Author Archives: kirkphillips

Going Dutch

Posted on January 29, 2020

On a day I was traveling through the Netherlands by train, I saw thousands of farmers blocking a major road into The Hague with their tractors. Later I learned their caravan was sixty miles long. Many of the farmers waved red, … Continue reading →

Posted in Netherlands | 7 Comments

Afoot in Flanders

Posted on December 12, 2019

YearTripper is not a food blog, but Belgium begs the exception. Where Belgium’s rivers drain into the North Sea, mussels are both plentiful and popular. Over sixty thousand tons of them are consumed annually. Most restaurants sell them by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Belgium | 5 Comments

Ruins and riches

Posted on November 26, 2019

The Americans arrived in Dresden at five in the afternoon. The boxcar doors were opened, and the doorways framed the loveliest city that most of the Americans had ever seen. The skyline was intricate and voluptuous and enchanted and absurd. … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | 3 Comments

Streets of Berlin

Posted on November 13, 2019

In late September I joined forty-four thousand fellow visitors for a tour of central Berlin. As participants in the Berlin Marathon, we circled the inner city clockwise and, over the course of a few hours, passed several historical landmarks spanning … Continue reading →

Posted in Germany | 1 Comment

A ramble through Dingle

Posted on August 13, 2019

The rain was steady, as I strained to see the next waymark on the climb up Mount Brandon. The black marker posts did not identify an obvious footpath, but instead indicated the general direction—uphill through a marshy field of rubble. … Continue reading →

Posted in Ireland | 1 Comment

Coasting through Croatia

Posted on July 24, 2019

(I’m touring Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. To read about Slovenia and Bosnia, please see the previous posts, “Breaking free” and “Building bridges.”) To sleep in the hill town of Motovun, Croatia, a steep hike is necessary, either a short one from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Croatia | 1 Comment

Building bridges

Posted on July 3, 2019

(I’m touring Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. To read about Slovenia, please see the previous post, “Breaking free.”) The region now known as Bosnia-Herzegovina is a melting pot that never melted. The country has three major ethnic groups, three self-governing territories and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia-Herzegovina | 2 Comments