The Adirondacks: Lake Placid, New York
New York’s Adirondack is the largest park in the continental United States– larger than the entire state of Massachusetts or Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks combined. Its six million acres are constitutionally protected as “forever wild”.
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New Orleans, Louisiana: Laissez les bons temps rouler!
We were eager to explore the eclectic city known by so many names–Crescent City, the Big Easy, Birthplace of Jazz–a city attracting 7+ million visitors annually for its bon vivant atmosphere.
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Viva la Grischa! : Allegra im Val Müstair, Switzerland!
In more remote mountain villages and hamlets, the language left behind by Roman conquerers lives on. That language is called Romansh and each region has its own dialect.
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Kia Ora — Welcome — to Rotorua, New Zealand!
Visit Rotorua, “Second Lake”, and you will feel this spirit, passed down through the generations. In this heartland of Maori culture the Earth and its geologic wonders are part of the spiritual world.
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London for the holidays
With our family members scattered across the globe, we wondered how we would gather our three generations for the holidays.
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Palm Springs, California: Sunny Days and Starry Nights in the California Desert
A favorite of Hollywood, this “Playground of the Stars”, is a two-hour drive from LA. The desert became a popular movie set, and celebrities like Lucy and Desi were often spotted in town. Little Shirley Temple learned to ride a bicycle here.
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Imperial London
In what is becoming an increasingly homogenized world, London reigns supreme with a pageantry known to most of us only in storybooks. It was our good fortune to be in London for three magnificent events.
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An Untour of Switzerland
Train rides past snow-capped Alps, boat excursions on sparkling lakes, gondolas to mountain peaks…hikes and picnics in idyllic meadows of wildflowers, serenaded by cowbells, savoring local wine, freshly-baked bread, cheeses and chocolates….yes, this is Switzerland.
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Joie de vivre without crossing the pond: Montréal, Canada
A warm “Bonjour!” as we entered the auberge reminded us that we needn’t cross the pond
to experience European ambience. A flower-bedecked horse-drawn calèche clip-clopped on
the cobblestone street, passengers rapt with the romance of the moment.
Viking River Cruise’s European Adventure
Our European Adventure, as it was then named, cruised the Danube, Main Canal, and Rhine from Vienna to Amsterdam on the Viking Europe.
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Greenland
We glided past floating sculptures shaped by wind and weather, frozen reminders of ages past, shimmering shapes in a sparkling sea, the sky a clear cerulean. On both sides, dramatic peaks soared nearly 5000 feet above, dwarfing us as we sailed past icebergs and waterfalls in a pristine wilderness. This was the rarest of days in Ikerasassuag, “The Long Channel”, Prince Christian Sound.
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St. John’s, Newfoundland: City of Legends
St. John’s is a blend of old and new, city and nature. There are elegant historic homes, colorful wooden houses, brick and stone church and government buildings, colonial shops, and innovative modern museums. Should you want to tour by sea, regaled by songs and stories, accompanied by a Newfoundland dog, the Scademia sails past lighthouses and rugged cliffs to Cape Spear.
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North America’s first Europeans: evidence of Vikings in Newfoundland
St. Anthony is the gateway to L’Anse Aux Meadows, the first and only authenticated Norse settlement in North America. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance in the history of worldwide exploration and the movement of peoples. In 2000, it attracted attention and large crowds when the landing of the Vikings 1000 years earlier was celebrated.
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Voyage of the Vikings aboard Holland America’s Amsterdam: Iceland
It is said that when the Vikings first saw Iceland–with volcanoes, black lava fields, sulfurous steam, and bubbling mud pools– they thought they had discovered the entrance to the Netherworld.
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Cruise ports in Norway: Holland America’s Voyage of the Vikings
The oldest of the Scandinavian capitals, founded over a thousand years ago, Oslo was an important center of wood trade. In the 1600s, after yet another devastating fire, King Christian IV, ruler of Denmark and Norway, rebuilt the city in brick and stone closer to Akershus Fortress and named it Christiania after himself. The original name was not restored until 1925.
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Treasures of the Rhine
On our “Treasures of the Rhine” itinerary, we unpacked once and sailed past enchanting fairytale castles, romantic medieval villages, verdant vineyards, and pastoral landscapes–living history from Switzerland to the North Sea.
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Quebec City: French culture without the transatlantic flight
The flight from Boston was just an hour—and voila! We were sipping café au lait on Grand Allée, this continent’s Champs Elysées, in the capital of the province of Quebec, the cradle of French civilization in the Americas, swept up in the city’s romance and Old World charm.
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Oases in the desert: our favorite Arizona resorts and spas
The red rocks of Sedona create a spectacular approach to this 70 acre luxury resort. Once inside the resort gate and Boynton Canyon, it’s the feeling of being in a cocoon that glows with the sun.
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Cape May, New Jersey: sun, sand, and sea and more at America’s original Seaside Resort
We were sitting in the parlor of the Queen Victoria Bed & Breakfast sipping the evening sherry when we heard the clippity-clack of a horse and carriage passing by. If not for the electricity illuminating the antique chandelier we might have been experiencing the Victorian Age.
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Holiday on the Hudson: a Dutchess County Treat
What grander way to celebrate the season than amidst the splendor of some of America’s finest mansions? And what better time to step back to the Gilded Age and inside the homes of some of the most talked-about people of their time?
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