Monthly Art Walk in Crested Butte

To me, visiting art galleries is like going to a museum with incredibly varied collections mostly by contemporary working artists. Unlike a museum, however, you go outside between "rooms" -- and of course, you can touch many of the works and buy any of them. How fortunate that the North American SnowSports Journalists Association 's annual meeting at Crested Butte coincided with town's Art Walk Evening. It is held on the last Thursday of every month except for April, May, October and November. Sponsored by Artists of the West Elks, it provides visitors an opportunity to stroll through picturesque downtown Crested Butte, meet gallery owners and artists, sip some wine and nibble on the appetizers that individual galleries put out.

The Paragon Gallery, a local coop, features the works of 14 member artists and two local guest artists. The varied media include polished stone jewelry by Jeff Klein, traditional Scandinavian rosemaling by Jane Berglund and ceramics, earthenware, raku and other pottery by Steve Belz. Paragon also sells endearing original notecards by local schoolchildren. Proceeds from sales buy art supplies for area schools -- not just little things like paper, watercolors, clay and chalk, but major equipment like a kiln and a photography darkroom.

The Rijks Family Gallery shows more than a dozen artists' work, including Dawn Cohen's powerful watercolors both of the mountains and of the harbor of Savanah, GA, where she once lived; scenic and action photographs by Nathan Bilow, functional and decorative pottery by Macy Dorf, and the ornate, spiritual and multicultural-inspired pottery by Donna Rozman.

The Lucille Lucas Gallery and Old Print Center specializes in graphic arts. The owner's father was the first American publisher of Salvador Dali's lithographs, and she carries some examples of the Spanish painter's work. Local photographers Xavier Fane and Sandra Cortner's were on hand for the March Art Walk Evening. Fane's photograph of the start of the annual Alley Loop Cross-Country Marahon race on snow-covered Elk Avenue should hang on every Nordic enthusiast's wall. Cortner's sensitive black-and-white images of Crested Butte depict both town and surroundings. The gallery also features a fine assortment of original and reproduction posters.

Area artists recently lost one of their own with the passing of photographer Gary Lee Wolf on March 17, and this evening was, in a sense, in his memory. I bought just one lovely pottery bowl, a colleague from Washington, DC, picked up a poster for her beach house, and a Denver friend ordered a vintage ski poster reproduction in a size suitable for her space.

New EcoRooms at Lake Powell Resort

I have a love/hate relationship with Lake Powell. I love the recreational opportunities provided on this enormous reservoir, but I hate big dams on big rivers. There is a cause-and-effect thing going here. The Glen Canyon Dam, which chokes off the Colorado River just upstream from the Grand Canyon. The huge dam, built nearly half-a-century ago when sensibilities were different, caused water to back up behind it, creating Lake Powell. This man-made lake offers all manner of recreational opportunities, notably some of the best houseboating in the land. It is second in size to Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, that backed up behind the Hoover Dam. Both are engineering wonders but, by today's standards, environmental errors.

I try not to think about the splendor that lies beneath the deep blue water. Glen Canyon is said to have been every bit as magnificent as the Grand Canyon. The late David Brower, long-time executive director of the Sierra Club and founder of Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters, regretted until his dying day that he had not battled the government about the building of the dam. He didn't fight it. The dam was built. And what some call "Fake Powell" was created. Still, Lake Powell is a spectacular place, with the water lapping against tawny cliffs, dramatic spires and wonderful coves to explore.

The lake provides ample room for houseboating, kayaking, fishing, jet-boating and more. For those who prefer not to houseboat or camp but who want to be at water's edge, there's Lake Powell Resort, beautifully situated and offering killer views of the Lake and, alas, the smoke-spewing Navajo Nation Electric Plant. When I stayed at the resort in May 2006, the rooms were uninspiring with standard motel decor. Such a spectacular setting, whether one approves of it or not, deserves classier accommodations.

