Send a holiday greeting from above the clouds

by Meg Nesterov on

Procrastinated on sending Christmas cards this year? It’s not too late to send a holiday greeting to say “Happy New Year” (or Mutlu Yillar in Turkish) with a travel theme. Turkish Airlines has a fun website for generating a virtual holiday greeting with a view of the wing. On Above the Clouds, you can choose a cloud image like a snowflake, Christmas tree, or angel and add a brief message (limited to 40 characters), accompanied by a jaunty version of Turkish Airlines’ theme song, and it will generate an e-card from your window seat.

Make your own greeting at www.newyearclouds.com and Happy New Year!

Sandal Castle, Yorkshire, to host medieval battle on New Year’s Eve

by Sean McLachlan on


A castle in Yorkshire will be the scene of a reenactment of one of England’s most important battles.

The Battle of Wakefield, fought on December 30, 1460, will be reenacted by the Frei Compagnie. Members of the group will not only be fighting it out medieval style, but will also be displaying medieval arts and crafts and talking about life in the 15th century.

Sandal Castle has an intriguing history. The first castle here was built in the early 12th century in the Norman motte-and-bailey style. An artificial hill had the main house on top, surrounded by a wooden palisade. A larger enclosure and other buildings on level ground were also surrounded by a palisade and the entire thing was further protected by an encircling ditch. These castles were quick, cheap, and easy to make and were one of the ways the new Norman rulers of England suppressed the rebellious Anglo-Saxons. Like many motte-and-bailey castles, the wooden walls of Sandal Castle were later replaced with stone.

The castle’s main claim to fame came during the War of the Roses, when Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, made a bid for the throne. He gathered a great deal of support and fought the armies of Queen Margaret and King Henry VI. In 1460 Richard was at Sandal Castle with an army of a few thousand men when his enemies showed up with a much larger force. Richard’s army was beaten and he was beheaded. The House of York continued to fight, but it was the beginning of the end.

While the original battle was on December 30, the reenactment will be on New Year’s Eve from 1-3pm. For more on Yorkshire’s sights, check out our series Exploring Yorkshire: ghosts, castles, and literature in England’s north.

Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

8 winter hikes for outdoor enthusiasts

by Jessica Festa on

Warm-weather months aren’t the only time to get a good hike in. In fact, there are many trekking trails all over the world that offer superb hiking and snowshoeing. This winter, why not plan a trip to experience one of these active and enjoyable hikes for people of all fitness levels.

The Dolomites, Italy

While the Dolomite Mountains are beautiful all year long, there is something especially captivating about them covered in a layer of sparkling white snow. While snowshoeing in the Dolomites, you will be able to explore numerous trails while taking in high snow walls, white-capped mountains, and trees so covered in flurries they look fake. Adding to the charm of the trek, ambient Alpine-huts line the path, offering a warm and cozy place to stay with a fireplace, hot cappuccinos, and freshly made strudel. Interested in doing a long trek with a group? Dolomite Mountains, a locally based company, offers an 8-day Dolomite snowshoeing tour.The Swiss Alps, Switzerland

The beauty of the Swiss Alps cannot be described in words. No matter how many photographs I took while I was there I still felt as though the diverse landscape, the snowy mountains, crystal lakes, and lush green fields couldn’t be captured on film but needed to be seen in person. If you’re backpacking, home-base in Interlaken, a hotspot adventure destination on the backpacker circuit. From there, you’ll be able to access the beautiful Bernese Oberland as well as numerous trails and mountains, including my personal favorite, the Jungfrau. Click here to view a list of numerous Swiss Alp winter walks.

Zion National Park, Utah, USA

For those who want to experience nature in winter but aren’t big fans of the cold, Zion National Park has mild winters while still getting those blankets of flawless snow that make for stunning photographs. For the most scenic winter hikes, go to the east side of the park (along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway), where the white frost sticks itself over sheets of flat burnt rock like iced oatmeal cookies. This is where the snow is deepest in the park, so snowshoes are advisable. For a less snowy hiking experience, the Watchman, Coalpits, Chinle, Huber, Eagle Crags, and Scoggins trails, which are unbearable in the summer, are pleasant and sunny in the winter.

