It was an afterthought, a stop on the way from Madrid by way of Segovia and Avila to Salamanca. Easy to miss if you weren’t looking for the signpost at the end of a long driveway, mid-vineyard, bathed in a golden Spanish sunset. Had I known more about this little gem, I would have booked a week-long stay to enjoy all that the Hacienda Zorita Wine Hotel, Spa and Organic …
Most travel “bucket lists” lead with an African Safari. Or at least rank as a top three destination experience. The movie, “Out of Africa” and the works of Isak Dinesen were all I needed. Meryl Streep’s rhapsodic soliloquy in the film’s opening scenes, “I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills,” inspired my Kenyan odyssey, a trip I completely under-estimated for sheer wonder. I enjoyed …
With travel to Russia prohibited for the foreseeable future, I’ve been reflecting on my own experiences in this most culturally diverse, complex, fascinating and unique collection of countries. Russia is just that: a collection of regions, towns and cities. Each with its own language, foods, traditions and sadly united under another despot. With singular devotion to the arts: performance, architectural, sculptural, pictorial. In metallurgy and mosaics, in marble, frescoed and …
People are often curious about my solo travels. After all, I have a wonderful husband so why not travel as a couple? The simple answer is, we often do. I’m just more interested in exploring the world and am comfortable with foreign languages, long plane flights, and logistical challenges. And he’s fine with that. I’ve been traveling solo for most of my business career and now, as a retiree, I’m …
As a university student, I lived in nearby Fribourg and often visited this city and returned a few months ago. The Bernese are proud, enlightened and open-minded. Bern is the de facto capital city, political seat and gateway to the Alps. The city is built around a bend in the Aare River and traces its origins back to the 12th century, with many examples of medieval architecture preserved in the …
You’ll never open another bottle of wine or champagne again without thinking of this. Cork is one of Portugal’s biggest and most important exports. In fact, Portugal is the biggest cork producer in the world and produces more than 50% of the world’s cork supply. The vast majority of this is made into those forgettable or collectable wine bottle stoppers but increasingly, more and more cork is being sold to …
