The Wandering Warners: Seniors Seeing the World

Buy the Bargain Airfare - Figure Why Later

2026-03-07T18:27:50.473-08:00

First buy that bargain airfare. Then figure out why. We’ve been using that strategy successfully over the past 25 years of fairly intensive travel.

If you spot a bargain airfare that fits your schedule, buy it without hesitation and then figure out what you want to do at your destination. You can also travel onward.

Our current trip offers a prime example of this strategy.

We jumped on a bargain round trip business class fare from Seattle to Frankfurt on Condor Airlines, an Alaska partner we’ve flown regularly for a number of years.

From FRA you can fly almost anywhere, so we (mainly Kathy) researched possibilities.

We settled on three more travel bargains, starting with a seven-night Mediterranean cruise on Princess, three nights in an Italian “wine resort” with great reviews, and five nights at a Hilton in Dubrovnik, Croatia that some reviewers describe as the best Hilton in the world.

The next step was to consider the transportation logistics. That’s why we flew from Frankfurt to Florence last night on Air Dolomiti, staying at a lovely Hilton Garden Inn that.was a cheap and easy 20-minute tran ride from the airport.

Today we rode a Frecciarossa high-speed train (business class €58 for two when we bought it) to Rome today, rather than fly an expensive FRA-ROM non-stop.

Our earlier ten-hour SEA-FRA flight in an Airbus A330 was fine. The seats do feel tight. The foot space is a cramped well and suffers for that reason in comparison with, for example, the larger British Airways A350 we flew a couple of weeks ago between Vancouver and London.

It still beats the heck out of economy, and the food was excellent in terms of quality, quantity, and presentation.

So here we are, a couple of days later, pulling into Rome’s port city, Civitavecchia, on a regional train, in anticipation of boarding Sapphire Princess Sunday for our cruise.

Incidentally, the train was parked way out at Rome Termini’s Gate 28. That required us to walk briskly from near Track 1 to Track 24, and then another 450 meters (1476 feet) out to Track 28. Whew!

Passengers stand around at large European train stations waiting for their train’s platform to be posted, sometimes with little time to spare.

First, we check in at the modest but friendly Hotel Traiano. We’re assigned an amazingly large suite, albeit furnished in an earlier era - the 1950s?

We grab a forgettable pizza at one of the only eateries open at this early hour within a ten-minute walk.

That’s okay. Our young server was friendly and the red wine was drinkable for a bill of €37 all-in.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, with the promise of better food and accommodation.

Larnaca, Cyprus the Second Time Around

2026-02-24T12:39:50.857-08:00

I grow old ... I grow old ...

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
By T.S. Eliot

Why would we fly to Larnaca, Cyprus. a third of the world away from us, especially since we traveled there almost exactly two years ago?

Cyprus of course is an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean with a total population of well under two million people, south of Turkiye and close to the Middle Eastern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.

In no particular order, we can offer up at least three reasons.

First, we still enjoy flying long distances in business class on bargain fares. As we wrote here, we agree with financial guru Clark Howard, whose secret trick is to "buy the deal first and then figure out why you want to go there."

British Airways (BA), a OneWorld Alaska partner, was offering a cheap business class fare with a connection at London Heathrow. In fact, flying to Larnaca was considerably cheaper than flying only as far as London.

We enjoyed our first visit there in 2024 and were happy to return for a low-key stay featuring leisurely walks along the Mediterranean beaches and tasty meals. We also spent less for food and lodging there than we did in Tampa, Charleston, or Puerto Vallarta on our first three trips of 2026.

Second, we're hoping to re-qualify for at least one more year of elite status on Alaska Airlines. The benefits are significant, including access to some splendid OneWorld first class lounges like the Cathay Pacific First Lounge we just visited at LHR on our way back from Cyprus. As of now, Alaska remains one of the few airlines still awarding a point for every mile flown, with no reference to the cost of the fare.

This trip earned us each a total of 37,202 points (miles), of which 16,910 are status points, sometimes referred to as Elite Qualifying Miles or EQMs. Alaska is making changes to the program that may make it more difficult to earn miles, so it's timely to add some to our accounts under the current rules.

Third, and with reference to Mr. Eliot's aging Prufrock quoted at the top, we want to test our own somewhat diminishing powers of endurance as seniors traveling overseas. After all, between March 1 and June 1 we've scheduled two trips to Europe and one to northern Australia.

We've reassured ourselves, reading articles like this one, that jet lag does affect you more as you get older. It’s normal. It's not just us!

The author of another article concludes with these realistic comments: "After investigating jet lag for older adults, it doesn't mean I won't be travelling; it simply provides me with a better understanding of how to prepare, what to expect, and to allow adequate adjustment time when I return home."

This trip to Cyprus involved overnight hotel stays in London going in both directions, a significant help, and no strenuous activities, not even a guided tour.

Still, while the U.K. is eight hours ahead of our Pacific Standard Time Zone, Cyprus is a noticeable ten hours ahead. Just as we were starting to adjust to the local time, it was time to fly home.

Several days later we're still prone to restless nights and afternoon naps. We choose not to worry about it, and eventually our sleep cycles will return to normal.

The journey itself started with what's ordinarily a 45-minute drive from our house to YVR. We got caught in the afternoon's Greater Vancouver "rush" that cost us nearly an extra hour to get through Highway 99's Massey Tunnel bottleneck. Ugh!

Before dropping our venerable Subaru at the Vancouver Park'nFly near YVR, we rewarded ourselves with a quick stop at what is undoubtedly our highest-ranked food court eatery in the entire world (and there's nobody in second place), R&H Chinese Food in Richmond's Lansdowne Mall. Yelp Canada agrees.

There we shared an order of one of our favorite comfort foods, Xaio Long Bao, while watching two employees making the soup dumplings by hand at the front counter. We added green scallion pancakes, all for about ten bucks, and savored every morsel before making the short drive to YVR. Yum!

YVR, Vancouver International Airport, is a well maintained, soothing, and thoroughly pleasant facility with Aboriginal art displays, aquariums, and generous seating.

It never fails to put us in a good mood for travel.

BA's contract lounge, the Plaza Premium Lounge, was overcrowded and its modest buffet was depleted. A half dozen teenagers, a rare sight in a lounge, were noisier than we would have allowed back when supervising field trips in our own teaching days. (Hey you kids...get off our lawn!)

Once aboard the A350 in our flatbed "suites" complete with sliding doors,we enjoyed a decent nine or ten hour flight YVR-LHR, punctuated by dinner and breakfast.

Brian limited himself to an appetizer and found the jumbo shrimp delicious and filling. He caught perhaps four hours of sleep, while Kathy didn't sleep at all. Brian opted for a continental breakfast, while Kathy limited herself to coffee.

We landed at LHR's Terminal 3 Our onward BA flight to Larnaca, Cyprus (LCA) was departing from Terminal 5 the next morning at 7:01 AM, and we had a plan. We took the 10-15 minute bus ride from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, went through immigration e-gates there without having to talk to anyone, turned right as we emerged into the terminal and easily found our way to the Sofitel, attached to the terminal by a walkway.

Our room was ready for us, and we were pleased to see a separate bath and shower, not a given even in five-star hotels.

If your LHR plans include Terminal 5 and an overnight stay, we can enthusiastically recommend this property. Sign up for an Accor Hotels account and download the app, and you'll get an automatic 5% discount. It's not much but every little bit helps, especially as the Euro climbs in value against the U.S. dollar. Accor, while not a major presence in North America, has properties ranging from budget (Ibis) to Luxury (Sofitel) in many parts of the world.

The next morning we were up earlier than we needed to be, and found our way to T5 and BA's Fast Track security entry at the far end for security and direct entry to BA's First Lounge, to which our OneWorld Emerald status entitles us. We enjoyed two of the best machine-made Cappuccinos we've ever tasted, and limited ourselves to one glass of Champagne each at 5:30 AM.. Moderation in all things!

The four to five hours of flying LHR-LCA in BA's intra-European configuration added up to an experience we endured rather than enjoyed, but other than crowded knees we somehow managed.The blocked middle seat in business class allows us to squirm a little without encroaching on a seat-mate's space.

Larnaca's airport is modern, and the immigration lines are short, especially since we bought ourselves access to the Express Lane for five Euros each.

As in 2024, we again used George Cyprus Taxi for a pre-arranged transfer to our hotel, the Mercure Larnaca Finikoudes Beach, another Accor property. Between our five-night stay here and our stay at the LHR Sofitel, we've earned Accor Silver Status for the year. Look at us!

Our room, other than its slightly awkward entranceway shape, was quite comfortable.

The air conditioning was turned off, but fortunately a fairly large window in the bathroom opened and kept the temperature down to a comfortable level. Now that we were settled in, how were we going to spend our time?

During our five days on the ground, we didn't once feel the need for transportation other than our feet. We walked two to three miles daily, mainly along the waterfront esplanade framing Finikoudes Beach, only a block or two from our hotel.

We would have walked around nearby streets more, but several were torn up as a result of some major street renovation project. They were mildly hazardous at worst.

The local residents we spoke to had no idea when it would be finished, but they cope the best they can.

We visited two of the area's best known landmarks, starting with Larnaca Castle. a twelfth-century structure used variously as a fort, a prison, and an administrative center over the centuries.

We also stepped inside the Church of St. Lazarus, whom the Bible tells us in the Gospel of John was raised from the dead by Jesus. At some point after the death of Jesus, Lazarus was forced to flee Judea and came to Cyprus, where he was appointed a Bishop. His reputed tomb is in the basement of the church.

Our other pastime was dining. We subscribe to the late Luciano Pavarotti's view: "One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."

For our opening night of dining (not opera) we walked around the corner from our hotel and managed to find a table at To Edesma Tou Paradisou, a Greek Cypriot taverna ranked by Trip Advisor as Number 5 of 384 restaurants in Larnaca.

The service was friendly and the food, served in ample portions, was reasonably priced. A rough online translation of the name is "The Savory Food of Paradise," and we wouldn't argue with that.

Still, one visit to a taverna with its meaty menu sufficed for a short trip, and we sought variety for the remainder of our stay. We almost always revert to Italian and Asian cuisine in such circumstances, and Larnaca was no exception.

This included pizza at Pizzeria Napoletana 485.

Notice the thin somewhat soggy crust and "skimpy" toppings by North American standards. That's authentic Italian-style pizza and tasty in its own way. It featured an impressive Italian wine-by-the-glass menu.

We returned to the Mystic Bar Lounge & Restaurant, where we'd chatted with the owner in 2024. He remembered us because he'd been fascinated with the photos we'd shown him of our 2021 Colorado mushroom-foraging expedition with Kathy’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Ellyn. Mystic features both Asian and Italian food, the owner's wife being Asian.

We savored duck salad, bao buns, sushi and a Thai green curry. They squeezed us in for an early Valentine's Day Italian dinner the next night.

One slightly rainy day we ducked in for lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall joint called the Potbelly. We dined on hearty pulled pork sandwiches with fries (Brian), onion rings (Kathy), and a local beer, Keo, for each of us.

That rather basic and filling meal set us back only 27 Euros and we had neither need nor desire for dinner that evening.

Incidentally, throughout our Larnaca stay, we noted with interest the thriving food delivery business, with delivery riders on motorbikes picking up orders constantly from various eateries.

Soon it was time to go home.

Our return flight LCA-LHR was an evening departure, so we left our rollaboards at the hotel and wandered back down to the waterfront for a leisurely lunch at Aldente Cucina Italiana, another beachfront Italian joint, this one run by two friendly young brothers from Nepal of all places.

The exterior of Kathy's Calzone was impressive, but all that she found inside was a bland combination of luncheon-meat ham, not the prosciutto advertised, mushrooms, and cheese. Brian's risotto dish, nesting in a Parmesan shell, was more successful.

