Europe
| Tour Name | Days |
Year |
Remark |
19 |
1962 |
May 12-30: Escoffier Dining Club hired the Countess Lotte Doria to host this tour to Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, and San Marino, and Monaco. Lotte, Clair (a hairdresser), and a pal and I became an exclusive foursome. |
|
85 |
1969 |
March 21-June 13: I could stay away as long as I wanted, having quit IBM, but I got tired after Belgium, France, Spain, Morocco, London, and Amsterdam. |
|
44 |
1973 |
June 9-July 23: Fly via Iceland to Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland (meeting John), Italy, Austria, and Belgium. |
|
12 |
1974 |
October 13-25: As assistant (to Spartacus) tour guide on the Stella Oceanis to Greece, Crete, Rhodes, Delos, Mykonos, Volos, Meteora, Skiathos, and Delphi. |
|
10 |
1977 |
September 27-October 5: With Dennis on a ridiculously cheap Tower Air charter for just a few hundred dollars. |
|
10 |
1978 |
May 1-May 9: With Dennis, again on a ridiculously cheap Tower Air charter, staying at the Lido de Jesolo, getting to Milan, Mantua, and Verona. |
|
37 |
1981 |
December 15, 1981 to January 20, 1982: Driving with Jean-Jacques from Genoa to Rimini to an entire circle around Sicily, loving Taormina the most. |
|
13 |
1982 |
July 27-August 8: With Jean-Jacques and Paul M. to the northeast of France for great dining and museums. |
|
40 |
1984 |
In summary, Tunisia is nice for a week, but there's no reason to go back. Yet France is unendingly exciting and novel, filled with sights and foods and wine. |
|
31 |
1985 |
The treasuries of the cathedral boasted the baby-sized gold skull-reliquary of St. Foy, but where is Conques and who was St. Foy? |
|
59 |
1988 |
July 19-September 15: Berlin (6 days), Bayreuth (10 days for "Parsifal," Ring Cycle Premieres, "Lohengrin," and "Meistersinger"), Bamberg, Mainz, then join a Trafalgar Tour to Munich, Ljubljana, Split, Dubrovnik, Medugorja, Skopje, Meteora, Delphi, Athens, Egina, Poros, Hydra, Kvalla, Troy, Gallipoli, Istanbul, Edirne, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg, ending tour in Heidelburg and Frankfurt; then to Baden-Baden, Genoa to meet Jean-Jacques, Vernazza, Volterra, Siena, Perugia, Gubbio, Pesaro, Pistoia, and Milan for Edgardo's family. |
|
15 |
1992 |
September 13-27: With Joe to Frankfurt, Speyer, Heidesheim, Bad Urach, Illhaursen, Colmar, Konstanz, Paris, Aachen, Cologne, and Dusseldorf. |
|
29 |
1997 |
Madrid 4 days, via Bilbao (no museum yet) to Santillana del Mar 2 days, Altamira Cave, Biarritz 2 days, St. Bertrand de Commingues, Pujols, Gargas, Niaux, and Pech Merle Caves, Sarlat, Domme, Les Eyzies, Lascaux Cave, Bordeaux 4 days, Paris 6 days. Lascaux Cave now officially closed to EVERYONE. |
|
7 |
1998 |
February 19-25: With John to museums, cathedrals, baptistries, gardens, and tombs. |
|
26 |
1999 |
WED,6/2: Post Office bus to Durness, ferry to sunny Cape Wrath after sea-mist morning, couple drives me to Ullapool Travel Lodge, dine at Argyle Hotel for their treat, watch langoustine and shrimp-tails offloading from fishingboats. |
|
19 |
1999 |
October 8-26: With Ken to Marseille, Les Baux, Montpellier, Gorges du Tarn, Laguiole, Conques, Le Puy, Lyon, and Paris. | |
8 |
2000 |
May 9-16: With John to churches, castles, Cesky Krumlov, and Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad). |
|
15 |
2001 |
9 days in Vienna, since I'd never been there before, and 6 dyas in Krakow, since we'd heard it was so beautiful, and took a side trip to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. |
|
24 |
2003 |
FRI,MAY 30: Carriage ride to Monastery tour, Lucerne walk-tour, wonderful waitress for lunch at Galliki, St. Francis church, walk in heat to train station and Kunstmuseum, to Engelberg and dinner at Hotel Engelberg, not ours. |
|
12 |
2003 |
