Ane and Ole, World Travelers

Ane and Ole, World Travelers

I began this blog about two years ago. Since then several issues have prevented me from a continuous writing effort. These are no longer of critical significance and I am now moved to continue in my usual style of regional travel photo geographizing. Do note that all of my blogging and serious posting (travel photo books) are available on DanesintheWorld.com, where I shall continue to provide periodic upgrades and additions.

Welcome to our travel blog. We intend here to post well remembered experiences from the many encounters that we have had with people and places over a life time of world travel. Our encounters with 'strangers' vary from hilarious, to somber, to slightly unnerving and, at times, clearly personally threatening, but most often are genuinely heart warming and delightful. Always they were happenings that allowed us to grow our understandings of the world we live in, and to develop deeper appreciations of the humans inhabiting it in the contexts of their own lives and cultures. We have also been amazed at how much this world has changed just over our life time of travel, now counting 60 plus years, given that we did not really begin world traveling until we reached the teen years.

Ane and Ole at the idyllic Lake Hoam Kiem in the heart
old Hanoi. At the end of the Vietnamese New Year
celebration of 2015 we spent a delightful eight days
at a small hotel just a few blocks away

      Our blog will initially consist of a series of vignettes, of varying complexity, where the intent is to focus on particular incidents and occurrences that made our travel ventures especially memorable. But first a brief on who we are.

Ane, as Traveler
Ane, was born in Denmark in 1937, nearly a generation after the youngest of her three siblings. Her father owned an automotive mechanics and repair shop in Aalborg. He was an avid sailor, and the family benefitted from many trips on their wooden sailing ship. This was especially critical when they periodically had to quickly flee the home during World War II due to a likelihood of an awakening Gestapo interest in the father's underground anti-Nazi activities. While the German occupation of Denmark lasted for five years, neither of our families suffered personal tragedies, but the memories are still with us.
      Ane, always an explorer, took off for a year to work as an au-pair for an Orthodox Jewish family in London when she was 18. Following this character building experience she began college back in Denmark, and was in the midst of final exams when Ole arrived from the United States. Following a week of whirlwind courtship, he proposed marriage. She accepted, and went off to the New World and marriage to a virtual stranger the next year, after completing her degree as a tri-lingual correspondent.

Pondering the evolution of life on top of Mt. Katahdin, coast of Maine, with Bo in belly and seven year old Karen by her side. The family was taking a side trip en route to Michigan State University where Ole during early Summer of 1971 needed dissertation consultation with his guidance committee members.

Professional Ane

      After following Ole through his college training, and then interrupted by two children, Ane found work in the 1980s as a study-abroad coordinator for Appalachian State University. For a number of years she was the major university support person for international college student exchanges and foreign study tours led by the faculty. Working with student exchanges brought her in her professional capacity to visits at colleges and universities in Mexico, Costa Rica, Sweden, Denmark, England, Germany, and Switzerland.

"Cat in the Hat' Ole
Though my PhD research
focused on human migration
research with application in
Norway north of the Arctic
Circle, I evolved as a
regional geographer. Those
not in the know may not
realize that RGs see 
themselves as latter day
Renaissance men, scientists
with holistic perspectives
applied to regional/world
issues and problems. This,
you should known, 
includes human as well as
physical environments. In  
 my more mature years, 
I see myself as a still 
aspiring scientist; virtually,
perhaps, in the spirit 
of Walter Mitty and Forrest 
Gump, as the 'Cat in the
Hat', perpetually juggling a
 multitude of issues, on none
of which I can claim in-
depth knowledge. Well, you
be the judge.

Ole, as Traveler 

(eventually joined by Ane)