Back at the hotel, it was time for a George Taxi transfer to the airport, a visit to a bright and uncrowded lounge, a tiring night flight to LHR that landed at 10:30 PM local time, an overnight at the Sofitel, a free Heathrow Express transfer from T5 to T3 the following day, an already-documented visit to the marvelous Cathay Pacific First Lounge, an enjoyable LHR-YVR flight (we both got more sleep than on the outbound overnight flight), and an easy drive back across the border to our own bed - air travel can work so well.

By the way, do check out the impressive list of LCA’s flight destinations in proximity to ours.

Now it's time to review the details of our next trip that starts in a few days. That 22-day excursion includes a Mediterranean cruise, a visit to a “wine resort” near Orvieto, Italy, and a side trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia, flying into and out of Frankfurt on Condor Airlines, so there are lots of details.

Think of our trip to Larnaca as a good dress rehearsal.

A Visit to Cathay Pacific's London Heathrow First Class Lounge

2026-02-19T16:41:14.335-08:00

London's LHR Terminal 3 is the site of a number of OneWorld lounges, the airline alliance Alaska joined in 2021.

The lounges widely considered the best in T3 are the adjoining Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounges, and the nearby Qantas International London Lounge.

We've visited all three of these lounges on previous trips through LHR, but on our recent stopover en route home from Larnaca, Cyprus to Vancouver, we happily confined our attention to the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge, open to passengers flying any OneWorld airline and holding Emerald status.

The lounge itself is intimate, inviting, and fortunately uncrowded during our two-hour visit.

It features comfortable seating and great runway views.

The self-serve bar is well stocked and its wines include a variety of no fewer than four Champagnes just waiting to be sampled.

We had spent a restful night at the Accor Sofitel connected to Terminal 5, and arrived at the lounge entrance after traveling between terminals on a free inter-airport section of the Heathrow Express.

We first were led to a table in the small restaurant and ordered from the menu.

As on previous visits, the service was great and the food was delicious.

We both started with the Dim Sum Basket. We had skipped dinner on the previous night’s flight and this was our first meal of the day. We obviously could have enjoyed a couple more baskets, but these were tasty morsels.

Brian chose a pan-fried Miso Salmon and Kathy a Vegetable Hot and Sour Soup. Still feeling peckish, as the British put it, we topped off our meals with Dan Dan Noodles.

Fully fortified, we lounged some more before making the 10-15 minute trek to our gate, where we boarded our British Airways A350 flight to Vancouver.

A highlight of this journey was the time we spent in one of the world’s most attractive lounges in one of the world’s (dare we say it?) least attractive major airports.

The Devil Is in the Travel Details

2026-02-10T13:26:42.776-08:00

According to Wikipedia, that source of so much information, even if not considered a suitable reference for term papers and legal briefs, the expression "The devil is in the details" isn't as ancient as we two would have thought. It's derived from an earlier expression, "God is in the details."

The general idea is that details can be complicated and devilishly cause problems, and that whatever we do we should do thoroughly, which is a divine objective!

We would append to those precepts the reminder that attending to travel details can also be profitable. Two very recent examples come to mind as we prepare to fly to Cyprus on British Airways.

We have long shared the importance of reviewing flight and hotel reservations regularly and right up to departure and beyond. By doing so, we have just managed to correct a BA seating error on one of our flights, and save ourselves a significant amount of money on one of our hotel reservations.

Our flights are YVR-LHR-LCA with an overnight at LHR in both directions. In other words, we're flying from Vancouver to London Heathrow to Larnaca, Cyprus.

Checking our BA flight reservations three days beforehand, we suddenly noticed the seats on the five-hour LHR-LCA leg had been changed.

We had each mysteriously been re-seated in window seats on opposite sides of the plane and a row apart. We couldn't change them online and called BA. Fortunately, we got through quickly and an apologetic rep. fixed what he called a computer problem. Our reservation shows us seated together again.

Second, in checking prices at the LHR Sofitel we're planning to stay in both ways, we noticed that the price had dropped for the night of our return stay. That resulted from spotting an "app countdown meter" promotion that revealed a large discount for booking on the app, a new gimmick to us.

We rebooked, saving about US $40 in the process and bringing the price of a supposed 5-star hotel in one of the world's largest airports down into the affordable range.

Regular readers will have read this advice before, not at all unique to us. We do think it bears repeating.

The savings are in the details? That's not as catchy a phrase as invoking the devilish or the divine, but it works for us.

A Hasty Hola y Hasta La Vista to Puerto Vallarta

2026-02-08T16:19:05.736-08:00

Ignacio Luis Vallarta Ogazón (1830-1893) was a Mexican lawyer and politician. At one point he was governor of the state of Jalisco.

In Jalisco is a city founded in 1851 as Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe, eventually being renamed Puerto Vallarta in honor of Senior Ogazón.

It grew from a small village into a bustling resort city which is often referred to by tourists as Vallarta or PV. We've visited there several times over the past 20 years, mainly staying at all-inclusive resorts with our children and grandchildren, and have many happy memories of those family times.

When we saw a sudden bargain fare on Alaska, we agreed it would be possible to squeeze in a trip there for old-times' sake before our previously planned mid-February flights to Cyprus.

The itinerary was simple: fly from Bellingham to LAX the first night, stay at the nearby airport Hilton, fly onward the next day to PVR, stay three nights in Puerto Vallarta, and fly back to Bellingham via San Francisco and Seattle. We learned a few things along the way that we're more than happy to share.

It was a lovely evening to land at SEA.

On our outbound flights we were upgraded to First and finally got to dine on Alaska's famous Tillamook Cheeseburger. It's okay and not too messy.

In fact, it was better than the rather gloppy and tasteless Mexican-style whatever served on the next day’s flight. That one gave Brian indigestion. Who has heard of catching Montezuma’s revenge before landing in Mexico?

Alaska’s canned wine isn't as awful as it sounds.

Be prepared for chaos at PVR airport, both arriving and departing. If it's just busy rather than crazy, be grateful.

When we landed, the captain announced a delay "due to some kind of traffic jam." He wasn't kidding. It was 35 minutes from touchdown to the door's being opened at the gate. We then had a long wait to get through immigration. The newish automatic photo-taking gates were causing another traffic jam, as some passengers had to try two or three times to make it work,with an employee standing by to offer assistance. There was one line staffed by personnel and we would have chosen that one if given the chance.

Finally, it was our turns to slap down our passports, have our photos taken, and then proceed (on first try!) through the automated gates. It was then time to wend our past the timeshare touts who wait in one designated area. Do you avoid their gaze? Do you boldly attempt to stare them down? Do you smile and repeatedly mutter "No, gracias"? The third is our normal routine as we ran this particular gauntlet and looked for Aeromovil, our car transfer outfit.

Aeromovil proved to be a big disappointment and we wouldn't use them again. When we found where they were located - and the instructions list upward of three potential meeting spots, ours being the final one - it took some length of time to process our ride. Eventually, another employee escorted us to a line outside. There we waited for well over a half an hour.

One couple waiting in front of us explained that the reason several people deal with us and then pass us along is that everyone gets a "bite." It was both confusing and annoying to see others being escorted toward our queue and being seated in vehicles and driven away while we continued to wait.

Our hotel was almost near enough to the airport to walk, if it weren't for the busy traffic.

There are strict limitations on who is allowed to pick up passengers at the airport, with one company apparently holding the taxi monopoly. Ubers, for example, are allowed to drop passengers off but not to pick them up.

Eventually, a small sedan arrived, the employee handed us over to the driver, and he whisked us to our hotel within a few minutes and without drama.This was not the "VIP" treatment we'd been led to believe on the company's website. We had the impression they were farming the fare out to whichever driver they could get, as they handed the driver a paper that looked like a voucher. Live and learn.

Another time (despite this 2-3 hours of nuisance at the airport, we'd happily return to PV), we'd save time and money and schlep our rollaboards and shoulder bags up and over the pedestrian overpass that leads from the airport to a pickup spot for taxis and Ubers. It isn't just about price, although that transfer cost us $25 plus tip, in contrast to the return Uber to the airport that cost us about $3.50.

We used Ubers half a dozen times during our brief stay. The cars were all presentable, the drivers were safe and friendly, and the prices were cheap by our standards.

The Holiday Inn & Suites Marina & Golf, not to be confused with the nearby Holiday Inn Express, proved to be a fine spot for a short stay. It was modern and clean.

We'd upgraded ourselves to a junior suite for a modest amount over the regular rate, and it was great, complete with a large private deck.

We could see cruise ships docked in the distance.

The marina, a touristy spot lined with restaurants where we spent most of our time, was only a seven or eight minute walk away. That does includes crossing a busy six-lane street, but once you have it figured out it's not all that difficult.

For a similar length of stay, we would happily return to this property. Sometimes we would walk over and take an Uber back. Drivers were quite willing to pick us up for quick trips and low fares.

This area of the marina is lined with restaurants and bars, pharmacies where many prescription drugs (for us) are available over the counter, and a few time-share offices.

We know at least one boater friend who would love to have this sporty little vessel for his tender. We weren’t the only ones taking photos.

There was also a sign to beware the crocodiles.

They didn't just post that to tantalize and terrify the tourists.

As to meals, we ate the first night at our hotel, having read positive comments about it. The best we could summon up would be "Meh," and we're happy we didn't opt for their all-inclusive plan.

We subsequently dined at three different eateries, two of which were pretty good, and the highest-rated one, Christina Vallarta, being downright disappointing.

La Terrazza di Roma served up the best meal of the trip. No upsells either!

Speaking of upsells, Brian also let himself be upsold at Christina Vallarta to a very expensive bottle of Mexican wine.

It was good, but not worth doubling the cost of the mediocre meal and the disjointed and bungled service, complete with upsell attempts from more than one employee. We would not return there, despite the visually impressive globes.

The empanada appetizers were by far the meal’s highlight.

We spent a few hours at our hotel one afternoon relaxing within the largely deserted pool area at the other end of the corridor from our second-floor suite. The pleasantly warm hot tub proved to be extremely comfortable.

Before we knew it, the time had come to check out and fly home. Our hotel offered a generous 1:00PM checkout, which was perfect for our 2:40 departure. We arrived at the airport three hours early, giving us plenty of time to spare.

The departures area was not nearly as unpleasant as arrivals had been. It was mildly busy, making it easy to navigate through security and the temptations of the duty-free stores.

Before we knew it, we were seated at our departure gate with lots of time to spare. Our flights home were good, with no upgrades PVR-SFO-SEA, but decent seats in Alaska's premium economy. We did sit in first for our 24 minutes in the air between Seattle and Bellingham. Yippee!

We were home and in bed by 1:00 AM, and we think we'll be well rested before flying in a couple of days from Vancouver to London, and then onward for a return trip to Larnaca, Cyprus.

Adios.

THE Wandering Warners Website Is Back Online

2026-02-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

We appear (fingers crossed) to be back online with a new domain name – thewanderingwarners.com – with the article the added.

If you’re a subscriber through Kit or Google Blogger, the website should appear if you click on the link. In other words, if you’re reading this you’ve come to the right place, whether you were looking for wandering warners or THE wandering warners.

If, on the other hand, you try a Google search for us using wanderingwarners.com, you may be referred to a dead link. You will find us by searching wandering warners with a space. If you type in wanderingwarners.com, you will get a 404 message. Yuck!

This all resulted either from some internet skullduggery, our own incompetence with technical matters, or perhaps some combination of factors.

The apparent cause of our recent problems was our loss of the ownership of wanderingwarners.com from a Domain Name Service (DNS) provider. Rumor has it that providers or others take over website names without warning when they become available and then offer to sell them back to the owners. We had removed ours from automatic renewal after some previous problems with our provider.

