Sweets - Around the World

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."  
 Charles Schulz

I admit it, I'm a chocoholic. I don't even try to hide it. So wherever I go I tend to pop into chocolate places and buy a few to sample. Usually more then a few. I haven't been to Belgium yet, and I know they are most famous for their chocolate. But I have been to Switzerland, and so far they top my list of having the best chocolates in the world. And Oprah agrees with me. She had these chocolates on her My Favorite Things show. The chocolates are – Teuscher champagne truffles. (http://www.teuscher.com/)//

Teuschers New York at Christmas

I have to admit that the first time I tried these I was not traveling. I had a client who had gone to New York and had gone into the Teuscher store there and had purchased a box of nine truffles for me as a thank you gift. He was a regular client who I had helped many times, a very nice man. The funny thing is, I had watched Oprah's show the week before and had actually gone to Teuscher's website and looked them up. They were a bit expensive, so I did not order them, but thought that if I ever got to Switzerland where they are actually made, I would definitely go to their shop and buy some there. Then my client brought me the box. They were to die for. I savored every single one of those truffles, one a night for 9 nights. A few years later I found myself in Zurich, Switzerland. We were walking down Storchengasse Street, and there was the Teuscher store. I went in and bought quite a bit of chocolate. They even gave samples. There are stores in major cities throughout the U.S., and they sell their chocolates online. 

My friend having a Frozen Hot Chocolate

If you are into chocolate, then a stop at Serendipity's in New York city is worthwhile. They are famous for their drink – frozen hot chocolate. It is quite tasty. They have quite a few other desserts that looked quite good also. But it's not just a dessert place, their meals are quite good also.  I had their lemon chicken with asparagus for dinner, and loved it.  But leave room for dessert.   http://www.serendipity3.com/)

Chocolate is not my only weakness. I love to sample pastries, and while in Paris I have to say that we had the best croissants. And they were memorable for more then one reason. My daughter and I were in Paris for the first time, back in 1989. We had breakfast at our hotel. We were on a limited budget, and I knew we would be sampling food later, so I suggested that we just have a cup of hot chocolate, and head out. We ordered, and then the waiter placed a basket of croissants on our table and walked away. I thought, how nice. So we enjoyed the croissants with our hot chocolate. Then our bill came, and we found out that we were charged per croissant that we had eaten. Our breakfast was over $20 each. That put a limit on the rest of the days spending. But they were melt in the mouth delicious, and probably worth every cent.

Tip: Never assume something is free, just because it is set on the table. In the USA if a basket of bread is put on the table, it is usually free, but in many countries, it is put there as an option, and if you eat any of it, you will be charged per piece.

In Jerez, Spain we spent a wonderful afternoon touring the Gonzalez Bypass where they produce some wonderful sherry. We fell in love with their 1847 Solera, and brought a couple of bottles home with us. Since then we have ordered cases to be shipped to us. I know we have good sherries that we can get here in the states, but sometimes something is so good, and it reminds you of a wonderful experience, so it is worth the extra trouble and expense to relive that experience.

Teuschers Chocolates

So when traveling, I say sample the things from that region, especially the sweets. When in Italy you must eat gelato. Even if you've had gelato elsewhere, nothing beats the gelato in Italy. And Shaved ice in Hawaii is to die for. If you ever find yourself in the town of Kanlica, Turkey make sure you stop at the cart in the main plaza and try their homemade yogurt with the powdered sugar toping, I've never had anything quite that good. Whenever you travel, stop and try the local sweets, the Turkish delight, marzipan, chocolates wherever you are, sherry in Spain, gingerbread in Germany, and even the tofu cookies in Japan. You won't know until you try them, they may become a new favorite.

Eating - Around the World

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. "
 James Michener

A food stall on the streets of Beijing

Today I would like to talk about food, in conjunction with travel. I have had some of my best meals while traveling. And some of my worst. When I am making plans to visit an area I have never been to, I love to research it first. Part of that research is looking at places to eat in the area. I usually make some notes of places to try. However, while actually traveling, I find that sometimes those places are not in the area of the city I am in, or are hard to find. So they don't always work out.

