Attractions – Page 15

Architecture, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, International, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL

A Plethora of Pyramids

November 7, 2017October 7, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: DON’T LET GIZA BE YOUR ONLY PYRAMID EXPERIENCE

If you go to Egypt, you’ve got to see the Pyramids, but don’t stay in some Cairo hotel and take a day trip to the Giza Plateau. Get out of the city and stay at the Mena House. Someday, hopefully, they’ll finish the new museum that is supposed to replace the antiquated Cairo Museum and doing it this way will make even more sense. But even if they never finish the museum (a distinct possibility given the tomorrow/bokrah mentality) you don’t want to be just another tourist. There’s more to the Pyramids than you see at Giza.

A Tourist Trap to Avoid

Before I go into what you should see, let me steer you away from the Light and Sound Show. I had been warned, but back in 1996, the Luxor Temple Sound and Light Show was one of the highlights of my trip. The stunning display was interesting and entertaining. Chances are that in 1996 the Pyramid Sound & Light Show was pretty amazing, too, but it’s not anymore.

There’s a huge outdoor theater which would seat hundreds of people, suggesting the show was once a really popular attraction, but I’d be surprised if there were 50 people at the performance we attended. What’s more, the parking lot and entry were right next to a spot used as a toilet by the local camel population. You need to be careful where you step and the smell will bowl you over.

I had threatened to enjoy the performance from my balcony at the Mena House, but wasn’t sure if I could see it from there. It really doesn’t matter whether I could see it or not. The balcony would have been a better choice.

The obligatory Sphinx and Pyramid picture

You Will Go to Giza First – and You WILL Like It or ELSE

Egyptians don’t see their country the way we do. I had great difficulty convincing my nephew that I really did want him to schedule our guide to visit Dashour and Saquara. Having already seen Giza, I really didn’t want to waste my time there, but skipping it altogether was not to be allowed. What’s more my excellent guide, Zuzu insisted we had to start the day there.

My nephew and his friend had toured with Zuzu the day before and warned us that he was a little, shall we say, stubborn. With Steven and John, the main problem was that he was going to give them all the information they paid for whether they wanted it or not. I didn’t see that being a problem for me. I challenge any guide to tell me more than I wanted to know about what I’m seeing. However, Zuzu was a little stubborn in other ways, too.

When we got in the car to begin our day, I explained how I had already been to Giza before and I preferred to start at Dashour. Zuzu said we would get to Dashour, but we’d start at Giza. I tried several approaches to convince him I was the customer and he should do it my way, but whatever tack I used, he wasn’t going for it. I didn’t want to be that Ugly American, so content in the knowledge we would get to all three pyramid locations, I decided to sit back and enjoy the tour.

The Solar Boat Museum

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to the Giza Plateau at all, because my previous unorthodox tour had not included the Solar Boat Museum and I wanted to see it. I just didn’t want to waste time stomping around the Pyramids and the Sphinx, if it meant I’d miss out on Dashour and Saqqara.

Well, we did stomp around the Pyramids and the Sphinx. And guess what, they looked just like they did last time we were there. Granted Zuzu provided more background information than I got from Ahab’s guides, but after a lifetime of watching shows about Egyptian archaeology, Zuzu didn’t have much to add that I hadn’t already learned from Zahi Hawass and Giorgio A. Tsoukalos .

The Solar Boat Museum is fascinating, but they make you wear these awful shoe covers and pictures are not allowed. The boat was buried in the sand somewhere around 2500 BC. It had been disassembled before burial and the pieces were intact when it was found in 1954. It was painstakingly reconstructed over a number of years and then in 1985, the Egyptians built the museum to show off the treasure. Don’t miss it if you visit the Pyramids.

My Giza duties fulfilled, Zuzu let Izzat take us to Dashour. Come back next week and enjoy that part of our day. In the meantime, here’s a video of our visit to the Pyramids.

Accommodations, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL, Travel Planning

A Word About Planning

July 19, 2017May 13, 2017 Jane Sadek

The whole gang, bride and groom front and center

TRAVEL THERE: IT’S TOUGH TO PLAN FOR EGYPT ON YOUR OWN

The big wedding day we’d come to Egypt for had arrived, but I had no role in it until about four Egyptian time, which turned into more like 5:30 real time. It’s taken me a while, but I am finally learning to pause when I travel. Cruises force you to do that and I have noticed that I enjoy them immensely. I had resisted Bill’s suggestion that we go on a tour on the day of the wedding, for which both of us ended up being very grateful. While Bill and I slept late on the wedding day, let me tell you a little bit about the planning for this trip.