In the meantime, we are grateful to our readers for sticking with us. We just returned from a quick trip to Puerto Vallarta, and we’re on our way to Larnaca, Cyprus. We have thoughts to share about both.

The offshore (way offshore) expert we hired to patch all this up also freshened up our blog’s appearance. If only we ourselves could be so easily revitalized!

And now, as the TV talking heads used to say, back to our regular programming.

Dining Our Way Through Charleston, South Carolina

2026-01-26T14:32:16.721-08:00

After all of the hype and hoopla in the news media, the actual weather we experienced on our long weekend in Chucktown, as some locals refer to Charleston, was anticlimactic (or should that be anti-climatic?).

We never saw rain, although it was windy and cool enough at times to make us glad we’d brought jackets and sweaters along.

Our modern and spacious room at the Hilton Liberty Club was quite luxurious, with a variety of electronic enhancements that we sometimes found more irritating than helpful.

The automatic drape openers were easy to operate, but we experienced problems just trying to turn the main room lights on and off.

The little TV set in the bathroom mirror was a novelty gimmick to us and we didn’t use it.

While the bathroom shower was majestic, we experienced problems trying to adjust the temperature and choose which of the three heads we wanted to use.

Embarrassingly, we had to call for help the first morning when neither of us could figure out how to turn the darned thing off. An old saying, “hicks from the sticks,” immediately came to mind.

The friendly maintenance man who responded to our call patiently demonstrated the solution: turn the lower faucet hard counterclockwise.

He also showed us how to turn the fancy rheostat room lights on and off. Hint: be patient as it takes longer than a regular switch.

The hotel is upwards of a ten-minute walk from the French Quarter, a pleasantly touristy area lined with some of the city’s best-regarded restaurants. Another time we’d consider a hotel right in that neighborhood.

This is a Hilton Vacation Club property, but there were no efforts during our stay to sell us a time share, for which we were grateful. The posted checkout time is 10:00 AM, but the front desk offered us 12:30 PM, which was helpful to us, considering our homeward AS 787 flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 7:20 PM.

There’s no shortage of good restaurants in the French Quarter, although there’s a certain sameness to many of the menus. In fairness, most tourists are probably looking for just such local fare.

Think she-crab soup, fried green tomatoes, red rice, grits, and shrimp for example. We felt some hometown pride to see that our northwest Dungeness Crab was a feature on some menus.

The service was universally friendly, you-all, and the portions so generous that we reluctantly left food on our plates most meals.

Our opening lunch was at the Charleston Crab House, where we first noticed Dungeness Crab on the menu.

Apparently nobody knows for sure how the famous deep fried ball of cornmeal batter got its name. French nuns in Louisiana called them “croquettes de maïs.” Others call them corn dodgers or even the prosaic “cornmeal dumplings.”

To most southerners though, they are “hushpuppies,” alternatively spelled “hush puppies,” the first known use of this sobriquet being in 1899.

They’re traditionally savory, with onion often added to the batter. While they’re commonly served as a side dish to seafood or barbecue, we savored them as an appetizer slathered with honey butter.

One of our daughters was an editor at Southern Living Magazine in Birmingham Alabama for several years, and you can find their authoritative recipe below.

https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/hush-puppies

Our mains were shrimp for Kathy and redfish for Brian, both with carrots and both tasty, even if Kathy discovered she doesn’t particularly like red rice, despite its vaunted nutritional value.

On the other hand, Brian relished his smashed potatoes.

Late that night, we enjoyed a “light” dinner at Pelato, a small-plate “Brooklyn style” Italian eatery currently rated by Trip Advisor as Charleston’s number one restaurant.

Incidentally, we took Ubers throughout our visit and found them reasonably priced and readily available. Some of our more interesting vehicles included a big Ram pickup, a Jeep, and a GMC Yukon.

We shared four small plates, starting with a mozzarella caprese, featuring warmed mozzarella on top of chilled Kumato tomatoes (a brown Spanish hybrid) with a touch of balsamic reduction.

That simple concoction was Brian’s single favorite dish of the trip. Sometimes less is more.

Next, after consultation with our hardworking server (just imagine advising diners on putting a menu together and then delivering an average of four or five orders to each couple all night!) came Arancini, those tasty little rice balls.

Our penultimate order was meatballs Al Forno, accompanied by an outstanding red sauce.

When asked her opinion, our friendly young server suggested the vodka pasta as one of her favorites.

That turned out to be a very large portion of Radiatori Vodka, radiator-shaped pasta simultaneously delicious and filling, especially at this point in the evening.

In a heartbreaking moment, we had to relinquish the plate without finishing it. Back to one meal a day for us!

The next morning found us at the South Carolina Aquarium, less than a ten-minute walk from our hotel. It’s not a large facility, but we found it well worth a two-hour visit.

https://scaquarium.org/

Among its features are its Sea Turtle Care Center. They treat ill and injured sea turtles and return them to the ocean, making use of an impressive medical facility that includes an operating suite.

They’re also the custodians of a flightless bald eagle whose injured wing had to be amputated. They regularly take it outside for fresh air and a look at the outside world. What a magnificent bird it is.

We did manage to get in two to three miles of walking every day, enjoying, for example, the chilly waterfront…

…and the U.S. Customs House, the construction of which was started in 1852, interrupted by the Civil War, but eventually completed in 1879, a fine example of Early Republic architecture.

We finally hit a barbecue joint for lunch, Poogan’s Smokehouse.

A serving of corn bread was too much to finish in this land of large portions.

Our sandwiches were okay, but we do have our own smoker and do pretty well at home.

Kathy was impressed with the rib that topped her “sampler sandwich,” and Brian liked the house-cut chips that came with his pork belly sandwich, but couldn’t possibly the family-of-four size portion.

We also walked through the famous Charleston City Market on a cold and quiet Sunday afternoon.

Monday we stored our luggage at the Hilton and took an Uber to another well-reviewed establishment, Frannie & the Fox, located in the Hotel Emeline.

We decided to stretch the lunch to two courses, given that our CHS-SEA flight didn’t depart until 7:20 PM.

Foiled again! Kathy’s rich and delicious squash soup was a large bowl, not a cup, and Brian’s Caesar Salad covered a dinner plate.

We split a pepperoni pizza, and even that was way too much.

It was a scrumptious pepperoni pizza with a beautiful crust, another culinary highlight of the trip, and we did finish it.

After that, we decided to walk back to our hotel to pick up our luggage.

Once there, we called an Uber and were transported to the airport by a friendly young immigrant from India.

The Charleston Airport is a modern facility that was very quiet today. No doubt a lot of flights were canceled, but we fortunately are on a flight that goes back and forth non-stop between two cities, and both airports are open.

Whether we make our connecting flight to Bellingham is another story, but we’re not worried either way.*

This has been an enjoyable three-day weekend trip, if you count our actual time on the ground in Charleston, but it’s been a pleasing getaway, topped by good luck with the weather.

We’re only home a few days until our next one.

*Update: It’s not a pleasant feeling to hear your name called at an airport, along with “We’re closing the door in one minute and no re-opening it.”

We just barely made it. If our luck continues, we’ll be snug at home in our own bed within next hour.

Weather or Not, Here We Come

2026-01-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

When we bought a bargain flight on AS (Alaska) to CHS (Charleston), we never considered that winter weather could be a factor.

It was only a couple of days ago that we noticed the incoming late night flight from Seattle to Bellingham (SEA-BLI) had been canceled three days in a row due presumably to foggy weather.

That effectively also canceled the early morning outbound BLI-SEA flight we needed to connect to our SEA-CHS flight.

It all worked out this morning, even though we sat on the tarmac for an hour at BLI waiting for the fog to recede to an elevation that would allow us clearance to land at SEA.

It was just around freezing on the ground, so our plane was de-iced before we took off. All that for a flight that’s in the air for about 25 minutes!

Our connection was leisurely enough that we still had ample time to visit the original Alaska Lounge near C Gates, where we’d landed, and the beautiful but crowded N Gates Lounge. As the fog lifted we enjoyed a little plane spotting, including this livery.

Before too long, we were aboard a 737-9MAX in F, using up the last of our upgrade certificates (sigh).

Charleston since 2011 has been the home of a large Boeing facility that assembles 787 Dreamliners, so it’s obvious why SEA-CHS is Alaska’s Flight 787.

The Moroccan beef wasn’t bad.

The Bloody Marys we ordered were more welcome after our 3:50 AM wake-up time. The service was up to the excellent Alaska standard.

Widespread winter storms have occurred throughout large swaths of the U.S. over the past few days.

So far, CHS and Charleston appear to have been spared, but we’ve packed a couple of travel umbrellas because rain is in the forecast.

We’ve been here before and visited most of the major sights, so if this turns out to be largely an indoor occasion, we can manage it.

The distance in air miles, about 2400 SEA-CHS, plus the minimum 500 (sadly going away) for the 94-mile BLI-SEA hop, makes it a cost effective and pleasant way to pick up nearly 6,000 status qualifying points comfortably, especially in First.

We landed around 6 PM EST, so we decided to spend the first night at an airport Doubletree by Hilton.

The hotel upgraded us to a corner junior suite twice as large as a regular room, a nice touch.

We looked at area restaurants and, in this land of barbecue joints and southern cooking, we dined at a Szechuan Chinese eatery that was pretty darned good.

We wolfed down the delicious steamed dumplings too quickly to allow a photo.

We’re staying at a Hilton Grand Vacations property in Charleston for the next three nights, and Hilton kindly sent out an email informing guests of weather threats to their hotels in various areas of the U.S. and Canada.

https://corporate.hgv.com/about-us/travel-updates/winter-storm-fern/

We learned the Governor of South Carolina has just declared a sort of anticipatory state of emergency.

https://www.wjcl.com/article/south-carolina-state-of-emergency-winter-weather-1/70089313

The actual weather forecasts don’t look all that bad. It’s a fairly safe bet we don’t have to worry about getting sunburned.

We’re all tucked in for the night, and we’ll watch with interest what the weather has in store for us during our stay.

Running Hot and Cold in Tampa

2026-01-14T19:24:03.438-08:00

In contrast to the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, our first trip of 2026 proved to be neither the best of times nor the worst of times.

Our destination for this modest five-day expedition was Tampa, Florida. It's a 2,000-mile flight for us from Seattle that Alaska sometimes advertises at relatively reasonable fares, offering us a break from an especially rainy Northwest January.

Our flight out of BLI (Bellingham WA) to SEA (Seattle) departed at an ungodly 5:15 am. As we have in the past, we found an affordable park-and-fly rate at the relatively new and thoroughly pleasant Holiday Inn across the parking lot from the terminal.

We drove down the night before our flight, parked in the hotel's secure garage, and enjoyed a tasty dinner in the restaurant.

We never sleep well when we have to rise early. We both habitually set the alarms on our cell phones, and sometimes also set the room's alarm if we're still worried. Brian in particular needs his morning shower to function fully and can't remember the last time he went without one (that's a bit of foreshadowing, as you'll later find out). That requires an additional 15 minutes to accomplish.

We want to be at the terminal in time to clear security and board early enough to be able to store our rollaboards on the small jet we're flying, so we agreed that 3:45 am would be wakey-wakey time.

A few hours later we awakened in time to turn our alarms off in advance, shower, dress, and trundle ourselves out of the hotel, across the parking lot, into the terminal, through TSA security, and ready to board.

After the short hop to Seattle (about 20 minutes of flying time), we had time to order a couple of the excellent barista-made Cappuccinos offered in the Alaska Lounge before boarding our SEA-TPA flight, an excellent experience with our upgraded First seats.

