Tag Archives: France

Railcruising

Posted on by
Reply

New Zealand devises a novel way to put unused railroad tracks back to work for the sake of tourism. Could this be the newest Next Big Thing?

Take some long-abandoned railroad tracks through a beautiful stretch of public land. Create mini-carriages carrying no more than four people at a time and send them down the line at intervals for a leisurely, scenic and self-conducted run of 12 miles or so. What do you get?

New life for old rail lines, and a new kind of rail-based tourism.

This is what’s being done today by an outfit that calls itself Rail Riders Ltd in New Zealand. They call it “railcruising.”

You can get more details about this at their Railcruising.com site.

When I stumbled upon this yesterday — on a French news Web site, of all things — the railfan in me was instantly intrigued.

This is a concept that you could apply virtually in any country in the world with a lot of unused rail lines — and a couple of places already are trying it.

France, which has some of Europe’s most scenic countryside and a lot of unused track, offers a little excursion called Vélo-Rail, featuring hybrid rail vehicles that you can pedal like a bicycle and carry up to five people at a time. Two pedal; the other three sit back and enjoy the ride.

I might’ve known the French would be out in front on something like this; they’ve been doing it since the late 1990s.

Across the English Channel, something very similar may soon be making its debut in North Wales, if it hasn’t already.

Where the New Zealanders seem to have taken a jump ahead is with their vehicles, which are motorized gasoline/electric-powered hybrids. Also, unlike the railbikes, the Railcruising hybrids are semi-enclosed, offering at least some protection from surprise storms.

But whether pedal-powered or propelled by hybrid technology, the idea is fascinating.

Indeed, this is a concept that could very quickly migrate around the globe, since there are few countries, if any, that don’t have abandoned trackage running through some spectacular bits of country.

The United States alone has an estimated 80,000 miles of abandoned rail lines. The United Kingdom has about 4,000 miles’ worth. Canada. Latin America. Asia. Africa. The possibilities are virtually endless.

We could be looking at the Next Big Thing in rail tourism.

If nothing else, it could throw an interesting curveball at the Rails to Trails Conservancy, which has been at work for years pulling up abandoned rail lines in the United States to convert the unused rights-of-way into a network of hiking and cycling trails.

It occurs to me, though, that this idea could be applied to more than just tourism or recreation. Could it not be applied to urban transportation, as well?

Engineers and designers have been talking for years about developing this kind of pod-based, on-demand rail transportation for major cities. They call it PRT, Personal Rapid Transit. But all the PRT concepts I saw in the past seemed to presume construction of new lines, be they conventional tracks, monorails or something else.

Why not apply the railcruising concept to unused rail lines within major cities as a way to get around? Something to think about, at least.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, the Kiwis are blazing a new kind of trail with their little hybrids. Don’t be surprised if this idea catches on.

The Red White Black and Blue

Posted on by
4

Black Americans traveling outside the United States for the first time often worry about how they’ll be treated. What they find often takes them totally by surprise.

A funny thing happens to black folks when we travel outside the United States for the first time. We find out that we’re Americans.

More specifically, we find out that the rest of the world often sees us more fully as Americans than do a lot of our so-called “countrymen.”

We also find out that being perceived as an American often makes a difference in how we’re treated abroad — compared with, say, Africans.

We’re treated better.

All this is gratifying in some ways, unsettling in others. Either way, it’s not what we expect when we get that U.S. passport stamped with its first foreign visa.

When you grow up in a country, any country, your life experience in that land shapes the way you see yourself, and the world.

Growing up black in America means learning to see yourself as being “different,” a few degrees apart from the mainstream. We didn’t voluntarily separate ourselves from that mainstream. We’ve been pushed and walled off from it — blatantly in my elders’ day, more subtly in mine.

TWILIGHT ZONE CITIZENS
You go through life being viewed by turns as a threat, a freak of nature, an issue, a cause, a voting bloc, a market, a whole series of stereotypes — almost anything, it seems, other than just another U.S. citizen.

For that reason, black American citizenship often has a kind of Twilight Zone feel to it. You’re an American officially, but not entirely. Your citizenship status comes with a psychological, emotional asterisk that never goes away.

So when you venture beyond your borders for the first time, you expect the rest of the world to come at you more or less in the same manner.

Surprise…it doesn’t.

When you step off the plane in Paris or Istanbul or Sao Paulo or Beijing — or for that matter, Dakar or Lagos or Cape Town — the locals see you exactly as what you are.

Someone born in the United States, steeped in the American life experience and thoroughly saturated in American culture.

In other words, an American.

You don’t have to wear a USA T-shirt. You don’t have to say a word. One look at you and they just know, instantly. American, through and through.

WE DON’T BLEND IN
Even in urban, sub-Saharan Africa, where you might expect to blend in seamlessly with the locals, you don’t. You stick out like a sore red-white-black-and-blue thumb.

For the black American traveler, this has both advantages and drawbacks.

Among the biggest drawbacks: Everybody thinks you’re rich. After all, everybody’s rich in America, right? Our television shows, our music videos, our movies are broadcast the world over — and on screens large and small, we sure look rich.

Which means that when you walk into the local market or shop, the vendor instantly raises his prices, just as he would for any other American. Beggars and street hustlers will follow you a little farther down the block than they would some other tourist, and much farther than they would any local.

You deal with it. You learn how to haggle, how to fend off the hustlers. It goes with the territory. You’re an American.

