Tag Archives: Traveller

TSA Woes

The news on the street is that summer is going to be a lot of fun when you are traveling around US airports. More fun than ever before actually and here’s the reason.

TSA have reduced their staff by 2,000 people.

So, those long lines that we already encounter are getting longer and longer. Tempers will get testy and maybe the smiles on the TSA team will start to turn upside down.

So, what’s the deal? In these tense days of super sensitivity on issues like security and safety, why cut back? It seems that TSA thought that there would be such a massive uptake in the TSA Precheck approval applications, that they could save some resources for something else. TSA approval is $85, so it seems that they saw an opportunity for revenue. It is as simple, though, as putting in an application and scheduling an appointment. If you already have Global Entry, you are automatically considered as part of TSA Precheck. It means that you don’t have to remove clothing when going through a screening, nor remove your toiletries. It’s a massive time saver because they have a line expedited especially for you.

So, what’s the problem?

People are just not signing up for it whether it’s a privacy issue, general laziness, the price, or just a lack of knowledge that it actually exists.

But now they are paying for…or rather we are paying for it if we don’t have TSA precheck. My advice if you are traveling domestically this summer is to get with the program. It’s one of the few things in life that is worth the price!

Images courtesy of http://blog.tsa.gov/2016/01/tsa-2015-year-in-review.html and https://www.myheritage.org/news/more-passengers-are-flying-tsa-free-and-thats-a-good-thing/

New York

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I love New York.

I love the buzz of the city, I love the subway, the crazy yellow cabs, the skyscrapers, the tiny neighborhoods, and of course the theater.

The other evening I saw two plays back-to-back: Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Father. This was two days after I had gone with my daughter to see The Sound of Music. Nuns, nannies and Nazis, all intertwined around a delightful and timeless score. The Nazi bit was a little grim but it’s pretty light with the sing along stuff! So here I was in NYC taking in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, an intense play, three and a half hours long, by playwright Eugene O’Neill. The Father is a French tale by French playwright Florian Zeller and translated by Christopher Hampton who was the one who single handedly transformed a 1782 Choderlos de Laclos novel to make the incredible play Les Liasons Dangereuses. It’s pretty intense. It’s a study of the tragedy and gradual deterioration associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Brought tears to my eyes as I thought about my father too. And what to do after all of that? Head to a great restaurant of course and that would be Esca, my favorite restaurant in New York on 43^rd between 9th and 10^th Avenue.

The next day, I grabbed the metro and went down to the Empire State Building and took a stroll from 33^rd to 14^th street on the High Line, a fantastic community effort along the discarded elevated train tracks. It dropped me off right in the meatpacking area and I got to pop into Soho House for a quick bite and a view from the rooftop pool across the Manhattan skyline. I then took a walk through Central Park, saw the seals in the children’s zoo and thought how amazing to have such green space in between all of this bigness and towering glass structures. Of course I ran out of time and jumped a yellow cab to La Guardia. I should have taken the Acela, but honestly, at three hours and 50 minutes, it still doesn’t make a lot of sense when you have an urgent appointment back in Boston.

Plea number 100: Open up this Eastern seaboard corridor Mr. President and run fast trains down the line.

The Acela is anything but accelerated! It’s slow and the service on board is dreadful. Why is Amtrak so bad?

High Line Park

Central Park

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Visa Wars

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The European commission seems to be moving closer to deciding to implement a new visa hurdle for USA and Canadian citizens traveling through the European Schengen countries.

That excludes UK and Ireland, but the hotspots like Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, and Germany will all be affected.

So what is it all about? Well, under US entry requirements, the US will not allow visitors from the European Union who reside in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland, and Romania to enter without a visa. Under the EU law and EU prior agreement, there is a reciprocity between the EU and the USA and Canada that enables USA citizens to travel visa-free in the EU, and EU citizens to enter the USA via the visa waiver program using the ESTA protocol. Now in these complicated days, and partly because of Schengen, the USA is no longer prepared to except visitors from the countries specified.

The Schengen Agreement is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe’s borderless areas. It was signed near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg in 1985 and in 1990 a supplemental agreement proposed to abolish internal border controls and a common visa policy. The Schengen treaties were adopted into the European Union law almost 10 years later and today allow citizens and tourists alike to freely travel from country to country. The Schengen area operates pretty much like a single state for international travel purposes – no passport control at airports or borders. It currently covers 26 European countries and a population of over 400 million. The only opt-out countries are Ireland and the United Kingdom but Schengen is a core part of EU law and EU member states without an opt-out anymore. Any country joining Europe has to opt into Schengen.

