Places I Remember with Lea Lane – Details, episodes & analysis

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Captivating travel memories from 2024, featuring guests who share unique adventures and insights. These  include: Andre Van Ketz with a road trip around Cape Town, where whale watching becomes an unforgettable experience. Lila Kresic-Djurek tells of Spanish visitors falling in love with Croatia's wine and cuisine, while Harry Mitsitis paints a heartwarming picture of travel’s small, impactful gestures in Sierra Leone, Africa. Each narrative celebrates moments of discovery and cultural connection.

Bravo celebrity Aesha Scott takes us on a day off in Havana, Cuba. Best-selling author Mike Finkel shares a gripping journey across the Sahara, highlighting the communal spirit found even in the harshest environments. Ryan Hoke's picturesque return to Wyoming offers soul-soothing fly fishing in the Bighorn Mountains. And there's more: Whether it's the nostalgia of a childhood trip to Europe or the culinary traditions of Ecuador, each of these eleven favorite memories is a testament to travel.
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and  has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember  (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and  'one of the top 100 Indie books of  the year'). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has dropped over 100 travel episodes! New podcast episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen.
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Travel vlogs of our featured  podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now drop on YouTube in the middle of every month! Please subscribe, like, and comment.
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Website: https://placesirememberlealane.com
Travel Blog: forbes.com
X (Twitter):@lealane
Instagram: PlacesIRememberLeaLane
Facebook: Places I Remember with Lea Lane
YouTube Channel: Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane

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Discover Wyoming's stunning natural landscapes and rich culture with Ryan Hauck, Executive Director of Cody Yellowstone. From the eruptions of Old Faithful to the vistas of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We also journey through the Shoshone Forest, and discuss the diverse wildlife that inhabit these lands, including tips on securing lodging and camping spots.

We delve into the folklore, and climbing opportunities of Devil's Tower, learn of  treasures at Fossil Butte National Monument, and explore the authentic Western charm of Cody, Casper and Cheyenne. We also talk about the Wind River Indian Reservation, where you can connect with Native American culture through wild horse tours and more. Join us for a heartfelt exploration this and more, uncovering Wyoming's beauty and heritage.
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Ryan Hauck is executive Director of Cody Yellowstone.
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Podcast host Lea Lane  has traveled to over 100 countries, and  has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember  (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and  'one of the top 100 Indie books of  the year'). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has dropped over 100 travel episodes! New podcast episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen.
_____
Travel vlogs of featured  podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now drop on YouTube in the middle of every month! Please subscribe, like, and comment.
****************************************
Website: https://placesirememberlealane.com
Travel Blog: forbes.com
X (Twitter):@lealane
Instagram: PlacesIRememberLeaLane
Facebook: Places I Remember with Lea Lane
YouTube Channel: Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane

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Discover Croatia's allures with travel experts  Leila Krešić-Jurić  and Antonia Urlic,
as we traverse the nation's vibrant history and culture. From ancient cities to contemporary charms, we uncover the reasons behind Croatia's soaring popularity. The 'Pearl of the Adriatic', Dubrovnik, unveils its deep cultural significance and Game of Thrones fame, and a thriving culinary scene.

Zagreb offers festive markets, a cathedral that dominates the skyline, and the quirky  the Museum of Broken Relationships. Indulge in Zagreb's traditional Strukli, a gastronomic gem best savored within the grandeur of the Hotel Esplanade.

From the storied walls of Diocletian's Palace in Split to the cascading beauty of Plitvice Lakes National Park.

And for those seeking a connection with nature, we share personal stories including a mesmerizing encounter with a dolphin off the island of Hvar,  in the Adriatic.
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Leila Krešić-Jurić (leila.kresic.us@croatia.hr) is U.S. director of Tourism for Croatia;  Antonia Urlic (antonia.urlic@stories-hotels.com) is head of Stories Hotels.

Podcast host Lea Lane  has traveled to over 100 countries, and  has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember  (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and  'one of the top 100 Indie books of  the year'). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has produced over 100 travel episodes! New podcast episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and  wherever you listen. Check them out.

Travel videos of each 2024 podcast -- with creative, added graphics -- now drop on YouTube the 15th of every month!

Please consider sharing, following, rating and reviewing us.  And leave your travel questions and comments on our YouTube videos— Lea will answer.

