I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was the company indeed offering unclaimed luggage for sale? Its website brazenly proclaimed, “Why not stop in at Unclaimed Baggage Center (509 West Willow St., Scottsboro, AL 35768; phone 256-259-1525, www.unclaimedbaggage.com), where you’ll find thousands of lost treasures from around the world. From winter clothes and shoes for the family to electronics, jewelry and luggage, you never know what you’ll discover!”

“Among the strangest finds have been a case...

by Philip Wagenaar.

With difficulty, I entered the jetway, my bags trailing behind me. Gingerly, I stepped over the plane’s threshold. Rows and rows of seats, crammed together like sardines in a can, stared at me.

“This can’t be true,” I thought. “Will I really have to be compressed into a chair that is too small, even for my 128-pound frame?”

The seats solemnly nodded back: “Unfortunately, you have no choice. You have to sit here. Despite the fare that you paid, the...

(Second of two parts, click here for part 1)

Sitting in a small café in May 2006, my bica (espresso) in front of me, I put the finishing touch on the second installment of my Portugal travelogue. The results appear below.

The Alto Douro wine region

Beautiful vistas of the Douro River, of small picturesque villages, of quintas (wine-producing farm complexes, frequently offering accommodation), of chapels, of winding roads and of terraced vineyards greeted us on our...