A Different Travel Planner

This trip was very different than most of our travels, because I didn’t plan it. At first, I assumed planning would fall in my jurisdiction, but since I wanted to rely on a travel agent for a trip of this magnitude and my travel agent wanted to rely on third party packages, Bill ended up working it out himself. He looked to me to assist by researching attractions, landmarks and museums I wanted to see, but he took over the rest. In part, that’s because he wanted to be sure we got the Egyptian rate.

Egyptians don’t pay the same amount as tourists in Egypt for most things. While Americans will be glad to know most Egyptian hotels are bargains compared to the same quality hotel elsewhere, Egyptians pay even less. This is not true at the Fairmont, however. Rates in Dallas are pretty much the same as in Cairo and while other hotels gladly gave Bill the Egyptian rate when he showed them his old Egyptian passport, the Fairmont was a little more persnickety, demanding he have a current passport and proof of residency.

While I’m talking about planning, let me say this. Trying to use the internet to research travel in Egypt is an exercise in frustration. Since this was my second trip to Egypt, I’d already seen the obvious, well-known attractions which have an inkling of how to communicate with potential visitors. I had a vague idea of the other things I wanted to see, but with the exception of a few reviews on Trip Advisor, I was pretty much on my own. Please ignore most of the Trip Advisor reviews on Egypt. I’m not sure what these folks were expecting in Egypt, but it sounds as if they thought they were going to Disney, “Nothing here except some ruins.” OH PLEASE!

The Family Travel Agent

Bill’s niece, Mirette, is married to Ayman, which sort of makes him my nephew, but it’s by marriage on both sides and I have a hard time figuring all that out. Paternal this, twice removed that and great or grand? These things always confuse me!

Way back when Mirette married Ayman, I was told he was the manager of the Thomas Cook offices in Sharm El Shiek, but that didn’t register with me as “travel agent”. To me that sounded like a financial position, because all I knew about Thomas Cook was that they had traveler’s checks. (Remember Traveler’s Checks?) Well, duh!

This trip was so easy for Bill. I did the research and Ayman did the booking. I think Bill wanted to show off his expertise and plan even more – hence my need to say no and no and no and no. I found out we just might be kin to the very best agent in Egypt. If Sharm El Shiek is on you list – then fuggetaboutit! Just call Ayman. He’s the unofficial mayor of Sharm El Shiek and he knows everybody in town, but he can book anything in Egypt.

Seriously, if you’re going to Egypt, call Ayman. He manages the Sharm El Sheik branch of Travel Choice (a Thomas Cook company). His email is tcsharm@travelchoiceeg.com and his telephone number is +2(069)3601-808-9. His English is impeccable. He’s a nice guy and he has years of experience. Tell him Bill and Jane Sadek sent you and you’ll be treated royally! BTW, the website is www.travelchoiceegypt.com.

As incredible as his work for us was in Sharm, he’s also good outside of Sharm. He knows all of Egypt very well. He’s the one who hired our driver and guide for Cairo and Alexandria. Both were perfect – competent, courteous and conscientious. The driver especially. On the way to Alexandria, there was a horrid traffic jam. He took the next exit and drove around like a chase scene from The French Connection. At first it looked as if he’d made one of those turns you never come home from, but before I even had time to worry, he squirmed through several tights situations and had us on the Corniche.

Bill’s family is Christian and while I am no Islamophobe, it was also nice to know I was being escorted around Egypt by people Christians trust. Our driver was a Christian who had a cross hanging from his rear-view mirror and informative stories about Believers throughout the Middle East who visited Egypt. Our guide was a Muslim with whom we enjoyed several intelligent conversations about the effects of religion on Egypt over the centuries. Riding through backstreets of Alexandria in a cab, which had a radio spouting religious antipathy and a driver whose grimace suggested he was resentful our our presence, made me appreciate Ehab and Zahran even more. (BTW, it wasn’t Ayman’s fault I was in that cab, Bill decided we’d do Alex on our own. More to come!)

Next week I’ll tell you about the ways I enjoyed my quiet morning at the Fairmont, but I had to give a shout out to Ayman. It’s not just family loyalty that caused me to recommend him. If he hadn’t done a bang-up job for us, I might have just allowed you to think I’d done my own bookings, but because I care about you getting the best when you travel, I’m urging you to call Ayman.

Accommodations, Architecture, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Libraries, Museums, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, TRAVEL

And She’s Back

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: AN EXTRAORDINARY EGYPTIAN ADVENTURE

I just got back from Egypt and I want you to visit this amazing country. You’re not going to believe some of the exciting adventures I had while I was there. I hope that as you read my blog in the coming months, you’ll start planning your own trip in your head. As much as I want you to go, I have always been totally honest with you – sharing the good and the bad. So it is only fair that I start this series by warning you that Egypt is not an easy country to visit. You have to overlook a lot to see what is valuable, but there is great value. In the coming weeks I will rave about spectacular hotels and jaw-dropping sites, but I have to start here, with the not-so-pleasant reality of Egypt today.