But there are advantages, too. For one thing, you’re likely to find out that, contrary to some of the political propaganda you hear back home, most of the world really doesn’t hate American people, even if it’s appalled by American politics.

UNEXPECTED ACCEPTANCE
People will smile at you, especially if you smile at them. People will talk to you, no matter how pathetic your halting attempts to speak to them in their native language. They will welcome you to their country, maybe even invite you into their homes. If you run into problems, they may go to extraordinary lengths to help you.

All because you’re an American, and you cared enough to come for a visit.

You also may find yourself periodically displaying the same kind of cultural chauvinism abroad that “other” Americans do. You’ll know it the first time you catch yourself thinking, or even saying aloud, “Wow, that’s not how we do things back home!”

And when you laugh about it, you’ll be the only one who gets the joke. After all, you’re kind of new to this whole “American” thing. From that point on, you just accept it, the way virtually everyone else around you does.

That’s when you realize that all those worries and fears you had about how you would be treated were just so much excess cultural baggage, dead weight that won’t be coming with you on your next international trip.

Even this little bit of delight has a flip side, however. You realize that the moment you see how Africans are often treated abroad.

THE FLIP SIDE
When you see taxi drivers in London or Paris or Beijing stop to pick you up — unlike the way so many of them pass you on the street in, say, New York — you may not realize at first that those same cabbies who were happy to stop for you will pass up Africans all day long.

Just as you might be followed throughout a shop by store security back home, so too will the African be followed overseas. Discrimination in jobs, housing, education, systematic hassling by the police — the full gamut of the black American experience — the African from the Caribbean or the Mother Continent receives elsewhere in the world.

But not you. You’re okay. You’re an American.

That may jar you a little bit. It also may explain why, when you give that little nod to the African passing by on the street — that little nod of acknowledgement that many black Americans traditionally give one another — the African may not return it.

That, too, can be unsettling. Actually, it hurts.

But pretty soon, you’re back to enjoying your unexpected status as an American abroad. People being nice to you. People treating you as if you were the same as everybody else.

For the first time, you really understand why so many black American soldiers, shipped to France during World War 1, opted not to return to the States. And you find yourself wishing every day could be like this.

But even as you’re having the time of your life, in the back of your mind, the clock is ticking. All too soon, you will have to get on the plane to return home, where all that’s familiar in your life will be waiting for you.

Right down to that asterisk.

That’s the tradeoff that comes with travel. It always opens your eyes, but it doesn’t promise that you’ll always enjoy the view.

Edited by P.A.Rice

TRAVEL GEAR: Mobal World Phones

Posted on by
Reply

One man’s frustration at being unable to call home from overseas has led to a company that puts a cheap GSM phone in your hand that works in 190 countries.

Regular IBIT readers know of my frustrations with trying to find a good cell phone that works locally abroad at a price that won’t bankrupt me before I get home.

It started the day the shuttle driver left us stranded at CDG airport in Paris a few years ago. The Blackberry Storm from Verizon Wireless, supposedly able to roam internationally in France, didn’t.

Next thing you know, I’m in the back of a West African émigré’s renegade taxi, with the windows cracked and the doorknobs and door panels coming off in my hand.

Even if the Storm had worked, the international roaming rates charged by Verizon and other US cell phone providers are high enough to make your heart race — and those are just for voice calls.

Accessing the Internet from your smartphone while overseas, especially via Verizon, could send your wallet into cardiac arrest.

Comes now this outfit called Mobal with spectacularly cheap GSM phones, which they swear up and down work not only in France — something they take great pains to emphasize — but 190 countries around the world.

(GSM and CDMA are the two operating standards used by nearly all the world’s cell phones today. CDMA is used mainly in the United States and China. The rest of the world is on GSM.)

And whether you opt for one of their basic “candy bar” phones or a larger, more capable Android smartphone, their prices are remarkably cheap.

The company that sells this stuff is the creation of Tony Smith, whose story you can read here (scroll down after opening the link).

Supposedly, he created Mobal after finding himself unable to easily stay in touch with folks back home during his international travels.

I’ve definitely felt his pain.

When you buy one of these phones, you get one international phone number that’s yours for life. You pay for the calls you make, no monthly contracts.

Their cheapest World Phone works in 170 countries. It won’t work in the United States — but odds are, you already have a phone that does, so that’s not likely to be an issue.

The rest of the World Phones work in 190 countries, including the U.S.

Don’t want to buy another phone for your international travel? Mobal will rent you one — a cell phone, a smartphone, even a satellite phone.

If you already have an unlocked GSM phone and just need a SIM card, they have those, too. Cheap.

They’ll even sell you one of their satellite phones if you think you really need one, but be warned. Once you start talking “satphones,” you’re talking big bucks, $550 to nearly $1,500, just for the phone.

Most of us aren’t going anyplace in the world where the need for digital communication is that dire.

The company has been around since 1989, which actually makes it older than nearly all the current U.S. cellular service providers.

As always, do your due diligence when looking into a company like this, but if you like the idea of affordable communications in your pocket regardless of where you are the world, Mobal might be worth investigating.