      No sailor, he. At least not at as young an age as Ane. Rather it was his grandfather who saw to early travel experiences. In his automobile the family travelled the Danish countryside, while the boy gained a love for its varied landscapes and what went on in them. 
      My major life travel event was the relocation of the family of six from a secure middle class environment in urban Denmark to the vicissitudes of being a poverty stricken immigrant family in southernmost Georgia in 1951, y'all. Lots to tell later about this, including the saga of the three of burning a KKK cross in my uncle's front yard (following my 'disrespect' of local customs by befriending a next door neighbor, who happened to be the son of a black tenant farmer). Relevant to tell here is that while I left the Danish public school system after only eight full years I was magically advanced two school years thus beginning Valdosta High School in the 11th grade with the Fall term, 1951. So it was that I, following a further relocation to Tallahassee, Florida, graduated in 1953 from Leon County High School at the age of 16, with scant ideas about the future. This was resolved when I decided to join the United States Marine Corps upon turning 17 in July of 1953.
      Golden opportunities for world travel, I thought. Well, following the three months of boot camp at Parris Island, SC, I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for two years. With only a three month sojourn to the island of Viequez (Puerto Rico) for advanced field training. This hardly met my expectations for world travel, though I have to admit to be pleased at the admiration I received from my comrades at the Camp Geiger (Lejeune sub-camp) Disbursing Office upon my return flight on a troop boxcar from Puerto Rico. They all gathered around when I opened my field desk. I had it crammed full of pay records, and a dozen bottles of Puerto Rican rum (it cost very little in Puerto Rico, and was obviously easy to smuggle in!).  
      My reenlistment brought me to Japan, Middle Camp Fuji - where I climbed that most venerated of Japanese mountains once. Then it was off to the Persian Gulf as a volunteer to a reinforced expeditionary force sent, via an AKA troop ship, to deal with a possible negative American oil interest outfall from the Suez crisis of 1955-6. After a number of weeks en route, including beach landing exercises in Subic Bay, the Philippines, we reached the Strait of Hormuz, entrance to the Persian Gulf, and fortunately for us the incident had blown over. Now what to do?

U.S. Atlantic Fleet Battleships,
steamed out of Hampton Roads,
Virginia, in December, 1907,
beginning their world voyage.

      Happily, the decision from on high at Marine Corps Headquarters in Virginia was for us to echo Theodore Roosevelt's 'Great White Fleet', which he had sailing around the world one half a century earlier, to show off America's growing strength. I did say happily, didn't I?  Well, we were a Marine land based fighting team aboard a troop carrier, 1,000 men smothered below deck in densely packed dormitories sleeping in narrow bunks stacked six high. And then they give this beer/fun/women starved, mercilessly cloistered group of young men liberty on the return to Japan!! Several days of freedom in each in the following port cities: Karachi, Pakistan; Bombay, India; Columbo and Trincomalee, Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Singapore, and Hong Kong. Imagine how well we showed American strength! Ah, for the halcyon days of the USMC Asian cruise. 
      I spent the rest of my enlistment at Cherry Point, NC. At this time, before the Viet Nam build-up the Corps was releasing enlistees early if they had been accepted by a university for enrollment. In my case I was, by Florida State University. I began my economics degree program Fall of 1957, got a part time job with the Industrial Savings Bank of Tallahasse as their collection agent and as part time teller-summer relief. 
      Over the years I had been exchanging correspondence with one Ane Keithe Christensen, my first (and only) girl crush in Danish middle school. We had written on and off for seven years, when I decided to fly to Denmark, May of 1960, to see if sparks would fly. And so they did. Ane and I got married in a Lutheran ceremony on Labor Day, 1961, in Tallahassee, Florida. I went on for a masters degree in geography and got hired to teach at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. 

Daughter Karen beside the camper we lived in for
three months,into early December, 1968. The adjacent 
attachable tent tore badly during hurricane force winds 
in a November storm. Coastal mountains of Norway's 
Nordland Province extends here dramatically into 
the North Atlantic Ocean.

      In three years I was accepted for doctoral work in geography at Michigan State University. With my dissertation topic on human migration in Norway's economically-left-behind northernmost regions, Ane, I and our four year old daughter, Karen, left for field research north of the Arctic Circle summer through winter of 1968. 
      I got the job as an Instructor of Geography at Appalachian State University in Fall of 1970. Continuing my research in Scandinavia our family went there on several occasions over the next decade, aided and abetted by the Norwegian Census Bureau, where I was a 'Research Associate' and had office space when in Oslo. I had actually promised Ane that I would bring her back to Denmark for a visit at least every five years, a promise I am happy to say we were able to fulfill. As the years of teaching continued my interest in European affairs deepened. This brought me to Ireland, Great Britain, all of the Scandinavian countries and eventually to Russia and Poland in the pursuit of sponsored research and faculty/student exchange. I was an invited guest lecturer at a number of universities in most of these countries. This also allowed me as my university's representative to sign student/faculty exchange agreement with universities in Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. My role as a sole invited US observer to a NATO Parliamentary Baltic Issues confab in Gdansk, Poland, merits special comments. Finally I extended my interest in unequal regional economic development to China, and went there to lecture in February, 1988, and to recruit students for our ASU masters degree programs. An offer from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to conduct regional development research in Anhui Province over a four month period later that year was given a quick heave-ho following the Tiananmen Square incident. 
      In 1978, I was recruited to lead an ASU faculty-student group interested in children's literature to the countries of Hans Cristian Andersen's 'Little Mermaid', Niels Holgerson's flying geese, and Norwegian trolls. The success of this three week venture stimulated my interest in leading similar trips to the Scandinavian countries for our planning and geography majors. Ane and I conducted four of these beginning in the early to mid 1980s. 