We've learned to comparison shop both Uber and Lyft and on this occasion Lyft was significantly cheaper. Our destination hotel, Embassy Suites near the Convention Center, is also close to the arena where the Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Team was playing the Colorado Avalanche on this particular evening. Traffic was snarled with an abundance of pedestrians, turning our 25-minute drive into a 45-minute ordeal for our driver.

We eventually checked in at the hotel, with the friendly employee at the front desk taking note of Kathy's Lifetime Diamond status with Hilton.

He volunteered that he unfortunately couldn't find an upgrade for our three-night stay (we hadn’t asked for one), since Kathy's Hilton profile indicates she prefers lower floors (actually, it doesn't). We've stayed in this property before, as recently as February 2023, so we knew what to expect. The hotel is a little tired, but offers plenty of room.

We went to bed early after dinner in the restaurant, there being a $30 daily credit as part of a Daily Mandatory Charge, a resort fee by another name.

Daily Mandatory Charge includes: Destination Charge with premium guest internet access; daily $30 food and beverage credit for use in all hotel outlets (excluding room service); 1 hour bicycle rental for 2. Mandatory Charge also includes a Tourism Marketing District Assessment.

As we closed the drapes, we noticed it was suddenly foggy, and we were happy to be indoors. The next morning when we opened the drapes we realized we had seen not fog but a wall of an adjacent building that completely blocked any view we otherwise might have had.

The water flowing to the shower was so hot as to be nearly unusable but we eventually managed it and emerged into a beautiful day. The free trolley that runs all the way to the historic neighborhood of Ybor City, once the site of a flourishing Cuban cigar industry,. has a stop right across from the hotel's entrance and access to Tampa's beautiful Riverwalk, where we walked daily for two or three miles

We returned to restaurants we'd enjoyed on previous trips, including two Ybor City eateries, Asiatic, a Thai restaurant, and La Terrazza, Trip Advisor's Number 5 of 2,567 Tampa restaurants.

We discovered on our second morning that the water, while no longer scalding hot, was tepid at best. Brian's hasty shower was barely tolerable and Kathy skipped hers. On our way out, we asked for assistance at the front desk and the employee said he'd had no other complaints. Several hours later, upon our return, we realized the water was still cool and got in touch again. Apologies were offered and quick attention was promised.

By mid-afternoon, after we returned from an enjoyable visit to the nearby Tampa Bay History Center, nothing had changed. We can't remember the last time we've asked to "speak to the manager." The young manager we spoke to was extremely apologetic. Brian, to make a point, asked what we had done wrong to explain the lack of a response. The answer, of course, was that we'd done nothing wrong and further apologies followed. The young man offered to change our room, which was a nuisance, considering we were checking out the next morning. He promised he would send an engineer immediately.

This time a hotel engineer arrived, in the midst of changing a shower head in the room next door. He revealed that he couldn't fix the problem, because it was a systemic flaw. He claimed the water pipes had been installed in such a way that rooms in the middle of the building don't get a consistent supply of hot water. He advised us to run the water for five minutes and we would then have hot water. He hung around for five minutes, and the water gradually became lukewarm. He also advised us to seek out a room on the side of the building.

We may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but it dawned on us that the hotel had not been completely candid with us about the hot water problems. A search and careful reading of Trip Advisor reviews later revealed several complaints about the lack of hot water along the same lines.

We called the manager back and said we wanted another room. A second manager arrived at our door promptly with a new key card. We came to realize this was in the same position as our original room but a few floors higher. We checked the room. Sure enough, the water ran cold. At that point, we'd had enough. We returned to the lobby, spoke rather firmly to the manager, and he hastily found us a room several floors higher on one side of the building.

6th floor to 10th floor to 16th floor on the side!

This time the water was hot and the view from the 16th floor was captivating, not that we cared that much about scenery at this point.

Our flight back home didn't leave until Saturday evening, so when checking out the next morning we stored our bags with the hotel and took the trolley back to Ybor City for lunch at Asiatic. That free 2 1/2-mile 25-minute ride is sheer fun for us.

We'd certainly return to Tampa for another lowkey holiday but - no surprise- it's doubtful we'd return to the Embassy Suites Convention Center. We were lukewarm at best about our stay there.

Our flights on Alaska were just fine. We flew BLI-SEA-TPA outbound. On the return, we flew TPA-SAN-(San Diego)-SEA-BLI. There's no question Alaska is facing some IT problems that are having some negative effects on the passenger experience. We hope they can sort that out. It’s a continuing discussion topic in online forums like Facebook and FlyerTalk.

In the meantime, we're safely back home for a week before another quick trip to the US South, a return trip to an Alaska destination, Charleston South Carolina.

Until then, happy travels!

Oh, the Places We've Gone - 2025 Edition

2025-12-31T20:26:00.000-08:00

Oh, the Places We've Gone - 2025 Edition

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

We added one more country, Tunisia to our lists in 2025, so we'll update a post we last published in 2024.

Here's what we wrote back in December 2017.

We once ran into a couple on a cruise who were strangely proud of having visited 130 "countries" and realized we never wanted to be "those people." It's more common (and a more difficult question) to be asked about our favorite region, country, or city. Still, people do ask us "How Many?" from time to time.

We still don't want to be "those people," but just recently our oldest grandchild, having memorized all of the countries in the world for fun (!), quizzed us. As he went through the list with us (an impressive feat on Jake's part), we realized how many places we still haven't been.

As we've often written, but who's counting? Well, we are, but only once a year or less. The US and Canadian immigration officers who check our passports as part of our Nexus and Global Entry renewal interviews (a list of the countries visited within the previous five or so years is required) appear both impressed and amused by our list.

We have met, or know of, frequent travelers who keep every boarding pass for every flight they've ever taken. Some folks keep track of the identification code of every plane they've flown on. As for us, we can't even differentiate between, say, an Airbus 320 and 321. Counting up countries is our limit.

For sovereign countries we base our list on this website, which lists 195 sovereign states in the world. As of December 2025, we've visited 83 of them:

Antigua

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Bahamas

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Brazil

Cambodia

Canada

Cape Verde
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia

Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark

Dominica

Dominican Republic
Egypt
Estonia

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

Fiji
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Holy See (Vatican City)
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India

Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Korea (North) - DMZ tour only
Korea (South)
Lesotho
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Mexico
Monaco

Montenegro
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Panama
Peru
Poland
Portugal

Qatar
Russia
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Senegal (plane refueling at Dakar - did not formally enter)
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand

Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Vietnam
Zimbabwe

Based on the Travelers' Century Club, which currently lists a generous total of 330 countries and territories, we've visited a total of 112 as of December 2025. Wanna count 'em all?

Pacific Ocean (6/40)
Australia

Fiji Islands
French Polynesia (Tahiti,Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier)
Hawaiian Islands
New Zealand
Tasmania

North America (4/6)

Alaska
Canada
Mexico
U.S. (continental)

Central America (5/7)
Belize (British Honduras)
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Honduras
Panama

South America (6/14)
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Colombia

Peru
Uruguay

Caribbean (17/31)
Antigua & Deps. (Barbuda, Redonda)
Bahamas
Barbados
Cayman Islands

Dominica
Dominican Republic
Jamaica
Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin)
Puerto Rico
St. Barts
St. Kitts
St. Lucia

St. Martin (France)
Sint Maarten (Netherlands - formerly Netherlands Antilles)
Turks and Caicos Islands
Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.)

Atlantic Ocean (6/14)
Azores Islands
Bermuda
Canary Islands
Cape Verde Islands
Iceland
Madeira

Europe and Mediterranean (41/68)
Austria
Belgium
Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)

Corsica
Croatia

Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany

Gibraltar
Greece

Greek Aegean Islands (Patmos)

Greek Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.)
Hungary
Ireland (Eire)
Ireland, Northern (Ulster)
Italy

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco

Montenegro
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Sicily
Scotland
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey in Europe (Istanbul)
Vatican City
Wales

Antarctica (0/7)

None

Africa (8/55)
Egypt in Africa

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)
Lesotho
Morocco
Senegal (plane refueling at Dakar)
South Africa

Tunisia
Zimbabwe

Middle East (2/21)

Qatar
United Arab Emirates

Indian Ocean (1/15)
The Maldives

Asia (16/52)

Cambodia

China, People's Rep.

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia (Java)

Japan

Korea, North (DMZ tour only)

Korea, South

Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Timor, Indonesia)

Malaysia

Singapore

Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey in Asia

Vietnam

As we look ahead to 2026, we wish everyone Happy New Year and Happy Travels!

Reminiscing: Travel Highlights and Lowlights of 2025

2025-12-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

A splendid start to our recent twelve months of travel was our January flight to Rome and four-night stay in one of our favorite places, the walled Old Town of Lucca, the birthplace of Puccini and the location of several excellent restaurants.

February and March in Prague and Vienna gave us the opportunity to watch one of our favorite operas, The Magic Flute, in an historic Prague opera house in which Mozart himself conducted. We'd seen it before on film while watching the classic movie Amadeus, which was largely filmed in Prague.

In late March and early April we took advantage of a bargain business class fare to Paris on Aer Lingus. We experienced the theft of Kathy's purse while riding a TGV train from Paris CDG Airport to Tours. Fortunately, the loss was small. We had done some things right, but we learned a couple of valuable train travel tips from a sympathetic policeman in Tours.

In late May we made our nineteenth trip to Australia and again attended the annual Oz Fest hosted by Australian members of FlyerTalk. It was thoroughly enjoyable, despite a diversion back to LAX and a one-day delay in arriving. It's safe to say it was one of those travel experiences in which getting there was definitely NOT half the fun.

In June we sailed on a seven-night Seabourn cruise from Juneau Alaska to Vancouver British Columbia, taking in some magnificent scenery along the way, and visiting towns both memorable and forgettable.

In July we both managed to renew our passports online with lightning speed. Isn't it a good feeling when things work efficiently?

The Labor Day weekend saw us flying to Honolulu on a bargain fare, our first visit there since 2022. We entertained ourselves by seeking out some reasonably priced Waikiki dining options.

Later in September we visited Kathy's home town of Durango, Colorado, to attend her sixtieth high school reunion.

During this trip, we managed to attend a fantastic luncheon hosted by Kathy's youngest brother and his wife in their beautiful home in Farmington, New Mexico. An up-and-coming young chef, Justin Pioche (he was a 2023 James Beard Southwest Finalist) prepared and presented a unique feast to twelve lucky guests with the assistance of his mother and sister.

We also were fortunate enough to finally meet Gil and Kim Garduno. Gil is a superb writer about food and restaurants. We love to read Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog, which features his reviews of restaurants in the southwest and occasionally beyond. They are not just reviews, but beautifully written essays filled with humor, insights, and fascinating details. He writes about our shared luncheon here.

We capped off our travel year by wandering around parts of France and Italy with Kathy's brother Tom and his wife Ellyn. We savored the cuisine of Alsace before traveling onward to Italy, capped off with our visit to Bergamo, which instantly became one of our favorite Old Towns in Italy, perhaps even surpassing Lucca.

We concluded that trip by flying to Athens with Tom and Ellyn and embarking on Oceania's Marina for an eleven-day voyage to Barcelona.

One of the several countries we visited on the cruise was one new to us, the North African nation of Tunisia. By our calculations, that's the 83rd sovereign country we've visited together. As we always hastily add, "but who's counting?"

We had both caught viruses on the ship that left us with annoying coughs for a month after returning home. To ease our trip, we checked our rollaboards on the Lufthansa flight from Barcelona to Frankfurt. Kathy's bag arrived late on the carousel with the handle destroyed, making it virtually unusable.

In the course of obtaining a replacement bag from Lufthansa, Brian was threatened with arrest by a suddenly irate Lufthansa employee, simply for taking a photo of the suitcases on display. The employee suspected Brian of taking a photo of him and exploded almost hysterically, retreating quickly when shown the innocent actual photo Brian had taken.