So with the proposal of this new EU policy, of course everybody is up in arms. Really until the EU sorts out its Schengen borders, this issue could have a dramatic effect on USA tourism to Europe and probably would reduce down tourism to the Schengen countries by about 30%. How scary is that Europe?

Understandably, the USA is holding firm. It is election year and these are issues that nobody wants to touch.

In addition, the USA points out that the reciprocity between the principle players in Europe and the USA can stand alone. But the EU is having none of this. The European Parliament is very close to voting to institute a visa fee for all USA and Canada citizens that travel beyond Ireland and the UK. In other words, the EU commission is treating this deal as a big deal. The rights of all EU citizens whether they are Italian or Romanian have to be seen to be equal. The selection of some member states for visa requirements is considered to be anathema.

The USA has had a two-year warning on this but now this period has expired.

If the parliament votes to create this, it will cause confusion, madness, a loss of tourism, and simply add to the chaos of the current Schengen mess.

All of this comes at a moment when the Europeans are in a quandary. Austria has just introduced a “border management” plan at the Brenner Pass due to the current crisis. In addition, multiple spot checks are occurring on many frontiers throughout Europe. So while the letter of the law, in this case the Schengen Agreement, is a marvelous example of the freedom to move within a block of countries without passports or controls, the current migrant crisis has made this a can of worms too. Greece, Italy, and Spain are all the recipients of most of the migrants that come to Europe illegally. Their main goal is to move those migrants on. That is pretty easy through the Schengen Agreement which is why many border controls are being put back up.

This is the rub though – Americans are feeling a little a bit of trepidation about traveling to Europe anyhow with the recent attacks. Now if they have to buy a visa (goodness knows how long that will take as there is no infrastructure to do this) and then have to wait in long lines on passport controls, you have a mess beyond a mess. The cost of all of this will impact the approximately 50 billion Euro economy that tourism brings and that represents a lot of jobs! This is an export industry at the same level as the automotive sector.

What to do? The smart thing to do would let go of the “holier than thou” stance in Europe and continue with the near reciprocity that we have. If the Europeans stick to their guns, and the Americans stick to theirs, then you have a visa war as well as a migrant war and the economic consequences of that will have untold effects on European tourism and the European economy. Hardly a time to wage this kind of war when tourists are in shorter and shorter supply!

My two cents….let it be.

Image courtesy of http://www.myce.com/news/eu-commission-vp-says-copyright-legislation-is-a-factor-in-piracy-76314/

Roman Graffiti

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I am in two minds about graffiti.

Sometimes it is just senseless destruction of beautiful facades but more and more it gives voice to a neighborhood in change and transforms organically into art from Banksy and beyond. Graffiti stretches back through the ages. It comes from the Italian word “graffiato” which simply means scratched. It really starts like a primitive text message that hasn’t been deleted or expunged from the memory of the ages and it pops up on everything, especially Roman (usually with a clear statement and cause). It is found in Egypt, in Pompeii, in the ruins of Greece and Turkey, and in the tiny odd corners of Rome.

Recently in Rome, I took a little excursion based on an article I read in one of my favorite magazines, The World of Interiors. I headed to Testaccio which is close to the Protestant cemetery where Keats is buried and the Pyramid of Cestius by the Porta San Paolo. The pyramid is actually the only surviving Egyptian pyramid in Europe. It was built around 18 BC by some mad egomaniac who thought he was a pharaoh. Ego was in high supply during that period.

Testaccio, the Roman neighborhood that sits just behind the pyramid, is going through a bit of a Renaissance. New restaurants are popping up around what used to be the ancient Roman rubbish heap on the Eastern banks of the Tiber, now known as the Monte Testaccio. It developed some notoriety in the 1950’s when the filmmaker Paolo Pasolini sat at the top of this rubbish heap of remnants of old roman vessels that carried olive oil for a photograph. Now this area is a mix of trendy, bohemian, and authentic Roman.

My friend and fabulous Roman guide, Carlotta Boldrini, lives around the corner from here. Her hood now boasts a new painter on the block. The article was about these huge murals by Agostino Iacurci. While former markets and factories in Ostiense and Testaccio are transforming into trendy, gentrified eateries, cafes, bars, and apartments, this wonderful artist has pulled together the scruffiness and the neglect of a rundown neighborhood in the process of change and intertwined it with his sensational murals.

“As an artist, working outside deprives me of that air of sacredness that you associate with works in a museum,” he says.

Agostino takes on the role of integrating his art into the neighborhoods in spectacular fashion. His art is big and sits above everyday Rome with warts and all. His murals are as offbeat as a swimmer with cap and goggles above a fish shop. His equipment is simple: A sponge roller, a cherry picker and simple masonry paint. One day maybe some 2,000 years on, we will find some faded fresco by a huge skyscraper near a tiny pyramid and lament that Rome was once a city that you could walk around and get a decent coffee in a neighborhood bar.

