L’Anse aux Meadows: North America’s First European Colony

The Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Eric the Red had long told of the extraordinary voyages of Norse settlers and adventurers more than 1000 years ago, but until the late 1950s none was found. Then, on a remote northern point of Newfoundland, a local man pointed out to explorer Helge Ingstad and…

Nuraghe – Sardinian Ancient People and Places

Prehistoric Rock Towers Rise Above the Ruins of Ancient Houses Below Five thousand years ago, at the dawn of the Bronze Age, a people on Sardinia (Sardegna) built stone towers for defense, whose remains yield all we know of the people. They possessed no written language and the remains and artifacts found at their settlements…

BUS SERVICE FROM THE BOSTON AREA TO PATS PEAK

For Massachusetts skiers the issue is “Where is there snow” Pats Peak, in Henniker, New Hampshire is one of the places where it can be found. Twenty five of their 28 trails are open, the only exceptions being Tornado, Hurricane and Vortex, all three of which are black diamonds, If you are a black skier…

Ouro Preto – A treasury of Colonial Baroque Architecture

Once the flourishing capital of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, whose gold built its treasury of baroque architecture, Ouro Preto is an elegant hilltop city and UNESCO) World Heritage Site. Portuguese miners ventured out into the jungles of southeast Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço mountain range and found black pebbles in the river.  Rubbing them, they discovered…