Then and Now

This was my second trip to Egypt. The first was in 1996 when terrorism was an occasional, rather than a daily, thing and the only terror incident associated with Egypt was an attack on a busload of tourists in 1990. The world has changed a lot since then. Days before I was scheduled to leave for this trip, bombs went off in two different Coptic Churches. It didn’t stop us from going, but it did give us pause. It shouldn’t stop you from going either, but you need to know what you’re getting into.

The imminent threat of violence was the most obvious difference between this trip and the one we enjoyed twenty years ago. Security was a pervasive presence, everywhere we went – whether we were visiting a museum, an airport or a church. Every time we entered our hotel we had to put all our belongings through a scanner and ourselves through a metal detector. I was glad for the security, but saddened by the need for it.

It was the same thing pretty much everywhere we went and you just got tired of it. Take a romantic walk on the beach and come back to the hotel for a thorough search. By the time you prove you have a right to be there and you don’t have any WMD’s, the romance has dissipated. This adds to the stress of travel and distracts from your ability to really relax.

One evening we accompanied a niece and her husband to a hotel where they stayed on their honeymoon. They wanted to take a walk down memory lane. Our taxi went through one inspection at the gate to the property and we were put through a thorough search at the front door. Then as we headed out to the pool to look around, we were stopped because we were not actually guests at the hotel. We had to go to the front desk, explain ourselves, show them our room keys to a sister property in town and give them a passport to hold before we were allowed into the pool area. By the time we actually made it down there, we had more thoughts about the intrusion of security than we did Maggie and Shady’s honeymoon.

Forget Lowe’s or Home Depot, Shop for Home Improvements Streetside

Related Changes

The threat of terrorism has devastated the country. Tourism has been at the center of Egypt’s economy for a very long time, but they have nothing to take its place and little with which to woo the tourists who actually show up. Yes, they have some of the most splendid sights in the world, like The Pyramids, Luxor Temple, The Valley of the Kings and such, but the hassle associated with visiting them is challenging.

I thought Egypt was the dirtiest place I had ever visited the last time I went. Well, now it is beyond dirty. It’s down right filthy and much of it has been abandoned. Whole blocks of Cairo and Alexandria’s city centers are just empty graffiti-covered buildings, surrounded by piles of trash. Everywhere we went, unfinished new construction showed signs of being abandoned years ago, when their hope of an Arab Spring turned into a nightmare. Don’t plan on wearing the same clothes over and over. A day of touring will render you and everything you are wearing disgusting. You either need to pack more or plan on a budget for laundry.

And Then There’s the People

Egyptians, as a whole, are wonderful. They are happy people who want to get to know you and they love pleasing you. They want you to love their country the way they do, but right now they are a little embarrassed – as if you caught them between working in the yard and getting a shower. They’ll point you towards the freshly planted flowers, hoping you won’t notice how dirty and sweaty they are.

However, they are also frustrated and tired. At almost every hotel we observed someone having a meltdown in the lobby and it was usually an Egyptian guest. Life is hard. The economy is impossible. Traffic is horrendous. Everything is harder to do than it should be and after a ten minute walk your white shirt just isn’t white anymore. Still, given the chance, most of them will bend over backwards to accommodate you and try to create a smile.

At the same time, we noticed there is also a trend that distances the female population from visitors. There was a greater number of women completely covered from head to toe. During our last visit, most women dressed very conservatively and the majority covered their heads, often with a bright colorful scarf. Many would be sharply dressed, while sporting a more conservative hijab. There were some who wore the more old-fashioned gallabeya and hijab, but only a rare woman was covered and veiled in black.

This time gallabeyas and hijabs were the norm. Young women wore leggings or jeans with a tunic, but the hijabs were everywhere and they were not brightly colored scarves, but solid blocks of neutral colors. However, women covered from head to toe in black were no longer rare and I noticed most of them also wore black gloves. They were moving shadows with just a sliver of their eyes showing – distant, aloof, unapproachable.

In the Cairo Museum we saw a young couple taking a selfie. The woman was completely covered in black. We wondered at the incongruity of hiding yourself and then taking a selfie. The young man’s outfit was standard casual fare, but she was covered in plain black without even a bit of embroidery. A lot of mixed messages there.

So I will tell you the story of our trip. I’ll remind you of the difficulties from time to time, but I’ll leave it to you to remember that everything was dirty, inconvenient and noisy, whether I mention it or not. Come back next week and we’ll hit the road.

Accommodations, Architecture, ART, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Museums, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL

Egypt Here We Come

March 22, 2017March 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: CAIRO, SHARM & ALEX

In less than a month we’ll be winging our way to Egypt for a family wedding. While it’s primarily a family trip, you can rest assured that Museum Girl will be taking in the sights. The itinerary is firming up and I thought I’d share a few highlights.

