t argue.

But my biggest reasons for wanting to see Turkey have more to do with the here-and-now.

Look at the people on the street in Istanbul, right. Look at their dress. Not a lot of burqas to be seen here. Nor will you probably find people exhorting their countrymen for beating Turkish women who dare to drive their own cars, as happens in Saudi Arabia.

Taksim tram, Istabul — © Angela Ravaioli | Dreamstime.com

And yet Turkey’s population is solidly Muslim.

This is a country where the tides of history meet converging rivers of culture. Europe meets Asia. Christianity bumps up against Islam.

What do you get from all that mixing and merging? Among other things:

  • Two different versions of Islam.
  • Two different forms of Judaism.
  • Five different flavors of Christianity.
  • Twenty-four different ethnic groups.

That’s not a melting pot. That’s a paella pan. I want to see what that looks like.

Then, there’s the subway. In how many cities in the world can you go down into a subway station in Europe and come up in Asia?

Two years from now, you should be able to do exactly that in Istanbul.

Part of the city lies on the European continent, the other half on the Asian mainland —, with one of the world’s busiest waterways, the Bosphorus Strait, standing between.

A bridge already joins the two halves. Come 2013, the subway will do the same.

It was supposed to be finished four years ago, but every time they start digging, they dig up something — ancient ships, artifacts, a stretch of wall the Romans built. An archeology student could probably earn a doctorate just hanging around the construction site.

What can you do? When you’re tunneling through Time, you find stuff.

Eventually, I hope to find myself losing myself in an Istanbul market, admiring the Blue Mosque and the Ayasofya, listening to fellow writers over tea in an Istanbul cafe, grabbing a lunch of fried, fresh-caught fish from a fish seller in a boat tied up to a dock.

I also want to get a sense of where this country is headed.

There’s a lot of upheaval these days in North Africa and the Middle East, people throwing off dictators and looking for new models on which to pattern their own societies.

A lot of those folks are looking at neither the West nor Iran nor the lunatic visions of the shark bait formerly known as Osama bin Laden.

Instead, they’re looking, very seriously, at Turkey. A country that guards its past but is focused on the future, one that is solidly Muslim but run by a secular government and is on good terms, culturally as well as politically, with the West.

They think they may have a lot to learn from Turkey.

I know I do.

Which is not to say that all not Turkey is sweetness and harmony. If you don’t believe me, just ask an Armenian or a Kurd.

Discreetly.

Still, if you follow world news, you get the sense that the Turks know they have a unique role in the world — and that they’re determined to play it. This may be an ancient land, but it also is a rising star.

Ortakoi Mosque, briudge over the Bosphorus — © Alper Nakri | Dreamstime.com

Volcano 2: The Wrath of Iceland

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Another round of volcanic eruptions is shutting down airports in Iceland. Western Europe and the UK could be next.

Here we go — or maybe not go — again.

Remember when last’s year’s eruptions in Iceland (from the volcano that no one outside of Iceland can spell or pronounce — Eyjafjallajökull ) all but shut down trans-Atlantic air traffic between North America and Western Europe?

Well, it may be on the verge of happening again. A different volcano is erupting beneath a glacier, sending up a massive ash cloud that is drifting eastward.

While not as calamitous as last year’s eruption, it already forced a curtailment of President Barack Obama’s visit to Ireland and forced airports in Iceland itself to close.

For more information, read this Bloomberg story here.

The good news is that aviation authorities say they’re better prepared to deal with volcano emergencies after their 2010 experience, which means air travel shouldn’t be as severely disrupted, nor for as long, this time around.

All the same, if your travel plans within the next two weeks or so include flights to Europe or the United Kingdom, you’d do well do follow developments and check often with your airline or travel agent.

And if you haven’t bought travel insurance for your trip, now might be a really good time to do it.