One of the easiest ways to find a good place to eat is to ask a local. They live there, and they eat there. So they know where the food is good. If you have a local guide who has given you a city tour, ask them. And then be open-minded. The food is going to be different from what you are used to. Recently we were in Split, Croatia. Our local guide told me of a restaurant he liked, and suggested I order the squid. Now I do order squid here in the states. It is calamari and it comes breaded, and is quite good. I ordered the squid in Split. It came in its own ink, and looked kind of like a pile of black rubber bands. I was hesitant, but I'm usually willing to try most anything. I have to say that I would put that meal at the top of my list for best meals. It was melt in your mouth, and very tasty.

On the other hand, I was in Paris many years ago, and was in the mood for something in the seafood category. The menu was in French, so I was studying it trying to figure out what everything was. A gentleman at the next table asked if he could help. I told him I was interested in some seafood and he made a suggestion. I ordered it. When it came I was a bit surprised. It was in a silver mountain of a dish, with different kinds of sea creatures sticking out of it. I was given an assortment of forks to pry the food out of the different shells. I ate quite a bit of it, some were tasty, some were not. However, for the next 2 days I spent more time in the bathroom then I did sightseeing. I was quite ill. That was not one of my better taste treats.



A plate of food - Singapore

Another favorite meal adventure took place in Singapore in 1979. I had read about the car parks. I don't think they actually have car parks today, although they have things that are similar. The car parks were actually places to park your car during the day while at work. At night the people drove their cars home and the car parks were taken over by food carts that were pulled in, and tables set up. The tables had numbers on them. You picked a table and then you went to the carts and ordered the food and had it sent to the table.

It was our first night in Singapore. My husband said he would stay at the table with our daughter and I could go order for us. He would pay when it was delivered. I thought, why not try a variety of things. I saw plates going by, and they were just small plates, so I figured if I ordered quite a few of those we could share and try everything. What I didn't know is that you had to specify the small plates. If you didn't then you automatically got large plates. I ordered about 15 plates of food, and then went back to the table. My husband was paying for food as it came, but we already had a table full of large plates of food. I was a little shocked. He asked why I had ordered so much, we could have fed a small army. I was a little embarrassed at the amount of food before us, and we didn't even make a dent in it. We left so much. But everything was good, and we did try a little bit of everything. We learned a lesson from that though, know what you are ordering.



Meal at farmhouse in hills of Croatia

One of the better meals that stands out in my mind is the teppanyaki meal in Japan. It was cooked on an iron grill in front of us, with about 10 courses, and they were all excellent. And another meal that was special was on a recent trip to Croatia. We had a meal at a farmhouse in the mountains.  It was a simple meal, and I'm not even sure what some of the foods were, but everything was simple and delicious. The pickled red cabbage was particularly good, something I didn't even know I would like, until I tried it.

Shrimp salad on Moorea

A few years ago we went to French Polynesia.  We visited the islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.  Meals were extremely expensive everywhere we went, and we were being as economical as possible, by doing breakfasts at our condo, and making sandwiches for lunches and taking them with us for the day.  But one of the days we were doing a car trip around the island of Moorea, and we decided we would do lunch on the trip, and then come back to the condo and have pizza, so our splurge for the day was at lunch time.  We found a cute little restaurant right on the beach and I ordered their shrimp salad.  It is a salad I wish I could order over and over again, it was definitly a favorite.  I took a picutre of it, it was quite beautiful, as well as tasty

Agreco Farms, Crete, Greece

Another meal that stands out for me, was on the island of Crete, Greece. We went to a farm in the hills where they grow everything they need. All of the meat was raised there, the grains for the bread, the fruit, the vegetables, even the wine was made there. They made their own feta cheese, and it was the best I ever tasted. They also made their own olive oil, and I purchased some of that and brought it home. We had about 10 courses there also, we learned not to eat too much of any course, to pace ourselves, because they kept bringing more food.  And we were sitting outside, under the grape vines, looking down on the city of Rethymnon and the bay. It was beautiful, and certainly tops the charts for the best meal while traveling.