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Website: https://placesirememberlealane.com
Travel Blog: forbes.com
X (Twitter):@lealane
Instagram: PlacesIRememberLeaLane
Facebook: Places I Remember with Lea Lane
YouTube Channel: Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane 

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Florence Quinn, a travel and lifestyle public-relations pro, represents numerous destinations and lodgings around the world. She shares with us environmental problems and the best ways  to travel green, in what she  calls the "earth crisis" we're in today.

-- She  became especially aware of eco-travel when, among 120 million others, she saw a photo of a distressed sea turtle with a plastic straw up its nose.

-- Towels in hotels were among the first signs of green travel, and Lea and Florence share eco-centric stories from Miami to Greenland, melting glaciers to forest fires.

-- But there are good signs: Covid has temporarily greened up travel, bringing many of us closer to nature. Hotels are banning plastic straws, and planting sustainable gardens,  Some hotels even provide power from guests working out on gym machines. Wind turbines dot landscapes around the world, the Netherlands has state-of-the-art techology to keep the country from  flooding, and China's solar power has helped turn skies blue.

-- Lea and Florence share personal tips for green travel, including resusables, recycling, supporting local conservationists, carbon-offset, eating local, slow travel, using public travel, animal awareness, local souvenirs, eco-friendly accommodations -- including goats eating grass, "up close to nature."

Florence's favorite eco-memory is of climbing cold and windy Mt. Washington -- carry up, carry back.
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Florence Quinn, president of Quinn Public Relations,  is a winner of nearly every award available to PR professionals, including being #25 on Observer’s PR POWER50 list, and a five-star ranking in Forbes America’s Best PR agencies. 
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written many travel books, including Places I Remember, and has contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter, Travelea on Instagram, and  blogs about travel at forbes.com  Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Follow  Places I Remember with Lea Lane wherever you listen to podcasts. New travel episodes every Tuesday. And please review it on Apple! 

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Susan Mihalic, author of the debut novel Dark Horses, shares her love of New Mexico, her home state.
-- Northern Pueblos, including Taos Pueblo,and  rituals and festivals, Bandelier National Monument,
-- Carlsbad  Caverns. Lea shares about a tornado;  Susan, a honeymoon road trip  with (or without) bats
-- Susan talks of Roswell, where supposedly a UFO crashed; "cute brick buildings" and a UFO museum
--  White Sands: "mountains of snow," soft, powdery dunes, no shade
-- Los Alamos, where nuclear bombs were built, with the "highest IQ in the state." Rock petraglyphs and  pictographs, at Bandelier
-- Albuquerque: hot air ballooning, "Breaking Bad" sites
-- Taos, Susan's hometown: high desert, blue skies, red aspens. "Taos is my landscape." Artists visiting Taos "stayed because of the light."
-- Ancient crafts, plus Anglo artists from late 1800s. Recreation, in mountains and desert
-- Susan's favorite pueblo, Acoma, known for pottery, and an ancient mica windowpane.
Silver City pueblo, and Zuni pueblo -- fetishes, amulets, jewelry. And  bread made in ornos, special ovens.
-- Red or green chilis? "I always get Christmas." Green chili harvest, and green chili stew.
Lea remembers eating green chili burger and Frito Pie, New Mexico faves.
-- Sante Fe:  "New York in the desert," star chefs, mountains, opera, arts, old theater, culture, slower pace. Stunning adobe brick. Georgia O Keefe museum there; her home nearby, a  ghost ranch and retreat
-- How New Mexico influenced her novel, in which horses are the backdrop.  Dark Horses allowed her to buy a horse and "quit her day job." The heroine's relationship with horses is based on Susan's relationship with her horse, Goldmark.
-- Susan's special memory is set on thousands of acres north of Taos, with old logging roads. She twice went horse camping there, sleeping in a tent with Goldmark nearby, riding out for the day.  Her "most beautiful place."
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Writer, editor, teacher Susan Mihalic lives in Taos, New Mexico. Her novel Dark Horses is on Oprah Magazine's and Parade Magazine's lists of Most Anticipated Books of 2021, GoodReads' list of 75 Debut Novels to Discover in 2021, and was named a "Title to Watch" by Library Journal.  Susan taught riding therapy for two summers in college and four years in San Diego. She rides her horse Goldmark every chance she gets, throughout beautiful New Mexico.
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine travel books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs at forbes.com. Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Please follow  Places I Remember with Lea Lane wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you enjoy, leave a 5-star a review on Apple.