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

As excited as I am about the rest of the trip, the reason we’re going is to participate in Bassem and Mariam’s wedding. We’re all agog with excitement. Bill and I will arrive in Cairo late in the evening on a Saturday night and be whisked away to the Fairmont in Heliopolis. On Sunday afternoon we’ll attend a luncheon for all the families at an “oriental” restaurant. When I wondered why we were having Chinese food, I learned Egyptians call Middle Eastern food “oriental.” I learn something new every day.

Monday is the day of the wedding, and it is also a national holiday, so I’m told I will see the residents of Cairo enjoying themselves in parks and other areas of leisure. I’ll spend the day getting all gussied up for the wedding. Egyptians know how to party and they expect guests, especially the couple’s families, to get all decked out. I’ll be wearing a long formal gown bedazzled with crystal beads. For the church ceremony I’ll wear a sheer over-blouse cinched by a jeweled belt, which will cover the spaghetti-strapped straight bodice of the full-skirted gown. Pictures to follow.

Let the Sightseeing Begin

On the day after the wedding we’ll be transported to the elegant Mena House Hotel, in the shadows of the pyramids. Some folks tried to convince me to hire a guide for sightseeing for the day, but 8:30 AM was entirely too early to start a day of touring, especially after partying late into the night in the ballroom of the gorgeous Fairmont.

So instead, we’ve arranged to be transported mid-day and ease into the sightseeing. We’ll enjoy the gardens of the Mena House, walk around with our mouths agape at the splendid architecture of the place, dine around the pool and then watch the Sound & Lightshow at the Pyramids from our room’s balcony. Who knows, there might even be time for a dip in the pool. Personally, I plan to have at least one picture of me taken in the pool with the Pyramids behind me.

Then we’ll do the Pyramids. Since we’ve already done the Giza Plateau, I plan to go further afield and check out the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the Red Pyramid at Dahshour. I’m also interested in the Meidum Pyramid, but I’ve been told it is too far out – drat. Instead we’ll go back to Giza and see the Solar Boat Museum, something that’s been added since our last visit.

A Family Reunion Extraordinaire

After our second night at Mena House, we’ll head to the airport and make the short hop to Sharm el Sheikh. Some of the family lives in the beautiful city by the Red Sea and others will have gone there when we headed to Giza. We’ll have a family reunion of sorts for about five days along one of the most spectacular beaches in the world.

The diving and snorkeling are supposed to be awesome, but I’m not much of a guppy. You’ll find me at the Marriott Naama Bay Resort pool with an exotic cocktail of my choice somewhere near the waterfall. Yes, the beach is beautiful, but no way am I going to smear sunscreen all over and then sit in the sand all day. Not this girl’s idea of a good time. I’ve been promised activities like a star-gazing visit to the desert, some shopping opportunities and other attractions.

In the evening, look for me along the boardwalk. It’s one of my favorite memories of our last journey to Egypt. Every evening the tourists come out in all their sunburned glory to stroll along and enjoy the wide variety of entertainment available on every side. On our last visit the Macarena was all the rage. I wonder what earworm will bite me this time.

On to Alex!

We’ll fly back to Cairo and then have a driver take us to Alexandria where we’ll be in the center of the action at the Cecil Hotel. This elegant old dame gives a nod to Alexandria’s heyday with plenty of modern updates. What’s more, I’m supposed to be within walking distance of many of the sites I want to see – that is if I can ever cross the street. I remember the traffic being deadly in Cairo and Alexandria is supposed to be more of the same. Pedestrians don’t have the right of way and stoplights are merely suggestions. I’ll be right across the street from the beach, but may never actually get to the sand!

My wish list for Alexandria is long and includes a visit to a Coptic monastery on the way back to Cairo. Once back to Cairo, we’ll visit Old Cairo and seeing the famous churches there, something I never got to during our other visit. I think we’ll spend our final nights at the Fairmont. We have to be to the airport bright and early for our return. Then it’s back to the grindstone!

That’s it so far for Egypt. Keep dropping by. I’m not sure what I’ll be up to in the weeks to come, but I promise not to disappear.

ART, Attractions, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Birmingham Museum of Art

March 8, 2017March 5, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE JEWEL OF BIRMINGHAM

When the possibility of visiting Birmingham first came up, I checked out the city online. The city seemed to be a foodie haven with a great art museum and a nice botanical garden, but comparing their hours to our flight schedule and the hours of the thing I can’t tell you about, I wasn’t going to have time to do anything about any of that. So, I dutifully went about my business. Still, something in my subconscious kept clanging. I couldn’t exactly recall why, but I knew I really wanted to see the museum.

