Category — Travel To Go

Every year right after Thanksgiving I tape the 2 hour Rick Steves’ European Christmas on PBS Channel 11 in Chicago.

Throughout the holidays when I’m working, baking, cleaning or involved with other activities that don’t involved actually watching TV, I like to play and replay the show on my TV.

With Rick, I celebrate Christmas in

• Paris and Burgundy, France
• Oslo, Norway
• Bath, England
• Rome, Italy
• Austria
• Switzerland
• German cities of Nürnberg, Salzburg, and Obendorf

I’ve visited all these cities during the Christmas holidays, and I enjoy revisiting these souvenirs of my earlier travels.

Of course I could just buy the DVD: but I prefer to DVR it during Channel 11′s Winter Pledge Drive, so I can support public television while enjoying one of my annual holiday traditions. Its an easy way to remind me to give, and what’s wrong with enjoying while I’m giving!

Rick Steves’ European Christmas: it makes me happy!

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I spent last week in Berlin shopping, eating and just generally relaxing with my friend The Antiques Diva. Since I’ve been to Berlin many times already sightseeing was not on our must-do list (although our 3rd travel friend Stacey is pretty confident I never have been sightseeing in Berlin, or I’ve just forgotten every monument and historic sight we passed). As we visited in late November I was lucky enough to enjoy the beautiful city of Berlin all dressed up for the holiday season. And as my photography skills never seem to improve, I was lucky that The Antiques Diva shared her photos with me…and now with you.

Of course we visited Berlin’s glamorous department store KaDeWe, not once but twice

and enjoyed the early sunsets  window shopping around the city.

Stores were dressed for the season

We chanced on holiday shop Käthe Wohlfahrt, which we’ve visited many times on trips to Rothenbourg ob der Tauber

And though the famous Berlin Christkindlmarkts didn’t officially open until the day we left Berlin, we were fortunate to visit a Christmas market at Potsdamer Plotz that didn’t read the official holiday calendar, with plenty of wurst and sauerkraut, glühwein, potato pancakes and stollen (I carried a stollen home with me to Chicago for our Thanksgiving brunch!)

Auf wiedersehn, und Frohe Weihnachten!

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What’s the 1st stop for every ex-expat returning to Paris for a visit: Monoprix, bien sur! I need to stock up on all the French kitchen essentials that I’ve depleted since my last visit, and see what’s new. Plus, Christmas is just around the corner and maybe a few gourmet French foods can be checked off my list!

Moi Monoprix essentials:
1. La Petit Marsellaise soap and refills
2. Salt: grinder and fleur de sel
3. Seasonings and spices
4. Olive oil with peppers (for pizza!)
5. hard sausages
6. cheeses
7. Breakfast cereal
8. Cookies: Madelines and Speculoos
9. Yogurt (I ate the yogurt: I wanted the lavender clay pots!)
10. Cornichon
11. Chocolates
12. Throat lozenges (sore throat )
13. Blinis

I have a 50lb weight limit: I may have to leave some clothes behind!

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Christmas around the world: I’m watching Paris dress for the holidays.

This afternoon we shopped Passy Plaza and had to stop and mire the shimmering gold and white lights. It’s not yet Thanksgiving, but it’s beginning to feel alot like Christmas…

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The past 6 weeks we’ve hosted 5 different sets of overnight guests. Our guests use the guest bathroom, aka TBG’s bathroom. Other than checking to see that it’s clean and fully stocked, I pretty much never go in there. But after the 4th guest commented on the jars of salt scrub TBG has in there (the 5th guest was a 10 year old boy and I’m guessing not alot of scrubbing took place in there) I decided to actually go inspect his shower and sink.

I was with TBG this August in Charleston when we ate at Hyman’s Seafood Restaurant. As they don’t take reservations – and the food is worth the wait – we spent alot of time browsing the Hyman’s Gift Shop, and TBG found the wet bar and started sampling the Holy City Sea Salts. In the end, he purchased 2 jars of the sea salts: Eucalyptus and Lavender. Holy City Salt Scrub leaves your skin feeling clean and soft and moist and smelling wonderful!