Pondering, while cruising the Caribbean: How to 
spend the day in Oranjestad in the Netherlands 
Antilles? We decided to climb the mountain 
in the distance - bit of a dare, as it turned out, 
though mission completed

     
Ane and Ole as Retirement Travelers
Following retirement in 2003, when Ane and I have not taken weeks to explore the vistas of North America, we have traveled most years to foreign countries. We have fallen in love with Madeira Island, we have spent less time in Scandinavia while cruising the Mediterranean Sea, and the Caribbean several times, as well as sailing the entire perimeter of South America. Also we have flown for visits to Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji, and more recently to Portugal/Spain (2012) and southern France (2013. In 2014 we spent a month touring Denmark and Norway and have now in early 2015 just returned from our 60 days around the world. 
      I have not here dealt with the work Ane and I have gotten into relating to the geography of wine over the past four decades. This has brought us to vineyards and wine producers the world over. And it is richly covered in my blog labelled:  oleswinesandvineyards.blogspot.com

And this blog is about what?
      So, what is to come on the Pages of this blog. A life of experiencing our world with all of the passion we are capable of giving, in short and hopefully easily consumed vignettes. Some are more profusely illustrated by photos taken on site with less text, and some are perhaps more elaborate in detail, though hopefully not professorially meandering nor pontifical (Ane has expressed a concern). Here are some themes you can expect to see on associated Pages, in the near future. What you have here is today, tomorrow this may expand. You may readily check the page itineraries to the upper right to see how far I have progressed, and then view the page(s) of interest) - I see this as a many years effort; patience is a virtue.

1.  Innocents in the World: Memorable Snippets of Travel Events
     The more you travel the more the unexpected will happen. I am an inveterate travel planner, having for decades meticulously prepared, long in advance, for individual, family and group travel for near and far. My inherent need to get embedded in the vibrant pulse of daily life in any particular community complements a sometime daunting issue of survival in strange places. Standing out in my memory is the following series of events, some spanning a single day, several a bit longer. A few follow similarities of happenings demonstrating that perhaps I do not learn well over time. This course will be served to you on a loquacious platter heaped with illustrative goodies, one page at the time. (They will be numbered and labelled on the upper right as they are published, and not necessarily in the order indicated below):
     a.  An Obama Kind of Day in Manta, Ecuador (now available - click upper right panel)

Two tuna truck drivers awaiting the incoming catch for transport to its destination at local restaurants in the country    

     b.  NATO Encounters in Gdansk, Poland
     c.  From Cold to Lukewarm Along the Russian Frontier
     d.  A day in Lima, Peru - No 'Shining Lights', no Tupamaros
     






2.  World Landscapes through history

An incredible example of an architectural
fusing of what matters in Renaissance
 local society. Here in the Hanseatic city 
of Greifswall, Germany, is the massive
Cathedral, umbilically joined to 
the buildings housing the dominant 
burgher's businesses and residences,
 while the puffed-up town hall is a clear 
Siamese twin. The powers that reign are 
here locationally defined in a physical/ 
design and proximity harmony.

      This is a query that has consumed me wherever I have travelled. Just what can the visible evidence, i.e. people we see actively engaging in their daily activities, their own neighborhoods and communities, their built environment, their nearby landscapes/natural environments, and their artistic endeavors, tell us about their unique history, economy and culture? Does this provide a window to our own culture? One of the most exciting aspects of my life is to feel as an active participant in cultural environments created over history, as well as in their current contexts. I do personally believe that we have a very special critical responsibility 

Ole is lying in front of the altar used to provide 
significant live offerings (animal) to the gods
prior to the beginning of another competitive
game at Olympia, Greece. Below me is the 
world's first ever track & field stadium built for
competition. I was quite conscious of the shouting 
coming from the stadium where elementary school 
kids on an outing were running their hearts out 
imagining hemselves young Greeks of 2,700 years ago.

to ourselves, in our so limited 
life time. And that is to try to
comprehend the fullness of the
human experience in civilizing its species, as well as to assess our own personal role in this, for then to pass this acquired wisdom on to our children and future generations. Certainly that makes me quite interested, as well, in present and future commitments made to preserve cultural history in the landscape, and it seals me to the principle of having people embrace traditional cultural characteristics while accepting the changes of the future. In this Page there will be relevant comments to these objectives, supported by apt imagery.