To Upgrade or not to Upgrade

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For all of those passengers that are lucky enough to sit in the business class or first class section of an airplane, you may well imagine how important you are to that airline.

Airlines are trying to sign you up for their frequent flyer cards, give you their Silver and Gold cards, and adorn you in incentives because you happen to be sitting in the part of the plane that makes money and they want you back. They are using all of their tricks to sway you in the decision to upgrade or not to upgrade. Those airline seats that you occupy have been well thought out and optimized for your comfort, convenience, and their dollars.

Not to say that if you are in the back of the plane, it’s all misery.

There is a trickledown effect due to the fact that the airlines are smarting up the front of the plane. After all, you do not want class warfare at 35,000 feet in the sky.

Well never mind because in the front they want your business and they are prepared to pamper you. But it is going to cost you money. A round-trip transatlantic fare in first class on British Airways costs between $16,000-$22,000, business class around $7,000, premium economy around $2,200, and lowly old economy about $1,500. So you can imagine how much money these guys are making on that tiny piece of space given the fact that you are sitting in the same cylindrical tube as everyone else.

When you look at that value proposition, you have to say that economy is a pretty good deal. I mean seriously, who is paying $20,000 for a first class seat when you can find a deal out there for $1,000 in economy. If you fly between London and Boston, you are on a 5 hour and 50 minute flight. I do not care how good the service is, I can always find a sandwich, a couple glasses of wine, and a decent movie or two to wind my way across the Atlantic while I think of how I saved $19,000 on a bit of extra leg room, a very average meal, and a wash bag that you wouldn’t even re-gift. Incidentally, in business class, the wash bag on most flights is something that amazes me even more. It’s like how could they design a bag with so much space and so little in it? Where do you find toothpaste that small? Why the socks? I have my own socks and if I go to the bathroom truly I am going to wear my shoes. Guys are messy!

So differentiating the front of the plane is critical to these guys.

There are three kinds of configurations at the front of the plane. There is the yin-yang design that BA employs, the staggered herringbone that Virgin employs, or the “stacked-V’ of other airlines. Have you ever wondered why if you are sitting in business class on a plane, such as BA, that you are facing a person that you do not know and awkwardly trying to figure out how to put the screen up between the two of you without looking to offend? Ever wondered why when on a Virgin plane that the shape of the seats is in a fishbone? It’s feast or famine here. You are either lying flat down or sitting straight up. There is no in between. Then there is the Delta setup where everyone mysteriously is fitted in a certain way so that you never actually see too much of the person next to you…thank God. The reason they do all of this of course is because they can give you more room, your own space, and more importantly they can fit more of you in that huge expanding revenue-generating area.

Designing airline seats for business and first class is an art within itself; creating a space that feels like your own space with a flat bed and video screen with endless options for watching TV and movies. Not long ago in 1995, British Airways introduced the first flat-bed seat in first class, and in 1999 introduced it to business class as well. Up until then, business class passengers had no advantage other than a slightly better meal. Nowadays the game is played around bed, board, and beyond! At the higher end, airlines compete for your business with lavish meals including caviar in first class. They entice you with a goody bag that contains scents, oils, and perfumes from boutique distributors. New 32-inch video screens (bigger than some we have in our kitchens) are being introduced into a private cabin. On real long hauls in first class you now get a shower (of course!) plus a potential for a double bed. Just when you thought you got your marriage around twin beds you can now bring it back again!

Image courtesy of DesignBoom.com: http://www.designboom.com/design/singapore-airlines-first-class-interior-design-by-bmw-designworks/

I’m not a Virgin Anymore (Virgin America sold to Alaska Airlines)

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Virgin America has just sold out to Alaska Airlines.

Richard Branson, who owns only a clear 22% of Virgin America, felt so bad about it that he wrote an open letter concerning the takeover.

He could not do too much to stop it because some of his take was in the form of non-voting shares. This effectively reduced his influence in a sell deal to that of a spectator. Because he is not an American, according to USA law, he was never allowed to have majority ownership. Still, he remains optimistic about the airlines’ future. As he put it, “Besides the turbulence and headwinds, the journey remains thrilling and joyful and I look forward to more future flights with virgin America.”

In many ways, the takeover makes sense. Yes, Virgin is a great brand and Virgin America was a cool airline to fly on. The banter on board, the groovy lounges, the reception, everything was pure Virgin. The only weakness of the original Virgin America set up was that the curious bystander often wondered why they could not link Virgin America to Virgin Atlantic for international travel. Now with Alaska, they simply add much more domestic connectability.

