Cities are never one-dimensional. They aren’t defined by a single aspect, or one industry. And yet, for some - even for some truly major cities - there is one things that stands out above all others for which they are known. Los Angeles and the entertainment industry comes to mind, or Frankfurt and finance. Here…
The smell is unmistakable, although its source is a bit confusing. I approach the entrance of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood, and the scent of fresh asphalt wafts through the air. It smells of construction, something that could easily be coming from behind me, where Wilshire Boulevard has been…
Before coming to Scotland, I’d never heard of Dundee. It is Scotland’s fourth largest city (after Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen), a UNESCO City of Design, and boasts a couple of sights that are truly worthy of planning a day around. And yet for me, and I’m guessing for most Americans, the mention of Dundee would…
The portrayal of Scotland as a country of wild kilt-wearing sword-wielding savagery is nothing but English propaganda, sadly perpetuated to this day. In reality, Scotland is - and has been for centuries - a place of highly educated, incredibly literate, poets, artists, philosophers, and scientists. Its institutions of higher learning are as storied as those…
There is an excitement that is palpable as I enter the room at Museo Galileo in Florence. Here in a display case on one side of the small room are the great man’s personal telescopes, the ones he built to observe the skies, helping to change astronomy as we know it. It’s an extraordinary feeling…
Atop a 5,700 foot mountain overlooking most of Los Angeles lies a place most Angelenos have never been. Driving about 40 minutes up California Highway 2 - Angeles Crest Highway - from La Canada Flintridge into the heart of Angeles National Forest will bring visitors into a world seemingly incredibly distant from the city, and…
Editor's note: this is the second article (of hopefully many) on The Royal Tour from Christian Grand. You can read all of his articles here! The Tri-Cities area lies a bit north of the Oregon-Washington border, and about 40 miles north of I-84. Many sections of the interstate overlay what was once the fabled Oregon…
There are so many things I take for granted in my life, and especially when I travel. I carry in my pocket more computing power than existed in the entire world in 1980. My phone tells time and always knows where I am. It's hard for me to remember a time before smart phones, let…
In 1963, the Cold War was heating up. The Berlin Wall had gone up two years earlier. The Cuban Missile Crisis was less than a year in the past. The next generation of US nuclear missiles was ready, and 54 silos were created in three locations, each containing a single, new Titan II missile, the…