Perhaps, Maybe, Possibly

One day at lunch, before we took off on the Birmingham adventure, I mentioned to Hannah Beth that I regretted we weren’t going to have time to do the touristy thing. She assured me the museum was well worth seeing and mentioned a couple of possibilities we might have for seeing it. I assured her I had checked for evening hours, so that wouldn’t work, but skipping the final session – that would do.

I just happen to be one of those people who believe God is personally involved in my life. I also believe that if I’m willing to put Him first, He does everything he can to fulfill Psalms 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” In fact, He’s proved it to me too many time to deny it.

So, while we were keeping an ear to the ground to find out how significant the final session would be, God was arranging to keep things ahead of schedule so that we could get out in plenty of time to make it to the museum. You may call that a coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidences.

An Embarrassment of Wedgwood

If you’ve been hanging around this blog for very long, then you know the Decorative Arts Wing of any museum is my prime objective when I make a visit. I love Decorative Arts better than anything else produced from the artistic mind. I can spend an entire day in a Porcelain gallery – a passion I learned from my mother.

What’s more, Wedgwood,especially their Jasperware, (matte porcelain with relief decorations) is among my most favorite porcelains. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at the photo of the fireplace my husband and I designed for our home. You don’t have one of these unless you love Wedgwood. It was inspired by two I’d seen in Mount Vernon.

Along with representative Wedgwood pieces gracing the mantle piece, there are various Wedgwood and Jasperware pieces spread throughout the house. For good measure, my everyday china is Wedgwood. Not Jasperware but Wedgwood. So imagine my delight when I glanced over the map of the Birmingham Museum and saw three galleries designated by the word “Wedgwood”.

The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection

If you love Wedgwood the way I love Wedgwood, then go ahead and book the flight. I’ve been in a lot of museums and so far, I’ve never seen one with so much Wedgwood. I haven’t been to The Wedgwood Museum at Stokes-on-Trent yet, but that’s only because it didn’t exist decades ago when I visited the city. I can assure you, this is the most Wedgwood you are going to see anywhere outside of Britain.

The galleries contain mostly Jasperware in a rainbow of hues, but they have samples of other forms of Wedgwood collected by the couple. I swear I could have visited the museum every day for a week and been perfectly happy studying the exhibits in the three galleries. Here are some samples.

That blue and yellow vase on the jade pedestal would be great in my yellow and blue French decor but the dark blue wine cooler with the white flowers must be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’d leave it in the museum for others to share.

Giving the Rest of the Art Its Due

Even if you don’t like Wedgwood, the Birmingham Museum of Art is still a good thing to see. Porcelains from other places are prevalent throughout the museum, but there are also paintings and statues and other things to enjoy. I did run through the balance of the galleries at a high speed and then rushed back to gander at the Wedgwood a little more. However, I did get these two postcards to prove the museum has variety.

Buying the Book

In this digital age, when you can find almost any piece of art you’d like to see by searching it online, art books might not seem a good investment to some people. Maybe other people spend their time cruising museums online, but I’ll confess, I want to be there and see it in person. Seeing it online is better than not seeing it at all, but it’s not even on the same continent as first hand observation.

By the same token, while I have broken my habit of buying a book in every museum I go to, sometimes I just have to take a catalog home. This was one of those times. In fact, I anticipated facing down the fury of my husband if the only thing available was some $160 hardback number.

I guess God was doing me another favor, because there was a reasonably priced soft cover edition of the catalog – only it had a large sticker designating it as the display copy. I chatted up the clerk, who was a volunteer. She looked in the stockroom – nothing. She offered to have someone take a gander in the warehouse in the next day or so and call me if they had anymore. I just stood there clasping the display edition as if my life depended on it. “I’m leaving town this afternoon,” I all but wailed. “Oh we can ship it to you,” she assured me.

I put off replying to her suggestion by telling her about my fireplace. Then I mused as to what in the world I would do if there were no more of the books in the warehouse. She decided to sell me the display copy at a discounted price. BINGO! I’m getting a whole lot better at this negotiating thing than I used to be. I’d have paid full price just to have it, but I’m sure the fireplace story did the trick!

The flight home was not as trouble free as my flight to Birmingham. The flight was delayed for hours and as a result I know more about the food vendors at the Birmingham airport than I should. I’d been on a diet, which had been seriously threatened by the fast food offerings served to us at that thing I can’t tell you about, but what damage had not already been done got done. So much for dieting. And so much for Birmingham. Come back next week and see what I’m up to.

Architecture, Attractions, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, Museums, Road Trips, TRAVEL, United States

Vulcan Park Tower, Birmingham AL

March 1, 2017February 20, 2017 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A STEEL CITY LANDMARK

So my boss had just arrived back in the States from someplace else that I can’t tell you about to join us at the thing I can’t tell you about. At the end of the second day after a meal provided by the thing I can’t tell you about, there was supposed to be a worship and praise service, but the boss needed a change of scenery. One more large meeting room filled with people and he was a goner, so we escaped.

