Back to Naples

Plenty of years have passed since I traveled to Naples on business, but my memory of it stays clear in my mind. For instance the Joli Hotel where I stayed. I'm sure there are many more fabulous hotels in the world but the Joli for me was a perfect fit. Imagine having breakfast in the dining room, which was or is glassed in on two sides. You look up in one direction and you see the Bay of Naples and the islands of Capri and Ishchia (accented on the first syllable of both names). In the other direction stands the famous volcano, Vesuvius, with a wisp of smoke rising from its crater. Just two or three doors down the street from the Joli is a pizza parlor. The pizzas you buy there only faintly resemble the American version. The Italian pizza has a thinner crust and topped with green peas and a raw egg plopped in the middle. They sure taste good to me and the beer tastes good anywhere.

Stavanger, Norway

Stavanger. Norway. 1980s. We've visited three times. Each trip was as exciting as it could be. No doubt you've seen pictures of the fantastic fjords, the stark hills of granite rock tumbled this way and that. The Sunday hikers along the roads. Go to Canada. Castlegar and more hikers. Just like in Norway. They claim Sunday hiking is their entertainment. Yes, a hardy breed they are.

Back in Stavanger (which is the heart of the Norwegian oil business) on a Saturday evening you don't want to miss the good times at Die alt Rudd Haus, which just approximates the name of the pub painted over the entrance and means The Old Red Sea House. You're invited to a shrimp boil. Great piles of cooked shrimp are dumped on the tables in front of you. Strip your own shrimp. Make your own salad and wash it all down with buckets of beer. After you've stuffed yourself with all this food and drink, the young sports get up and dance around to the rhythm of a live band. The old hands head for their beds and the younguns carry on valiantly far into the night.