[Editor’s note: Join Ann at our informal online open house February 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern. RSVP here.] On many Classical Pursuits trips, we are reliant on the written word, and messages we can glean from mute buildings, streets, and monuments, to help us understand pivotal happenings in human history. […]
Author: Ann Kirkland
Understanding Quebec’s Quiet Revolution
What comes to mind when you think of Quebec City? If you didn’t say “revolution,” you would not be alone. With its dramatic clifftop location overlooking the mighty St. Lawrence River, its fortification walls, narrow winding streets and wealth of historic buildings, Quebec City charms visitors with its picturesque views […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN IN CUBA—You say you want a revolution?
“Well, you know, we all want to change the world …” It was not the Beatles but the Rolling Stones at the centre of a mammoth street party in Cuba just before we arrived. Still, I could not help using the Beatles’ lens during my stay of nearly a month with […]
GUEST BLOG—Feeling at Home with Ulysses by Michael Groden
At home. Mentioning Ulysses might conjure up a range of associations – important, classic, difficult, even unreadable – but “at home” isn’t likely to be one of them. Sixteen people felt anything but comfortably home on a Monday morning this past July as they awaited the start of a Toronto […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS—Cuba! The times they are a-changin
“And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again” – Bob Dylan Sometimes one has the chance to be an eyewitness to history at a remarkable moment. Ten years ago, visitors were told what we now know to be true: that along with the end of the Castro regime would come […]
GUEST BLOG—Nella Cotrupi on Trieste and Tristezza
I flip pages of my memory like the pages of the many books we’ve read together. What do I come up with? The flotsam and jetsam of a world modern and yet defined by the ever-present layers of its past, its names, its words from many tongues, its wisdom, and […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS—Dubai or Not Dubai? That Is the Question
Confession – I want to sell you a Travel Pursuit to Dubai from March 7 to 13, 2016. Selling does not come naturally to me, but I think this trip deserves an extra push since, if you are anything like I was, Dubai may not be on your radar. My vision of […]
TRAVEL PURSUITS—Winning pix from Colombia, winter 2015
We are pleased to announce the winner of our trip, Colombia: A paradise where reality and magic blur. Our judge this time was Alex Fiscalini, painter, photographer, graphic artist, and art director. Alex was drawn right away to this photo by Christine Croucher of Forest, Ontario. Christine has been toting […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN – Mystery & Manners in Savannah
I was mulling over my impressions from our fifth trip to Savannah and was struck that this Travel Pursuit differs from others in a strange way. Most of the time I find the literature and the place complement and enrich one another. Even if we are in Florence discussing Dante, who […]
ON THE ROAD WITH ANN — It’s Colombia, not Columbia
A funny thing happens when I travel with Classical Pursuits: I fall in love. OK, It may be more philia than eros, but a deep and enduring affection develops for the country I am visiting. It happened in Egypt, in India, in Vietnam and Cambodia. I leave home with great […]