Food from an open air market

The one thing to remember when looking for a place to eat, is to leave the hotel. You might get a decent meal at your hotel, but it will probably not be memorable. Hotel food is not even always representative of the area. Be adventurous. I admit that I have eaten food directly from vendors in marketplaces, which were maybe not the most hygienic, but the only time I actually got sick was from a high class restaurant in Paris. And some of that marketplace food was quite tasty, even if you aren't sure if it's hygienic, the local people eat there everyday.

Next time I will talk about chocolate and other specialties from around the world.

Where were you on 9/11?

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”
 Tim Cahill

Seville

We were in Spain on 9/11. We left the states on September 1^st and flew to Madrid. We spent several days exploring Madrid before we hopped in our rental car and took off for the Costa del Sol region. Our first stop was Cordoba, then on to Seville, Cadiz, Jerez to visit the Sherry bodegas and purchase some Sherry, then a couple of nights in Gibraltar at a wonderful hotel right on the water. We watched the big ships go by and we could just make out the continent of Africa across the strait. Then we stopped at Ronda for the day and ended up in Mijas where we had booked a condo through our timeshare . We had a week there to explore the area.

Our timeshare was Club La Costa, and we had a duplex with a view of the ocean in the distance. The other half of the duplex had a Scottish couple. We met them when we moved in. They were sitting on their porch and we said hello and chatted for a few minutes. We spent the next few days running around to different towns along the Costa del Sol area. On September 11^th we spent the early part of the day in the town of Nerja, then visited some spectacular caves, drove to Malaga and took a swim, then ended up having dinner (around 10PM – as is the custom in Spain) at a little seaside outdoor restaurant. I had the paella. We didn't turn on the radio all day, and even if we had, it was all in Spanish. We got back to our condo at around midnight.

 

Mijas, Spain

The next day George suggested we do a leisurely day at the pool, just relax, swim, read and have lunch at the restaurant at the pool. There were very few people at the pool, and we had a very relaxing day. We headed back to the condo around 3PM. The Scottish couple, Myra and Malcolm were on their porch, so I went over to say hello. Myra said “I'm sorry about what's happening in your country!” I said “what's happening?” She was surprised that I didn't know. She took us into their place and turned on CNN. We stood there horrified by the news. Then Myra surprised me even more. She said “we knew you were from somewhere in the states, and you should know that all flights to the states have been canceled. You may not be able to get home. We'd like to invite you to come stay with us in Scotland, for as long as you need.” They didn't even know us, and they'd invited us to come stay indefinitely. I was amazed.



We didn't take them up on their offer. We knew we could get home before too long, and we decided it made more sense to stay in Spain, which is where our airline ticket was for. But after their generous offer we invited them to join us for dinner that night. We drove up to the hill town above us and had dinner in a cute little restaurant there. We found out we had a lot in common with them. We were the same age. And we had such a good time with them that evening. We did a lot of laughing, which we needed after the news of what was happening.


Toledo

Two days later we said good-bye to Myra and Malcolm. We exchanged email addresses and we promised to let them know when we did got home. We headed north to Toledo where we spent a couple of days. While there I called US Airways and asked them what they would suggest for our return. When I told them the date we were scheduled to leave, I was told that would be the first day they would be flying back to the states, and that we would need to be there 4 hours in advance. I was surprised that we would be on our scheduled flight, as others had been delayed for close to a week. She said that those scheduled had to go, the others would be worked in and special flights would be brought in to help. So we actually flew home on the day we were suppose to. I have to say that security and the amount of people trying to get home, made it a nightmare. And when we landed in Philadelphia the whole plane was silent, until we were on the ground, and then their was applause, everyone was glad to be back on home ground. Getting through security and clearing customs in Philadelphia was also a nightmare, but we got through and caught our flight home.

We emailed our Scottish friends and told them we'd arrived. They emailed back, and a long distance friendship was formed. In January 2003 Myra phoned us and asked if we would join them in the Canary Islands in September. I said yes, without hesitation. We spent a wonderful time with them there, and promised at the end of that trip, that we would meet them somewhere in the world every other year.


