Amsterdam may have as many interesting sights per square mile as any city on earth. From 50-some museums, to the canals, the architecture, the flower market, the zoo … something interesting is just a few minutes walk away. The most famous of the museums is the Rijksmuseum, which houses Rembrandt‘s The Night Watch, among hundreds […]

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One of the upsides to being based in Europe … is how close so much of Europe is to the casual traveler. In the United States, a 90-minute flight from Los Angeles would not be sufficient to get to Portland, Oregon. In Europe, a 90-minute flight from the south of France, a few miles from […]

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I love this story. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai and the UAE’s vice president, made some surprise visits to the city-state’s governmental agencies yesterday. At one municipality office, identified by The National as the Department of Economic Development, not a soul was to be found. During working hours. An embedded video went […]

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It’s time for Americans to do themselves a favor: Take the national anthem out of U.S. sports events. We have plenty of good reasons to do so, and as soon as possible. To wit:

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Far as I am concerned, first thing you do when visiting Barcelona is go to the northeast corner of the city and see how things are coming with the construction of the basilica known as the Sagrada Familia. Yes, even before making the pilgrimage over to the city’s great earthly structure, the football club’s Camp […]

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Estacio Sants is the main train station in Barcelona. In case you have lost track of where you have stepped off the train from, say, France … the famous local football team has a merchandise store you can hardly miss as you exit the station — one of (by my count) nine such stores in […]

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When looking back over the rise and fall of print journalism recently, I gave short shrift to one important aspect of the impact technological breakthroughs had on a significant set of newspaper workers. Not the editors and reporters. We coasted right through this particular shake-out, in the 1970s and early 1980s. But lots of others […]

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After the U.S. women’s national soccer team lost a Rio 2016 shootout to Sweden, a game that ended 1-1 in regulation, goalkeeper Hope Solo was not in a diplomatic mood. She rarely is after losing, God bless her. The Swedes got an early lead, then sat back and absorbed pressure, and when they conceded the […]

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So, it’s warm in the Languedoc … let’s give the Mediterranean a try. It’s what all tourists from the northern regions of France do, in July and August, when they decamp to the southern half of the country. We can consider that a hearty recommendation, no? Well, we could. But that would not keep the […]

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The BBC’s coverage of Rio 2016 came with nightly references to a particular area of the network’s website: The “get inspired” feature. If you watched the Olympics and decided you would like to emulate Team Great Britain’s athletes … the BBC has advice on how to get started. I was thinking about how silly it […]

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