Made with all natural ingredients:

• Dead Seas Salt
•  Other Sea Salts
• Coconut Oil
• Grape Seed Oil
• Other Essential Oils

Holy City Sea Salts come in a range of scents:

• coconut
• vanilla lavender
• Ed Hardy
• French Lavender
• chamomille

(I remember sampling something citrusy, but not sure which one that is.)

If you’re not in Charleston any time soon, you can purchase Holy City Sea Salts online at www.holycityskinproducts.com or at 888.456.0382. About $20. Each jar comes with a wooden spoon. Warning: the jars are glass, not my favorite for the shower.

Lucky for me my shower is broken and I’m showering everday in TBG’s bathroom…and using up his supply of Holy Sea Salt Scrub.

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I’m not really an early adopter. But I am a big reader. So back in the 90s, with my first Palm Pilot (I hated cell phones, but with a job requiring travel and 2 kids and a husband: necessary!) I discovered eReader: I could download books to my Palm Pilot, and read them wherever, whenever. Back then the selection of e-books was pretty limited, so I pretty much read classics and trashy novels, which kept me entertained for hours on planes, trains and automobiles…and subways, buses, doctors’ offices and cafés. I adjusted to the small screen easily, the only inconvenience was I had to download the books to my computer, and sync my Palm Pilot to load the books, so I had to plan ahead. A small inconvenience with a huge payoff.

screenshot of my iPhone: outdoors

Fast forward 15 years, I was gifted the brand-new cutting-edge Kindle  e-reader (OK, I bought it myself, wrapped it, and handed it to TBG with instructions to gift it. But still…). And I was happy to spend all my spare change on ebooks at Amazon.   Then, I graduated to the iPhone. And the Kindle App. Could life get any better? Yes, in fact it could. This Christmas TBG gifted me the iPad, and he thought of it all by himself.

Kindle: outdoors

The first app I downloaded? The Kindle App, bien sur! So I could be reading a book on my iPhone, Kindle and iPad: wherever was convenient. And some magical mystical amazon internet god saved my place and let me open my book to the correct page, whichever technology I was using. And I can download a book from anywhere, nowadays even planes are offering WiFi…for a price.

Kindle and iPad side by side: outdoors

And so you ask, why do I continue to use both the iPad and Kindle to read? (The iPhone is easy: it’s always with me!) Blame the sun gods.

iPad outdoors: see the palm trees... behind me!

You’ve probably read alot about the e-reader glare factor. If, like moi, you read outdoors…or in the car…, sun glaring on your e-reader screen converts that screen from a reader to a mirror. I’ve purchased the adhesive glare screens for my iPad, and while they reduce the glare, its virtually impossible to be outside in the sun reading for more than a few minutes. So my Kindle remains close-by for dedicated reading, and my iPad is ready for multi-tasking.

Kindle and iPad side by side: indoors

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I like travel. And food. And books. And best of all, combining all 3! Having lived in Paris for 7 years and last year traveled and tasted my way thru India, my friend Suzanne – another adventurous traveler and food sampler – gifted me the book The Hundred-Foot Journey – A Novel by Richard C. Morais. I had too much going on to do more than read the accolades on the back cover for the 1st few weeks, but then I had time to open the book and drift into other worlds and flavors.

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I’ve been fortunate to have visited Vatican City several times, but I took advantage of the opportunity to see Vatican Splendors: A Journey through Faith and Art at a special exhibit at the Fort Lauderdale Art Museum.

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I’ve been lucky to shop the souks of Morocco, Tunisia, India, South Africa, Asia…when I travel, I shop. But there are times when I’m looking for some special item I’ve seen on my travels…but didn’t buy, or want to buy again as a gift.

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I was gifted this tres mignonne Brazilian coin purse, but how to use it? I don’t keep coins in my purse, only in my pockets (in the city) or car cup holder (in SoFlo) so I can easily give them to street people on the corner or in front of my shops (don’t like to dig through my purse).

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