Myra & Malcolm with us in Boston

We have pretty much kept that promise. In 2005 they flew to Boston and we did our own fall tour of New England. In 2007 we met them in Greece, on the island of Crete. They had scheduled a trip to see us in San Diego in 2009, but Malcolm had to have open heart surgery, so instead they came here in 2010. We showed them San Diego and then drove them up through California to visit Yosemite and Sequoia, then all the way up to our cabin in Washington state. We came back down the coast with a stop in San Francisco. In June of 2012 we will fly to Scotland to visit them. Together we are taking a road trip over to Ireland.

September 11^th and the events that happened that day were horrific. But for us a wonderful friendship came out of it. I doubt we would have made that connection if things had been normal. We treasure that friendship, and realize that we need to stop and connect with people whenever we can. We also need to occasionally stop and make sure we know what is going on in the world when we travel.

So where were you on 9/11?

Going on your own

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."  
St. Augustine

                                                     Independent travel

The Shambles, York, England

In my last posting, I talked about the pro's and con's of escorted tours vs. independent travel. If you have never given thought to taking off for a foreign country on your own, then there are some things to think about before going.

Just how independent do you want to be? The first time I went to England it was in March, which is definitely off-season. There wasn't a big need to have hotel reservations in advance. My daughter had been a student in London for 4 months, and I flew over at the end of her semester to join her. She had a flat in London, so I had a place to stay there. We had 3 weeks, and a rough itinerary of places we wanted to go. I had done research, and had purchased Britrail tickets in advance. After several days of staying in London and seeing the sights, we headed for Dover and took the hovercraft to Paris. We had no reservations, but I had written down the name of a hotel that looked good and was not too expensive. The cab took us there, and they had rooms available. We spent several days in Paris seeing the sights, then took the train to Dieppe and the ferry back to Brighton, England, We spent the next 2 weeks traveling and exploring places like Penzance and Bath, then over to Dublin, Ireland, then up to Edinburgh, Scotland, and our last stops were York and Cambridge, before returning to London. We didn't have a reservation anywhere we went, and hadn't decided how long we would stay in each place, but we knew when we had to be back in London, so we worked with that. It was fun, exploring on our own. Sometimes we stayed in hotels, quite often it was a private home (Bed & Breakfast) and in Bath we stayed at the Y for $5 a night. If it had been high season, this would not have worked, as we might have found places were completely booked.

So if you want to just go and wing it, that's fine, but keep in mind that hotels might not be available where you want them. Some planning in advance might be a good idea.

Harbor in Rethymnon, Crete

Monastery in Meteora

The way my husband and I usually travel when we head for Europe is to plan the trip out in advance. We pick the country, then I research the places we want to go and decide how long we will stay in each place. From there I start making hotel reservations in the different cities or towns. Once I do that I start looking at transportation. Do we want to drive or take the train? Or a combination of both?

 My husband is getting to the point where he has decided he doesn't like to drive all over a country, not knowing where he is going, so the train will get us to the destination, and then if we want to rent a car for the day to go outside the city and see some things, then that works too. So if we are going by train, I buy the Eurail pass before we go. Next I think about the cities we are going to be in, do I want a city tour? Those can also be purchased in advance, through a travel agent. Also, day tours from most locations are available. When we were in Athens, Greece we did a tour, which I had pre-purchased, that took us over to Delphi and Meteora. It was a 3 day trip and it included transportation, sightseeing, and hotels. They took us by van, and it was a wonderful side trip. Getting to those places on our own would have been difficult, so this was a nice option. I also pre-purchased a 3 day Greek island cruise as part of our trip to Greece. But a good portion of our 3 weeks in Greece, we were on our own. We even did the rental car for our week on the island of Crete.

 So you can go independently but have plans and reservations in place, and even have city tours set up at each location, which will orient you to the city when you first arrive. Then you are free to spend your time doing what you want, eating the local food, people-watching, shopping and seeing the sights. To me, this is the best way to travel.