Now, ARAMARK, which manages the resort, has upgraded some rooms. Called Green Leaf EcoRooms, and designed for guests with special health and allergy concerns, they also appeal to someone like me who just wants hotels to do their part in protecting the environment. These EcoRooms at Lake Powell Resort feature more than a dozen energy-efficient, water-efficient, waste-reducing, non-toxic or biodegradable products -- worthy of Green Leaf certification from TerraChoice Audubon Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program.

These EcoRooms feature bathroom flooring made from recycled glass and select ceramic materials, bathroom counter made from recycled glass terrazzo, carpet made from 25 percent post-consumer and 25 percent post-industrial materials to and carpet pads made from 100 percent recycled material, energy-saving lightbulbs, dispensers for soap and shampoo to cut down on waste, energy-saving sliding glass doors and water-efficient fixtures (including toilets). It's my kind of room -- and while nobody asked me, I think they should all be that way.

I applaud any individual or corporate efforts at preserving our planet, and against the background of Lake Powell and all that is wrong with it -- dramatic beauty and recreational pleasure notwithstanding -- these EcoRooms merit even more kudos.

Marriott Promotes Awareness of Green Travel

Not because we're between St. Patrick's Day and Earth Day, but because opportunities to travel and live green are increasing, here's how one major international chain is promoting environmental consciousness and one single hotel in that chain seeks to combine luxury with a bit of environmental awareness:

In conjunction with a global environmental organization called Clean Up the World, Marriott International is launching Environmental Awareness Month on April 1 with an information campaign guiding both guests and employees to be “green” on the road, at work and at home. On Earth Day itself (April 22), Marriott will offer all of its guests a copy of True Green, a new book outlining 100 everyday ways to help the planet.

Le Merigot, a luxurious JW Marriott hotel and spa right on the beach in Santa Monica, is promoting a Cruisin’ Hybrid package that combines a superior guest room and a Toyota Prius Hybrid Synergy car rental, starting at $349 per night.

Mountain Huts Provide a Change of Seasons

In Colorado, it is possible travel to another climate zone without going very far. One of the numerous wonderful things about living here is the great variation of temperatures and weather on any given day. Day/night temperature differences at any elevation typically are 35 +/- degrees -- so that hot summer days mean cool summer nights, and cold winter nights mean significantly warmer winter days. At this time of year, elevation can mean the difference between spring and winter, and in summer, it can mean the difference between scorching and temperate

During the great Summer 2006 heatwave, I made a couple of trips to the Tenth Mountain Division backcountry huts that sit at 11,000 feet or higher -- in some cases nearly 6,000 feet higher than Boulder. Last summer, a friend and I escaped to Jay's Cabin at the Shrine Mountain Inns, just off Vail Pass, for some cool air and beautiful wildflowers, and then she, another friend, my husband and I hiked to Francie's Cabin, south of Breckenridge. (The summer and winter versions of the "front yard" of Jay's are shown above.)

On Friday, with crocuses, daffodils and forsythia blooming in our yard, my husband and I and another couple skied up to Shrine Mountain Inn. Under gray skies that carried the promise of new snow, we skied past Jay's (above right) and Chuck's and settled in at Walter's Cabin. In summer, it is possible to drive practically to the doorstep, unload food and gear, and go for a day hike. In winter, it's a 2.7-mile ski or snowshoe in to the huts. When we got there, one of our friends, whose birthday we were celebrating, decided to ski some more. Her husband took a nap. My husband stretched out and relaxed with some his favorite music playing in his headphones. I'm not good at doing nothing, so I pulled out a jigsaw puzzle.

As the Friday afternoon light faded, the view of Copper Mountain's ski runs disappeared in the clouds and snow started falling -- intermittently flurrying and coming down hard. It was lovely to be indoors. The three huts comprising the Shrine Mountain Inns are more comfortable than others in the Tenth Mountain system. With flush toilets, hot and cold running water, excellent woodstoves, and electricity, they provide the backcountry's equivalent of five-star luxury. The Shrine Pass area is shared by motorized and non-motorized recreationists, and by late afternoon, the occasional distant noise of the machines was no more, and the only sounds we heard were the crackling fire in the woodstove and our own conversation.