3.  People of the World
      Some decades back Ane expressed concern that my photography was solely of cultural landscapes and physical environments, as if people did not exist in places we traveled. Gradually I spent more time including people as part of those environments. A photo collection of a wide variety of personalities emerged. I am finding that seeing these conjures far more detailed memories and deeply seated feelings than does other imagery.

A nine year old Chinese school girl with her red Communist Youth kerchief. A soft smile graces a face shining from play in the cold February weather. She and her small group of friends were following this large western stranger as he was wandering with his guide, Xiao Qiaowen, through a small farming village inland from Shanghai in 1988. In her own right, Qiaowen's story provides a fascinating window into events unfolding in China from the time of Mao, through the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent 'opening'. She and I remain dear friends.  Ane and I had her visit with us in Province, France. Hopefully we will se her with us here in Boone before too long.

3.  Ane and Ole at Play - Sports and Mayhem, Here and Abroad

Dodging sperm whales while visiting sea and walrus 
colonies on offshore islands in the Pacific Ocean off 
the coast of SouthIsland, New Zealand. Two seater 
kayaks, four foot swells, but minimum surface waves

Ane and I have both been outdoor sports enthusiasts for most of our lives. Ane was brought up on a sailboat that her father owned, and went  for some time to the Gymnastic High School in Sønderborg, Denmark as a teenager. I went out for the athletic team in my senior year in high school, was paid no attention to by the coaches, but still came in fifth in the 1/2 mile run at the Florida high school state finals in Jacksonville FL in 1953. 
      During our several decades of child raising and professional work we slackened a bit on our fitness activity, but eventually got into jogging and began in the late 1990s to compete in 1/2 Marathons. I competed for only a few years before my knees began troubling me, and I started fast walking the 1/2 Marathons. Ane, on the other hand, became a star runner, winning most of the several dozen age category defined runs she participated in from 2002 to the present. Our most recent 1/2 marathon was in Columbus OH, October, 2014. 

Ane is ready to explore the 
corals and prolific marine 
life off Viti Levu, Fiji

      When retirement came along in 2003 we realized that we needed to get involved in couple activities. I had initiated, with my fitness partner, Roni Ellis, a local bike club. She and I delineated 270 miles of leisure biking roadways away from the major traffic arteries in our country, and published a book. Have a look at: www.wataugaleisurebiking.com. Ane and I were both becoming avid bicyclists. Mostly this now involves Ane taking off up the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and then waiting patiently (?) at the top as I more slowly move my far too ungainly body after her. 
      We got certified for scuba diving, with subsequent events in the Atlantic off the North Carolina shore, exploring ancient ship wrecks; and in the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii Island, watching from below as the giant mantas come in to fed on plankton; and among the amazing and richly colored corals in the Fiji islands. We bought kayaks and have explored rivers, waterways, lakes and oceans from New Zealand to Huatopulco, Mexico and across the United States. 

4. We Design, Pursue, and Complete (Mostly Successfully) a 60 Day Journey Around the World in Winter of 2015
    This rather extraordinary, even for us veteran travelers, event was initiated by my being diagnosed with what was termed a virulent prostate cancer in Spring of 2012. 'Well', said one oncologist to Ane and I when in consultation. 'Your cancer is aggressive, we will need to throw everything at it and hope for the best. You may otherwise have 3-5 years left to live'. OMG! We went on to other specialists, I had my prostate radically removed in December, 2012, and underwent 37 days of radiation therapy six months later, while rejecting totally any hormone and chemo therapies. I radically changed my diet, intensified my fitness program, and worked on my travel bucket list. What is wonderful about my selection of surgeons and oncologists while committing to serious life style changes is that the cancer so far appears gone and here we are now in the midst of trying to achieve my bucket list of travels. Life can be (IS) good!! Truly, having just returned from this most incredible 'around the world' experience, this is where I will be focusing my work on my blog, at least until I feel emptied of the more weighty impressions, experiences, and image rich wealth accumulated during this life enriching venture. The blog will be filled gradually with pages representing encounters with people and environments in strikingly different contexts of history and development.