Edited by P.A.Rice

T’is the (Christmas market) season in Europe

Posted on by
Reply
Christmas market, Strasbourg, FR

Strasbourg, France — Christmas market | © G. Gross

If you’ve never experienced a European Christmas market, you owe it to yourself to get out there in the cold among the bright lights and the non-stop festive cheer.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Christmas is an outdoor affair that lasts for a month or more, a public event to be shared with townspeople and tourists alike, and they draw visitors across Europe annually by the tens of millions.

The Christmas market is a tradition that may date back as far as the 1300s. Some of the first known began in the German-speaking region of Alsace, in what is now eastern France.

Since then, it’s taken hold throughout western Europe, has penetrated portions of eastern Europe — and can even be found in the United States here and there.

Wherever you’ll find them, you’ll have a blast, because that’s the whole point.

The Christmas market is a mixture of Christian and pagan traditions. The great European cathedrals are often the anchor point of Christmas markets. Nearby may be a huge, gayly decorate pine tree, a tradition we got from the pagans.

There are solemn religious ceremonies this time of year also, but mostly, this is neither the time nor the place for solemnity. Whether to mark the birth of Christ or the coming of the winter solstice, Christmas markets are all about celebration.

The bigger ones set up huge amusement-park rides. Outdoor ice-skating rinks welcome the skilled and lure the foolhardy. Street musicians and singers perform. Vendors sell tasty snacks and hot drinks, especially the hot, spiced wine known as vin chaud in France and glühwein in Germany.

This is where everyone is free to be a kid, regardless of the date on their birth certificate.

Stalls sell all manner of Christmas trinkets and decorations. As with a lot of other things around the world these days, a lot of what they sell may be mass-produced in China or elsewhere, but if you look, you can still find seasonal items lovingly handcrafted by locals.

The Christmas markets also may be where the locals come to buy their Christmas trees and Christmas lights.

If you can’t have fun at a Christmas market, check your pulse. Someone may have stolen it.

I experienced my first Christmas market a few years ago in Strasbourg, the regional capital of Alsace. It claims the title as the first official Christmas market, going back to the 1500s, and remains one of Europe’s best.

There definitely are bigger and splashier ones elsewhere, however, especially across the Rhine River in Germany.

The Christmas markets now springing up in Eastern Europe might be especially interesting to check out because they only began to appear with the fall of the Iron Curtain. So only now are people able to celebrate as they please, as their western European counterparts have been doing for centuries.

They might not be as smooth or well-organized as they are in France, Germany and elsewhere, but that spirit of new-found freedom and celebration might more than make up for that.

The European Christmas market phenomenon belongs on your holiday travel list — if not for this year, then for 2012 and beyond.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
Where your Christmas comes from
The SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

the IBIT TRAVEL DIGEST 11.7.11

Posted on by
Reply

A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media.​

Strasbourg Xmas lights

Christmas lights for sale in Strasbourg, France | © G. Gross

TIS THE SEASON…FOR EUROPE’S CHRISTMAS MARKETS
We’re moving into November, which means that Christmas markets are or soon will be opening up in almost every capital in Western Europe, and a good many smaller cities and towns all across the continent.

You could probably start a pretty ferocious argument among locals, travelers and expats as to who’s Christmas market is the best. Having only experienced two so far, in Paris and Strasbourg, the capital of France’s Alsace region on the border with Germany, I’m in no position to judge.

I can tell you that the Christmas market scene turns the Champs Elysee into a linear holiday scene, but the Marche de Noël in Strasbourg made me fall in love with the whole city.

If you’ve never experienced a European Christmas market, you really should — and the bigger and livelier, the better. You’re only problem will be choosing among all the spectaculars.

To help you start the selection process, here’s a list from Britain’s Europe a la Carte site of their favorite 25 Christmas markets around Old Europe.

TEN DAYS OF ADVENTURE IN THE HEART OF AFRICA
Another sign that Rwanda is pushing forward — hard — with its tourism:

The day after Thanksgiving, the Congo Nile Trail will formally open to travelers — 227 kilometers (140 miles) along Lake Kivu. Supposedly, you can hike it in ten days, bike it in five or drive it in a 4×4 in three. There’s a main trail, sub-trails and base camps.

For more details about the Congo Nile Trail, check out these stories from eTurbo News and allAfrica.com.

If you’ve ever wanted to go beyond the prepackaged, all-the-creature-comforts safari travel when you visit the Mother Continent, Rwanda and the Congo Nile Trail could be just your ticket.

A TIP FOR CARNIVAL
According to USA Today, Carnival Cruises is putting out revised guidelines for its passengers to get them to give cruise ship crewmembers bigger tips.

Here’s a tip for Carnival: PAY YOUR CREWS BETTER.

Nothing against being more generous with tips for the crews. They work incredibly hard, seven days a week, almost 24 hours a day. If you can afford to fatten the tip envelopes, even by a fraction, by all means, you should.

But when you’ve got people working that hard for as little as $18,000 a year, it sounds just a little disingenuous to hear a multibillion-dollar cruise ship company urging the passengers to dig deeper into their wallets to do what the company should be doing itself. Just sayin’.

-0-

And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

AIR
from Vayama
A helpful page from their Web site listing ground transportation options at 150 airports around the world. This is one link you’ll want to keep in your smartphone.

​from Travel+Leisure
How to sleep comfortably in an airport. Someday. Maybe.

from Travelpro Luggage blog
Eight myths about airports — and the realities are not in your favor.

from the Consumer Travel Alliance
Consumer watchdogs versus airline avarice. Think they’ll have any trouble finding examples?