Late yesterday morning, we skied out in a heavy snowfall, little visibility and very wet snow underfoot. The snow kept clumping up on my skis (and all but one of my companions' as well), and I couldn't get any glide. In annoyance, I finally took off my skis, strapped them onto my pack and walked out most of the way on a path that was fortunately firm from a winter's worth of ski and snowshoe traffic. Trudging up on Friday and down on Saturday reminded me of the Bill Cosby's line about his his father telling him about how tough kids used have it: "My father said he walked five miles to school. Uphill both ways."

I was relieved to get my pack off my back, but despite being weary and damp, I was astonishingly recharged just by one single night in a beautiful place where it is still winter. I'm not ready to give up winter totally, but the memories of the wonderful wildflowers at and near the Shrine Mountain Inn inspired me to spend six hours gardening. I redid two flower beds and planted wildflower seeds. There will still be plenty of snow at the Shrine Mountain Inn in a couple of weeks when I expect these new plants to come up in my garden.

Forests I Have Visited and Loved

According to the natural-wonder-filled Greenpeace calendar that hangs in my kitchen, today is World Forestry Day. I'd never heard of it, so I looked it up. Celebrated at the autumn equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, which leads me to infer that it might have started in Australia or New Zealand, it supposedly encourages the planting of trees (sort of like Arbor Day, I suppose) and encourages preservation of "green cover." It did cause me to think about woods and forests I have known and enjoyed. Here are five that have impressed me for the most different of reasons.

• Sterling Forest State Park, NY - This park's 18,000 fairly pristine acres would be lost in a corner of, say, southwestern Colorado's 2.5 million-acre San Juan National Forest, but being at the northern edge of the ultra-congested New York City metropolitan area, it is a rare green relief to all that concrete and all those skyscrapers.
  
• Tongass National Forest, AK - I know that the Tongass has been heavily logged, but on my three visits to Southeast Alaska, I've never actually seen any of the logged areas -- and I'm glad of it. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass is the largest unit in the national forest system. It covers the mainland and many of the islands that form the Inside Passage. I've been awestruck stately Sitka spruce secured to steep slopes that rise straight from the sea. The Tongass is what is commonly called a "recreational paradise" -- suitable for hiking, fishing, hunting, kayaking, wildlife viewing, camping and photography, but being prepared for foul weather is a necessity in this northern rainforest. Some 150 simple backcountry cabins (like that at Cascade Creek, right) are available for rent -- little pieces of paradise at a very moderate price.


• Laurentides Provincial Wildlife Reserve, QU - On a family vacation to Quebec, I remember driving from Quebec city to Chicoutimi on the Saguenay River. It is something like 140 miles, but in my dim childhood recollection, it was a very, very long trip. I've since learned that this reserve offer splendid fishing and hunting, but all I remember are trees. Lots of trees. It was the first time I had seen more than the little woods and mini-forests of southern New England, and the impression, though dim, remains with me.


• Muir Woods, CA - Much as Sterling Forest is a relief from New York, the magnificent Muir Woods National Monument fulfills the same role for San Francisco. West Coast redwood trees dominate this coastal forest, with a supporting cast of Douglas fir, big-leaf maple, tanbark oak and baylaurel. No cathedreal is more inspiring, and just to walk among these giants is to be humbled by nature's majesty and grandeur.


