Almonte, ON

The Mississipi River on Canada runs through Ontario and nourishes Almonte, Carleton Place, and Innisville in Lanark County. This northern Mississippi shares the same name as the one in America but is not half as mighty. Almonte’s town hall, like the one in Carleton Place, is a heritage building as Read more…

Carleton Place, ON

Carleton Place’s town hall is one if six heritage buildings in the town. It’s named after a place in Scotland, just like the names of the counties surrounding the area. A university in Ottawa shares the same name with the town – Carleton University, though it’s unclear whether the etymology Read more…

Kellies Castle

Located near the town of Ipoh in Malaysia, Kellie’s Castle is the unfinished home built by a Scottish settler which was later left to ruin. The property is mainly built in Victorian architectural style using darker materials with elements of Indian colonial building features. The owner, William Kellie Smith, died Read more…

Werneuchen Airfield

The Werneuchen airfield was built in the mid-1930s by Germany in preparation for WW2. The Luftwaffe trained pilots at the airfield with the Air Force Group 55, which is only an hour’s train ride away from Berlin. In addition to training, the Germans also developed their radar system and tested Read more…

Vilhelmina, Sweden

With only about 3000-4000 inhabitants, the town of Vilhelmina is not a major tourist destination. It was named after Queen Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Sweden but despite the honour it only has a Coop and an ICA supermarket. On our way to the Arctic Circle from Stockholm, we stopped to Read more…

Georgetown, Malaysia

In the northern area of West Malaysia and near the Thai border, Georgetown is just 2 hours away from Ipoh and 4 hours from Kuala Lumpur by train to Butterworth. Georgetown has a lot of traditional southeast Asian cuisine such as glass noodles, rice noodles, honey glazed pork jerky, fried Read more…

Providence, RI

The first time I heard of Providence was when I watched snippets of the legal reality TV show “Caught in Providence”, which with a northeastern accent sounds like “Court in Providence”. I thought it was a rather clever use of accents to play on the theme of the show being Read more…

Human Transit

By Jarett Walker The first time I was aware of Walker’s work was when I came across his blog that outlines his experience as a public transportation planner and his principles for sound public transportation design. His blog has gained much attention from planners and riders alike to comment on Read more…