​LAND
from Vagabondish
Seven things never to do as a traveler — unless you just have a death wish.

from BootsnAll
Were you an English major in college? Here are four places in the world you’ll want to see…as soon as you finish paying off those student loans. Or maybe even sooner.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
One of the best urban green spaces in America is Golden Gate Park in San Francisco…and one of the best ways to see it is by bike.

SEA
from Cruise Critic
Thirteen things not to do on a cruise ship, including overeating. (Good luck with that one, bud!)

from USA Today
Should this be Number 14 on the list? California man sentenced for dealing drugs aboard a cruise ship.

from the China Daily
China, as a cruise ship market? Yes, and like virtually every other market in China these days, it’s growing. ​

from Bloggers Base
There are houseboats, and then there are India’s Kerala houseboats. Holy cow!

-0-

AFRICA
from Travel Age West
A two-for-one safari sale.

from Hills of Africa Travel
A collection of seriously luxurious accomodations to be found on the Mother Continent.

from Real Africa
Great rail journeys in Africa. ​

from​ allAfrica.com
Air travelers at Lagos International Airport in Nigeria are being subjected to extortion by airport security and narcotics cops, for as much as $100 a pop.

-0-

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from the Travel Channel
America’s cavenmen? Explore the Cherokee caves of prehistoric times. VIDEO

from ​Gadling
Friendly Planet Travel begins offering authorized travel to Cuba.

from Kaleidoscopic Wandering
Take a short trip — about 14 miles, 90 minutes and a century and a half or so in time — on a historic
​
-0-

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Ready Click and Go
For a good view of Tokyo, get on the bus. This bus.

​from Travel+Leisure
Chinese healing practices go back five millenia, but you can still experience them today in the land of their origin.

from the Huffington Post
The Great Wall of China is falling — not to the ravages of time, but a lot of ill-considering mining underground.

-0-

EUROPE
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Cognac. a) A drink. b)A state of being. c) A place in France. The correct answer is: All of the above.

from the Guardian (London UK)
There are lots of good reasons to visit the city of Porto in underpriced and under-appreciated Portugal. But some will insist that the best reason still comes in a wine glass.

fromThe Traveler’s Way
Where to find a good Indian curry…in London. Why curry? Because Man does not live by bangers and mash and mushy peas alone. ​

from Europe Travel.net
Canal hopping in Amsterdam.
​

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST 9.25.11

Posted on by
Reply

A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media.

Water show, Bellagio hotel-casino, Las Vegas | © G. Gross

SORE SHOULDER?
When it comes to air travel between the United States and Europe, especially flying west from the Old World to the new, the “shoulder season” may no longer be quite “all that.”

My friend, Porsche, an American expat in London and a blogger in her own right (Spinster’s Compass), has been having an helluva time trying to find a decent airfare to get home during the pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday months.

Fuel costs to the airlines — and the fuel surcharges with which they’re hitting passengers — no doubt play a major role in raising ticket prices. Post 9/11 fees to pay for extra airport security are a factor, as well.

But there may be still other reasons why, to paraphrase Jimmy MacMillan, the fares are too damn high!

IBIT will investigate.

Meanwhile, if you can delay your European travel until deep into the winter — say, January or february — the Godfather of Travel, Arthur Frommer, suggests you check out the Irish national airline, Aer Lingus, for potential bargain fares.

DON’T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE
When it comes to dealing with bedbugs, some travelers are finding out the hard way that the cure can be worse than the disease.

Fatally worse.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting that consumers’ use of do-it-yourself pesticide treatments to fight the annoying little bed biters is proving to be more unhealthful than the bugs themselves.

Prolonged contact in beds with the poisons have led to score of people getting sick since 2010, and at least one person has died, the CDC reports.

Not only that, but these do-it-yourself chemical treatments seldom really work, anyway, according to the experts.

On the other hand, if you can delay your travel until deep in the heart of winter — say, January/February, there may be bargains to be had, especially going to Europe from the East Coast.

Meanwhile, if you’re traveling in bedbug country, your bed may not be the only thing you have to worry about. There’s a company called BugZip that sells sealed, zippered bags designed to keep the little nasties from crawling into your luggage and coming home with you.

At the very least, you should never leave any of your bags open when you travel. When you put something in or take something out, close it back, immediately.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

-0-

AIR
from msnbc
Onboard wi-fi. Power outlets at every seat. Live satellite TV. In-flight programming you can download to your iPod. Welcome to the future of in-flight entertainment.

from USA Today
Don’t think airline baggage fees can affect you on international flights? Guess again, especially if you’re one of those folks who packs too much.

from CNN
Can an airline take away your frequent flier miles if you complain too much?

LAND
from the Wall Street Journal
Don’t look now, but there’s a new generational of jet-setters taking off to see the world. Okay, go ahead and look!

from Electric Bike Tour Company
Cross the Golden Gate Bridge on an electric bike, cruise down to Sausalito, return to San Francisco by ferry. With no big hills to climb, you don’t need an electric bike, but what the heck.

from Frommer’s
Nine great cities in the world to take a culinary vacation or attend a cooking school. Yes, travel can be delicious. SLIDESHOW

from National Geographic
And speaking of delicious, the NatGeo folks serve up a list of ten places around the world featuring some terrific annual food festivals. Any foodies in the house? Road trip! SLIDESHOW

from Lonely Planet
Thinking about doing a volunteer vacation overseas? The folks at Lonely Planet say there are some things you need to think about before you go. Ten things, to be exact.