We left with a quite decent German-made suitcase, unfortunately too large to be a carry-on, and an understanding that in a similar situation it would be a good idea to ask permission to take a photo in advance.

We've qualified for another year of top-tier Titanium Atmos Rewards status on Alaska Airlines. Bob, our engineer friend, questions why titanium sits above silver and gold levels, given that titanium is less valuable than either. All we can think of to tell Bob is that titanium is known for its qualities of durability and low maintenance. We ourselves hope to be durable and we always try to be low maintenance.

And there we have it, a year of travel with numerous highlights and just enough lowlights to keep things interesting. As we look forward to family time during the holidays, and our first trip of 2026 in early January, we wish our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Getting in a Lather About Hotel Soap Dispensers

2025-12-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

We stayed in a pleasant Seattle area Hilton Garden Inn Thanksgiving night after a family dinner. We noticed that the hotel had posted a sign in the corridor proclaiming that rooms were cleaned every other day. That's okay with us, as we generally don't create a big mess in our lodgings.

Was it done in the name of environmental consciousness ("We only use half as many supplies as before to clean your room") or as a cost saver for the hotel that would be passed along to the customers? We didn't stop to read the fine print, but realized we had been enhanced again.

Frequent travelers of our acquaintance are wryly amused when encountering the words "enhanced" and "enhancement" in the announcements of airlines and hotel chains. The travel industry has long utilized them to announce changes in their programs. The punch line is that, more often than not, the changes aren't in the best interests of consumers, despite the claims.

Let's talk about the recent enhancements to soap and shampoo, the amenities that virtually all hotels now provide. Have you heard of Ellsworth Statler, the founder of the chain of Statler Hotels? We hadn't either. Statler not only was one of the first American hoteliers to introduce private en suite bathrooms to hotel rooms, but he supplied individual bars of soap to guests starting around 1910.

Believe it or not, it was as recently as 1970 that the Four Seasons London Hotel at Park Lane supposedly became the first hotel to offer shampoo, albeit packaged in those little plastic packets that are so annoying to rip open.

Years after those innovations, hotel guests are now stuck with dispensers affixed to the wall of the shower. How did that happen? Lawmakers in a number of jurisdictions, including California, having solved all of the major problems they faced, found time to pass laws outlawing the distribution of "single-use" toiletries, legislation encouraged and welcomed by the hotel industry.

Along with the references to "sustainability" and "reduction of plastic waste", soap-dispenser manufacturers have advised hotel owners that they can start to see a return on their investment (ROI periods) in dispensers in as little as six months. Getting accolades for improving the environment while increasing profitability: what's not to like about that?

Well, for the record, we do dislike the liquid soap that one finds in the dispensers. Liquid soap contains much less soap and more additives, which may include stabilizers, thickeners, and preservatives. We find it watery and greasy - it's often labeled "shower gel" - and have begun to carry our own soap, which adds a little bulk and the potential of some messiness in our rollaboards.

There are other concerns. Although sealed container systems are available at a greater cost, in our experience most hotels use refillable bottles. It's a common practice to "top up" dispensers, rather than emptying them and cleaning them before putting them back in use. We've noticed moldy smells in the vicinity of the bottles more than once.

Popular travel blogger Gary Leff of View From the Wing is a self-admitted germophobe who has been railing against dispensers for years. Most recently, he learned from a reader of a Hyatt property in Arizona with bulk toiletries on a housekeeping cart in condiment containers.

Take it from a manufacturer of sealed soap refill systems: Refillable soap dispensers are very labor-intensive to maintain properly, and that includes monthly sanitizing, which seems to us like minimal maintenance. One in four dispensers is contaminated with bacteria, leaving hands with up to 25 times more germs after washing than before. You can read about this in greater detail in a summary of a National Institute of Health study.

We learned of one final irony in regard to protecting the environment. The manufacturing and distributing of liquid soap carry a larger carbon footprint than that of bar soap because of its heavy water content. Analyses suggest that liquid soap can have about a 25% higher carbon footprint than bar soap on a per-wash basis.

As for us, we'll continue to carry a bar of soap with us on our travels. Maybe we'll add a mini-bottle of shampoo or two to make it a clean break from those hotel dispensers.

No TSA Real ID? You Can Soon Pay a Fee and Make Your Flight

2025-12-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

THOUGH the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting,

With exactness grinds he all.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Congress enacted the REAL ID Act in 2005, in response to the 2001 9/11 attacks. It was finally implemented May 7, 2025, after numerous delays.

In November 2025, one of our relatives thought she had lost her passport a few days before a planned domestic flight. She made the mistake of canceling it immediately. A short while later her husband found the passport, but the damage was done.

She discovered she could not cancel her cancellation, She had not upgraded her state driver's license to meet Real ID requirements, and that's impossible to do on short notice. She managed to apply immediately for a new passport. However, as part of that application procedure, the expired (or cancelled) passport must be surrendered, so she lost that form of ID (the TSA will accept recently expired ID, but we could find no definitive statement about cancelled ID). What to do?

With some research help from us, she discovered it wasn't that big a deal. We learned she would be well advised to arrive at the checkpoint early, to carry whatever photo ID she had, and to be prepared to spend some extra time. Along with her driver's license, she had government-employee photo ID, which might help and definitely wouldn't hurt.

After all of the stress and concern she experienced in the days leading up to the flight, the anti-climactic reality was that the TSA employees checked her ID, swabbed her hands, and quickly cleared her. The return trip proved even simpler, with no hand-swabbing.

The TSA has now decided to monetize such situations by charging a rather hefty $45 fee to process travelers lacking REAL ID as of February 1. The original fee proposed was $18, so we might consider the new fee both punitive and profitable.

On the other hand, knowing well in advance she'd be cleared to fly would have alleviated her worries, making such a fee a cost-effective, if pricey, investment in peace of mind.

Years ago there was talk of chip implants to facilitate ID - they do work for dogs and other pets. It turns out facial recognition technology seems to have eliminated any such need. As we proceed through the US Immigration Global Entry line upon returning from abroad, we no longer have to physically present our passports to the kiosk machines, but only our faces for a photo. The immigration officers match our photos to our faces and so far have let us through without any delay.

It greatly simplifies the process, while being a somewhat eerie and, yes, unsettling experience. Longfellow's "mills of God" - or government - may grind slowly, but we're no doubt dinosaurs for worrying about being ground up in the process.

Just Another Travel Adventure: Lufthansa Destroys Our Rollaboard and Threatens to Have Us Arrested

2025-11-18T15:31:56.742-08:00

Why were we checking our rollaboards? How did we end up, thanks to Lufthansa Airlines, with a case of misshapen identity, to coin a phrase?

We're well known (some might say "notorious") among family and friends for wanting to limit our luggage to carry-on bags, what some airlines call cabin baggage. Our main reasons are to avoid damage to the bags and their contents, and to avoid spending long periods of time waiting at the airport arrival carousels for the bags to be delivered. We were reminded of that more than once as we traveled home.

We disembarked from Marina in Barcelona, and spent a couple of days in Barcelona mainly resting. We stayed in a fair-to-middling Indigo Hotel, an IHG property, that was a relatively short walk away from a large shopping mall and a variety of restaurants.

We said our goodbyes to Tom and Ellyn in the Barcelona Airport, as they headed toward southwest Colorado via Amsterdam and Istanbul on Turkish Airlines business class, while our immediate destination was Frankfurt via Lufthansa and an overnight stay in the FRA Airport Hilton before flying home, non-stop to Seattle on Condor, and then to Bellingham on Alaska.

At this point we were tired (youngsters like Tom and Ellyn can wear out us geezers) and still fighting colds accompanied by bad coughs. We thought of the chances of remote gates at either or both airports, and the thought of lugging our bags, two for each of us, on the steep stairs between the plane and the tarmac was unappealing. For a short flight on one of the world's leading airlines, what could go wrong if we checked our bags? What indeed?

We landed in Frankfurt and we did have to walk down the stairs and board a bus to take us to the terminal.

We made our way to the baggage carousel, and waited. Then we waited some more. Then a sign was illuminated saying our luggage was delayed and asking for our patience.

Eventually the bags arrived. As we pulled up our handles, we noticed that Kathy's was completely mangled with a part missing. What to do?

Years ago, we experienced a similar problem at London Heathrow and British Airways gave us a rather inferior replacement on the spot. When we arrived at the Lufthansa office that handled such matters, we learned their intent was the same.

The Lufthansa employees offered us a Hobson's choice. We could have the bag repaired by a qualified repairman. However, they don't work on Sunday and today happened to be a Sunday. Otherwise, we could choose a replacement bag on the spot. The suitcases themselves were the Travelite brand and quite decent. The problem with that was the carry-on they were offering was the puny European size that wouldn't have held what Kathy's carry-on contained. Other than that, there was a medium suitcase and a large suitcase.

We told them we would really just prefer to get some sort of reimbursement in Euros. We buy cheap bags at places like Costco, and usually pay well under a hundred dollars for a rollaboard. You might say we're not high rollers. Accordingly, we would have been happy with a forty-Euro settlement but were told that wasn't possible.

We checked Lufthansa's own terms after we returned home, and our reading of that and EU regulations indicates we had a right to cash compensation, but that isn't what the Lufthansa employees told us.

Shame on them, we think. In the meantime, the conversation took an unpleasant turn, all because of the photo below that Brian snapped of Lufthansa's replacement luggage inventory.

The heretofore civil employee suddenly went ballistic and accused Brian of taking a photo of him. That was illegal and he was going to call the police. Brian, who was trying to conceal his amusement at the employee's almost hysterical outburst, told him to feel free to call the police. At the same time, a female employee approached us and said ominously, "The laws are different in Germany." We did read later that there are significant restrictions in Germany, even in public places, on taking photos of individuals without their permission.

The thing is that Brian only took a photo of the luggage, not of any people. Technically, he apparently should have asked permission to take any photos while on Lufthansa property, but it was a tempest in a teapot.

The employee demanded to see the photo, and the photo before it. Once he saw that the two photos on Brian's phone were of our own damaged rollaboard and of Lufthansa's stack of replacement bags, the great climb-down took place.

We took a midsize suitcase with no paperwork or receipt.

They seemed strangely happy to be rid of us, and we were happy the Polizei didn't appear on the scene to interrogate us.

We checked in at the Hilton where we'd again been upgraded to a large suite. One last taste of luxury!

A walk-in closet and a bathtub!

We eventually packed the broken rollaboard inside the new suitcase as we had no practical place to leave it.

We savored our final European meal of the trip at the Paulaner Restaurant on the other side of the FRA Squaire from the Hilton. Zwiebelschnitzel for Brian and Goulaschsuppe for Kathy.

The next morning we checked it in and flew a non-too-comfortable flight in Condor's Premium Economy section non-stop from FRA to SEA. We had a lot of legroom, sitting adjacent to the A330's exit door, but the seats themselves were cramped and unyielding.

The good-sized German Shepherd (naturally) that sat many rows behind us was undoubtedly even more crowded.

Wouldn't you know it? Our checked luggage was delayed after we landed in Seattle. Yes, we waited 45 minutes at the carousel for our new suitcase to appear. We kept ourselves awake with Cappuccinos in the Alaska Lounge until our flight departed several hours later.

We are blessed with great neighbors on both sides of us, and one of them was waiting for us when we landed at Bellingham International Airport after our short flight.

This time, given the size of BLI, it wasn't a long wait at the baggage carousel, and before long we were riding up I-5 in Bob's snazzy jeep, looking forward to home.

Now where to store our shiny new suitcase? We'll figure that out another day.