Frankly, now that Virgin America sold to Alaska Airlines the brand is going to become diluted.

Alaska might be famous for its onboard cuisine if you fly in business, but beyond that it is pretty much bog standard. In other words, you get what you pay for. Alaska could only benefit greatly from the bounce of the Virgin brand as they go head-to-head with the Southwest and Jet Blues.

It’s all about consolidation. Airlines are making bigger profits, oil is cheap as chips, the seats are shrinking, the food is sucking even more, and Richard just walked away with a cool half billion dollars.

The same thing kind of happened on Virgin Atlantic.

In 2012, Branson said that he could not survive competitively unless he had an alliance. There was talk of aligning with British Airways and Singapore, but in the end it was Delta who picked up the mantle – the largest airline in the world married a virgin!

Essentially, Delta picked up all Virgin slots and 49% of Virgin Atlantic. It gave both airlines more access in a highly competitive market and it gave Delta a hot card to play against its transatlantic nemesis, British Airways. Imagine this, now there would be nine daily round-trip flights from London to JFK and Newark and 31 peak day daily flights to London! More importantly, for Delta fans, you get the chance to visit the groovy Virgin lounge as opposed to the abysmal Delta one where they won’t let you bring in a desperately needed sandwich because they are scared you will compare it to the rubbish you are getting inside. So there are benefits. Although currently Delta flies into Terminal 4 at Heathrow whereas Virgin is in Terminal 3, so you need to have a 10 minute limo service to connect you between the lounges! Not so good.

In the end, when we travel on Virgin, we buy the brand.

The brand’s God is Branson. It starts at the counter with the red suited flight attendants and the funky fishbone configurations in upper class on the planes. It is a kind of an antidote to British Airways and it worked. People became Virgin groupies. The lounges are the best and the people that work at Virgin all carry the brand with pride.

So how is the marriage going? It’s probably working well economically but I do get the feeling having dealt with both sets of staff that this marriage is definitely destined for twin beds at the very least and separate rooms in the future. Maybe that’s how marriages last!

Image courtesy of ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/virgin-america-alaska-air-merger/story?id=38143131

NOT JUST ANOTHER BUM IN A SEAT! (Airline Class Warfare)

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Incidentally, if you have not noticed, while the airlines are fawning over the front of the plane, and I mean fawning, (“Can I take you to your seat?”, “Would you like an espresso?”), in the back the seats are shrinking. By that I mean, they are putting more seats in and the width, depth, and pitch are getting smaller.

Planes that started out with a configuration of 167 seats are now putting in 179 seats. On most Boeing 777’s, what used to be 247 seats is now 289 seats. Guess where they are adding? In the economy section. They now have introduced the “skinny seats” to the airlines. Three-quarters of Delta’s equipment is running on a 17-inch seat width. What used to be the norm of a 32-inch pitch has now shrunk down to a 30-inch pitch; that is United’s new standard economy seat pitch. Plus what used to be 18 inches is now 17 inches in seat width. The only good news here is that the depth with the new skinny seats has grown from 22 inches to 24 inches by removing padding from the backrest and removing the extra paraphernalia from the back of the seat in front of you. They have even introduced skinny lavatories. Not the kind of place where you want to hang out with the Sunday newspaper.

Most recently on a British Airways flight, it cost me $55 to pre-book an economy seat for the transatlantic portion. It would have cost an additional amount for an emergency row. If I wanted to sit by the window, there is another surcharge. I have not even made it to premium economy yet! In other words, when you are sitting at the back of the plane with your cheap and cheerful ticket, they have plans for you – squeeze you in, don’t hang out in the toilets too long (after all it may be more comfortable in there than it is in your seat), and glance longingly through to the front of the plane where a carefully screened curtain keeps you at bay from those who want to have nothing to do with you!

But there is good news afoot.

There is a trickledown effect due to the fact that the airlines are smarting up the front of the plane and installing super cool video equipment.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Airlines are upgrading their video selections, their live TV streaming, and fairly shortly we will be able to control our own entertainment through our mobile devices. After all, you don’t want class warfare at 35,000 feet in the sky. So for the most part when we sit in the back of the plane, the food is a little better than it used to be and there is always that faint possibility that if you travel enough or happen to catch the right person on the right day, you can get upgraded. Yes…the upgrade! That moment when your knees go wobbly and this person with all of the power looks at you and says, “We are a little tight in the back so we have some good news for you.”….Yeah right!! Dream on! Nothing happens for free anymore. Get back to those seats in the back and prepare yourself with Benadryl, beer, or Ambien. Who needs a flat seat when you have those things in your arsenal?! And for the extra $19,000 to sit in first class, my two cents are that the economy blues can be suspended with a few tricks. Bring your own headsets, a fabulous sandwich from a local deli, a neck rest, and sync into the comparative luxury of your new skinny seat, preferably equipped with knee guards to stave off the person in front of you. Don’t forget your Ambien!

