Dear Germany, I love your beer gardens and beautiful Christmas markets. I love the street stalls selling endless variations of sausage and sauerkraut. I love the beer halls, the beer itself, and the breathtaking closeness of the Alps. I love the wonderful everything of it all. But… whatever happened to German efficiency? The trains are […]
I’m English. I grew up with the Christmas ritual of pulling crackers every year. They were invented in 1847 by Tom Smith, a London confectioner. Inspired by French bonbons—sweets wrapped in paper—he brought the idea to England, but sales were slow. So he added a crack: a small explosive strip that made a bang when […]
Dark days begin at 3:30pm. Intermittent rain. Brollies ready for the downpour and lights. Everywhere are lights… in SoHo, Carnaby Street, Trafalgar Square , Covent Garden and Winter Wonderland in Hyde park, the Angels in Regent Street, the shop windows along Piccadilly, Hamleys toy store… The whole city is lit up. We ride the tube […]
Dear NYC, Your theater is too expensive. Too many musicals and Stars make it so hopelessly impossible for everyone. Dear London. I love your theatre. It takes chances. Yep. Not only do you have the musical factor, but then the lovely off-center stuff and the National, the Bridge, the Almeida, the Globe, Regents Park not […]
Big overdue shout-out to Jet Blue. JetBlue flies to 66 domestic destinations and 46 international destinations across 34 countries. The airline operates approximately 1000 flights daily. Recently, I traveled to New Orleans with Jet Blue. I Grabbed extra leg room. The WiFi was free. The flight was on time and the attendants were really nice. Price was […]
In group travel, there are moments in the day when everyone gathers to chat and talk. To review the things that have been done, and to discuss the days ahead. Often, dinner is the glorious opportunity to do this. A chance to put the phones away, take a break from social media, and socialize. To […]
Whenever I go to London, I always go to the Theatre. I love the Theatre and not just the big plays in London‘s West End, but also strolling over to the old Vic, the Almeida and the National Theatre. One of the wonderful secrets – if you like Theatre- is keeping an eye out for […]
When I think of the current state of America, I am reminded of the Joni Mitchell song, California, where she says, “Sitting in a park in Paris , France reading the news and it sure looks bad…” That was in 1971! So here we are – 2025. More than 50 years on, and the world […]
I remember the day we moved. It seemed like we were moving to Australia. South London. The other side of the Thames. How could we? All from running water and a bathtub! It seemed so unfair. We were North Londoners. We moved to the Oval which was famous for its cricket ground. We lived in […]
I love London. I am a Londoner. Born near Chalk Farm in North London. I hopped on the busses and made my way to Hamstead Heath every day of the summer holidays In England, we had 6 weeks. Mum and Dad both worked, so we would disappear all day to the Heath. Ponds and forests, […]
A confession. I like maps. The old Michelin type ones. I like to see a country laid out on a table and figure out a route or an itinerary imagining I’m looking at it from way up high. Once I’ve done this I can plug in modern technology and figure out times, look at Google […]
Rome. Love letter. As if someone had asked for a collection of all the great monuments across centuries of change . A splash of bathtubs from Caracalla. An amphitheater at the end of the street, a few columns in the corner of a busy traffic intersection, the odd obelisk from Egypt, fountains fed by ancient aqueducts […]
STOLEN LUGGAGE? No, never! Firstly, I want to say, I am an experienced traveler but who would have thought that my luggage would be gone in the blink of an eye. So let me tell you how it happened. I prefer to take the underground in London to the airport. This day, I arrived early morning […]