Why Oceania Remains Our Cruise Line of Choice

2025-11-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

As the centerpiece of our recent trip to Europe with Kathy's brother and sister-in-law, we all boarded the Oceania Cruises 1250-passenger Marina for our 29th Oceania cruise, sailing from Athens to Barcelona on an 11-day voyage. It's oddly comforting to arrive in our stateroom and feel like we're back home.

Why Oceania (pronounced in four syllables without the "i")? That's a somewhat long story, going all the way back to 2007 for us.

We two had cruised on a variety of lines, starting with a Holland American Mediterranean cruise in October 2001, a strange and occasionally eerie experience just after our retirement and of course September 11.

There were bargains to be had. Along with the aforementioned HAL, we sailed one or more cruises on Princess, Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and even on Cunard's magnificent ocean liner, the Queen Mary II. Earlier this year we sailed on Seabourn, another premium line.

What caused us to become "cruised out," as Brian put it? There were many reasons. First, we couldn't help but notice that cruise ships seem designed as money-making machines with the objective of extracting the maximum amount of money possible from each passenger, with the lure of luxurious lodging and all-inclusive food.

There were ship's photographers taking photos every time you board or disembark. There were art auctions. There were casinos with regular slot and blackjack tournaments. There was Bingo twice daily, announced loudly throughout the ship.There were the shops, looking like strip malls on the largest ships.

There were climbing walls and water slides and bumper cars on some vessels.

There were expensive excursions ashore and spas offering a variety of "treatments" aboard. Most ships offer a "Drink of the Day" and various kinds of expensive "prestige" and "elite" wine and liquor packages. What have we left out?

Oh, and the ports of call. Many if not most of them are likewise designed to separate cruisers from their money and offer little or no authentic flavor of their region or country. The Caribbean and Latin American ports are among the least attractive destinations, in our blunt opinion. If you want to explore a place, come back when the cruise ships aren’t docked there.

Most if not all cruise ships feature specialty restaurants, where you can partake of presumably superior cuisine in extra-upscale surroundings for an additional fee. Over the next few years, we noticed a general decline in the quality of the cuisine. We were booking specialty restaurants as a defensive strategy in the hopes of getting a decent meal!

We once spotted a seafood soup on a Holland America ship made with "sea legs," or artificial crab. We encountered packets of margarine on a Celebrity cruise. Don’t get us started on artificial whipped cream. The horror! If our raised eyebrows at such minor travesties exposes us as food snobs, we'll cheerfully plead guilty.

The thrill of dressing up for dinner (Brian even packed his old tuxedo on a few early cruises) and making charming conversation with the same dinner companions every night at set times eventually paled. Some were great and others were characters. No doubt some felt the same about us! Then we discovered Oceania.

Two cruise industry veterans acquired a couple of 684-passenger ships from the defunct Renaissance Cruises, a well-reputed line that did not survive September 11. What a gutsy time to start up a new cruise line! They developed a distinctive brand with free-style dining, and their trademarked claim of "The Finest Cuisine at Sea." With rare exception, they consistently deliver on that.

The small ships offer two specialty restaurants, one Italian and the other a steakhouse, and the larger ships offer four. Passengers are entitled to dine once at each specialty restaurant, and "extra" reservations are often available, although not guaranteed. All steaks on Oceania are USDA Prime Grade and the food in general is up to the same high standard.

Here’s one of our visits to Red Ginger, the pan-Asian restaurant on Marina. The Versace charger plates lend an elegant touch.

We even left room for dessert.

We embarked on our first Oceania cruise in November 2007, a 12-day transatlantic cruise on the 684-passenger Regatta from Barcelona to Miami. Despite (or maybe because of) the adventure of sailing through a North Atlantic hurricane for 30 hours, we were hooked.

There’s no question that meals like this one in Toscana, the Italian specialty restaurant, are a major attraction.

How about some thinly sliced Beef Carpaccio as a starter? Calamari?

The Trio Toscana is a particular favorite when you’re hard-pressed to choose just one pasta or risotto.

Our first few cruises were bargains, and as they added additional ships to their modest fleet, we sailed on most of them. Oceania enjoys an almost cult following.

The current status levels of the Oceania Club loyalty program including Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and President's Circle, based on the length and number of cruises taken.

We're sitting in the middle of the Platinum tier, which gives us shipboard credit, currently $750 per cruise, dinner with one of the ship's officers (we really enjoyed our dinner with the Food and Beverage Manager and the HR Manager) and a few other perks.

It's been intriguing to watch the company having to add new tiers to recognize people buying up to one hundred cruises. It's also been more and more challenging to find cruises we consider affordable.

Here are some scenes from a dinner in Polo, the steakhouse.

Have we mentioned the various breadbaskets are truly outstanding? The Baguettes and Grissini are especially amazing.

This presentation of Pork Belly is impressive and very tasty.

Oddly enough, even though we've spent the equivalent of one year at sea since our 2001 retirement, we don't consider ourselves to be serious cruisers. That's because we've met some truly serious cruisers. As we more and more enjoy the comforts of home, there may well be more cruising in our future. The photos below offer some more reasons why.

We enjoy dining in Jacques, the French specialty restaurant named in honor of Jacques Pépin, the venerable celebrity chef and Oceania’s executive culinary director.

A Vichyssoise based on peas is one of Brian’s favorites, not to mention Scallops.

Escargot and one variation of Foie Gras, complemented by pineapple.

Medium rare Prime Rib and Dover Sole deboned and served tableside.

A little Crêpes Suzette for dessert.

And an old fashioned Apple tart.

As to the non-food aspects, the weather was generally excellent, the seas were calm, and we encountered some spectacular scenery along the way.

Despite all of us battling colds and coughs for upwards of half the cruise, we greatly enjoyed ourselves.

What’s not to like?

Bergamo Italy: A Special Destination

2025-11-05T05:59:34.988-08:00

It was not a promising start.

it was raining, lightly but steadily, as our regional train arrived at the Bergamo Stazione. The station itself is in the midst of renovation.

The light rain obviously created chaos. We saw no sign of taxis, nor of anyone who spoke English. Brian tried two different Italian taxi apps with no success - they promised only long waits.

After several minutes of dithering, we called our hotel, the Gombit. They rescued us with a taxi that arrived almost as soon as we crossed the street from the station to a Best Western hotel, the designated pickup spot.

The friendly driver piled in us and our luggage and whisked us up ever higher on narrow streets that forced us to squeeze past pedestrians.

Almost before we knew it, we were being ushered into the Gombit, a boutique hotel that was the lodging highlights of this trip.

Our checkin was effortless, and before we were settled in our comfortable and spacious rooms, as the rain faded away.

We decided to explore our surroundings. We only realized later what a wise idea this was. The Old Town was fairly quiet this Thursday afternoon, but got busier and busier as the weekend progressed during our three-night stay.

Our hotel fortunately made us a last-minute dinner reservation in a nearby restaurant that provided excellent food and service.

Friday and Saturday we invested our time and effort to circumnavigate the walls, walking both clockwise and counterclockwise.

Both days we stumbled on charming restaurants as a bonus. The walls themselves are impressive, a World Heritage Site built circa 1561 by the Venetian Republic.

Peanuts of all garnishes!

The following day we discovered a thoroughly charming pizzeria, owned by a woman who takes great pride in her pies, the best of our trip.

And so we passed a glorious couple of days, walking and dining our way through Bergamo, a city to which we’d all enthusiastically return.

A Taste of Italy

2025-10-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

We always look forward to visiting Italy.

We appreciate Italy’s friendly people. They strike us as a little warmer and more welcoming than some other nationalities (a ridiculous generalization but there it is).

The country’s history, culture, and architecture are amazing, and then of course there’s the food.

Amiamo la cucina italiana! We love Italian cuisine!

It’s rare but possible to get a bad meal in Italy. We recall with a shudder an overnight ferry trip to Sicily many years ago.

We do much better most of the time, and did far better on our current excursion, with stops in Turin (Torino) and Bergamo, which we learned is pronounced something like Kokomo, and not like banana as we’d been doing.

We don’t drive in Europe these days, but find the trains to be manageable and at times even enjoyable. Off we went, riding the rails from Lyon to Turin, with one transfer at Milan.

We even managed to buy a hot lunch dish at our Italo Treno first class seats that was surprisingly decent (much better than Sicilian ferry food).

We arrived in Turin on time, and checked in at the impressive lobby of the Hilton Torino.

An amusing sidelight: Kathy, a Hilton Lifetime Diamond politely and successfully lobbied to give Tom, a Hilton Gold, and Ellyn access to the Executive Lounge for our two-night stay.

It turned out the lounge is probably the weakest we’ve ever encountered abroad, offering cheap wine and skimpy food. What is it they say about what’s the only thing worse than not getting your heart’s desire?

We enjoyed some sightseeing before our first Italian dinner of the trip.

We remember the elaborate covered sidewalks from a visit here years ago, just before Turin hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In the restaurant we were amused by the antics of fellow diners’ young Bernese Mountain Dog.

This large puppy eagerly greeted the waiter or anyone else who might be bringing him food. So much for the stereotypical restaurant-trained European pet, lying quietly under the table at its owner’s feet.

The food was deliziosa.

While we greatly enjoyed Strasbourg, Lyon, and Turin, the highlight of our trip was our three-night stay in Bergamo, a city about an hour by train from Milan, with a beautiful old town.

The first step was to take a train from Turin to Milan, where we transferred inside the cavernous station to a regional train bound for Bergamo.

As mentioned, Bergamo was the highlight of our land tour, so it deserves its own post.

Arriviederci.

Wandering in Strasbourg, Lyon, and Turin

2025-10-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

Do we really wander?

Some would scoff at that descriptor.

After all, we ordinarily plan in detail our destinations, transportation, and accommodation far in advance of the trip.

Our only response is to note that we plan the trip’s framework early, so that we can relax and enjoy ourselves once we’re there.

The older we get, the more we enjoy simply meandering.

Of course, we’re budget-conscious travelers who love to buy first-class European train far in advance, when they’re cheaper than the cost of second-class tickets closer to the departure dare. The same goes for accommodations. Advance planning is therefore a must.

When traveling in a party of four, as we are at the moment, we also find it useful to make restaurant dinner reservations, rather than trusting to luck.

Brian laughed at a boss who favored “planned spontaneity,” but maybe the guy was on to something.

On our first night in Lyon, the city some consider the culinary capital of France, and therefore the world, the question before us was simple.

Where to eat?

After some thought and research, we selected an establishment founded by the late chef Paul Bocuse, an inventor of la nouvelle cuisine and perhaps the single most significant French chef of the twentieth century.

Brasserie Le Nord is part of the late chef’s still flourishing empire, and we looked forward to it with enthusiasm.

It was all the more unfortunate that service lapses marred our dining experience.

The food itself was good overall. We didn’t swoon over it, but we enjoyed it. For example, Brian savored a green salad that included croutons, pancetta, and a soft-boiled egg on top.

Tom appreciated his Soupe à l'oignon, even if, like any self-respecting chef, he considered his own version superior.

Ellyn’s pasta dish was topped with a generous portion of freshly-grated truffles.

Where things went off the rails was when Kathy’s €24 serving of foie gras was delivered, with a dollop of possibly apricot jam on the side.

First, it resembled a foie gras terrine, rather than a pure hunk, but perhaps that’s quibbling.

Second, do you smear the foie gras on the jam, or drizzle the jam on the foie gras?

The answer of course is neither. You spread them both on the “toast bread” advertised on the menu as an accompaniment but not presented.

At the same time, the French macaroni-like dish ordered for everyone to sample, was plopped on the table with no serving spoon and no serving plates. There was no pancetta on it or in it, despite our ordering it.

