Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

The staff are eager to develop a multimedia aspect to the Bakker Bugle. Here’s their first experience: Part One of the story of Will following the Olympic Torch through Paris. (more…)

Anita and I visited many new places over the past three months. After every trip, we discussed the reasons we’d like to return to cities and regions: to see things that we couldn’t fit in our schedule, to experience a place in a different way, or to return for a different perspective on an unusually rich site or collection.

I have few regrets from the trips we’ve made so far. Anita and I find most hotels charming, and if we are momentarily disappointed by a locale or our accommodations, we assume that it’s our job to recognize something that we missed. Our photo collections on flickr are a celebratory embrace of tourism: “Look at what we saw!” And that’s a good reflection of our overall attitude.

Still I find that, for each trip, there’s a lack of some kind: something that I do regret, or a curiosity that will not be sated and will not go away. One regret comes from our time in Lisbon. We did not hear a live performance of fado. We tried to find a venue, although half-heartedly. Weeks later, I still feel that I missed something. I will return to Lisbon, and one reason is to hear the fado.

I’ve known for a long time that Portugal was uniquely famous for its bull-fighting, and we did not see that, either. But I have no regrets about missing that distinctive feature of Portugal’s culture. I don’t plan to see a bullfight when I return. I am just not curious about it, which is unusual for me.

Sometimes, a nagging curiosity is like a good itch, because there’s something pleasurable about the discomfort. I have that feeling about a trivial detail from one place on our trip to northern Italy. In the Piazza Brà of Verona, there’s a building with the following architectural detail. (You can click on the photo to see the context.)

I saw this pattern of alternating crowns in several places, and it seems so familiar that I must have noted it outside of Italy, too. I want to know the name for this style, I want to know why it was used, and I want to know whether it is as common as I think it is. I did the usual surfing around the web to find answers, but I failed.

If you can help, I’ll award you the Commenter of the Irish First Quarter of 2008. (I’ll have to think of an appropriate prize, to be delivered upon arrival at the BBB&B, of course.)

We’ve finished culling the photos and writing our descriptions, so have at it! You’ll find each day’s activities in a separate set of photos at the following page: Collection of Photos from Northern Italy and the French Riviera

Happy Friday! There are two new sets of photos from our trip to Italy, so check the photo collection page.

In March, we took advantage of the public holiday “season” (17 Mar – St. Paddy’s day, 21 Mar – Good Friday, 24 Mar – Easter Monday) to take a trip to Italy and France. We started in Venice (2 days), and then traveled between Venice and Milan, stopping in Vicenza and Verona. We spent one day in Milan and two days in the French Riviera: Nice and Monaco.

We’ve prepared most of the Venice photos and they are now available for your viewing pleasure. The Bugle staff is hard at work, culling the very best of the rest of approximately 6000 or so photos that we took in six days. Each town/day will have their own set eventually. We’ll post another update when the next set is ready.

Here’s your link: Photo collection for March trip

We finally added titles, comments and tags to the photos from our trip to Lisbon in February. They are now ready for your perusal at the following webpage:

• Collection of Photos from Lisbon 2008

For maximum stress-reduction, we suggest that you spend one work-break per set, preferably with a warm drink.

If you’d like a preview of the photos from Lisbon, we started uploading them to Flickr today. Here’s the link:

Collection of Lisbon Photos

We’ll add descriptions over the next few days. There will be another post on this blog when the photos are ready for viewing.