"Exploring Freud's World" with Chris Downing

Sunday April 28, Den Haag, Holland Dear Trail Friends, We are staying with longtime friends Jan and Christopher in Den Haag. Jan is an art historian who worked for the national art museum, who was forced by government policy to stop working when he reached retirement age, before he was really ready, and who still (post-retirement) works parttime for the museum. It is interesting to look at Jan’s bookcases that reflect his lifelong passion for history, a subject I have never explored deeply. Christopher is a retired Jungian analyst also forced into retirement, in his case by health crises. He had a serious stroke five years ago and continues to make surprising recovery gains, but was robbed forever of the work he loved. Both are almost my age, just a year or two younger.  Chris met Christopher in 1975 (six years before Chris and I met), her second year in San Diego after moving from New Jersey. Christopher was a student at California School of Professional Psychology, where Chris ta...

Friday night 8:55pm, April 26 (Pacific time). Saturday morning 5:55am, April 27 (time in Europe). Sitting in an airplane about 37,000 feet (7+ miles above the ground), 2 hours and 40 minutes to go before we reach Frankfurt. We are about half way between Iceland and the UK.  Dear Trail Friends, I am sitting here in this dark airplane feeling twitchy and uncomfortable, looking at the flight map on my personal screen and feeling guilty about the “loud” light it blasts into the darkness. There - that’s better. (I turned it off.) We somehow managed in this seemingly full flight to be given an empty seat, so Chris is stretched out on the two seats beside me (the middle and window seats). I am in the aisle seat.  We had an unpleasant little surprise this morning when my boarding pass didn’t have “TSA precheck” on it. The first woman checking boarding passes at the entrance to the pre-check line thought they might let us go through, but when we got to the official checker a...

Dear Trail Friends, I begin this post sitting here at home on Orcas Island with spring sunshine coming in through my window. As our trip beckons, my heart lingers with Orcas in spring time and with our beloved 8 month old kittens Magic and Mystery (photo below). Chris and I will leave tomorrow by ferry (and car) for Seattle, then fly to Amsterdam for a one-day visit. From there we travel by car to Germany, then fly to Prague. "Exploring Freud's World," our group tour (including family members, friends, and former students) with Chris lecturing, starts May 3 in Prague and ends May 18 in London. I begin this blog with some ambivalence. I learned to blog on the Pacific Crest Trail from another hiker. I hiked that glorious trail, and subsequent trails, living so close to my own heart and soul, held in the arms of the sky and the earth and the trees, that the blogs spilled out from a place of pure gratitude. I was awed by the beauty of the trail, and by the fact that...