Travel

When we travel, we are often moved to write about it when I return. It's a labor of love to collect facts and photos, adjust misconceptions, add new insight, and, in general, write a piece that interests readers. Writing a typical Travelmarx travel piece can take anywhere from a couple of hours to days to create.

Besides writing travel pieces to help others, we write them to remember. Even though we take notes and save brochures and scraps of information, it means little if it isn't organized in a way to make it easy to come back to and find a fact or relive the experience. One way to organize travel information is the classic way: collect notes and information before and after the trip and store them in a way that they can be easily accessed. For example, we start a new digital "folder" for every trip into which goes all planning ideas: scraps of info, scans, maps, and photos. When we return, we add anything else we collected while on the trip into the same folder. This works reasonably well for remembering details of a trip years later. But, there is no story.

Another way remember our travels is to write about them. It's harder to do because it requires more thought than simply collecting and filing information. It requires telling a story, potentially with actors, actions, and outcomes, all bound together to make someone want to read the piece, be it two paragraphs or twenty pages. A story communicates more powerfully about your travel than a file folder of notes and maps. Stories have greater longevity.

An interesting side-effect of writing our travel stories is that it influences how we travel: we begin to  look for stories and experiences rather than just follow a checklist of sites to see.

Salvation Mountain, Imperial Valley California Vancouver BC totem pole Statue “Civitas” [1988] - Audrey Flack in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden Statue of Mainonides in Córdoba Spain
Left: Salvation Mountain, Imperial Valley California. Center left: Vancouver BC totem pole. Center right: Statue “Civitas” [1988] - Audrey Flack in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Right: Statue of Mainonides in Córdoba Spain.

Best of


Italy


Americas


Slovenia

Spain and Portugal


A Second Tour of Andalusia: Ronda, Cádiz, and Algeciras
A Tour of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada
Sintra in Three Days - Plants and Patterns

Nordic Countries


Thanksgiving in Iceland: Two Days in the Golden Circle and Two Days in Reykavik
Too Many Maps - Iceland Case Study
(In Italian) Islanda: dei consigli sulle cose da vedere e fare
10 Days and 100 Miles Walking: Visiting Copenhagen and Stockholm
Selected Plants from Our Iceland Trip
Reykjavik Street Art July 2015
Akureyri Murals and Graffiti 2015
Þakgil (Thakgil), Ausurafrettur Range (Yellow Route) Hike
Fimmvörðuháls Pass, Þórsmörk to Skógarfoss Hike

Low Countries


UK / Malta


Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk - Overview
London Graffiti and Street Art Tour
Six Days in Malta

Greece




Turkey



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