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Browsing Tag: solo travel

Sachertorte, Schloss Mirabell and St. Nicholas Market: Sweet Secrets of Salzburg

Sachertorte has a sweet secret. In 1832, the Austrian State Chancellor challenged his kitchen staff to prepare a “dessert to impress” special guests. With the Head Chef taken to his bed, his 16-year old apprentice, Franz Sacher performed the original culinary magic creating a chocolate cake which soon gained a cult following. From the imperial court to the world stage of desserts. Here’s the original recipe. Order it in any …

Easy Ways to Learn Another Language and Why You Should

As an American tourist traveling abroad, there aren’t many things more embarrassing than listening to a fellow citizen complain, in loud, rude disbelief, when someone in a service position in the destination country, doesn’t speak English. It happens far more often than you think. If you’re planning to travel abroad, please take the time to learn a few basic phrases in the language spoken in the countries on your itinerary. …

For Beautiful Scents of France, Visit Fragonard…

Here are a few pics of Grasse on that summer morning… A little about Fragonard. It’s not just a luxury French perfume. It’s a French treasure. Eugene Fuchs, a former Parisien notary with a fondness for fragrance founded the company in 1926 in one of the oldest factories in Grasse. Perfume as Art Monsieur Fuchs named his now legendary firm after the local painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whose father was a …

The Earth’s Largest and Most Perfect: Visit Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater

This highly visited African attraction is the world’s largest inactive, unbroken and unfilled volcanic caldera. So what’s a caldera? A caldera is a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses. During a volcanic eruption, magma present in the magma chamber underneath the volcano is expelled, often forcefully. National Geographic One of the Seven And more than that. The Ngorongoro Crater is listed as one of the seven natural wonders and is …

The Big Deal About TSA PreCheck and Global Entry

Have you seen the signs at airports for TSA PreCheck and wondered if the benefits outweigh the effort to qualify? And how about Global Entry? Is it worth the trouble and expense? In a word, Yes. If you plan to travel internationally, Global Entry includes TSA PreCheck so look at this first then decide which program best suits your travel needs. Here’s what they are, what they cost, how to …

The Alhambra, Granada’s Lush, Lavish and Last Great Palace

History calls it The Dark Ages. The earth is flat. Ships sailing across the ocean intent on returning with the fabled riches of India may perish in the void. Darkness has descended as a global cold front sweeps across Europe. In the ensuing misery of famine and disease, barbarians fan out across the continent intent on conquest. This is the world of Alhambra in 1238. In Granada, on the Iberian …