SEA
from Capital Jazz
A jazz and soul music cruise set for Halloween week out of Miami aboard Carnival Valor, with stops in Jamaica, Mexico and Belize.

-0-

AFRICA
from Shabait.com (Eritrea)
Peace and development in the East African nationao of Eritrea is drawing positive comments from foreign visitors.

from the Art of Backpacking
Three ways to immerse yourself in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

from the Daily Nation (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
It’s not just about safaris anymore. Kenya is developing into a hub for international sports tourism, a place where world-class athletes and wanna-bes alike come to train.

from the ​Daily Champion (Nigeria) via allAfrica.com
Nigeria’s Arik Air has won Category 1 status from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. It will now be allowed to fly Nigerian-registered aircraft to the United States with Nigerian flight crews. They’re pretty proud.

-0-

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from the New York Times
Brazil is no longer the cheap travel destination it once was, but in Rio de Janeiro, corner juice bars that double as restaurants are a cheap, tasty and healthy way to stay on budget.

​from the Travel Channel
Hotels in Boston that give you the most bang for your buck. At least, these guys think so.

from the New York Times
Exploring the rugged natural beauty of Maine by bike tour.

-0-

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Wikipedia and Wikitravel
What do you do when the world’s largest city has no more room to grow? If you’re Tokyo, you build some artificial islands, fill them with ultramodern architecture, amusement parks, shopping and eateries, and call it all Odaiba, aka Tokyo Waterfront City.

from the Press Trust of India via MSN News
If you’re visiting India sometime in the future and you hear Russian being spoken, it won’t be an accident. India is looking to double Russian tourist visits.

-0-

EUROPE
from the National Geographic
Belgian waffles…in Belgium! What a concept!

from As We Travel
Must-dos and sees in Sicily.

from Hike Bike Travel
Doing France with your family by bike? Some tips to make it fun — or at least bearable — for everybody.

from USA Today
Got a layover in London? Don’t just hang around the airport. There are plenty of short, fun tours to help you pass the time.

TRAVEL: Get cookin’!

Posted on by
Reply

Chef-instructor in Paris | ©Greg Gross

Create some international “flava” and see the world at the same time. Feed your mind while learning great new ways to feed your face.

For me, a cooking vacation fills multiple bills at once.

I’m an expert on nothing and a student of everything, so I travel to learn. With the possible exception of electric eel wrangling, I’m a fan of almost any kind of hands-on travel.

Also, I love to cook. (Didn’t say I was good at it, just that I enjoy doing it!)

For some of us, some culinary training is needed. Between our penchant for fast food and food just done fast, we seem to be un-learning our way around a kitchen.

Think about it. If you moved your family to a place with no McDonald’s/KFC/Domino’s et al, could your kids survive?

For that matter, could you survive?

Without the invention of the microwave oven, a lot of Americans under the age of 40 would probably starve.

There’s something just plain cool about being able to combine some of “this” with a little of “that” and turn it into something people want to eat. Why would I want to give that up for pushing buttons on an irradiated box?

Also, food has a story to tell. You learn a lot about the world, including your own world, through that history.

You learn, for example, that things like fried chicken, barbecue and other “soul food” originated with American slave families learning to make do with the least of everything, and that Native Americans and their foods played a major role in creating African-American dishes.

You learn too that it was Europe’s craving for spices from Asia and Africa that sent waves of sea-faring explorers like Columbus and Magellan across the world’s ocean — and ultimately led to the rise of imperial Europe — and a hell of a lot of drama thereafter.

Remember the last time you went out with family or friends for dinner at some ethnic restaurant, and you all left raving about the meal you just had? Learning the backstory on some of those cuisines might lend some spice of its own to your next night out.

But why stop there?

France and Italy have long offered cooking classes to visitors, not only in Paris and Rome, but in some of the world’s most beautiful countrysides.

The Italian region of Tuscany has practically made an industry of this, using farm stays and cooking classes to keep family-owned farms going — with the blessing of the Italian government, no less.

The same is true across France, as regions like Provence vie with Paris over which represents the soul of French cooking.

In nearly every case, the teaching focuses on using fresh ingredients, bought at fair prices from local growers and prepared with “old school” methods. Nothing artificial, nothing processed.

“Genetically modified?” Don’t even think about it.

All of this has contributed to the rise of something that calls itself the Slow Food Movement.

Don’t want to go to a class? If you’ve got access to a kitchen, a chef-instructor will come to you.

I did this a few years ago with an American-born chef living in Paris, who “apprenticed” in the kitchens of his French in-laws. He leads you first to the market streets like Paris’ Rue Cler, where he teaches you how to spot what’s good, then takes you back to your own kitchen and shows you what you can do with it.

Next stop: lunch.

At the other end of the scale are full-fledged cooking tours, either escorted or self-guided, which put you in kitchens with like-minded fellow Gordon Ramsay-Tony Bourdain wannabes. Airfare will usually be separate, but almost everything else generally is included.