It took us ten long minutes (really!) to capture an employee’s attention to rectify these lapses. Baguette slices, small plates, and a serving spoon were finally sitting on the table.

There was also delay among us with the arrival of each course.

By then, the magic of the evening had dissipated like air escaping from a French party balloon.

C’est La Vie. We realized we’d had a total of four different employees taking our orders and serving us. The server who took the order didn’t note that the macaroni was for sharing. No employee noticed the foie gras was not accompanied by “toast bread,” whatever that is.

Tom, with decades of experience as a restaurateur, also advised us that the Sunday restaurant crew is often the second string. The all-stars are taking the day off after a busy weekend.

In any event, the good news was that our dining experiences improved as our visit to Lyon continued.

We took an Uber to Lyon’s Les Halles, the city’s major food market hall, feasting our eyes on some world class food porn, as Brian has been known to describe it.

First, a stop for some delicious Cappuccinos, including a Halloween pumpkin on top, so tasty that we promptly ordered a second round.

Now fortified, we commenced to wander Les Halles.

All that gazing whetted our appetites, and we eventually found a little restaurant that would squeeze in all four of us.

Tom and Ellyn ate their fill of oysters. In fairness, they claim there is no such status as “their fill” when it comes to the seagoing sliders!

We two are not partial to the bivalve mollusks, but we found other delicious items to tempt us, such as the above.

After this satisfying stop, we wended our way, again via Uber, to the Fourvière Hill Funicular that would transport us to a hilltop view of Lyon.

We first took a look inside the magnificent Vieux-Lyon - Cathédrale Saint-Jean near the base station.

Once above, we first took in a 19th century church (that’s considered a new one in this part of the world) before enjoying the spectacular view of Lyon.

A final dinner in Lyon - and in France - before another train ride, this one to Torino Italy, Turin as we call it in English.

C'était un bon repas. Good eats!

Onward to Italy!

Alsace Vineyards and Villages

2025-10-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of our 2023 visit to this part of France was a private day tour with Cédric Schuhler, the personable young proprietor of Détour Alsace, specializing in bicycle tours.

No bicycles for us, but it was an easy decision to arrange a tour for all four of us. We enjoyed a bonus. Cédric, with our approval, brought his wife along. Sophie earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Strasbourg and proved to be an informative guide.

Because of the upcoming All Saints’ Day, La Toussaint, childcare was a problem, so they also brought their cute and well-behaved three-year-old daughter. Coraline enjoyed the sticker book we’d picked up for her, and gave our tour the feel of a family outing.

Our first stop was Colmar, where we admired a much photographed view of the River Lauch.

Colmar is one of those places where pointing your camera in any direction results in a scenic photo.

Sophie pointed out the construction dates engraved into the stones of various structures, some dating back into the 1500s. She also mentioned that some medieval buildings were color-coded for the benefit of the largely illiterate citizenry. For example, the iron maker’s foundry was painted red.

We discussed this and other topics over a hearty Alsatian lunch at Restaurant Aux Trois Châteaux in Ribeauvillé, one of Cédric’s favorites.

Coraline enjoyed her kid’s plate, including Le Hot Dog and Les French Fries. We all look satisfied, don’t we?

After that memorable meal, it was time for some touring and tasting.

We drove past this Statue of Liberty replica. It memorializes Colmar as the birthplace of Auguste Bartholdi, Lady Liberty’s sculptor.

We imbibed a refined array of Alsatian whites, along with some Crémant d’Alsace, the sparkling wine that is a worthwhile bargain alternative to Champagne.

We two have been fortunate to visit wine regions in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S. There’s a special magic about them, and the Alsace is second to none in that regard.

La Famille Schuhler dropped us back at the Strasbourg Hilton after this wonderful days, and we hugged our goodbyes.

We even made it to the Executive Lounge before the end of Happy Hour, and savored another glass or two of Crémant d’Alsace.

Une journée merveilleuse!

Strasbourg Diary

2025-10-19T02:17:00.000-07:00

Finding your travel companions in the middle of one of the world’s busiest airports?

We made it look easy.

Tom’s and Ellyn’s incoming flight from Amsterdam landed a few minutes early at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 1, giving them ample time to exit their plane (we refuse to use the ugly “deplane” employed by some flight attendants) and follow our instructions to look for signs to Terminal 2, the letter “T”, Long Distance Trains, The Squaire, and Hilton Hotel.l, in roughly that order.

We wanted to arrive at the train in good time, and the nearest and quickest food outlet to our meeting point happened to be a Burger King. What to do but order a quick lunch at one of their computer kiosks.

Thus fortified by their first dining experience in France, the country’s second most popular supplier of le fast-food, we headed for our train.

We traveled as far as Karlsruhe on Deutsche Bahn, and simply walked across the platform to transfer to the train taking us to our first destination, Strasbourg France.

An Uber ride later, we were checking in at the Hilton Strasbourg. No suite upgrades, but both couples were given access to the Executive Lounge, as well as a welcome presentation of petite fours.

Tom and Ellyn were short of sleep. After they’d flown from Durango to Denver to Istanbul to Amsterdam to Frankfurt, with only one short sleep at the AMS Citizen M Hotel, the rooms of which would apparently be more accurately described as cubicles.

They were nonetheless eager to see a little bit of Strasbourg, and we spent some time wandering around a popup-type market.

There are such markets in Strasbourg every day of the week, and they continue to flourish and seemingly to make the investment in these purpose-built vehicles worthwhile.

We also explored the scenic and historic neighborhood known as La Petite France.

Ellyn even sat down for awhile next to Dr. Albert Schweitzer, an Alsace lad who graduated from the University of Strasbourg and went on to achieve greatness.

We tried once and failed to secure a Friday night dinner reservation. Our second attempt succeeded at La Bedaine, The Belly.

Despite a catchy name and a jolly proprietor, we were disappointed by our rather expensive meal.

Most of the Alsatian-style food was comme-ci comme-ça.

Brian won the prize for the toughest piece of beef he’s ever tried, supposedly slow-cooked. Not even the blowtorch presentation helped, and he left half of it uneaten.

We learned it’s indeed possible to be served a not-too-good meal in France, and we look forward to better meals in the coming days.

Flying to Frankfurt on Condor

2025-10-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Condor Airlines has had its ups and downs over the years, to coin a phrase.

Legally known in Germany, its home country, as Condor Flugdienst, or Condor Flight Service, it’s been in business since 1955.

It became Germany’s major tourism airline in the 1990s, and both Lufthansa and Thomas Cook have held significant investments in it over the years. In 2019 Thomas Cook filed for bankruptcy and a British investment firm acquired a majority share in 2021.

Condor has been an Alaska Airlines partner for quite some years, meaning you can credit your miles flown on DE (Condor) to your AS (Alaska) account.

We’ve flown Condor to Europe a number of times, including three round trips with grandchildren. Once they bought A330s with flatbeds in business class in 2022, we’ve become more enthusiastic about them.

We, like others we know, find them difficult to deal with on the ground, but offering good service in the air.

The flatbed seats are admittedly somewhat crowded and claustrophobic, especially in the footwells, compared to those of some other airlines we’ve flown. The food and drink selections are very competitive, as are the fares.

The crews tend to be friendly and attentive, and we always look forward to our DE flights. Yesterday was no exception.

We flew from Bellingham to Seattle on Alaska, and received complimentary upgrades for our 22 minutes in the air. Whoopee!

We stopped off at the main Alaska Lounge and enjoyed complimentary cocktails, thanks to acquiring the new and expensive ATMOS Visa credit card.

We also ran into an Alaskan FlyerTalk friend, Bob Welch, whom we last saw in Australia in 2024. It’s amazing how many FlyerTalkers we’ve run into over the years in airline and hotel lounges, planes, and once even at a hotel elevator in Bangkok. Meeting Bob seemed like a good omen for our trip.

The flight itself was fine, other than a patch of some of the bumpiest air we’ve experienced in awhile.

Dinner, ravioli for Kathy and beef for Brian, was pretty good.

Brian caught a few hours of sleep, while Kathy, facing a crowded suite, bumpiness, and warm Germanic cabin temperatures, didn’t catch a wink.

That’s okay, as we planned for such contingencies. We’re staying at the airport for two nights.

Breakfast came early.

We landed in Frankfurt (FRA) around noon local time. The timing was perfect, as we breezed through immigration and customs, rollaboards in tow, with no delay.

The airport itself was surprisingly uncrowded.

We had no problem checking in early at the Hilton, located in The Squaire, above the long distance trains.

What a lobby!

Not only was our room ready, but we learned we’d been upgraded to a King Executive Suite. Sometimes being a Hilton Lifetime Diamond pays off.

Nothing beats having a guest bathroom in your hotel room.

As to the rest, it certainly met our needs.

We had scheduled two nights in the Hilton, waiting for Tom and Ellyn to arrive on their circuitous Turkish Airlines routing from Denver to Istanbul to Amsterdam (with an overnight hotel stay) to Frankfurt. That may seem odd, but it’s a sub-$2,000 round trip routing in business class that’s earning a ton of miles.

We napped in the afternoon and found enough to graze on in the Hilton Executive Lounge to keep us happy.

Our night of sleep was interrupted by trying to help Tom and Ellyn with a few wrinkles that had developed on their itineraries, They were details they could no doubt have resolved on their own, but we like to help.

We slept in but were still short of sleep as we set out to explore our surroundings

The Hilton, the Hilton Garden Inn next door, and a nearby Marriott are all part of a massive airport development named The Squaire, sitting above the long distance train station.

Once we figured out a spot to meet Tom and Ellyn after their AMS-FRA Lufthansa flight landed, we sent them the information, complete with photos, We’ll see how it works.

Now it was time for lunch. Next door to our favorite FRA restaurant, the Paulaner, presumably owned by the brewery of the same name and featuring their beers, sits an Italian eatery named Little Italy. We decided to try it. Small mistake.

Little Italy wasn’t awful. It just struck us as mediocre. Our pizzas looked better than they tasted.

There were about twenty pizza varieties on their menu, and we suspect most of them taste about the same, toppings added to premade crusts and heated quickly in the oven. At least we didn’t worry about not finishing our generous portions.

Dinner at the Paulaner was much more satisfying.

We ate inside for the first time and were impressed with the geműtlich atmosphere. It is Germany after all.

Kathy didn’t realize the Oktoberfest special she ordered came with a large mug of Paulaner beer until it arrived.

Between her pork hocks (Schweinshaxen) and Brian’s grilled sausages, we savored (heck, we wolfed down) an abundance of hearty Germanic fare.

Again, we couldn’t finish our meals, difficult as we’re members of the clean plate club, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and continue to recommend Paulaner to anyone wanting to dine at Flughafen Frankfurt.

And now, as dawn breaks, we’ll know in a few hours whether we can successfully meet up with our traveling companions and catch the first of two trains that will take us to Strasbourg France.

Travel as Performance

2025-10-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

Mitchell Lurie, the great American clarinetist with whom we both studied in our early years, once remarked to Brian, "When I perform, everything leaves me but my preparation."

He was at least as great a teacher as he was a performer, and we listened carefully to his pearls of wisdom. We realized even in our youth that the importance of preparation is a truth applying to anyone who "performs," whether as a pilot, a surgeon, or, yes, a traveler.

Even when circumstances require that you improvise or downright fake it, the success of your efforts will be based on your experience, unless you're relying on luck. Luck for us is strictly a last resort!

Over the past couple of weeks we've been involved in preparing for three upcoming European trips, one starting in a couple of days, one in March, and one in April. Kathy, who works out the vast majority of travel and accommodation arrangements, has also set up an itinerary for her younger brother and sister-in-law, who will meet us in Frankfurt.