Chugach State Park, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

There are many excellent snowshoeing trails in Archorage, one of which is Chugach State Park, the third largest state park in America. Over a half-million acres of well-developed hiking trails give visitors options for easy, moderate, or difficult hikes along with the chance to experience the backcountry of Alaska (and possibly even encounter a moose!). For an easy hike featuring a mixture of lakes, mountains, and thick pine forests, as well as an educational preview of the trek, start at the Eagle River Nature Center, where you can access various paths for beginners, like the Rodak Nature Loop, which gives you access to beaver and salmon viewing, and the 3-mile Dew Mountain Trail, where you will be able to see Dew Mound, a unique glacial erratic, as well as Dew Lake and Eagle Creek Valley. For something a bit more challenging as well as historical, opt for the Crow Pass National Historical Trail, which you can access from either the Eagle River Nature Center or the Crow Creek Trailhead in Girdwood. The trail is 21-miles one-way and gains an elevation of 3,100 feet to 2,100 feet respectively, depending where you start. Along with seeing waterfalls, wildlife, glaciers, and old mining ruins, you will be following the historic Iditarod supply route. Click here for a detailed list of trail maps for the park.

Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Traversing through Banff National Park during the winter will allow you to experience the Canadian Rockies from a unique perspective. The air is clean and crisp and offers a serenity that can only be found when snow covers the ground. According to BanffNationalPark.com, the region also contains about 932 miles of hiking trails, more than any other mountain park in the world. If you’re looking for an easy trek try the Fenland loop, a 1.2 mile round-trip flat stroll near the Vermillion Lakes that can be accessed along Mt. Norquay Road, between the railroad tracks and the Trans-Canada Highway. If you want something more difficult, do the Sulphur Mountain Summit, which is about 3.5 miles one-way and gains an elevation of 2,149 feet, helping to provide panoramic views of the Bow Valley. You can access the trailhead from the Upper Hot Springs parking lot. For more detailed hike descriptions, click here.

Nahuel Huapi National Park, Bariloche, Patagonia

Often considered the “true wilderness”, Patagonia is a prime destination for snowshoeing. Nahuel Huapi National Park encompasses 1,875,000 acres of land and stretches from the Patagonia Steppes to the high Andes. It is also the country’s first national park. Remember that their winter is from June to September, although all year round you can enjoy hiking on well-marked trails. One of the most interesting features of the area is the vast quantity of crystal-clear lakes and rivers set against backdrops of ancient glaciers, native forests dusted with white powder, deep valleys, and high peak mountains. Take in Tronador, an extinct stratovolcano standing at 11,454 feet, as well as the glacial-formed Lake Nahuel Huapi and panoramic views of the city of Bariloche.

Westland Tai Poutini National Park, South Island, New Zealand

There are many reasons that New Zealand makes for a perfect winter hiking destination. For one, the country usually enjoys a mild climate. Remember that New Zealand is another country where the seasons are switched, and when traveling there in December through February you will actually be experiencing summer. Nevertheless, a trek at Westland Tai Poutini National Park during these months will expose you to an array of seasons and landscapes. Because the park is split by the Alpine fault, the landscape is dramatically contrasting, with glaciers, the high peaks of the Southern Alps, ice rivers, rainforests, hot springs, coastline, and lakes. Visit Fox Glacier, a large ice rock with a unique location right next to a rainforest, cross over a 230-foot long suspension bridge that swings over Fox River, and, if you’re in really good shape, hike up the high peaks, which offer mountain hut accommodation for those looking to do some serious trekking. Click here for more information on hiking trails.