FRI,JUN 20: Olite Palace and walk and Gallerias de la Plaza. To Pamplona for city walk and lunch in Cafe Iruña (Fred leaves glasses). To San Sebastian and Hotel Amara Plaza for dinner after walk to new Cathedral and beach for drink. |
|
15 |
2004 |
WED,1/21: Ferry to Mgarr Harbor on Gozo, tour Ggantija and Gozo Museum, Ta'Kola windmill and Xagra church, Calypso cave, lunch and dinner at Ta' Cenc in Sannat before Blue Window, Ta' Pinu Basilica, and cliff-walk before sunset |
|
9 |
2004 |
WED, 7/21: St. Peters in Chains for Michelangelo's Moses; Nero's Domus Aurea; St. Clements and Mithraic underchapel; St. John Laterano; lunch in Le Tempio d'Iside for 44E; Palatine Hill; Roman Forum; view from Altar of the Nation; Colosseum; drinks across the way; dinner at Le Vulpe de Molese for 26E. |
|
15 |
2005 |
WED,3/30/05: Kinvara Castle, Galway Bay, Burren, Aillwee Cave tour, "Hole of Sadness" grave at Poulnabrone; Burren Center. Lunch at Vaughan's with my climax of a birthday cake! Cliffs of Moher glorious, stop in Monk's, and dine after long wait in MacDonough's Fish Shop, walking to Saint Nicholas Cathedral & bed. |
|
29 |
2006 |
Rhine cruise from 9:30-11:05, making 7 stops, seeing as many castles. Bus to Marksburg Castle up back roads to 12:05, tour 12:22-1:20, no English books. Bus to Koblenz 2:15-3:08 for German Point of Moselle meeting Rhine. Kolsch beer and hot soft fresh pretzel for lunch. |
|
13 |
2006 |
Tour Budapest, Esztergom, Szentendre, and Holloko. On River Rhapsody down Danube to Novi Sad, Vukovar, Belgrade, Iron Gates, Veliko Tornovo, Rousse, Constanta, Black Sea, and Mamaia. Bucharest by train. |
|
15 |
2007 |
Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius, not to mention Kaliningrad, where the summer hotels aren't even air conditioned. |
|
13 |
2007 |
Boat trip starting in Odessa, Sevastopol, and Yalta, up the Dneiper River to Kiev. |
|
13 |
2008 |
FRI,5/30: Fly Fokker from Akureyri to Rekyavik 8:43-9:26. To Nesjavellir, then familiar Thingvallir, Restaurant Lindin lunch of Arctic char and soup. Strokker eruptions, Gullfoss falls wets me, to Hotel Ranga south of Hella for dinner. |
|
15 |
2008 |
At Hermitage opening, many rooms until 1:15PM Scythian Gold Treasure Room 2, incredible. Beer at 4:50PM. More rooms to 5:45PM. Dinner at Y Techa of SECOND wonderful Chicken Kiev and borshch. |
|
26 |
2008 |
22 Michelin stars in 11 restaurants; best is still Eugenie-Les-Bains. Being sick in Barcelona didn't help. |
|
22 |
2009 |
We found a father-son team who knew Wales well. We started in Manchester and York on our own, then went to Wales where the team took us from south to north. Later, we returned to England for Chester and Manchester again |
|
22 |
2010 |
Kazakhstan (Almaty), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) (avoiding its warring southern regions), Tajikistan (on a quick day's bus tour to Penjikant), Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva), and Turkmenistan (Ashkabad), all of them with awful food. Plane landed in Azerbaijan: another country! |
|
23 |
2011 |
Finally Ken gets to talk to a waiter who'd worked at Oustau de Baumaniere and thought it was great, worked for Ducasse and thought he messed things up, is impressed that we'd eaten at Ducasse's restaurant in Mauritius, and tells Ken WHY it's so hard to hire sommeliers: they change jobs frequently.... | |
20 |
2011 |
Istanbul, Van, Akdamar Island, Kars, Erzurum, Trabzon, Sumela Monastery, Ankara, Kapadokya, Antakya, Gaziantep, Mount Nemrut statues (via goat), Adana. | |
28 |
2012 |
Ken wants gelato, which they didn't serve there so we're looking for the Piazza San Domenico (where he remembers there's a shop), and we go down a few false alleys, totally dark, shops all shuttered. We get good directions from everyone we ask, and find the shop keepers at G. Scaturchio bringing in their chairs from Piazza Domenico Maggiore, but they take us into the back room, where we can choose among a dozen flavors |