Christmas in New York

Hi everyone, Just got home from a few days in New York City with a friend.  I wrote up our adventures and posted some pictures.  If you are interested in reading about our trip, go to the side column, just below Baxter and Sadie's picture.  You will see a section titled: Trip Reports from Trips we Have Taken.  The last one on that list is our most recent adventure in New York.  We had a great time, and enjoyed the holiday decorations and the Christmas Markets.

Should we take a tour, Or go on our own?

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them, than to travel with them." 
 Mark Twain

EEscorted Tours vs. Independent Travel

Taken on tour in China

As a travel agent I booked a lot of tours for my clients. And I have done a few tours myself over the years. Tours are great, but there are some things to consider. For one thing, you will be with a group of people, who you may or may not like. There are always a few of each in any group. And the amount of time you have in any one place is determined by someone else. But they are good bargains usually, because they include food, entrance fees and sightseeing and you have someone to tell you what you are seeing.

There are some places where it is better to take a tour.  My friend Bonnie and I went to China in 2010, and I can't imagine doing that completly on our own.  Figuring out transportation to things would be more difficult there than in Europe, which is fairly easy to get around in.  It just made sense to have someone telling us the history and pointing out things to see. However, you can go with a large group, or in our case, a very small group. There were 6 people total in our group and we traveled by van instead of bus. We had a tour guide and a driver for each city that we went to, and we flew between cities, so we had several different guides during our visit. I loved that, because each guide was so different in personality, and we were able to ask them so much about their lives, their government, and their feelings. I felt like I really got to know some Chinese people. Our guide in Beijing was particularly delightful. He was as curious about us as we were about him, and he was willing to tell us anything about him and his country.  And he was very proud of his country, but he realized that it still had problems, such as less freedoms then we have.



Taken on tour in Slovenia

 So, once you determine where you want to go, you should also decide how you want to go. Should you take a tour, or go it on your own? It depends on how adventuresome you are, and how willing you are to “roll with the punches” when things go wrong. And quite often things do go wrong. But I have had some of the best stories to tell when I get home, because of things that went wrong. Sometimes those things turn out to be the most fun, and the best memories.

There are pro's and con's to escorted tours and to independent travel. I have listed a few of them here, I'm sure there are more, and maybe you can write me in comments and tell me what you like or dislike about tours.

Escorted Tours:

Pro's

All transportation on the tour is provided.

They have done all the research on what things to see and do.

They have knowledgeable guides to tell you what you are seeing.

If there are problems, they take care of them.

Most tours include entrance fees to the major attractions and some meals, so there are not a lot of extra expenses once you get to your destination.

You have the chance to make friends in your tour group.

You do have some free time to go off and explore on your own.

Con's:

Lack of flexibility, you can't get off the beaten path.

You usually have a limited amount of time at each destination, time to see the sights but not necessarily enough time to relax and do some people-watching or explore the back streets of the town.

You are stuck with the group, even if you don't find people you have something in common with.

Some meals are provided with tours, unfortunately a lot of those meals will be in your hotel.

The buses are large and comfortable, however, they are still buses.

Independent Travel:

Pro's:

The freedom to go where you want, when you want. If you love a place you can stay a little longer, if you find a place boring, you can move on.

You can get off the beaten path and discover the small towns and find interesting places to eat.

Con's:

You need to do your own research on a place and decide what things you want to see.

You will need to budget for food, hotels, entrance fees, cost of transportation, etc.

You will not have a person to tell you the history and show you each place, and to help if there is a problem, although you can book city tours in each location.

Next time I will talk more about independent travel.

10 Tips for Getting Through Airport Security

"Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering. The reality has more to do with  losing your luggage."