Yatsugatake Mountain Range, Honshu Island, Japan

While Japan isn’t typically known for its snowshoeing and trekking, the country is actually very mountainous, making it a great spot for winter trekking. The Yatsugatake Mountains, a volcanic mountain range, is home to eight major mountain peaks including Akadake, which is 9,511 feet high. A range of different trails are available for all levels, including rolling hill strolls and steep rocky climbs, all along snow covered trees, deep white valleys, stratavolcanoes, lava domes, and freshly iced mountains with striking definition and patterns. For those who want to do more than just a day hike, mountain huts are available for accommodation. While Yatsugatake is located on the island of Honshu, it is less than 3 hours from Tokyo.

The Vasa: an elegant seventeenth-century warship in Stockholm

by Sean McLachlan on


Sweden’s capital Stockholm has a lot to offer-fine dining, good shopping, lovely parks, access to some interesting day trips (the old Viking capital of Uppsala being my favorite) and a unique museum. The Vasa Ship Museum is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions and it’s easy to see why. It houses a beautifully preserved 17th century warship.

The Vasa was meant to be the pride of the Swedish fleet at a time when the nation was one of Europe’s major powers. The galleon was 226 feet long, carried 145 sailors and 300 soldiers, and sported elegant woodwork over much of its exterior. Its 64 cannon could blast out 588 pounds of iron from port or starboard, giving it more firepower than any other ship then in existence. It must have been a major letdown when it sank barely a mile into its maiden voyage in 1628. It turns out the whole thing was top heavy.

While the Vasa was a bad ship, it’s an awesome museum piece. The cold water, silt, and pollution of Stockholm harbor kept it safe from microorganisms that would have eaten it up. When archaeologists raised it from the sea they retrieved thousands of artifacts such as weapons, utensils, coins, clothing, tools, and hemp sails and rigging. Some parts of the ship still had flakes of paint and gold leaf adhering to them, so its once-vivid colors could be reproduced in a scale model in the museum.

This year is the 50th anniversary of its raising from the bottom of the harbor. This was a tricky operation that required 1,300 dives and a great deal of delicate underwater work in low visibility. Divers had to dig six tunnels under the shipwreck in order to run steel cables through them and attach them to pontoons on the surface. After that, the pontoons lifted it to the surface without a hitch.

The next step was to reassemble the ship. All of the nails had rusted away, so the archaeologists were left with a massive jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing. Some 32,000 cubic feet of oak timber and more than 26,000 artifacts had to be preserved, cataloged, and archived. To house the restored ship, the Vasa Ship Museum opened in 1990.

Now the Vasa may get some companions. Five other ships dating from the 16th to the 18th century have been discovered during the renovation of one of Stockholm’s quays. This was the site of the old shipyards where the Vasa was built. They’re said to be in good condition and some are as long as 20 meters (66 feet).

If you love the sea, you’ll also want to check out Amsterdam’s Maritime Museum and Madrid’s Naval Museum. And if you’re going to Stockholm, check out our budget Stockholm guide.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

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Life, death and the best truckstop restaurant in Italy

by David Farley on
Paul was dying. At lunch. In Rome. And just around the corner from the Trevi Fountain. Which didn’t seem like worst place in the world to spend the last moments of one’s life. Ten minutes earlier, the waiter had put a bowl of spaghetti alle vongole in front of Paul, the steam from the pasta and mussels fogging up his glasses. So much so we didn’t notice he was suddenly slumped over and passed out. But now, laid out flat on the cobblestones five feet from our table where he could get medical attention, my friend Pancho and I (along with Paul’s little dog Jack) could only stand there and watch as the waiters flagged over some paramedics they’d called a few minutes earlier. “It’s Paul Steffen,” the waiter whispered to one of the paramedics.

He was eighty-six years, two weeks, and three days old, to be exact. I always knew the day of his death would come, probably sooner than later, and I guess in a perverse way it was fitting that he’d die over lunch.

Which is the meal I’ll always associate with Paul. I was living in Calcata, a hippie-and-artist-laden medieval hill town about an hour north of the Italian capital. Paul, along with his longtime friend, Pancho, 56, a chef, mosaic artist and former dancer, had lived in the village since the early 1980s.