We're now down to the final details. As we've mentioned before, we rely on the invaluable Tripit, which enables us to document every bit of our itinerary. We'll be on an Oceania cruise ship for 11 days, sailing on Marina from Athens to Barcelona, so much of that part of the itinerary is set for us. It's the first couple of weeks in France and Italy that require particular attention to detail.

For example, as we travel by train through France and Italy, we want to figure in advance how to get from the train station to the hotel and back in the cities we're visiting. We generally prefer Uber-like ride share services over taxis, and that requires some research. We compare our own past travel experiences, if any, with the latest information we can find on the internet. We find the travel forum section for various cities in Trip Advisor to be useful.

Brian has accounts open with at least seven foreign ride share services in addition to Uber and Lyft. Uber works in France, but is generally limited to luxury cars in Italy, due to strict Italian regulations. We make a note in Tripit to try the Freenow taxi app. In Barcelona, Uber is now somewhat available, but some travelers suggest Cabify. [Update: a subscriber kindly let us know after we published this that Freenow works well in Barcelona. We always appreciate such useful feedback!]

We land at Athens late at night the day before we board Marina, and we've hired Welcome Pickups to meet us at the airport and transport us to a downtown hotel not too far from the cruise port. For two couples, private transfers can be quite cost effective, and this prepaid ride is 30 Euros per couple for a 45-minute trip into a rather congested (in our experience) city.

Incidentally, as T-Mobile subscribers, we both enjoy free data in most of the world, making the use of such apps cheap and efficient.

Our port-intensive cruise results in a list of nine countries we'll be visiting this trip. In addition to Germany, France, and Italy, the cruise ports add Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Malta, Tunisia, and Spain.

Tom and Ellyn are flying to and from Frankfurt via Istanbul and Amsterdam, so they'll be two countries ahead of us on this trip. It will be our first visit to Tunisia, and the 83rd sovereign country we've visited, so we're still ahead of them overall. But who's counting (as we always say)?

We've stuffed our belongings into our rollaboards. Thank goodness for Oceania's twin virtues of no formal nights and free laundromats on every stateroom deck!

Are we looking forward to our upcoming travel adventure? Yes we are, and we hope to relax and enjoy every bit of it, with our preparations in place. We'll be ready to improvise and even fake it if necessary.

We hope to keep you posted.

Airline Luggage Tag Fraud: The Latest Travel Scam or an Internet Myth?

2025-10-03T09:50:00.000-07:00

Travelers have long been bombarded with warnings about various ways that thieves can gain access to their personal information.

You can add airline luggage tags to a list that includes boarding passes and hotel key cards.

An internet search reveals a number of recent articles advising that thieves can use luggage tags for the purpose of making false lost luggage claims to airlines.

A brand new article by consumer advocate Clark Howard whetted our interest:

Scam Alert: Never Throw This Away in an Airport

Howard cites a "leaked report from a Delta claims representative" that thieves are staking out airport trash cans to retrieve discarded tags and file bogus claims with airlines.

What immediately struck us as odd was the fact that the airlines themselves, not the passenger, are the victims of these alleged crimes. If the airline-produced tags are allowing thieves to utilize them in this way, why wouldn't the airlines change the tags? We decided to check further.

The author cites as his reference a "leaked report." The same source is referenced by other articles (see here and here for example) for this warning. It turns out to be an anonymous Reddit post made by someone claiming to be a Delta employee.

An AI summary reports the claim as legitimate, with the standard disclaimer that it "may contain inaccuracies."

Checking further, we find a Fodor's article that nails the Reddit post as the source of the rumor, and concludes that the "grain of truth" in the warning might be merely a tiny grain. Why aren't any airlines publicizing this themselves?

Don't get us wrong. On those rare occasions that we check luggage, we remove the tags as soon as possible and tear them into small pieces before throwing them away. We do the same with boarding passes once our flights have been posted in our mileage accounts.

We don't worry too much about hotel key cards. Rumors that the cards contain credit card details and other personal information have been around for more than two decades and are apparently based on one California police officer's honest misunderstanding. Warnings about boarding passes have been published for years and may also be exaggerated.

It's definitely a wise idea not to post photos of your boarding passes, luggage tags, or any personal documents on social media. No kidding!

We're more concerned when traveling about fraud connected to our credit and debit cards. We'll still tear our luggage tags into tiny pieces at some point after we've claimed our bags and checked the contents, just in case. The same goes for boarding passes.

Finally, if you're genuinely worried about privacy in this age of technology, focus your attention on the latest U.S. biometric de facto exit controls, the first in U.S. history, requiring a mug shot to leave the country. George Orwell wouldn't be surprised. As blogger Gary Leff, the post's author, puts it:

I’m an old fashioned civil libertarian, which makes me something of a dinosaur. I realize the ship on this has sailed, but I’ll still mourn the passing of a time when we didn’t need to show our papers – back when those papers weren’t digitized.

We can foresee a day when paper passports and plastic credit cards are no longer required. The world will run on facial recognition. Would that be a great increase in convenience or a great loss of personal privacy? Perhaps some of each. We dinosaurs do tend toward pessimism.

Durango Diary: Wandering in the Colorado Mountains

2025-09-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

The chance to attend the 60-year reunion of your high school class only happens once. Kathy was eagerly anticipating the events organized by and for the Durango High School Class of 1965, and Brian was happy to tag along.

Durango is the bustling tourist town located in southwest Colorado, in the general area of the Four Corners, that unique spot where four states, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Arizona, all intersect.

Kathy was born in Illinois, but moved to Durango in 1952, where her father joined a law practice and eventually headed the largest firm in the region.

Her two surviving brothers live in the area, as do several nieces and a nephew, making every visit a reunion of sorts.

We've made the 1,300-mile 21-hour drive many times over the decades, but flying has been our choice in recent years, even though it took us three flights with longish airport layovers each way.

That included BLI-SEA-PHX-DRO (Bellingham to Durango to Phoenix to Durango) outbound and DRO-DFW-SEA-BLI on the return, Dallas-Fort Worth being the long way around but staying within our current OneWorld alliance. It included a combination of Alaska and American flights.

For those interested, we flew Embraer EMB 175s outbound on all three flights, and an Airbus A319 (AA), a Boeing 737 (AS), and another EMB 175 (AS/SkyWest) on the way back. By the end of each trip, we found ourselves quite tired, considering we'd flown not all that many air miles.

We were guests of Kathy's brother Tom and sister-in-law Ellyn at a cabin owned by Ellyn's family on the beautiful Electra Lake north of Durango. The lake is actually a reservoir, owned by a Minnesota-based gas and electric utility, with a relatively few number of cabins belonging to lucky members of the Electra Sporting Club that was started in 1910.

Ellyn's family must enjoy one of the best views of the lake, with Engineer Mountain visible on clear days in the distance.

Speaking of clear days, Durango weather was uncharacteristically miserable during our first few days there. After a hot and dry summer, we were treated to copious quantities of rain, wind, thunder, and lightning.

We were downright cold and even Kathy, who generally dresses in short sleeves, was grateful to borrow a warm sweater from Ellyn for the duration of our visit.

Weather notwithstanding, we managed to greatly enjoy the Friday afternoon class picnic in a local park and especially the Saturday dinner held in a (Brrr...) pavilion at Dalton Ranch.

Although she couldn't possibly have known everyone in a graduating class of about 250, Kathy encountered many familiar classmates during the events and shared memories, after the obligatory squinting at each other's name tags (we suggest larger print for the 70th reunion!)

A highlight for her was meeting up with Marjorie, a nearby neighbor and her best childhood friend. Marjorie's family took Kathy skiing and on weekend back-country jeep expeditions that included exploration of ghost towns.

There was much to talk about, often prefaced with "Do you remember the time..." The event concluded at a respectable hour, given both the cold and rainy weather and the average age of the participants, but everyone left happy as far as we could tell.

The day before the class picnic, we were guests at the Farmington, New Mexico home of Kathy's youngest brother Greg and sister-in-law June.

In a marvelous (for us) coincidence, Greg was hosting a nine-course gourmet dinner prepared and served in his beautiful house for 12 lucky guests by an up and coming young chef (a 2023 James Beard Best Southwest Chef finalist), Justin Pioche, assisted ably by his mother and sister.

Greg and June kindly invited us as soon as they found out we'd be in Durango.

As it happens, our fellow guests included Mr. and Mrs. Gil Garduno. Gil is an old friend of Tom and Greg who happens to be a professional food writer and restaurant reviewer of long standing. You can read Gil's thorough and entertaining review of this event here in his blog.

We've experienced a number of memorable occasions over the decades with Kathy's brothers, and this one with the Pioche Food Group, Justin, Tia, and Mom, certainly ranked right up there.

Toward the end of our stay, we spent a few nights in the recently renovated Durango Hampton Inn, where they recognized Kathy's lifetime Hilton Diamond status with a two-room suite, a lovely spot and we think the first suite upgrade we've ever encountered in a Hampton Inn. Aren't we special?

Along with some wonderful food prepared by Tom, we all savored the tastes of an Italian cucina (Mama Silvia's), a Tibetan restaurant (Himalayan Kitchen), a trendy sushi bar (Pop Sushi), and a Chinese restaurant (Mongolian Grill), on our final night. We two also walked a half block from our hotel to the Durango North location of Serious Texas BBQ one day for a brisket sandwich, and another day for a breakfast burrito at the College Cafe. now located on Ninth Avenue, despite what its own website states.

The cuisine that's now available in this still somewhat isolated mountain town is a far cry from 1950s Durango, where a night out for the family might feature Mexican food at the local Elks' Club (not to mention the roadkill deer served in the school cafeterias, as legend had it).

If we had to choose only two of the above restaurants to make a return visit, they would probably be the Himalayan Kitchen and Pop Sushi.

On one of our final days in Durango, we took advantage of the now-beautiful weather to drive the twisty and scenic US-550 to Silverton, a leisurely 60-70 minutes from Durango, especially with repairs under way.

This famous old mining town sits at the other end of the famous Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, featured in many western movies and TV shows over the decades. We've ridden the train a number of times and can thoroughly recommend it.

We had plenty of views out our car window on US-550, as we drove from Durango, at an elevation of 6400 feet, over Molas Pass at just under 11,000 feet, before arriving in Silverton, sitting at 9,302 feet.

We walked around gawking at the other tourists, ate a less-than-memorable lunch at one of the best-reviewed eateries in town (the employees were quite friendly), and then headed back to Durango after watching one of the trains arrive, this one diesel powered.

We dropped our rental car off the following morning at the airport, and found out as the day progressed that each of our three flights departed about a half hour late, but featured plenty long layovers. Departing for DFW around 11:40 AM Mountain Daylight Time, we managed to find a pleasant American Airlines lounge in which to pass some time about a 10-minute walk from our departure gate.

Hours later we landed in SEA at the South Satellite, so had to take a couple of trains to arrive at the main Alaska Lounge in the C Concourse, about a five-minute walk from where the RJs (Regional Jets) park.

We were definitely starting to fade, but were enthused by being upgraded to First for the 20 minutes in the air between Seattle and Bellingham. It was mainly helpful in being among the first on and first off.

It was then a pleasant Midnight walk to our car, and a quiet and uneventful 20-minute ride to Birch Bay. We made it by 1:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time!

Summing up our week in southwest Colorado, Durango is Kathy's home town, but we can still objectively recommend it as an outstanding destination, and we haven't even mentioned Mesa Verde, Music in the Mountains, or any one of a number of other indoor and outdoor attractions.

We do recommend you pack a jacket and sweater for a mid-September visit. Trust us on that one.

Toxic Cabin Fumes: A Newly Revealed Danger in the Air

2025-09-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

We’re currently traveling, but this extensive Wall Street Journal report about the source of some very dangerous cabin fumes certainly caught our attention.

You may find it interesting too