Image courtesy of Ready Set Trek: http://readysettrek.com/class-warfare-infographic/

The Journey up Jungfrau

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The journey from Zermatt to Lauterbrunnen, up Jungfrau, was a feast of Swiss mountains, green pastures, and alpine chalets.

The descent on the cog railway from Zermatt to Täsch was on the Glacier Express. It was the first part of a journey that would take us around three and a half hours. Our final destination was Zurich and in between we would climb the Jungfrau, stop in Wengen, and pass the magical town of Lucerne. All of this within one day!

We were driving and so we had to figure out a way to successfully get from Tasch to Lauterbrunnen efficiently. The new Lötschberg Basistunnel is the answer. It is 36 km long. The train goes through the mountain with your car! It is a fairly easy process. You queue up, buy the ticket, and drive your car onto a long metal ramp of open carriages. Put the brake on, turn your engine off, sit in the car, and watch the world go by as the train takes off. Alps in the background, mountains looming, and then total darkness as you enter the tunnel! 25 minutes later you pop out the other side and you’ve just saved yourself four hours of driving. It’s that simple!

Eventually we got close to the town of Interlaken (between the lakes) and parked the car in Lauterbrunnen to catch the train that would take us up to Wengen. The train is a cog train and was full of skiers and tourists alike. In Wengen, which is the staging post and midpoint, the town bustled with activity. It was full of hotels, cafes, restaurants, and is the beginning point for all of the lifts that will take you onto the ski slopes of the Jungfrau with the Eiger mountain in the background. It looks like it has a decent nightlife and it is flanked by a number of open bowls so the light is good all day. Many of the colors of the houses are yellow ochre and as the sun drops down the colors against the cog railway and the snow is stunning. It is definitely a place you can hang out for a couple of days.

We changed trains, hopped on the Jungfrau cog railway, and before you know it we were headed up to the very top of Europe. The train stopped inside of the glacier two or three times so that we could take pictures. By that time we were already well over 10,000 feet!

At the Top of Europe, as they call it, we were at 11,782 feet.

Time for pictures and taking it easy as the altitude definitely affected your step. I had a dodgy meal in the canteen at the top, experienced the highly civilized toilets and got to walk through the glacier ice village. After we hung out for a while we caught the express train back to Lauterbrunnen. At the top of the Jungfrau you can see the possibilities of skiing over to the open, broad expanse of Grindelwald. The beauty of this area is that you can buy a pass that takes in the whole mountain….. and the skiing looked pretty good. It may not be as extensive as Zermatt, but it looked awesome to me, especially if you had grown up skiing the ice in Vermont.

A coffee at the bottom, a jump in the car, and within two hours we would be in Zurich for dinner.

The Mystery of the Matterhorn

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Zermatt, as a holiday destination, is famous for its skiing, summer walks through the open trails long left by skiers–and for extreme climbers it’s the challenging ascent of the iconic Matterhorn.

I have been to Zermatt many, many times but I have never actually visited the Matterhorn Museum. Even though I received a frosty reception by walking straight past the cashier’s desk without paying (oops), I was pleasantly surprised by the contents of the museum – but not surprised by the reaction I got from the lady at the desk. She had specially trained in unfriendly customer relations. No smile, only a suspicious smirk as she thought I was trying to skip around her! No credit cards are accepted here; just good ol’ Swiss Francs. It costs 10 Swiss Francs (approx. $10.15). Most days it is open from 11:00 am until 6:00 pm.

The museum depicts a mini Zermatt, with recreations of original houses, interiors, and a chapel, and shows how the town started.

But the biggest focus of all is on the drama of the first ascent of the Matterhorn on the 14th of July in 1865.

This was the story of the last unconquered 4,000 meter peak in the Alps. There were seven mountaineers, four of whom fell to their deaths during the descent after their climbing rope broke. The survivors were the British Edward Whymper, and two Zermatt mountain guides, Peter Taugwalder and his son who happened to be Peter as well.