They became two of my first friends when I moved to the village to research a book. Because there were no restaurants open in Calcata on Tuesdays, we’d drive out of the village on that day every week and have lunch somewhere.


It was exciting for me because I’d get to see new places around central Italy: sometimes we’d go up to Viterbo, an off-the-radar city that was clad in gothic architecture and surrounded by giant, thick walls; sometimes we’d go to Civita Castellana, a medieval hill town about 20 minutes away; sometimes we’d eat in Rome.

But my favorite was always the truckstop. A truckstop in the middle of nowhere that happened to serve some of the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten. Would eating there ever be the same without Paul? We’d go there–located out on the Via Flaminia toward the A1 autostrada–and sometimes he’d settle a dilemma I was having with two sage words: we’ll see. Which, as I interpreted it, was a Buddhist-like way of saying: don’t get stuck in a moment (of anxiety or fear, for example) because all situations, attitudes, beliefs, relationships, feelings, etc. are constantly in flux; they’re impermanent and will change. So don’t grasp on to it. Let it work itself out with time. (And it always did.)

Sometimes, if I was lucky, Paul would talk about his extraordinary 20th-century life. After all, as I watched the paramedics try to rouse him to consciousness on the cobblestones outside the restaurant in Rome, I thought: this was no ordinary man dying in front of me. Paul’s career as a dancer and choreographer was kick started in Hollywood when he began dancing in films beside Rita Hayworth. In the late forties, his friend, film director (and eventual name namer) Elia Kazan told him that this Senator McCarthy guy in Washington didn’t bode well for them. Paul wasn’t a Communist, but he was gay and liberal, which for that time pretty much made him a Communist anyway. Kazan’s advice to the young up-and-coming dancer: Get the hell out of this place.

So he moved to Paris where he’d hung out regularly with Jean-Paul Sarte, Lena Horne, and other celebrities of the age. Jean Cocteau even gave him an apartment. After moving to Rome in the 1960s, he quickly fell in with the Via Veneto crowd, carousing with Fellini and Marcelo Mastrioanni and becoming the choreographer for Italy’s then-only TV channel, RAI. It’s hard to imagine a dancer achieving household name status–the closest might be Barishnikov, I suppose–but in Italy Paul was it.

Though still famous with people of a certain age, Paul’s star has long faded. Not at the truckstop, though. People would greet Paul warmly there. Or maybe it was because we went there so much.

If somehow you’d just materialized at a table at L’Aquila, the truckstop restaurant, you’d never realize you were cavorting with truckers until you sauntered outside to see the lorries fueling up. Shaded in white and yellow and bathed–like nearly all restaurants in Italy–in fluorescent lighting and a TV always screaming in the background, L’Aquila didn’t try to reinvent anything. After all, this is Italy. Instead, the carbonara and amatriciana, for example, tasted fresh. Flavors seemed amplified, as if the nonna cooking back in the kitchen was sprinkling culinary steroids in every dish. Arugula was often of the wild variety (which was so naturally peppery, you’d want to sneeze).

Pancho, Paul and I would settle in and do the lunch course: antipasti, primi, and secondi. Several bottles of wine would be consumed as well. But at the restaurant in Rome, the day Paul passed out in front of his spaghetti alle vongole, we hadn’t even gotten through the primi course. And it didn’t seem like we were going to. Paul was dying. Or at least we thought so. A few minutes later, however, he was awake. Then he was sitting up. A few minutes after that, we resumed eating. And after lunch, we went on a crawl through Rome’s wine bars. Paul Steffen went from nearly dead to drunk in a matter of hours. Not a bad way to live. Paul eventually did die a year later. Sadly, not in a restaurant but in a hospital like most people.

On my next trip to Italy, I’m going to visit L’Aquila, perhaps the best truckstop restaurant in Italy (if not Europe or the planet). I’m going to eat three courses and if I’m masticating on the problems and anxieties in my life (why wouldn’t I?), I’ll pour myself a glass of wine and remind myself of Paul’s favorite phrase:

We’ll see.