A war, a novel, a walk through the cemetery

Yesterday I finished reading The King of the Two Sicilies, a novel from 1980 by the acclaimed Polish author Andrzej Kuśniewicz (1904 - 1993). In...

A few of Skopje’s many statues (one year later)

https://www.rogerbaylor.com/2025/02/24/a-brief-recounting-of-the-balkan-getaway-in-february-2025/ It's been almost a year since our visit to Skopje, and later Albania and Montenegro. The Balkans are enduringly fascinating to me, and it...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 16: Lessons learned, corners turned, bridges burned (finis)

Throughout this series, I've offered songs that I associate with the time of my first trip to Europe, and yes, I know quite well...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 15: Soviet times in Leningrad and the long trek back...

 There was little if any Western pop music to be heard publicly in Leningrad in 1985. But this song was overheard playing on the...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 14: Meet the Finns — and hop a bus to...

 Accompanying these recollections of my travel year 1985 are some of the songs I kept hearing while on the road. This video features an...

The Euro ’85 Pilgrimage Compendium

The Euro '85 Pilgrimage Compendium collects the installments of my series about "the first time" (the one you remember?) wandering the continent in 1985...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 13: Introductions to Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm and Uppsala

Previously: Euro Pilgrimage '85, Ch. 12: Omaha Beach to the Manneken-Pis and Little Mermaid. In retrospect, the itinerary I sketched out for the waning days of...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 12: Omaha Beach to the Manneken-Pis and Little Mermaid

Previously: Euro Pilgrimage 1985-2025 Pt. 11: Sligo respite, Live Aid, then back to France for the D-Day beaches. (I’m not a Bryan Adams fan, but his...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 11: Sligo respite, Live Aid, then back to France for...

Previously: Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 10: Irish history with musical accompaniment and a Guinness chaser. I exited the Sligo train station on a pleasant, sunny day...

Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 10: Irish history with musical accompaniment and a Guinness chaser

Van Diemen's Land was the original name for the island of Tasmania, located 400 miles south of Melbourne, and notorious during the 1800s for...

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40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 92: Pentecostal pews, beer judging exams and...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to NABC resuming it. It would be perfectly reasonable of the...

40 Years of Sidebars: Hugo Claus, Frans Masereel & NABC’s one-off Silent Oath Oud...

This Belgian cultural excursion didn’t slot handily into the “40 Years in Beer” narrative, and so I've declared it suitable as a “sidebar.” The...

40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 90: A brewery for the New Albanian in all of us, Lite-free NABC debuts in 2002. In...