Program 253a: Composer Sites in Europe; Portugal Beyond Lisbon; Eating Adventures

See how attending a performance at one of Europe's great concert venues can add to your enjoyment of classical music. A guide from Portugal introduces us to some of the high points away from Lisbon. Also, travel writer Don George shares stories of life-changing food adventures around the world.

• Ben Curtis, tour guide and associate professor of political science at Seattle University
• Portugal tour guide Cristina Duarte, based in Lisbon
• Travel writer Don George, editor of "A Movable Feast"

• Ben Curtis has authored a book on how 19th century European composers influenced nation building in their home countries called, "Music Makes the Nation: Nationalist Composers and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Europe."
• Among the many venues for hearing music in Europe, Ben Curtis and Rick mention attending opera performances at La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, and Ben recommends the acoustics of Wigmore Hall in London for chamber music and singers.   
• Don George writes a blog for the Adventure Collection, and edits the travel website for Geographic Expeditions.
• One of the authors mentioned in Don George's "A Moveable Feast" is Jim Benning, who is a co-founder of the World Hum travel website.

Trans-Atlantic lag

Lifted upon arrival

Among new faces

Ancient nations live

Pushing proud at the edges

Of our world worn maps.

— Will Phillips, Seattle 

Alpen cattle graze

Dangling uniquely tuned bells

Wind chime on the hoof

— Randy Hamm, Bakersfield, California

The tattered suitcase

Of a weary traveler

Restoreth my soul

— J-David Hershberger, Boulder, Colorado