Regin Naelson

Going through security at the airport can be a dignity stripping experience. With the holidays coming and more people traveling right now I thought I would post some pointers to make it faster, and easier:

• Pack your laptop or any other electronic devices so that they can be easily removed to place in the bin. All electronic devices must go through the Xray machine out of their cases
• Knives, scissors and other sharp instruments cannot be carried in your carry-on.  Either leave them at home or pack them in your checked luggage.
• If you are carrying liquids, they must be under 3oz. and be in a plastic bag. Have that bag ready to take out of your carry-on and place in the bin.
• If you are carrying gifts, do not wrap them until you arrive at your destination. Wrapped gifts may have to be opened for inspection.
• Have your ID ready for security personnel, including boarding pass and government issued ID (passport - if traveling out of the country).
• Have any watches, pocket change, jewelery, ready to place in bin. Any metal items can set off the alarm.
• Do not take drinks with you through the security area. They will be confiscated. You can purchase drinks once you clear securty.
• Be ready to remove your coat, belt and shoes. These will need to go in a bin to go through the Xray machine.
• Avoid over packing items in your carry-on to avoid spilling if your bag needs to be opened for inspection.
• Be patient and keep your sense of humor. Do as the TSA request and don't argue or make jokes, they don't necessarily have a sense of humor and people have been arrested for joking about hijacking planes.

Our anniversary trip to Italy

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep permanent, in the the ides of living." 
 Miriam Beard

Besides travel information, I thought I would occassionally throw in a story from my travels.  This story is about the best Christmas present I ever received and goes back to the start of my travel days.

When my husband first proposed to me, I actually turned him down. I loved him, but felt I was too young to get married, and besides, there were so many places in the world I wanted to go, and if I got married I wouldn't be able to just go.  However, he was persistent, and he finally wore me down. I said yes, and he said “I promise to take you to Italy someday.” That was the number one thing on my list of places to go. The years went by, we had a daughter. He was in the Navy, so I was seeing some new places, in the states and then for 2 years in the Philippines. There wasn't enough money for trips to Italy.  In 1989, I was able to take a trip to London, our daughter was going to school there. George stayed home, we didn't really have enough money for 2 of us to go. Kim and I spent 3 weeks exploring England, Scotland and even got over to Paris for a few days. It was fun, but Italy was still the number one place on my list.

 

The Forum in Rome, Italy

So on Christmas 1991, I was surprised when my gift from George was a new set of luggage, and inside the luggage was an anniversary card and brochures of Italy. He told me he had been secretly saving money, so that on our 25^th anniversary we would be in Italy. I had 9 months to plan the trip I wanted.  George's only request was that we do a tour. He felt that since we didn't know the language and neither of us had been to Italy before, that we should do a tour. Now I'm not really a tour person, I'd rather go it on our own, but I was willing to compromise. I found a tour through Perillo Tours – they specialize in Italy. It was a 10 day tour and it covered Rome, Venice and Florence, with stops in Sienna, Assisi, Perugia and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Of all the tours I looked at, it had the most free time. I booked that one, and then talked George into adding a week on our own at the end of the tour, by then we'd be seasoned travelers of Italy.

 

Venice, Italy

Our 25^th anniversary was September 17^th, 1992. We were in Italy for our anniversary. We started our trip in Rome, then to Venice (which is where we were on the 17^th), made the stops in Sienna, Assisi, Perugia (for some chocolates), spent a few nights in Florence, saw the leaning tower of Pisa, and then ended back in Rome. It was actually a good group of people, and we loved our guide Nilo. When the group departed, we got on a train south to the city of Sorrento, which is just across the bay from Naples. I had researched and found a cute little family owned hotel perched on the cliff overlooking the bay of Naples. From our balcony we had a fantastic view. The town of Sorrento was delightful and famous for its lemons and an alcoholic version of lemonade – lemoncello. We visited the isle of Capri while there, and went over and spent and afternoon at the ruins of Pompeii. We swam in the sea, and we wandered around the town. It was a delightful week.

Taken from our hotel in Sorrento, Italy

We spent 2 more days back in Rome on our own before flying home. George got more comfortable with going on our own, but we had the best of both, the tour was good, and the week on our own was also.

George kept his promise when he said that “someday he'd take me to Italy.” And since then we have made it a point to travel somewhere on our major (every 5 year) anniversary. This year will be 45 years and we plan to take a cruise from Boston to Montreal – down the St. Lawrence River. And I have never regretted saying yes all those years ago. For anyone out there that wants to surprise their spouse with a great present, I can tell you that this was the best one I ever had.