I, too, have encountered small kindnesses when traveling. One that particularly stands out is when I took my then teenage son to Barcelona on his February break a few years ago. We arrived in Barcelona very tired after a delayed all- night flight and headed for the small apartment we'd rented. We couldn't find it and were feelng hopelessly lost. We finally asked a group of adolescent boys we saw hanging out on the street. They spoke Catalan and didn't understand either English or my son's high school Spanish. Finally I showed them the slip of paper I had with the address written down. They literally grabbed our arms and led us through several narrow streets until we arrived safely at our apartment.

Landra in snowless upstate NY