Hannah Beth Helps Us Play Hooky

Since the meal we’d been provided was lukewarm hot dogs and stale potato chips (no offense intended, but that’s what it was), we wished we’d decided to play hooky about 30 minute previous to our boss’ confession of meeting room fatigue. A nice dinner would have been a treat. Still, we weren’t going to waste an opportunity for some team building activities outside the meeting room. So Hannah Beth took us on a tour.

Now I know young folks to things differently than I do, so this is not meant as criticism, but merely an observation. While Hannah Beth has been to Birmingham several times and has the inside scoop on what to do, she depends on GPS for directions. Her modus operandi is to take off in the direction which she thinks something is and then use voice commands to tell her phone to find the way. This means she has one hand fully on the wheel, while she holds both the wheel and the phone in the other – all the while chatting up everyone in the car.

Yep, I’m a Nervous Nellie, so the entire time we were driving in Birmingham, I’m in the backseat praying we actually get to the place we’re headed. Since I’m here to tell the tale, you know my prayers were answered in the affirmative, but while we were playing hooky from a praise and worship ceremony, I felt a little guilty about praying for protection. Proves God listens all the time, I guess.

Vulcan Tower on Red Mountain

Vulcan Tower via http://birminghamal.org

According to the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau:

“Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world and Birmingham’s unofficial city symbol. Standing high atop Red Mountain, the 56-foot-high statue has an observation balcony on its pedestal for a panoramic view of the city. Vulcan is patterned after the mythical Roman god of the forge, a nod to the city’s powerful position in the iron and steel industry in the first part of the 20th century. The statue was created as Birmingham’s exhibit in the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis and won the exposition’s grand prize. The museum at Vulcan has interactive exhibits and displays that portray the region’s history and progress. Museum open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 6pm; Sunday, 1pm- 6pm. Observation balcony open Monday- Saturday, 10am- 10pm; Sunday, 1pm- 10pm. Admission.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but you can learn more on the actual Vulcan Park website.

Our boss covered the entrance fee which was just a dollar or two and we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill. Someone who will remain nameless desperately needed to visit the rest room. Even though the sign said the museum was open, it wasn’t and that’s where the restroom was. In desperation, the drain in an unlocked utility room sufficed as a toilet. That’s all I’m going to say about it, but as tired as we were, that was just the crowning glory of the day and we got a serious fit of the giggles.

Above It All

Though the tower is lovely and the park is very nice, the real draw to visiting the Vulcan Tower is that you can climb up in it. So we did, still giggling like fools. Now yours truly is has a slight case of acrophobia. OK, so maybe a large case, but as we took the elevator up I was distracted by the giggling. We walked across a steel grate which was a bridge to the steel grate which was the balcony around the tower. There was also a fence, but all the ground around us was visible from our vantage point.

At first I just looked out toward the horizon and enjoyed the scenery (see picture from previous post). Then I looked down. MISTAKE. I tried to be cool. I tried standing away from the rail and looking toward the tower. Didn’t work. I started getting lightheaded and broke out in a cold sweat. It was time to go.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a grocery store, to get some necessities. That list might have included individual bottles of screw top wine, but if it did, I’m not telling. As much fun as this adventure was, the best is yet to come, so make you way back here next week.

Accommodations, Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, International, Museums, TRAVEL

Cruise Afterglow

December 28, 2016December 28, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: VIKING’S DANUBE WALTZ – WHAT A TRIP!

As I sit in my office on an October Saturday afternoon in Heath TX, listening to the fountain that dances in my pond and writing a post you will read in December, I have nothing but kudos for my April cruise on Viking Cruise Lines. My travel agent, Sandra Rubio at CTC set up everything perfectly for us and Viking Cruise Lines is amazing – simply amazing!

What I Liked Best

Wonderful new friends! Deb & Mike Radcliffe and Gwenne & John Penkert were the best cruise buddies you can imagine – and they live in Oregon, which gives me an excuse to return to one of my favorite places.
The inadequately named “Silver Collection,” a part of the Imperial Apartment Museum in the Hofburg in Vienna. Decorative Arts overload! I will never forget it.
Pretty much everything I ate and drank on the Viking Tor, but especially the bottomless wine glass at dinner.
Budapest – yep, the whole thing. Can’t wait to go back someday. And Rick Steve’s is right about the Baths.
Lunch in Cesky Krumlov
A sunny afternoon stroll in Passau

What I Liked Least

The Faux Castle

The non-stop Lufthansa flight from DFW to Frankfurt. Worst flight EVER!!
Not having more time in Budapest.
Bratislava, Slovakia – didn’t feel good, didn’t get the shore excursion I wanted, the guide was iffy. Other than that it was a great stop (tee hee.)
Being in Vienna in the rain on a Monday, which is when the Lipizzaners don’t perform and some of the museums are closed. Loved Vienna, but after three visits there, I have yet to see the Lippizzaners and I could have done without the rain.
Anything to do with Empress Elizabeth, otherwise known as Sissie.
The guide in Passau.