• Khao Sok National Park, Thailand - A short visit to this national park containing the world's oldest evergreen rainforests made me understand more about the Vietnam War than years of distressing newscasts. The Southeast Asian rainforest is so dense that it is virtually impossible to see someone a few feet away. And then there were the leeches! No wonder the US military was so eager to defoliate. Today, the jungle is incredibly lush and improbably green. We stayed at Art's Jungle Lodge, primitive bungalows perched high on stilts. The beds are hung with mosquito netting, water for bathing or flushing is dipped from a barrel in each bathroom, and citronella candles decorated each unscreened window. It was hot. It was sticky. My pillow was not much softer than a brick. When night fell the forest creatures all sang, trilled, chirped, cried and generally added to a rainforest cacophony. When I put my head on that hard pillow, I thought I'd be awake all night, but I slept like a baby in a cradle.

First Superjumbo Jets Land in the US

In my recent post about the major renovation of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, I mentioned that included will be new gates to accommodate the generation of Airbus and Boeing superjumbos once touted as the aircraft of the future. Two Airbus 380s landed in the US yesterday, a Lufthansa plane at New York’s JFK International Airport and a Qantas plane at LAX. Today, one or both are flying around to call at Washington-Dulles and Chicago’s O’Hare.

The A380 stands eight stories tall with a wingspan approaching the length of a football field. An Associated Press illustration showed the 617.3-ton and Charles Lindbergh’s ‘Spirit of St. Louis” next to each other. The fuselage of Lindbergh’s plane doesn’t look much larger than one of the A380’s four engines. Lindbergh's little plane had a 46-foot wingspan; the A380's is 261 feet, 8 inches.

Lindbergh's landing in Paris caused a stir, and the superjumbo certainly is a gee-whiz aircraft. Then again, so was the supersonic Concorde that promised a lot and delivered a lot less. British Airways and Air France flew it, but it was retired in 2004 after 27 years of service. By contrast, Boeing 747, introduced in 1970, is still the dominant large jet on many long-haul routes.

Will we all be flying on the double-decker superjumbos soon? Will they have such longevity? Unless we fly overseas, we won’t, because no US carrier has committed to the $300 million plane. Some airlines simply don’t want to deal with an aircraft that holds more than 500 passengers, preferring to add more flights using smaller 200- to 300-passenger planes if traffic on a particular route demands more seats.

In October, however, the first of 14 international flag carriers that ordered a total of 156 aircraft the A380 are expected to put one into service. Look for them in the liveries of Emirates (shown above right), Singapore, Lufthansa and Qantas. I never got to fly in a Concorde before they were retired. I hope I’m more fortunate with the A380. At least I know some of my express shipments will, for Federal Express has ordered some.

Green Ski Resorts Gets National Press

I certainly was not the first to address the increase in environmentally responsible practices at ski resorts, but my February 28, "The Gradual Greening of Ski Country" post beat Associated Press reporter's Tom Gardner's "Ski Industry Goes Green to Fight Warming" article, which was released yesterday. How perfectly appropriate for a piece on green resort practices to come out on St. Patrick's Day, the greenest of holidays. Gardner discussed resorts that I didn't and vice versa, and I'm really happy that he did. His words will reach for more readers than mine.

On Friday, I skied with a friend at Loveland. Nights are still cold 10,600 feet and higher, so morning conditions were crunchy, but by late morning, the sun had softened the snow and morphed it into wonderful spring corn. Three new inches a couple of days earlier added a fresh lawyer to the season's snowfall. Loveland's high elevations (topping out at over 13,000 feet), I was glad to ski in a warm park, hat and winter gloves. But Durango Mountain Resort, where my son teaches skiing, has sprung into spring with a vengeance. He told me that he hasn't seen anything but blue sky in two weeks and that the snow is melting off the slopes in rivers.

Some weather variations reflect seasonal snow patterns, but the recent focus on global warming sets me to wondering what is within a normal range of months with heavier or lighters snowfall, above- or below-normal temperatures, and the dates when winter sets in and when spring begins. Gardner's report is yet another reminder that we need to do what we can to make lessen our collective responsibility for shortening the ski season, the snowpack and the greater global climate.