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The Underline, a 10-mile linear park, urban trail and public arts destination, will meander from the Miami River to Dadeland South under the Miami Metrorail. With its first section, "Brickell Backyard" newly opened, Meg Daly, Founder and President of Friends of the Underline, talks with Lea about Miami's past, present and future.

-- Lea and Meg both grew up in  the Miami area a generation apart. Lea remembers Miami Beach of the past 50 years: no air conditioning, the airport not much more than a hangar, mosquitos sprayed from above with DDT, and much more.

-- Meg tells of growing up in an activist family in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, in a vintage Spanish-style house. Her family came from Boston in 1960 and was active in keeping the gorgeous Biltmore Hotel from being destroyed.

-- At the beginning of the Millennium, when Miami still did not have a cultural center, Meg's father, Parker Thompson, who would later help plan The Underline, was involved in developing the Arsht Performing Arts center. It influenced an arts scene including museums, Art Basel, Wynwood, and new neighborhoods designed by great architects, spawning great restaurants.

-- Along with progress came heavy traffic  -- and that is where The Underline comes in, bringing us a 10-mile linear park by 2025, leading to a network of parks and trails with native plants, butterflies,  places to connect --"it equals life!"

-- Meg talks about the first section completed, "Brickell Backyard," from the Miami River through Brickell Village.

-- And the four thousand new trees and green design will help Miami get through climate change.

And last, Meg remembers how she conceived of The Underline --combining past, present and future in an engrossing memory.
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Meg Daly is a full-time volunteer, Founder and President of Friends of The Underline,  transforming the underutilized land below Miami’s Metrorail into a 120-acre linear park, urban trail and public art destination spanning 10-miles in the urban core. (www.theunderline.org).  

 A 30-year sales and marketing veteran, she held executive marketing and management positions in the television, public relations, advertising, technology, and real estate industries. Meg has a BA in English from Vanderbilt University and has served on numerous philanthropic boards.
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written many travel books, including Places I Remember, and has contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs about travel at forbes.com  Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Please follow  Places I Remember with Lea Lane wherever you listen to podcasts, and review it on Apple! New travel episodes every Tuesday.

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 Harald Hansen, travel expert from Visit Norway, shares his expertise with us from Oslo.

-- He talks of contemporary Norwegian architecture, and lodgings with spectacular views; even igloos where you can see the Northern Lights from your bed.

-- We learn of cruising up the Norwegian coastline, above the Arctic Circle, to Tromso, the "Paris of the North."  You can go dog sledding or on a reindeer safari, and see reflective Northern Lights in the Lofoten Islands.

-- Harald tells us  his favorite fjords, near Bergen, and talks of ancient stave churches. He tells us of the 18 Norwegian Scenic Roads,  designed only for cars, combining gorgeous new lodgings, restaurants to complement the scenery, and even special toilets with views!

-- We hear of whales, and an anecdote of polar bears seen very closeup. And of the Sami people in the north; travelers can join tours, celebrating the ancient family culture that revolves around reindeer.

-- Lea remembers the beauty of Oslo's City Hall, and Harald tells of how that capital city has transformed in the last few years; it's now hip and filled with restaurants.

-- We talk of Bergen, with its ancient warehouses, a center of the new "Fjordic cuisine." You can even catch your own seafood.

-- We mention Alesund, the art nouveau town in southern Norway. And of course we end with a favorite memory.  And Harald has a great one.

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Harald Hansen,  Media Specialist and Industry Specialist at Visit Norway, lives in Oslo and has been a Norwegian travel specialist  for decades. harald.hansen@innovationnorway.no, www.innovationnorway.no, www.visitnorway.com
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written many travel books, including Places I Remember, and has contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs about travel at forbes.com  Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Please follow  Places I Remember with Lea Lane wherever you listen to podcasts, and  write a review on Apple! New travel episodes every  other Tuesday.

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Podcast host Lea Lane describes favorite delights of spring travel -- food, flowers and festivals -- from the magnificent to the hilarious.

-- She starts with food, remembering gorging on "spargle," the white gold (asparagus) of Germany.  Food festivals are delicious ways to have fun. And one food festival in England  involves a nine-pound cheese that rolls down a hill.

