Program 695a: Belgium Pride; Favorite Gardens; Arctic Trails

You don't have to be from a big country to have a lot of pride in where you're from. On the next Travel with Rick Steves, a native-born Belgian shares what delights him most about his country.

Author Catie Marron [KAY-tee MARE-un] adds to her list of unique gardens to visit around the world.

And we'll hear a word of caution from Alaska author Seth Kantner. He was raised way off-the-grid in northwest Alaska. Seth alerts us to the increasing difficulties that threaten the people and wildlife who make their home in the Arctic.

• Belgian tour guide Ferdi Menghi
• Catie Marron, author of "Becoming a Gardener" (HarperCollins)
• Seth Kantner, author of "A Thousand Trails Home: Living with Caribou" (Mountaineers Books)

• The Rick Steves online guide to Belgium.
• Catie Marron wrote "Becoming a Gardener" to document how working a garden is a way to celebrate life.
• The Garden of Ninfa is a bit south of Rome, open by appointment on weekends from April to November, and is one of Catie's favorites anywhere.
• Catie has lamented on Travel with Rick Steves program #482a that squares and plazas are not as prominent in American cities as they are in Europe. She also spoke with Rick on program #525 about her role as former chair of Friends of the High Line, the organization that oversees the elevated railroad line that was converted into an above-ground park and walkway in Manhattan.
• The latest book by Alaska author Seth Kantner is called "A Thousand Trails Home." It explores the intertwined lives of the Iñupiat people of northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic caribou herd, and the risks to the Arctic's habitat and culture.
• Seth links to articles he's written and talks he's given about Arctic Alaska on his website.

• "My church choir traveled to Brussels, Bruges, Delft, and Ghent last summer. What a surprise and delight Delft and Ghent were. Why are these cities off the standard radar of travel destinations? They were amazing!" (e-mail from Julie in Saint Paul, Minnesota)
• "I visited my brother while he was a student in Belgium and I love the country — especially the food. The chocolate is awesome and fries are not to be missed." (e-mail from Patrick in Indiantown, Florida)

• BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, "Sauyatugvik: The Time of Drumming" (John Luther Adams, composer) / (BBC Masterworks recording provided by the composer)
• Daan, "Housewife," Simple / Daan
• Django Reinhardt, "Nuages," Paris By Night (collection) / EMI
• Richsteiner-Burkhard, "Hanswurst," SRI Demo 5-97 (collection) / Swiss Radio International
• Reinbert de Leeuw, "Sarabande No. 3 (Satie)," Satie: Gnossiennes-Gymnopédies / Philips
• Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic, Alexander Rahbari, cond, "Vrolijike Ouverture (Marcel Poot)," Flemish Romantic Music / Naxos
• * Children of the Revolution, "Minor Swing - To Django," Swing Around the World (collection) / Putumayo
• Baltimore Consort, "Mulberry Garden," A Trip to Killburn / Dorian
• Enid Kathan, "New England Idyls (10) for piano, op. 62 'The Joy of Autumn' (MacDowell)," Music for the Appalachian Trail (collection) / Gasparo Records
• Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, "Les feuilles mortes ('Autumn Leaves')," from the Joseph Kosma film, "Les portes de la nuit," Musiques de films de Marcel Carné / EMI Classics
• Covent Garden Royal Opera House Orchestra, "Tales of Beatrix Potter: Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, part 2 (Lanchberry)," Lanchbery Ballets / Warner Classics
• Suzanne Schulman, Erica Goodman, "Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite V: Summer (Paul Reade)," Serenades and Sonatas for Flute and Harp / Naxos
• Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Gavin Sutherland, "Suite navarraise - Le vert galant (Paul Lewis, composer)," English String Miniatures, vol. 5 (collection) / Naxos
• Cab Calloway, "'Long About Midnight," Kahlo, Passion and Music (collection) / Museum Music
• Philharmonia Virtuosi, "Appalachian Spring Variations on a Shaker Melody ('Simple Gifts')," Out Classics (collection) / BMG Classics
• Ensemble Stanislas, "Marine: Adagietto (from 'Prélude, marine et chanson') (Joseph-Guy Roopartz)," Music, The Sea & Manet (collection) / Art in Concert-Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Rhian Benson, "Shenandoah (Jefferson's Theme)," Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (soundtrack to the Ken Burns film) / Columbia-Legacy
• Ralph Rousseau, Matangi String Quartet, "Cent mille chansons," Chansons d'amour / Challenge Classics
• Enid Kathan, "'Indian Idyl' from 'New England Idyls' (composed in 1902 by Edward MacDowell)," Music for the Appalachian Trail (collection) / Gasparo Records
• * Travnicek Quartet, "String Quartet in F major, No. 35, II: assez vif (Ravel)," Impressionist Masterminds (collection) / X5 Music Group
• Haunted By Waters, "Like the Dust," Portraits in Sound vol 1: A Collection of World Music (collection) / World Domination Recordings
• Hector Zazou, Silabuk and Nooveya, "Song of the Water," Songs from the Cold Seas (collection) / Columbia
• Paul Winter Consort, "Whooper Dance," Crestone / Living Music
• Sarah James (Gwich'in) and Dean Everson, "Caribou Skin Hut Dance," Arctic Refuge: A Gathering of Tribes / Soundings of the Planet
• Djole, "Jazzy Jig," Indiscretion / Djolé Pumpkin Music
• Heidi Aklaseaq Senungetuk, "Caprice Variations," The Inuit Artist World Show Case (recorded in Inukjuak, Nunavut in 1994) / Inukshuk Productions
• George McConkey and Bob Hamilton, "Arctic Wind," Yukon Collection (1995) / Caribou Records
• Gordon Lightfoot, "Whispers of the North," Salute / Warner Records-Rhino

* Indicates filler music used during breaks on the broadcast

• Ferdi says that the population of Belgium is 60 percent Flemish and 40 percent French-speaking Walloons, at 8:56.
• Catie Marron says that the Highline Park "is only now just over ten years old" at 30:33.
• Seth refers to the excitement generated by fall cranberry season at 43:08. Rick begins to ask Seth about signs of the spring season in northwest Alaska at 44:35. Seth later refers to fall caribou migration in September and October, and massive blueberry bushes and tall birches at 56:36.
• Rick refers to "A Thousand Trails Home" as Seth Kantner's "latest book" in the segment C open, and in resets at 49:46 and 53:26.
• Starting at 53:40, Rick and Seth discuss the projected impacts of a proposed large open-pit copper mine and access road into Ambler and the Brooks Range. Seth notes that the proposal "looming over us" would bring a thousand trucks a week into his home area and into the home range of a major caribou herd.
• At 55:54, Seth explains that traditionally in September or October the tundra will freeze, but that now with climate change, fall begins a month later and weather conditions are inconsistent as the permafrost is destroyed into "a giant mess."