PARIS! All the tour books, online research, talking with friends who have been there, and pre-trip planning don’t prepare you for the overwhelming feeling of immersion once arriving in Paris. On a recent business trip …
March 29, 2012
Europe
The Allure of Paris: Eiffel Tower
A Great Escape, Part Four
Daylight The lights at Villingen shut off on schedule. Edouard Izac, Harold Willis, and 11 others would become the only Americans to try a mass escape from a German POW camp during World War I. …
March 28, 2012
A Great Escape, Part Three
The Best Made Plans Toward the end of World War I, the Germans boasted that their prisoner-of-war camp on the western outskirts of Villingen was tight as a sealed tomb. A ten-foot-tall, barbed-wire fence surrounded …
March 21, 2012
Medieval Life in Winchester, England
William the Conqueror was a busy guy in 1066 after successfully invading and taking control of England. After being crowned king in London at Westminster Abbey, William immediately took control of the town of Winchester, …
March 14, 2012
A Great Escape, Part One
Capture “I rather expected to be wounded or killed or even drowned,” writes Navy lieutenant Edouard Izac. “It was only natural that…the [USS President] Lincoln would finally be torpedoed….But never once had the thought of …
March 7, 2012
Three Nights and Three Pubs in London
My hotel, the Radisson Blu Portman, was in a good location just a few blocks from the high-end shopping area of Oxford and Regent streets. Weaving through the enchanting boroughs (the British word for neighborhood) …
February 27, 2012
Cologne, Germany's Love-Locked Bridge
Trains rumbled over the bridge and thousands of padlocks chattered in unison as I walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Germany, looking at messages of love. Row after row of various shaped and sized …
February 14, 2012
Traveling in Style: A Personal Train through Transylvania
“The painfully slow Personal trains should be avoided as a rule, unless you’re heading for some tiny destination.” – The Rough Guide to Romania “These trains are achingly slow.” – Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe I …
January 24, 2012
Place Django Reinhardt, Paris
New to Paris is Place Django Reinhardt. Well, the site isn't new, but the designation is. The site is where the gypsy guitariste et compositeur lived in his caravan, in the Saint-Ouen neighborhood of Paris's …
January 13, 2012
Greek Island Hopping: A How-to
As we took our last ferry back to the Greek mainland, a few general impressions of the Greek Islands came to mind. Overall, the people were genuine, helpful and friendly – a traditional Greek nod …
An Unforgettable Trip to Salzburg, Austria, and Dachau, Germany
They say every little girl’s dream is to be a princess. When I told a family friend that I’d been accepted into the Salzburg Global Seminar and would be living in an 18th century castle, …
Edinburgh, Scotland’s Royal Mile
The prime sites to visit in Scotland's capital dot the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle at the west end to Holyrood Palace at the east end. The Castle is worth touring at any time, but …
December 5, 2011
Backpacking in Europe, the Hard Way
This was the trip of a lifetime. Traveling to Budapest, Hungary, I experienced the time of my life while trekking simultaneously through the hardships of a stolen passport, wallet and train pass. I was studying …
December 2, 2011
Annecy: Beauty in the French Alps
Upon his visit to a town in France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, “Now I have been happy, now I have lived.” No, he was not writing of Paris, but praising the beauty of Annecy. We decided …
Culinary Discovery in Terme di Castrocaro, Italy
When in France, my husband and I decided to squander beaucoup d' euros on a Michelin one-star restaurant. The experience was so satisfactory that, on a subsequent trip to Italy, we decided to make a …
November 13, 2011