There is a whole mystery attached to the tragedy. Depending on whether you are British or from Zermatt, you will likely get different versions from different sides. There is even a movie that recreates this climb which was shot in 1937 and includes scenes from “the deadly fall” following the first ascent. In the museum, the snapped rope is right there and some of the effects of the climbers that perished are in preserved cases. There are also Neolithic age things and a whole bunch of black and white photographs of the early mountaineers. The exhibition that was on was all about who caused the fall. Was it the dastardly English guy who came down to claim that he was the first to conquer the Matterhorn? Or the guides who may or may not have cut the rope to save themselves? The intrigue is brewing everywhere. To this day, it is the main talking point of the museum. If you ask anybody who has lived in Zermatt for a number of years, they all have their own version. What is absolutely amazing is that the climbers seemed to wear suits, hats, and mostly looked like they were heading out to dinner, not climbing the most difficult precipice in Europe! Everyone carried a sling of ropes around them but beyond that it was all pretty much down to the knowledge of the mountain. The fact that these guys even made it to the top in those outfits is testament to their skills, their endurance, and frankly their craziness. The museum is worth a visit if only so you can write a column like this. It is a perfect “who done it” and really very interesting.

The Glacier Express

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Switzerland offers a remarkable way to sightsee your day through the beautiful terrain: the Glacier Express.

No car needed. Just a slow moving, winding train that is Switzerland’s greatest ad for Narnia.

The Glacier Express is a regular scheduled year-round train service between Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn and St. Moritz in the Engadin skiing area.

No idea why it’s called an express since it is slow.

Built on a narrow gauge train, it takes over seven hours to cover just over 290 km (180 miles), at an average of around 24 mph. However, it’s very civilized inside and you can get a decent lunch on board in the restaurant cars. The views are breathtaking, blizzards and all, and it also offers the unique experience of climbing to 2033 meters up the incredible Oberalp Pass, the highest point on the line. It truly looks like Narnia along the way. At the end the train magically winds its way to the chic resort of St Moritz. All in a day’s work!

Prices are not that bad for Switzerland. Below are the rack rates.

Zermatt – St Moritz, basic fare:

149 CHF (€149) 2nd class, one-way

262 CHF (€262) 1st class, one-way

Glacier Express supplement:

(this must be paid in addition to

the basic fare or railpass)

33 CHF (€33) in summer.

13 CHF (€13) in winter.

Cost of lunch (optional):

30 CHF (€30) for Plate of the Day.

43 CHF (€43) for 3-course lunch.

Children under 6 go free; children aged 6 to 16 pay half fare but must pay the adult supplement.

The Glacier Express is run jointly by two private Swiss railways, the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB) and the Rhätische Bahn (RhB), which also operate the regular hourly local trains over the same route. There is one daily Glacier Expresses in each direction in winter, but up to three daily Glacier Expresses in the summer. It is a great experience and I highly recommend it.

You can easily buy tickets online at www.glacierexpress.ch

The Strange Country of Switzerland

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Let’s face it – it’s a strange place. Encircled by beautiful mountains, Switzerland is famous for its scenery, cheese, watches, chocolate, skiing, drugs, and corruption…oops, I mean banking. A small bottle of water costs $5, a sandwich is $15-$20, and they think that they are doing you a favor!

It has a slightly dubious history. In World War II they pretended to be neutral but it was really a friendly outpost of Nazi Germany. Up until two years ago, most people kept a private bank account in Switzerland that was not traceable in any other country. It was thus a tax haven for the rich. It is the home and headquarters of football (soccer), the Olympics, and the Red Cross. It is also where Charlie Chaplin chose to live the remainder of his life after being kicked out of the USA for being a communist sympathizer. The Great Dictator! One of the most brilliant anti-fascist movies of all time.

So, why do I keep coming back to Switzerland? It is because I like the efficiency of the place. There are trains that climb up mountains on cogs, trains that you can put your car on to that hurtle you through insurmountable mountains and save you hours of driving, and toilets that are very clean compared to most of their neighbors. But most of all it is such a damn beautiful place with famous mountains jutting up above the clouds like the Matterhorn and the Eiger. It is just so stunning. Driving through the tunnels that have been beautifully carved in the mountains, I am aware that Swiss tunnels are the cleanest tunnels in all of the world, like they have a team of cleaners coming in at night to spick and span the walls. Not a wink of graffiti and the streets are clean.

So I guess that I have a bizarre love affair with the place. When I ski between Italy and Switzerland, I confess to loving the rösti, the raclette, and the fondue (really good for the cholesterol) a little more than the pasta. Yikes – what I am I saying?!

Every year I ski in Switzerland. I love the comfort of the place, the width of the slopes, the guaranteed snow, and I guess the Swiss are not that bad after all!

The Beauty of Sayulita

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What a pleasant surprise to discover that just 45 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta is a cool, laidback, surfer’s town called Sayulita.

Famous for its beach break, Sayulita has a guaranteed supply of mixed level waves, perfect for the amateur and pro together.

It feels that Puerto Vallarta has been attacked by the overdevelopment syndrome, but Sayulita, with its year-round population of around 2,000, has remained relatively unscathed.

