I was picked up by a driver at the Santo Domingo airport in the Dominican Republic. The drive to my resort was an hour and a half away. Driving is a little crazy here and we did a lot of weaving in and out of traffic but eventually, we made it. I was heading to one […]
Inbound travel to the US is certainly getting impacted by Trump’s travel ban and the rhetoric that surrounds it. Emirates Airlines said recently that bookings have plummeted 35% on US routes. International travel in general to the US has fallen by around 7%. Airlines are canceling forward orders for new equipment because the size of the […]
Colmar was such a surprise. I had no idea what treasures were there. We had decided to go Colmar because the famed Unterlinden Museum had some extraordinary medieval polyptychs from the early 1300’s. The masterpiece was the Isenheim altarpiece. My mate loved this stuff so frankly, he dragged us all there and what a pleasant […]
I had never felt the need to return to Bern, Switzerland’s capital, after I had visited it about 35 years ago. I do not recall much other than their famed Bear Pit, also known as The Bärengraben. Beyond that it was a place between somewhere you had come from to somewhere you wanted to get […]
All I knew about the German city of Baden Baden was that it was a famous spa town. But I also recall the English football team had boot camped there with their WAGS one infamous tournament of which there have been so many. So I equated it with failure, inevitability, and the hopelessness of England […]
I had a credit from the Hotel Madeline in Telluride, CO. They were kind enough to roll the credit from a canceled reservation a year ago over to a new reservation this year. So my son and I hit Telluride. I had never been before although I had heard lots about it. We both love to […]
About three years ago, I was wandering up the Rue de L’Odeon in Paris and this tiny little shop caught my eye. It was called SérieRare and in the shop window, there were door knobs, door knockers, and one brass gold-plated bracelet that I fell in love with. Not really wanting a door knob or a brass knocker, but looking […]
I’m a lucky guy – I’m spending two weeks working in three of my favorite cities. In Paris – my all time fave place to eat is Mediterrano at the Odeon, (http://www.la-mediterranee.com/) in Rome, it’d be Carbonara in Campo di fiori, and in London – yes you CAN get great food especially if you go […]
Referendums It’s been a tough few months out there. First, the disastrous vote on Brexit by the (get this) “Brexiteers” followed by the new reign of King Trump of Orange (no relation to William of Orange). And here I am with two passports, one British and one American, feeling that I need a stopgap. As […]
The other day while experiencing a 7.5-hour delay at the airport for a flight from New York to Boston, the loudspeaker message came over stating they were looking for passengers prepared to take an alternative flight for a credit voucher on the same airline. Let the buyer beware, as we know with United Airlines, it’s […]
The territory of Alsace-Lorraine is not quite France but very much a part of it. We were headed to Strasbourg, the capital of the territory, to see this beautiful city that sits on the Rhine and its tributaries. It has fabulous wines and is the center of power for the European Parliament. Who knows, this would […]
Boarding a plane domestically is getting to be just as bad as reading a magazine during a dental surgery knowing that almost certainly what happens inside is not going to be good. Given the fact that there are so many different elite statuses, and the airlines charge for bags that are checked, everybody is bringing their […]
So I travel a lot and I love trains. They are simply better in Europe than anywhere else – efficient, convenient, and quick. Frankly, it would be impossible to get much worse than an Amtrak train or even the so-called high-speed version, the Acela. But I do have some complaints on European train stations. Firstly, […]
It seems like an eternity but I remember well when England used pounds, shillings, and pence. The term £sd stood for librae, solidi, and denarii. The measurement was based on Roman weights and measures and a pound of silver was divided into 240 denarius. Remarkably and unfathomably, that stood through my childhood – 240 pence […]
I hadn’t been to the Marché aux Puces for 30 years. It’s a foggy memory but I know that we went there because D was involved in antiques at the time. She needed some things for her shop and we needed some stuff for the house. Recently, a few days before we left for our […]