A miniscule example of cooking tour companies include:

  • CookingVacations.com and Epitourean.com
    One company, two sites. Cooking Vacations focuses of cooking tours in Europe, the Caribbean, South America and South Africa. They also do a 10-day cruise between Athens and Rome aboard the cruise ship Marina, with several cooking classes along the way. This one includes airfare. Epitourean offers shorter cooking tours in all 50 United States for us vacation-challenged Americans.
  • Cooking-vacations.com
    What a difference a hyphen makes. This outfit focuses strictly on Italy. Not to be confused with the hyphen-less Cooking Vacations site above, okay? They also other cultural offerings, including food market tours in which you learn how to shop for what’s good. After one of these, you may never go near plastic-wrapped produce again.
  • The International Kitchen
    These guys include Morocco as part of their culinary schooling.
  • Culinary Vacations
    these guys put their own spin — on the whole cooking class thing. One of their Italian culinary tours is run as a bike tour. Learn Italian cooking techniques, consume serious amounts of your own Italian dishes — and burn it all off every day. Guilt-free foodie? Yeah, I could do that!

ALSO CHECK OUT:
Here come El TacoBike!
AGRITOURISM
AVIATION QUEEN: Travel globally, Eat Locally
Find Your Niche! — FOOD

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

Posted on by
Reply

A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

©Roman Snytsar | Dreamstime.com

Want to be among the first passengers to fly aboard Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner? Then turn toward the Rising Sun.

Welcome to “I’m Black and I Travel,” your Number One online source for absolutely, positively NOTHING having to do with Casey Anthony. It is, however, the ideal site for travel information to help you get as far away as possible from even the mention of Casey Anthony.

Indeed, she has now supplanted Lord Voldemort for the title of “(S)he Who Must Not Be Named.”

Okay, let’s get on with it.

-0-

A DREAM(LINER) OF ASIA
Are you one of those folks who likes to be first with things?

I’m talking about the types who will sit under a blanket overnight in front of an electronics shop to be the first to buy Apple’s newest digital toy or be the first at the dealership to buy that hot new car or be one of the inaugural passengers on a brand-new cruise ship?

It’s not that often that you get the chance to be among the first to fly on a new jet airliner, but your chance is coming soon.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a ground-breaking new airliner designed to fly farther on a single fuel load than any other before it, just finished a week of operational test flights in Japan with All Nippon Airways after three years’ worth of development snags.

ANA, which was the first airline to commit to buying the 787 from Boeing, will become the first airline to fly the Dreamliner in commercial service, perhaps as early as next month.

(They’re not as well known to Americans as Japan Air Lines, but they have pretty much eclipsed JAL as Japan’s top airline. ANA has been around since the early 1950s as a regional Japanese carrier. They started flying internationally in the mid-1980s.)

Given the troubled birthing process for this jet, however, and the fact that it still must win approval from aviation regulators before accepting paying passengers, I wouldn’t expect to see Dreamliners criss-crossing the skies until sometime in early 2012.

Meanwhile, since ANA will be flying them before any other airline, you now have reason to start planning a trip to Japan.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

-0-

AIR
from Christopher Elliott via SFGate.com
Typos can be costly, especially on airline tickets and particularly on international flights. If the name on the ticket doesn’t match the name on your passport exactly, your trip may end at the airport.

LAND
from the New York Times
If you’re willing to volunteer some time and (maybe) some sweat as a volunteer, it can snag you some serious travel discounts around the world. It puts a whole new spin on the term “working vacation.”

from the Los Angeles Times
A burst of investment from cash-rich Asia is creating a wave of new luxury hotels — in Paris.

SEA
from USA Today
X marks the dock. The Celebrity Silhouette, the last of a half-dozen new cruise ships hitting the waves this year, is due to arrive in her winter port in New York in a week and could be available for you to cruise this fall. Meanwhile, here’s a little sneak peek.

-0-

AFRICA
from the Times of Zambia
Zambia re-brands itself with an eye toward more broader, more upscale and domestic tourism. The new theme: “Zambia — Let’s Explore.”

from Lonely Planet
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gorillas — and live volcanoes — in the mist.

from the Financial Times (London UK)
Since it opened in 1964, the Africa Centre in London’s Covent Garden served as library, resto, pub, meeting house and cultural touchstone for generations of Africans in the United Kingdom who battled apartheid in Southern Africa and ultimately won. Now there’s a new battle underway, to save this piece of modern African history in Britain from the wrecking ball.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
South Africa — and the rest of Africa — by train.

-0-

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from USA Today
Cruise ships are a great there to get to Alaska. But to really see Alaska, you need a train.

from USA Today
Alcatraz, the prison island in San Francisco Bay, makes for a chilling visit during the day, but it’s downright eerie at night.

from Rick Steves via SFGate.com
Amid the great cities, Old World history and ancient art and architecture, don’t forget that Europe also has huge amounts of natural beauty.

from USA Today
Miami turns its graffiti into a tourist attraction.

-0-

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Los Angeles Times
Five trends to watch in Asian travel.

from the Jakarta Globe
If you love cycling, ever find yourself in Indonesia, you have got to check out these folks. The Komunitas Ontel Batavia (Batavia Bicycle Community) regularly gets together at a traffic circle to show of their bikes. Antique bikes. Sometimes hundreds of them. And the riders dress in period costumes matching the age of their machines.

from the Los Angeles Times
And speaking of bikes, anyone who knows me will tell you that this is my dream ride — a sunrise bike cruise down Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. Twenty-seven miles, all downhill. But it’s not for daredevils.

from the Times of India
Discover Pulau Ubin, the last village in hyper-urbanized Singapore. If you can find it.