It was first discovered in the 1960’s and was (and still is) a surfer’s paradise. The beach is a beautiful, huge crescent shape intersected by a river that seems to emanate from the jungle. Grazing by the river by an old plank bridge are horses and donkeys.

This is a town where the beach is the magnet. The beach is stacked in the center with surfboards, surf shops, and surf schools. You can rent everything from paddle boards to boogie boards. I sat under a very civilized umbrella easily rentable from Don Pedro – a restaurant come beach set-up where you can get fantastic grilled octopus and seared tuna.

Frankly, my idea of fun on a beach is to find a place like Don Pedro that sells umbrellas and lounge chairs and where I can get incredibly fresh and delicious seafood with a drink while watching other people do what I cannot do, namely surf and paddle board! So I watched expert surfers, beginner surfers (who wore beginner’s t-shirts), paddle boarders, body surfers, and just regular splashed types like me. At the far ends of the beach the fishermen and the pelicans went looking for their dinner. I’ve never seen so many pelicans diving in between surfboards in my life.

There are numerous tiny seaside accommodation places and at the end of the beach is a very nice, but not glitzy, hotel called Villa Amor which is where I stayed. Rooms range between $175-$300 per night for a one bedroom in high season. Sayulita is loaded with fantastic restaurants, taquerias, and a whole slew of funky bars that stayed open way after midnight. The crowd was mixed, cool, and very fit looking. Surfers usually are.

I love this place. The tiny shopping streets that stray off of the beach, the groovy restaurants, the mix of locals, old hippies, and newcomers. The beach had a freer feel to it.

If the beach was a spectacular white coral sand beach like the one in Cancun, it would have been ruined years ago with high-rises and packaged tours. This place never got there. A fiercely strong local citizenry protected it and the beach was funky enough to not pull the developers in. One of my favorite shops in Sayulita is Révolucion del Sueño which does an incredible trade with Zapata t-shirts made from beautiful soft cotton. My only tip to travelers who discover this place, don’t tell too many people.

Mexico Distrito Federal

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Mexico Distrito Federal (D.F.) is the real deal. It’s a huge city; almost something like the sprawl of São Paulo in Brazil but actually totally cool and groovy.

Yes, there are a few sketchy spots and it is probably not a great idea to grab a taxi from the street, but if you follow some basic rules, this city is rich in sights, restaurants, and beautiful parks. It is actually a safe city with people walking around at night. Even Uber is everywhere and I got to practically Uber my way around the city. Oh, and one last thing….it really is a great deal. Even the street food is healthy and nutritious.

So, why the dead spot in Mexico tourism?

There are issues. Drug cartels are out there. There are bad spots and a lot of bad publicity, but everyone knows the places in Mexico to avoid. It is really just like anywhere else.

But I have fallen in love with this place. Mexico has amazing coastlines from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. There are ancient sites, pyramids, incredible colonial architecture, Frida, Diego and food. It’s not just tacos and guacamole but there is a serious cuisine scene around.

A three night stopover in Mexico City is a great way to scope out the city. It can easily be combined with either the Yucatan or the Pacific Coast or you could really just spend the weekend in D.F.

Spanish teachers really should consider coming back here for a number of reasons.

Firstly, crime is down, the air is clean, and the architecture and the city have been reworked. There are bike paths, a great Metro, and it’s a pedestrian friendly city. I stayed along the Paseo de la Reforma, a wide avenue running diagonally across the heart of the city, and during the weekend, it was virtually traffic free with only bikes and pedestrians. It’s awesome. Second, the neighborhoods are cool too. Plan on visiting Roma, Condesa, Centro Historico and Coyoacán where both Frida and Diego lived. The Zócalo is the main square in the center of the city and is 57,500 square meters big; one of the largest city squares in the world. While there, imagine Tiananmen Square – it is that big. The square is the home to the Cathedral, the National Palace and the colonial arcade. To the south of the city is Xochimilco which is famous for its miles of canals and lakes and the trajineras, the boats that drift like gondolas laden with tourists and vendors.

Third, there are so many museums and national sights to see. At Casa Azul, the Frida Kahlo Museum, you get to see Frida Kahlo’s genius firsthand. This was Frida’s home where her life both began and ended. She and her husband, famed painter Diego Rivera, are all around you. In addition, this is the neighborhood where Leon Trotsky lived in exile from the Soviet Union during Stalin’s leadership. He had been befriended by Kahlo and Rivera.

Located in Xochililco is a true gem – Museo Dolores Olmedo. This was donated to the state after her death and the house and gardens are a spectacular – filled with peacocks and the famous hairless Mexican dogs. The museum has a collection of 140 Rivera pieces and a number of works by Kahlo and Angelina Beloff. It is accessible easily by Metro and is a must see.

