UnTourists & Christos’s family, at their home for a dinner. (that’s me on the far right) Many of our Greek UnTourists comment on the extraordinary warmth of the Greek people they meet. (To be clear, many UnTourists comment on the warmth and friendliness of the people they meet on all their UnTours. We try to…
Michele & John Bohannon, our UnTourists of the week, went on their Greece UnTour in 2010 (November is Greece month here at the Blog) and here are their answers…..sometime you don’t need a lot of words to say exactly what you think. 1. Tell us about your most recent UnTour: We spent 14 days in…
I stumbled upon a film trailer about four young US men, who spent a summer in Guatemala trying to live on a dollar a day. At first I thought, “Well, that doesn’t really count. They knew their situation was only temporary.” Then, Hurricane Sandy took out the power in my neighborhood, and most of my…
One of my favorite definitions of culture is “Groups of people solving problems over time.”. It’s an interesting puzzle to take a glance at Dutch ‘problems’ throughout their history, and deduce from the solutions they found, what sort of culture is the result. Wikipedia, described the Dutch, in its first paragraph as ‘a seafaring people…
A Leiden canal under Holland’s ever-changing skies (Photo by Daniel Yett) This Monday, the UnTour bloggers (here in our suburban Philadelphia offices) have a certain lady in mind…..Sandy. As in Hurricane Sandy. We hope everyone is battened down properly, if you are in the large lady’s path. If by some chance, you find our…
A short video produced by Good Eye Video for Fonkoze – the bright, bold, and effective bank in Haiti that services the poor – won the 6th Annual doGooder Nonprofit Video Award for the best video by a medium-sized organization. We told you Fonkoze was among the contenders, but failed to tell you they won!…
A bicycle bridge in the background, just one display of the awesome infrastructure Holland has created for the bicyclist citizen. While biking has been prevalent in Holland since the advent of the bicycle, Holland has not always had the bike friendly culture is it now. That was a surprise. I had always been under the…
Jack, Lila and Jack (the grandson!) in where else? Holland! If there was only one family that could be the “UnTourists of the Week” for Holland, it might just have to be Jack and Lila Korvink. Jack and Lila come to the Holland UnTour by a slightly UN-typical route. Jack was born in Holland. As…
It was just a month ago that our loan recipient, Wash Cycle Laundry, won “2012 Best Laundry Service” from Philadelphia Magazine. This week, it won the annual Pacesetter Award from Gearing Up, a non-profit providing women in transition from abuse, addiction, and/or incarceration with the skills, equipment, and guidance to safely ride a bicycle for…
Hal Taussig, UnTours Founder, enjoying a bicycle ride, on a boat ride. This photo was taken on along the Rhine, on our Rhine UnTour in Germany, but Hal has been a Holland fan and bicycle advocate since he gave his last car away forty some years ago! When once asked if there was one UnTour…