LAX Begins International Terminal Renovations

Denver International Airport is international in a fairly limited way. Yes, passengers can fly non-stop from Colorado to Canada, Mexico, Great Britain and Germany, but otherwise, we have have to change planes somewhere whenever we want to fly to other countries. I've gone to Europe with changes of plane (and often airlines) via Chicago, New York, Newark, Boston and Dallas. I've traveled to Latin America via Houston, Miami and mostly Los Angeles. And I've flown to Asia and the South Pacific mostly via Los Angeles and occasionally San Francisco.

Flying via Los Angeles International Airport usually, but not always, involves switching from one of the eight domestic terminals to Tom Bradley International Terminal. This is not surprising, since LAX is the world's fifth-busiest airport, tallying nearly 61.5 million passengers in 2005 (the most recent year for which I could find statistics) and is the major US gateway for transpacific flights. Exhaust fumes and noise notwithstanding, I always walk between terminals -- outside. When it's wintry in Colorado, I enjoy the brief balmy air, and in summer, I am always struck by how humid southern California is compared with the arid Rockies. Whether I'm coming or going, the contrast is somehow transitional.

Ground was recently broken for a major renovation that is Hollywood-style grand in scale. The $723.5 million project calls for major interior renovations, an in-line checked-baggage security system and a second boarding gate for new large aircraft, such as the 550-passenger Airbus 380 and the 504-passenger Boeing 747X (or whatever these super-jumbos are being called). You might say that LAX is adding these gates just in time. The first A380 test flight is slated to land at LAX on Monday, Mar. 19, even though commercial service is not expected for several years.

Considered the largest individual project in Los Angeles City's history and one of the most complex projects because the terminal is supposed to remain fully operational, the project is also considered one of the most complex among U.S. airports. It is expected to take 38 months and be completed March 2010. LAX is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 53 percent of LAX passengers being served by TBIT.

Retro Transport in Two National Parks

Visitors to two national parks wholly or partly in Montana (Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, respectively) will be able to travel as in the good old days in restored vehicles made by the White Motor Company decades ago specifically for sightseeing use in America's national parks. Once retired, these two classic vehicles have been now brought up to modern emissions and safety standards by the respective park's tradition-minded concessionaires, Glacier Park, Inc., and Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

In Glacier National Park in northern Montana, the fleet of 33 vintage red buses with roll-back canvas tops built between 1936 and 1939 were refurbished several years ago and have again been used for sightseeing tours from both the east and west sides of the park for the last five or six summers. The buses travel along Going-to-the-Sun Highway and also go north to Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. Scenic interpretive Red Bus Tours range from the three-hour Western Alpine Tour from Lake McDonald ($30 adult, $15 child) to the 8 1/2-hour International Peace Park Tour from Glacier Park Lodge ($75 adult, $37.50 child). Exact dates vary, but most routes begin in mid-June and end in mid-September. You can book on-line or by calling 406-892-2525.

Starting this summer, visitors to Yellowstone National Park, which is partly in Montana but mostly in Wyoming, can also sightsee in retro fashion with the return of eight of the park's White Motor Company Model 706 touring vehicles. These long, low-slung "Old Yellow Buses," which began service in 1936, are back -- and isn't it happily appropriate to have yellow buses plying the byways of Yellowstone? The park's fleet, which once totaled 98 touring vehicles, transported visitors for more than 20 years. With park visitors increasingly using private vehicles, the Old Yellow Buses were dispersed to museums, other tour operators and who-knows-where- else.

The Skagway (AK) Streetcar Company purchased some of the yellow buses, but the owner felt they really belonged back in Yellowstone and returned them to the park in 2001. Now, brought up to modern standards, they are going back into action. For Yellowstone tour details, prices (not yet available) and reservations, go to the operator's website or call 866-439-7375 or 307-344-7311.