Chapultepec Forest holds Mexico’s version of Versailles, the grand Chapultepec Castle. It is also close by to the National Museum of Anthropology, one of the world’s greatest art and artifacts museums.

Finally, there’s history and of course there are the pyramids outside of the city in the zone of the Teotihuacan. These are the largest pyramids outside of Egypt.

So my only question is, why not go to Mexico City? It’s got it all and it is at a price point that just makes sense.

The 9AM Flight to Mexico City

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Great news for Bostonians. AeroMexico has begun a nonstop flight to Mexico City four times per week.

With departures at a very civilized hour, New Englanders can escape the frigid temperatures and within six hours are in Mexico’s capital. Formerly known solely as Distrito Federal (Mexico D.F.), the entire sprawl including the D.F. is officially called Mexico City although it is still quite trendy to say D.F. Of course that’s what I’ve been calling it all the time.

AeroMexico has elected to leave its super Boeing 737-800 airplane on the JFK route and instead offers a pretty old and tired product to Bostonians. I was in First class, if you can call it that. The ticket was not that expensive…and it showed. By the time that the disinterested flight attendant had reached the third row of first class seats, the hot meal was not available. So it was all down to a yoghurt, soggy croissants and dreary fruit with cornflakes! God knows what was going on behind in the economy seats but I bet sensible people in the back had stocked up before the flight. I foolishly thought there would be something awful, but passable, and made an Airplane 101 mistake. It’s a simple rule of thumb really and I preach it all of the time. But goddamnit I forgot! Never, under any circumstances, eat the food on an airplane unless you are so desperately hungry that you would contemplate eating an old sock.

The video situation was no better. There were countless reruns of old TV shows that had long left our orbit to be sent to some other part of the world for regurgitation (including AeroMexico!). But I jest as I was so happy to have a nonstop at my disposal on my doorstep to one of my favorite destinations. I’ll take a bad seat, a tired meal, and a very disinterested flight attendant over many, many connections any day.

Soccer in America

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I had an amazing couple of days at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention in Baltimore.

Baltimore is like soccer in America – it is in transition and it’s heading the right way. A few shady spots here and there, but new waterfront development and a strong convention center are rebuilding the city.

In a country where about 25 million kids play soccer, and close to 5 million play at the club level, it still amazes me that we have not discovered our own Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi. When I talk to the guys around here, they feel that it’s coming. Soccer is a craze in the USA. We get to see it practically every day on primetime TV at the highest level and it is the longest season of any sport in the world. Ironically through the advance of video soccer games like FIFA (unlike the real institution that governs soccer, the video game is not corrupted) kids now know all of the stars, all of the leagues, and are getting into the rhythm of this great game.

Soccer is a great deal more complicated than any of us think. I got to talk with a lot of coaches and a scattering of stars during my two days there. The amazingly charismatic Uruguayan International, Ruben Sosa, who played for Inter and Lazio, was one of the great highlights of the convention. I spent some time chatting with him about his coaching schools down in Uruguay. Alegre he said is the key to unlocking the talent. Getting kids to enjoy the game and developing skills. Using the brain and ballet to perform beautiful moves and work always as a team. As one guy said, “Winning games is not what we are here to do. We are here to develop a love for the game so that kids will want to continue playing past the drop off age of 14. The talent will emerge. Teaching teamwork and ball skills. That’s our goal and much more important than an actual goal scored in an 11 vs. 11 game with 13 year olds.” We even got a little feature on Sirius Radio through our beloved John Kerr, ex-USA and International and now head coach at Duke.

For me, I am a soccer addict and always have been.

I see as much pleasure in 0-0 as a 5-4 result. Soccer, unlike all of the other American sports, is truly an international phenomenon. The crowds are crazy, they sing inappropriate songs with tons of swear words aimed at their idols or not, and one day Major League Soccer will provide us with a league worthy of the world stage. Yes, soccer breeds superstars but ultimately a coach’s configuration is no different than setting up a team project in the office, developing a strategy and working together. Team.

One of my greatest heroes in soccer, George Best, was the first modern, sporty, good-looking superstar – the fifth Beatle. He was reckless, talented, brilliant, and had a career that was extraordinary and far too short for a man with such talent. I first saw him play against Chelsea in 1965. He was quite simply the most amazing player I had ever seen, and will probably ever see. A la Pele, a Maradonna, a Leo Messi. When asked where he spent his money, and he made a lot in the early days, he said, “I spent my money on birds, booze, and fast cars…The rest I squandered.” A life too short, a talent too wasted on mere mortals. All the Georgie.