By Barbara Dodge ITWPA Member I felt like Cinderella riding to the ball at the prince’s castle with my pumpkin carriage and footmen. Actually it was a rented Ford Expedition minivan with my family, but still the thrill was there. I’d always heard about the castles in Ireland and it had been on my bucket […]
Playas del Coco is on the beach; however, the mountains and rainforest are less than an hour away for the occasional change of scenery. There are many scenic waterfalls, suspension bridges, and hiking and horseback riding trails. We made a stop at the volcanic hot mud baths and coated our bodies with the nutrient rich warm mud. After showering it off, it was time to relax in the hot tubs fed by natural hot spring water. It was interesting to see frogs living in the natural hot steam room.
Slowly the cast begins to assemble in the skies above. Migrating Vaux’s (pronounced “vox”) Swifts are arriving to spend their night at the school. Every year in the fall when they migrate over Portland, the gray-brown swifts, which look like little cigars with wings, spend the night clinging to the inside of the tall brick chimney that used to service the school’s heating system.
One of the joys of traveling is finding a place so untouched, so empty of human presence that it seems as if you are the first person to have ever witnessed it. Such places can be hard to come by, yet just six hours away by boat from the southeast coast of Panama lie more tropical islands than days in a year. Over 300 of these islands are uninhabited, allowing travelers to experience true tranquility.
Seems like Lynnwood rolls up the carpet at 10:00 p.m. By then most of the good eating places are closed. Even Cliffhanger’s restaurant lobby is closed, but the good news is the kitchen is open until 1:00 a.m. They serve their full menu of homemade dishes — yes, even their signature $5.99 breakfast is available. So if you’re hungry, you’re in luck, and you don’t have to put up with cafeteria food from Applebee’s, Sheri’s, or Denny’s.
In addition to serving its customers outrageously good fare, Mountainside Café serves another mission. As an integral part of Mountainside Treatment Center (a drug and alcohol rehab center located in Canaan, Connecticut), the café draws much of its staff from the Center’s extended care clients. While serving its customers, Mountainside Café is, as well, serving its staff. The goal, says a Center spokesman, “is not to turn out bus boys, servers, and dishwashers,” but instead “to help people transition back to sobriety in a work environment.”
The Albergo Cesari is a three-star, family-owned hotel located at 89/A Via di Pietra. It’s within easy walking distance of the shopping district, the Parthenon, and the Trevi Fountain.
The meals are interchangeable between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. These are usually small places (10 to 15 chairs) specializing in one or two dishes. Often no menu is provided. Expect low tables, plastic chairs, and elbow to elbow eating. If it’s busy (a good sign), have patience, they’ll find room for you. Only the Nem Nuong restaurants tend to be larger in size.
The spirit of Christmas in Strasbourg begins as you leave the railway station and cross the road on the way to the city center. The smells of hot mulled wine (vin chaud) and hot chocolate drift into the air from a small number of decorated cabins selling gifts and food.
With or without the help of Hollywood, Savannah still spins the kind of ambiance you can’t buy; it has to have been earned through centuries of historic realities. Cobblestone streets and walkways lead past elegant mansions and streets cloaked in Spanish moss. The waterfront commercial district is accessed by steep concrete steps amid ancient walls that must surely have echoed the cannon fire of both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