On Our Way Home

Viking got us home as smoothly as they did everything else. While we were at breakfast, our bags were whisked away. We boarded a bus and after a pleasant drive were at the Munich airport.

While not awful enough to include in my “least liked” list, German airports didn’t rate very highly with me. They get high marks for cleanliness, but they were confusing. We roamed in befuddled circles in Frankfurt and repeated the exercise in Munich.

Security was on high alert, because we got there just as some international dignitaries were strutting through the airport. I think there had been some sort conference, but the airport was full of people who looked as if they were used to getting preferential treatment and security was tight.

Thankfully, the Delta flight to Chicago was much more pleasant than the Lufthansa non-stop torture chamber. However, because customs dumped us outside the secured area, we had to go back through the TSA screening and that was a nightmare. They were so backed-up, we had pity on some people who were about to miss their flight and gave them our spot. What else were we going to do with our time? Go shopping?

Finally, Dallas! As much as I love traveling, I do love getting home. As if to welcome us home, a full moon hung low in the sky over our pond. It was the first trip I’d returned from without having my beloved Shih Tzu, Precious, to greet me. I miss that white ball of fur.

I’ll give you one more look at our overview video and then I hope you’ll come back next week to see what else I’ve been up to.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, Decorative Arts, DESTINATIONS, Gardens, International, Road Trips, TRAVEL

Pretty Little Passau

December 7, 2016October 15, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: THE FINAL SHORE EXCURSION

Waking up in Passau was bittersweet. During the night we’d passed from Austria into Germany and docked at Passau, but my research had not mined up any nuggets for my “must-see” list, in this town at the confluence of three rivers. The overwhelming emotion was regret. I was going to have to leave this cozy boat where they took me from destination to destination, fulfilling my every need and desire along the way.

The Morning Rush Hour

In Viking River Cruise land, mornings were busy. We had to get up and get breakfast before the tour started. There were no lazy days at sea. It might have been nice to intersperse all these activities with some down time, but Mr. Bill is not a two week vacation kind of guy and on an 8 day river cruise you are engaged every single day, all day long.

Passau was no different. The walking tour began at nine. After a delicious breakfast we disembarked and found our guide. We did not get the pick of the litter.

The Walking Torture

He was a Frenchman, resettled into Germany and I’ll just say it, he was rude. He was quite knowledgeable, but so unpleasant. He was obviously unaware that we were on a walking tour, not taking an oral exam for a PhD. He’d pepper us with questions and then ridicule our answers. If we dared ask him a question, he’d belittle us. I’m not exactly ignorant of history, but the one question I asked him about a date painted on a castle, resulted in my most uncomfortable moment of the cruise.

We put up with him for a while, but it was finally so unpleasant that we wandered off and found our own way back to the boat. However, Passau is a lovely little town, in spite of the rude guide, so I’ll show you some of it.

Pretty Little Passau

If you’ve been following me along on this cruise, then you know the operative word for the predominant architectural style along the Danube is Baroque. We got a taste of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Cesky Krumlov, but pretty much everything else has been Baroque-on-steroids. Passau was no different. The architectural highlights are the Prelate’s Palace and St. Stephen’s Cathedral, but the whole town is lovely. For some reason, the Rathaus has murals painted all over it which are reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but they are merely modern interpretations of that era. Architecture aside, the three rivers are the real stars of the show.

Enjoy this gallery of shots from our walking torture. I can’t tell you much more about them, because the only way I was able to avoid killing my guide was to ignore him. We finally abandoned him and made our own way back to the boat. Come back next week and I’ll tell you about the rest of the day, which was a lot more fun.

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, TRAVEL

A Little of Linz

November 23, 2016October 8, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: HANGING ON THE HAUPTPLATZ

Once the bus returned us to the boat from our excursion to the Czech Republic, we only had about forty-five minutes before it was time to get ready for dinner. Having had the chance to rest up on the bus ride, we were raring to visit Linz, so we dropped off our junk in our cabin and hit the gangplank again.

Lovely Afternoon in Linz

In Cesky Krumlov it had been a tad bit chilly, so I’d been all layered up to keep warm. Linz was a whole different story. There we regretted our long sleeves.

As with most of our stops, our boat was docked adjacent to exactly what we wanted to see. We stepped off the boat and into the Hauptplatz, one of the largest main squares in Austria. You can see the plague column behind us in the photo above and the Old Rathaus is nearby. In fact, I had a map showing this square is the center of sightseeing, but it was late and most things had closed – not to mention that we barely had time to walk down the street a bit and then get back to the boat. So we kept to the main thoroughfare.