-0-

EUROPE
from the Los Angeles Times
New museums sprout up in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome.

from As We Travel
Budget travel…in Switzerland? Is that even possible? These folks swear that it is.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
The twin riverside towns of Deauville and Trouville in France’s Normandy region give the country a second Riviera, not as universally known but no less lively.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
When it comes to Ireland, the charms of Cork just might steal you away from Dublin.

​

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

Posted on by
Reply

A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media


BOURDAIN BUZZ
Anthony Bourdain, TV’s favorite antihero/contrarian/rebel-without-an-apron chef, has got a new TV show coming out this fall.

Anthony Bourdain

It’s a spinoff of his successful No Reservations globetrotting gastronomy gig, arguably the most popular show on cable television’s Travel Channel (which offers an amazing variety of shows that seem to have little, if anything, to do with travel).

It’s supposed to be called 24-Hour Layover.

Bourdain — or Tony, as his fans call him — is about as unpretentious and unstuffy as wealthy and world-famous TV chef who never actually cooks anything on TV can get.

And I mean that in a good way.

Oh, you want details about the show? The Huffington Post spilled a few of the beans here.

CELEBRATE JAPAN — AND PRAY
Long before Tokyo became the capital and cultural heart of Japan, that role was filled by Kyoto. Through wars, natural disasters and even Time itself, it remains unshaken and unspoiled.

©Chiharu | Dreamstime.com

July is the month that Kyoto traditionally celebrates the Gion Matsuri, a month-long festival held as part of a purification ritual to satisfy the gods who govern natural disasters — like earthquakes.

Which is likely to give this year’s Gion Matsuri a special poignancy.

Events are scheduled throughout the month, including some spectacular parades, featuring some floats that would put my beloved Mardi Gras in New Orleans to shame — like the one seen here at right.

Kyoto was untouched by this year’s catastrophic earthquake/tsunami in northern Japan and is not affected by the nuclear emergency that followed, so you can travel to this beautiful ancient city without worry.

If you can’t make it there this year, then vicariously jump on that float and send up your own prayers and good thoughts for the Japanese people during this important month in the country’s cultural life.

STRASBOURG IN SUMMER
I first fell in love with Strasbourg about four years ago during the Christmas holidays. I wanted to see how the birthplace of the European Christmas market celebrated Noël, and I wasn’t disappointed. Ever since, I’ve automatically associated Strasbourg, the capital of France’s Alsace region, with long nights, cold days, and hot, spiced wine, vin chaud in French.

But while Christmas may be “the big thing” in Strasbourg, the city and the region surrounding it are just as worthy of a visit in spring and now, in summer, as London’s The Independent points out.

Regardless of which season you choose to visit Strasbourg, getting there is a breeze thanks to France’s high-speed train, the TGV. From the United States, you can fly into Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), jump on an eastbound TGV without even leaving the airport and be in Strasbourg in a little over two hours of quiet, fast comfort.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

-0-

AIR
from USA Today
The FAA and air traffic controllers agree on new rules to combat excessive fatigue on the job. Hopefully, this means no more controllers falling asleep on duty.

from USA Today
Should babies be banned from First Class on jumbo jets? Malaysia Airlines says “Ya!” (‘yes’ in Malay) — and they’re doing it.

from the Wall Street Journal
Do airplanes cause rain?

LAND
from SOSF.com
That’s short for “Streets of San Francisco Bike Tours.” Think The City is too hilly for fun and comfortable group rides? These folks beg to differ.

from laist.com
And speaking of bikes, can it be that the world capital of four-wheeled neurosis, aka Los Angeles, is finally discovering the bicycle?

from Forbes
The ten coolest places to get your vacation on in Latin America, as seen by a Brazilian travel outfit. SLIDESHOW

SEA
from InnerSea Discoveries
When it comes to cruising Alaska, bigger may not necessarily be better.

from Chris Cruises
The Zumba exercise craze comes to Princess Cruises.
-0-

AFRICA
from Uncornered Market
Want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain? Here’s a breakdown on what you’ll need, and what you’ll need to do.

from allAfrica.com
Namibia opens a self-drive tourism route designed to show off the beauty of the flora, fauna and people of the Okavango River region. It’s one of 61 such routes created on the Mother Continent by an outfit called Open Africa.

from allAfrica.com
Want to get a taste of the caliber of film-making going these days in Africa? Check out The Mirror Boy — shot on location in West Africa. But this isn’t a Nollywood production. It was filmed not in Nigeria, but in the Gambia. Don’t sleep on this one when it comes to the States.

from allAfrica.com
US Embassy: Nigerians wanting to visit the United States have to apply for a visa a year in advance…at least. The reason: more applications than the embassy can handle.

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from Gadling
If you’re thinking about visiting Cuba, you need professional help. Here’s where you can find some.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Mexican chocolate. It’s nothing like the Hershey’s chocolate syrup you mixed into your milk as a kid. It’s way better. How it’s made, how it tastes and the best parts of Mexico to enjoy it.

from Food & Wine via Yahoo! Travel
How and where to stay in or near some of America’s most beautiful national parks — five-star or under the stars, your choice.

from CNN
NOW HIRING: State tourist police in Guerrero, Mexico. REQUIREMENTS: Must be gorgeous.

from France 24
Need a good laugh? Head to Canada.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from The Guardian (London UK)
If that ultra-modern new high-speed train connecting Beijing and Shanghai leaves you longing for just a touch of the old China, here are a few of the extraordinary things you’ll finding waiting for you at either end of the line that can take you back in Time.

from msnbc
China opens the word’s longest ocean-crossing bridge. How long is it? If you run across it instead of driving, you will have completed a marathon…and change. Officially, it’s 2.5 longer than the old record holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in New Orleans. And the NOLA is already crying foul.

from the Los Angeles Times
An American couple tries to breathe new life into a still wounded Cambodia, one tourist at a time.