-- Spring flowers are Lea's next delight -- colorful wildflowers on roadsides and fields of yellow rapeseed. And gardens, including painter Claude Monet's at Giverny, outside of Paris; and Keukenhof, "the most beautiful spring garden in the world," outside of Amsterdam.

-- Religious festivals celebrate rebirth and cleansing in strange ways.  Spring ones include colorful Holi in the Hindu world, where people douse each other with colors and Sonkgran, in the Buddhist world, where everyone douses themselves with water, especially in Thailand. Las Fallas, a Spanish celebration,  honors St. Joseph, with huge puppets.

-- Semana Santa, Holy Week highlighted by Easter, is celebrated around the world, but no where more beautiful than in Seville Spain and Antiqua Guatemala, where processions involve robed participants and carpets of flowers.

-- Non-religious festivals include Sechselauten, where a creature called a Boogg is burned to end the winter season. And the King's Birthday in the Netherlands, when everybody wears orange and goes shopping at a huge flea market.

-- In the U.S. there's a sand-sculpture festival in Florida, rodeos out west, Patriot's Day in Boston, and baseball spring training.

-- And as in every episode, we end with special travel memories. Lea shares two unforgettable spring anecdotes: one in the New Zealand (in November), and one in the Greek Islands. Both are surprising, and both are delightful!
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written many travel books, including Places I Remember, and has contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs about travel at forbes.com . Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Please follow  Places I Remember with Lea Lane wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you enjoy, leave a 5-star a review on Apple! New travel episodes every Tuesday.

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Irish singer/songwriter Joe Kearns is blessed with the gift of song and the gift of gab, and generously shares both with us. From his house near Dublin,  he offers witty insights about the culture and pleasures of his beloved Ireland.

-- Find out how to choose the best pubs, and why Dublin’s Trinity College — home of the medieval illustrated Book of Kells -- has a barrel ceiling. We talk of Kilkenny,  a remote monastery in the Skellig Islands,  the Ring of Kerry, and the Irish beauty of castles, lakes, mountains, and even a coral beach.

-- Travel with Joe to the coolest music spot in Dingle,  as we talk of  the Celtic language and chat about colorful towns, a picnic atop the Cliffs of Moher, drinking honey Meade at a medieval banquet, and the pleasures of County Galway, the Wild Atlantic Way, and more. 

-- Coddle and Barmbrack are probably not what you think (they're classic Irish foods), and I add a memory about Baileys on corn flakes. 

-- Joe tells romantic travel stories set under Irish rainbows and "sideways rain."

-- And then, best of all — Joe, a fabulous singer, takes out his guitar and sings a beloved Irish ballad, even using his whistle!
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Joe Kearns, now living back home near Dublin, is a world traveler and a gifted singer/songwriter, often accompanied by his wife, Olivia. He loves Ireland, and it shows in his words and music. Facebook page: www.facebook.com/joeandliv Instagram: the_old_cabra_schoolhouse
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine travel books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs at forbes.com  Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com
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Please subscribe and leave a quick review! New travel episodes every Tuesday, wherever you listen.

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Determined to save endangered animals, Paul Baricault, CEO of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, shares travel experiences from Botswana to Antarctica, highlighting magnificent memories, impending crises and ways to solve them.

-- Paul explains why it's so critical for world conservationists to work together, such as at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Northern Kenya.
-- We learn of animals in danger of extinction, including the northern white rhino, and the success of helping to birth two rhino newborns at the San Diego Zoo Global.
-- "Life thrives but it has to move." Paul talks of elephants and gorillas, African habitats, the magnificent wildebeest migration and the movement of animals at the flooding of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
-- We talk of favorite travel memories, including safaris, special zoos, working on species priority in the Galapagos Islands, walking among brown bears in Alaska, and visiting pandas in China.
-- Paul reminds us, "Be inspired to protect the world." And connects us to ways we can help.

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Paul Baricault is  President and CEO of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and a committed conservationist, intent on saving and protecting the world's threatened plants and animals.
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Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, written many travel books, including Places I Remember, and has contributed to dozens of guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter and  blogs about travel at forbes.com  Contact her at placesirememberlealane.com.
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Please follow Places I Remember with Lea Lane, and leave a review on Apple! New travel episodes every Tuesday, wherever you listen to podcasts.