The architecture along the venerable main street is gorgeous. Churches butt up against chic boutiques and everything looks as if a modern day Hapsburg is coming for inspection. The one thing I really wanted to see was the Mariendom. The “new” cathedral can accommodate 20,000 people. I figured that would be worth seeing.

We didn’t get very far down the street until we ran into our cruise buddies. They’d hit the streets directly from the bus and were already headed back to the boat. We wanted to explore a little more.

Finding a cathedral to accommodate 20,000 isn’t all that hard if you’re anywhere near it, so soon we found a side street that took us right up to the big church. We were only there for a few minutes, but I have to confess that I thoroughly enjoyed the respite from tourism.

All the other churches we’d been to were definite tourist destinations. We’d gotten to Mariendom late enough for the tour buses and their occupants to be gone. A few parishioners were spread among the sea of pews and were obviously praying. This was a church that was really a church. It felt like God was there, so I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for the wonderful trip we were enjoying. Then I couldn’t resist getting the panoramic picture above!

Though we hadn’t really taken much time at all, we had to hurry back to the boat. Bill still managed to grab a few shots along the way. I’ll share those with you and then I hope you’ll be back next week, because it was a favorite night of entertainment. Enjoy Linz!

Architecture, ART, Attractions, Cruising, DESTINATIONS, International, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, Shopping, TRAVEL

The Quaint Town of Cesky Krumlov

November 16, 2016November 26, 2016 Jane Sadek

TRAVEL THERE: A TOWN IN A TIME WARP

Cesky Krumlov was lucky. While it suffered a season of Communism, the Communists never had enough money to modernize the place. So when they were kicked out in 1989, all Cesky Krumlov needed was a little TLC. Tourists discovered it in the early 1990’s and the rest is history.

Entering the Time Warp

As I mentioned before, our wonderful guide was a native Krumlovite. He grew up there and had an abiding love for his lovely little town. We had disembarked our bus up in the castle gardens and seen a couple of lovely vistas from the castle grounds, but this charming blue, onion-domed church was our first taste of Krumlov proper.

The pace of our tour slowed down as the guide shared the highlights of his town, including his favorite places to eat and stories about his friends. I’ve toured with guides that turned this dialog into an “ain’t-I-great” soliloquy, but the charming citizen of Krumlov did not fall into that trap. His stories were all about the wonders in his favorite town.

By the way, while it is tempting to call it a village, rather than a town, it got a city charter somewhere along the way. They would probably be insulted because that I was calling it a town instead of a city, but I want you to get the feel of the place, even if my terminology is not technically correct.

On Our Own

We wandered along quaint little streets until we reached the town square, where our guide released us to our own reconnaissance. Our little group of cruise buddies hotfooted it back to our guide’s favorite restaurant and enjoyed a delightful lunch with generous quaffs of Czech beer.

And here’s their sign

Here’s where to find the restaurant

Then we headed out for shopping. EEEK! The prices were astronomical. I strolled into a handbag store and hurried out with my tail between my legs. While I’m not great at currency conversion, I do know enough to figure out when I’ve wandered into a triple digit zone. The cheapest handbag I could find was very comfortably in that triple digit zone and while my friends are certainly worth that much, I can’t afford it.

There were dozens of establishments featuring souvenirs – you know the kind, t-shirts and tea towels emblazoned with screen-printed images – but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Finally, I found a store with darling little gingerbread Christmas ornaments. I almost bought them out and was thrilled with my find, but unfortunately I lost them somewhere along the way. I was broken-hearted because they were hand-made and seriously darling.

Had I anticipated the expenditure, I would have bought up some amber jewelry. Every other store on the winding streets is an amber jeweler and I loved most of their wares. My bestie loves amber and I desperately wanted to find something for her, but in a town where a small cloth clutch costs about $200, you can imagine what the amber cost. Still, the prices were not unreasonable, so if you go, budget for the amber and shop until you drop!

Suddenly It Was Time to Go

For the final half hour or so, we abandoned our cruise buddies, because I was still desperately on the hunt for gifts. All of sudden we looked at our watch and realized we had to leave – right then. That’s when we figured out we were lost and Cesky Krumlov no longer felt like a quaint village, but more like the city they prided themselves on being. Our panic only lasted a short while, but that was long enough. They’d warned us they would leave us if we weren’t on time.

We strolled back through the town, up a path around the castle and there our buses were waiting for us. The drive back to the boat seemed longer than the trip to the Czech town, because we were hoping enough time would be left to check out Linz before dinner.

We did make it back early enough and I’ll share that with you next week, but for now, enjoy all these pictures from Cesky Krumlov.