EUROPE
from France-Best-Restaurants
You keep hearing about all these fabulous Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, but who knows where actually are? These guys do.

from Budget Your Trip
Ten free things to do in London. Being one of the priciest world capitols on the planet, anything free is worth noting.

from CNN Travel
Despite its economic crisis and turmoil on the streets, Greece is actually expecting tourism to pick up this summer. The source — patriotic Greek-Americans, using their vacation dollars to try to help their homeland.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Bored with bicycling through the wine country in California, France or Chile? How about a bike tour through beer country instead? I’m speaking, of course, about the Czech Republic.

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

Posted on by
Reply

A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

Slave fort, the former James Island, Gambia River |©Greg Gross

TRAVEL LIKE AN ADDICT
I’ve never met Heather Rudd, but after taking a peek at her blog, I already know she’s my kind of traveler.

By that, I mean she’s one of those travelers who like to savor the journey itself, as opposed to a tourist just hell-bent on rushing about to a strict, canned itinerary, trying to cram in as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Check out her “5 lessons of a travel addict” and you’ll understand what I mean. They definitely are words to live — and travel — by.

JUNETEENTH
On this day 146 years ago, a Union Army general publicly read out a proclamation in Galveston TX that put en end to the last vestige of slavery in the United States.

Ever since, black Americans across the country and beyond have marked june 19 — or “Juneteenth,” as it came to be called — as the day when their ancestors in American got their freedom once and for all. And ther are celebrations, large and small, taking place all over the country.

Want to learn more about Juneteenth? IBIT’s got you covered. Just click here.

AIRBORNE AGGRAVATION
There are certain kinds of air passenger behavior that make an already dreary experience much worse — and the longer the flight, the more irritating it can be.

Here now for your amusement — or your introspection — are two lists of people who make those around them apoplectic. One comes from Friendly Planet Travel, the other from my friend, Pauline Frommer (yes, that Frommer!) courtesy of the Toronto Star.

How times have you run into passengers like these? For that matter, how many times have you been a passenger like these?!



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

-0-

AIR
from the Independent Traveler
Ten ways to survive long-haul flights. It starts long before you board.

from Budget Travel
When it comes to travel annoyances, is there anything worse than dealing with the TSA? Apparently, the answer is yes — and that’s just scary.

LAND
from Frommer’s
The 4-1-1 on vacation rentals — where to do it, why to do it and how to do it right.

from Spy Travelogue
From Tijuana to Timbuktu, you run into touts, those annoying street hustlers trying to talk you into this shop, that stall. Instead of just shooing them off, why not put them to work for you?

from Frommer’s
How to pack light in ten easy steps. You back and your wallet will thank you.

from Airfare Watchdog via Yahoo! News
Games rental car companies play. They’re almost as bad now as the airlines.

from Discovery News
Can a laser beam save the lives of urban cyclists?

SEA
from USA Today
Three major cruise lines set to ban smoking in the cabins of their cruise ships at the end of this year and the start of 2012. That’s me in the corner, doing the IBIT Happy Dance.

-0-

AFRICA
from DigiDrift.com
His name is Jason, and he poses a question I find myself asking a lot of people lately: Why haven’t you been to Africa yet?

from Got Saga
Good reasons to visit Zambia — and there are more than you’d think.

from allAfrica.com
World Bank: Africa is ready for the serious investor. Note that he said “investor,” not “exploiter.” And yes, there is a difference.

from The Mirror (London UK)
The Seychelles is a long way to go to get to paradise. See what makes it worth the trip. See what made it a honeymoon destination for Prince William and Kate Middleton.

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from The Root
Ready to start learning the black history they didn’t teach you in school? Then you’re ready for the first of several road trips.

from CheapoAir
Street food — you know you love it. Where o find the best street eats in the United States. Let the tasting — and the arguments — begin!

from TakePart.com
And speaking of food, a city famous for its cuisine — New Orleans — is getting into urban farming and eating local post-Katrina.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Lonely Planet via BBC Travel
Beijingis more than the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the jumping off point to see the Great Wall of China. It’s also got a rocking music scene.

EUROPE
from Visit Portugal
Wedged into Spain, stuck below Britain and France and overflown on the way to Italy, this may be the most under-appreciated travel destination in Western Europe. But why? All the history, culture, food and drink — and cheaper, too. Portugal deserves a look — and maybe a trip.

from The Guardian (London UK)
Would you believe: A railroad tunnel in Belgium that uses solar power to run high-speed passenger trains? Not fantasy, and not in the future. Now.

from the BBC
Dover Castle may be one of those innumberable stone monuments to ancient Europe, but i has more modern history hidden underneath. The evacuation that saved the British army at Dunkirk, a critical moment early in World War 2, was improvised and stage-managed from the tunnels below the castle walls. And now, you an see where and how it was done.