About five weeks after my husband, Steve, and I returned home from a June 2018 trip to the Scottish isles (June ’19, pg. 6), we got an unwelcome letter in our mailbox.

While waiting for the ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, we had parked in a pay lot so we could get a bite of lunch. The automated machine used to pay for parking only took coins, so I had to ask a woman in the ferry office if she could change a £5 bill. She did so, handing me ten 50-pence coins.

When I...

According to a Brazilian legend, a rich land owner’s favorite boi (ox) was slain by a farmer whose pregnant wife had a craving for beef tongue. This led to a feud between families rich and poor, and the farmer was to be sent to jail, but a pajé (shaman) revived the boi and the farmer was forgiven, leading to a celebration.

Various versions of that story are manifested by sets of dancers every last weekend in June at the 3-day Boi Bumbá Festival, held in Parintins, northern...

So you’d like to visit Switzerland and experience those towering Alps, but health problems make it seem unlikely. You can’t walk a great distance and never uphill. Your energy is limited and your balance is a bit of a problem. Well, take heart. You can still see those Alps.

My husband, Al, and I have traveled extensively, including to all seven continents, but we’ve been to Switzerland 12 times, last in August 2015 (June ’17, pg. 50). It’s our favorite...