Bill Marriott, Blogger

A 71-year-old friend phoned me the other day, opening the conversation with the salvo, "What is it that I don't understand about blogging." Instead of saying simply, "Everything," I told him that I believe blogging is a crucial communications channel in these early years of the 21st century. I told him that when Microsoft was releasing a new XBox, Bill Gates gave just one, lengthy personal interview -- not the the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or Forbes but to a prominent and influential videogame blogger. I told him that there are 50 or 60 million blogs worldwide. And if I had that conversation with him today instead of earlier in the week, I would have added that J. Willard "Bill" Marriott, Jr., who turns 75 later this month, has become a blogger.

Bill Marriott, the chairman and CEO of the hotel chain that his father founded and that bears his family name (as well as other hotel brands), has started a blog called Marriott on the Move. Instead of being an ivory-tower executive, or executive emeritus, Mr. Marriott -- as employees refer to him -- still roams the world checking on existing hotels and construction of new ones, appearing at hotel openings and travel industry concentions and more.

One person who works in the corporate office told me that Mr. Marriott's first stop is always the hotel's kitchen. His father, the late Bill Sr., started in the hospitality business with A&W root beer stands and did the same thing. Bill Jr., she said, insists that his hotel managers know the staff, especially the kitchen staff, by name. With more than 2,800 lodging properties in 67 countries, that means a lot of managers must know a lot of names when the chairman shows up.
Mr. Marriott has blogged about global warming, his company's hotels' recycling and other environment efforts, the chain's training programs, smoke-free hotels, global travel, terrorism (a Marriott in Islamabad was the target of a suicide bomber late in January), memories of working for and answering to his father, the value of education and a bit about his own travels. These blog postings -- whether actually directly written by him or written on his behalf based on someone's interviews or conversations with him -- provide interesting insights into the hotel industry for anyone who travels.

Good News, Bad News for Spirit Passengers

I've never flown Spirit Airlines, because its East Coast/Caribbean/Latin American route network isn't really relevant to me now that I live in Colorado. But I was intrigued recent news from the carrier that minded me of the Julie Andrews song, "A Spoon Full of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Sown." The suar is that announcement that Spirit is lowering its fares by up to 40 percent. The medicine is the carrier's new a la cart menu of services.

For instance, with new reservations for travel after June 19, 2007, customers will be given the allowance of one carry-on bag with the option to check additional bags for a fee. By early June, customers will have the ability to "reserve" a baggage check "at a reduced rate" on the airline's website.

It reminds me of the old PeopleExpress, the original low-fare carrier that was eventually absorbed into Continental, which charged a few dollars for each check bag and a bit for a beverage and a meal (when meals on other airlines were free -- or rther, included in the fare).

Map Misdirections

In the current USA Weekend 's "ThinkSmart" section, Everett Potter wrote about on-line maps in a short piece titled "The Best Maps on the Web." I've been ruminating about on-line mapping sites these last couple of days, because one of the big ones steered us wrong -- signficantly -- on Friday night.

We were driving from our Boulder home to Texas de Brazil, a restaurant whose alleged address is 8390 East 49th Street in Northfield Stapleton, a new shopping and dining development on part of the site of Denver's old Stapleton Airport. We know how to get to Northfield but weren't sure exactly where the restaurant was. The directions we got were mind-boggling in their inaccuracy. Spurred by Potter's listing of "the best," I went on-line and searched for directions to the restaurant on half a dozen on-line map services. Here's what I found:

