Routine and familiarity are comforting. I’ve been going to the same hotel, the Hotel Alex, in the Swiss Alps for 15 years. Same room, same friends, same everything. It’s a great place! There is an order to the week. There are the owners that know us and greet us daily. There is the bar and […]
I am not sure if Harvard Business School has visited them yet, but there are two brothers that have a restaurant on the side of a random ski slope in Zermatt. Restaurant Tufternalp has been there for years. They serve only minestrone soup and slabs of Swiss mountain cheese that the owner slices with a […]
Today was so cold and the temperature at the top of mountain minus 40 Celsius. The cable car stalled every five minutes because of the temperatures. But…the sun was out and with seven layers and a balaclava I was ready. We were going to ski Italy today. The amazing thing about Zermatt is that you […]
In Zermatt there are three choices to climb the Matterhorn mountain: The beautiful Gornergrat Railway, the funicular, and the Matterhorn Express Gondola. The Gornergrat Railway is walkable from our delightful hotel, Hotel Alex Zermatt. It’s a sightseeing journey all to itself; 20 minutes climbing through spectacular scenery en route to the top. Skiers, hikers, and […]
The drive from Venice along the highway to Milan is fairly dull. After Milan is where the sights get interesting. We took the highway above Lake Maggiore which was super fast and delightful. Mountains beyond the lake and the Borromean islands in the background provided for a great backdrop to our car ride. Pushing through, […]
The London to Venice flight on BA is always a treat. Once you clear the cloud cover of England, you have the beautiful Alps to greet you. No matter how many times I cross the snow capped peaks, it never ceases to amaze. This year has seen tons of snow. Still, the beauty was way […]
The dreaded overnight flight dropped me into the gray skies of London too early. It was freezing. I grabbed the Heathrow Express and rushed across town from Paddington to Soho for a lunch with a business associate. We arranged to meet at the Duck and Rice on Berwick Street. Great Chinese in Soho. The dim […]
What on earth possessed me to take a transatlantic crossing?! Secretly, I think it was on my bucket list and curiosity got the better of me because I had never in my life even taken a cruise. But I wanted to try it out. Early January probably was not the best time of the year […]
I came over to the USA in the late 70’s. I am an American citizen and I love this country. I love Boston and I love travel. We have had our fair share of hiccups during our company’s journey. We have seen terrorism, war, a major financial crisis, and still, people travel overseas because it […]
I just discovered a fabulous wallet and it is perfect for travel. Here’s the thing. When you travel a lot, you tend to rely upon two wallets – a mothership wallet where you store pretty much all of your main paraphernalia and receipts, and a small wallet which is for your daily fix. I’ve tried […]
Today was our last day at sea. Our day started with an early morning breakfast and then off to a lecture by Maria Friedman and to look at art at the delightful gallery. In the afternoon the weather broke and we finally saw sun and wispy clouds. Took a walk around the promenade four times […]
Day 7 We started off the day with a morning breakfast disaster. They had run out of brown sauce! Now, to most people outside of the UK and Ireland, this means nothing, but to a Brit it is a major problem with an English or Irish breakfast., They said that the blizzard disrupted the supply […]
DAY 4 Last night a little rough out on the high seas. Want to be armed with Dramamine. Today we woke up to calmer waters and rain. The QM2 has 1,292 crew members and the capacity is 2,691. The maiden voyage was in January 2004 – just about 14 years ago. Today, people are strolling […]
It was formal night last night and everyone had to dress up. You sit at the same table as usual but you have to wear a tux. There was a captain soirée earlier for certain sections but I took a massage and enjoyed the spa instead. The boat is still rocking around fiercely. It’s a […]
Day 1 First, a confession. I have never been on a cruise ship. So to board a ship with another 3,000 passengers was strange. To understand that this ship had been in the Caribbean and was on its last voyage across the Atlantic before setting off on a round the world cruise was amazing. There […]