As I put together this post, and since my thoughts have turned to travel, I thought I’d make Articles of Interest.3 all about travel.

1. Sand Storm by Patrick Symmes, Outside Magazine

“The plan was to check out Yemen, a little-visited Arab nation that offers glowing deserts, forbidding mountains, and lonely Socotra Island—a naturalist’s paradise as imagined by Dr. Suess. But instead all hell broke loose, and a tourist romp became a front-row seat to the bloody upheavals sweeping the Middle East.”

2. The Grand Tour by Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

Usually when one uses the term “The Grand Tour,” the reference is a trip throughout Europe by wealthy young Englishmen, Americans, etc. Here’s a twist on that – Chinese tourists and Europe through their eyes.

3. Down a Stream in Iran and Up a Creek in Spain, by Beebe Bahrami, Gold Winner of Best Women’s Travel Writing, 2112, Solas Awards.

4. Consider The Lobstermen by Jesse Dukes, The Virginia Quartely

I suppose this one is not exactly a travel story, but since I know some of you are spending more and more time in Maine, would like to do so, or perhaps you just enjoy lobster, I thought I’d include it. Seems as if things are changing in the lobster business.

5. The Forever City by Robert Hughes, Wall Street Journal

“For a time in my adolescence, I was nuts about the idea of Rome, but to me it was hardly more than an idea, and a poorly formed, misshapen idea at that. I had never even been to the place.”

6. Of Parties, Prose and Football by Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Have you ever thought about visiting in Oxford, Mississippi? No? Maybe this story will change your mind.