• Citysearch, the one we originally used, is really screwed up. The written directions had us leaving Boulder via 28th Street. So far, so accurate, but after that, the directions really fall apart. The directions say to drive on some unnamed route for 26.4 miles and continue, "Freeway ends; bear right taking the ramp towards Exit 4, Quebec Street." Twenty-eighth Street, a local Boulder arterial, feeds into limited-access US 36, which eventually presents a choice of continuing on I-25 or I-270. Neither is mentioned by CitySearch. FWIW, I-270 is the one leading to our destination. The larger corresponding map labels the US 36/I-270 combination as Highway 128 (huh?) and the supposedly more localized map doesn't include I-270 at all. Missing a long-extant portion of the Interstate highway system seems inexcusable. And besides, the freeway doesn't end. Exiting from I-270, Citysearch says to turn left (south) on Quebec Street, while our destination required us to turn right (north) and then take an immediate right onto East 49th. The written directions led to a residential neighborhood on East 29th Avenue, 20 blocks and on the other side of Interstate 70 from where we were going.
• Mapquest, Micrsoft's Live Local Search and Google Maps are better in that they would have gotten us into the correct area, but they left us in the middle of East 49th Avenue with no indication of where to turn to enter the Northfield Center in order to reach the restaurant.
• Yahoo Maps is also wrong. The directions are OK as far as the East 49th Avenue exit from I-270, but then indicate that after 0.6 mile, "make a U-turn at Verbena Street." Anyone who did that would then be going the wrong way on East 49th Avenue. Instead of that U-turn, it is necessary to turn right from East 49th Street.
• I also looked at a business directory called AskCity, which does include a map when it finds the business you are searching for. I asked, but the site had no answer other than, "Your search for Texas de Brazil did not match with any Business Listing results near Denver, CO."
• In all fairness to these nationwide maps, Northfield Stapleton's own map isn't all that enlightening when it comes to finding a specific business there. First, it's necessary to go the business directory on the center's website to discover that Texas de Brazil is #1800 and then go to the map. By doing that, you can figure out that you turn right from East 49th Avenue Parkway, as those devilishly clever marketers have renamed the street, onto....what? No street name is indicated (could it be Verbena?) between T.G.I. Fridays and Macy's, then go 2/3 of the way around a traffic circle within sight of Texas de Brazil and then turn right behind the restaurant into a parking lot.

These on-line maps might be useful if you are looking for an address that has been around for a long time, but IMHO, they all suck to a greater or lesser degree when it comes to helping drivers navigate the rocky shoals of the new residential and commercial developments that are infesting the landscape -- and these character-free developments would seem to be where people need the most help. It doesn't help that all the business in a single shopping center often share one mailing address, and the on-line services can't know that. Bottom line, when you're traveling, don't assume that on-line maps will get you exactly where you want to go, especially if it's someplace that hasn't been around since the administration of Harry Truman.

What's in a Name?

Travelers have become accustomed to place name changes, many of which occurred when colonialism gave wave to independence or when nations chose to reassert their language: What was formerly Peking is now Beijing. Canton is Guangzhou. Bombay is Mombai. Rhodesia is Zimbabwe. Burma, though few people travel there these days, is Myanmar. Even in our own country, our 50th state has been spelling place names more to reflect the indigenous Polynesian langugage. Hawaii is spelling itself Hawai'i.

If Sinan Aygün, of the Ankara Trade Chamber, has his way, Turkey will join the Places with Altered Names Club. saying “Turkey is the name of a bird in English and is used in a derogatory way to reflect the low intelligence of the bird. The argument for not using Türkiye instead of Turkey is the lack of the letter ‘ü' in English. However, Greece uses its own alphabet on posters. In all movies, posters and other documents, Türkiye needs to be used instead of Turkey.”

Elsewhere in Europe, such issues are no big deal, and people seem quite comfortable when their countries' names reflect the language of the user rather than the countries themselves. To Germans, France is Frankreich. To people who live in Italia, the city of canals in Venezia. To Germans, the country is Italien and the city is Venedig. To English-speakers, of course, they are Italy and Venice. The German-speaking countries of German and Austria are Deutschland and Österreich, and major city in Bayern (Bavaria to us) is München (Munich to us). The French call the countries Allemagne and Autriche, and I can't remember what it is in French. We say Spain, but Spaniards refer to their own country as España. We say Sweden, while the Swedes themselves say Sverige. The linguistically gifted Swiss, with four official languages call their country Die Schweiz in German, La Suisse in French, Svizzera in Italian and something else in Romansch, the language still spoken in the southeastern part of the country.

If you see a new country promoted as a travel destination, consider that it might be an old one with a new name.