Europe

Steve spent a summer bicycling in Europe when he was 19. Ever since, his travels through European history have punctuated more adventurous journeys in wilder places.

A Polish boy bikes past a last remnant of the Warsaw Ghetto wall. We wonder if he knows the significance of that brick wall next to his apartment.
That’s more than 300,000 people worth of bouquets carried into the plaza in Zaragoza during the annual festival to celebrate and honor El Pilar— the first time the Virgin appeared to Hispanic peoples anywhere in the world. Aragon, Spain.
At Terezin concentration camp near Prague, the "small fortress" became a Gestapo prison. Our guide tells tales in graphic detail—of torture, shooting, hanging, stoning, death by shovel-beating. Czech Republic.
The Czechs memorialized John Lennon's 1980 death with this graffiti-covered wall. The Communists did not approve. The Lennon Wall came to symbolize hope and freedom. Everyone now visits for a photo.
Late afternoon light filtering through stained glass, St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle, Czech Republic.
Portobello Market, London.
Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
A country walk in the Sussex downs, Hassocks to Lewes via the South Down Way, England.
The Tube, London.
A schoolgirl at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Market Square, Krakow, Poland.
On our walk through the foothills of the Pyrenees, this friendly sheepdog, Palomino, joined us for two days and kept us on the route. Beget, Catalonia, Spain.
Fog trails across the foothills of the Pyrenees in the aftermath of Hurricane Leslie. The Alta Garrotxa—Mollo, Catalonia, Spain.
The politically aware steps of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Wandering in Haarlem, we see endless variety in working bicycles. The Netherlands.
Colorful architecture tantalizes every traveler to Europe. Take good notes—or those photographs will start to turn generic in your memories. (Which cathedral was that? Which river? Which castle?) Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
Our charming waitress in Grodno, Belarus, recited the Russian-only menu for us line by line in English. One meat dish rests on a "pillow of nuts."
On the train from Warsaw, Poland to Grodno, Belarus.
This overgrown Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Grodno, Belarus contains the graves of generations of my wife's family.
When we visited the Grand Choral Synagogue in Grodno, Belarus, the sanctuary (now a museum) was filled with evocative art by Ales Surowy. He incorporates artifacts from the destroyed ghetto (like these suitcases) in his paintings.
I hadn't expected to be as moved as I was by the interior of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. The space deserves its fame. Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
In the attic of Gaudi's La Pedrera, 270 catenary arches enclose you in the Catalan architect's riff on a whale's skeleton. Barcelona, Spain.
"Schindler's List" made this silhouette of the guard tower at Auschwitz/Birkenau iconic. I placed stones on the railroad track leading to the selection platform and gas chamber, just as we Jews always leave a stone on gravestones in remembrance.
The Anne Frank house stands in the center of Amsterdam's canal district, tucked inconspicuously into a block. You'd pay it no mind . But the Nazis did.
The joy of Zaragoza's annual Festival El Pilar lights up a young couple, part of the throng of 300,000 Spaniards, young and old, funneling in to the main square.
I got lucky with this picture of cypresses shot from the bus from Besalú to Barcelona.
Besalú, Catalonia, on the Fluvia River—judged by the Los Angeles Times "the most interesting Spanish village you've never heard of."
Previous

Cuba & the Caribbean
Next

Journeys