Awesome trip to Benelux - Nailed it!

I read an article about how the preparation and anticipation for a trip brings you almost as much pleasure as the trip itself. Well, in this case I had a scant three weeks to get ready.

I busied myself ordering Lonely Planet Encounter guides for Belgium and Amsterdam. (I highly recommend the Encounter series: a bit of history, the main tourist attractions and just enough restaurants to feed you described in a pithy manner. Plus, they fit in your pocket.) I read The Undutchables (Did you know the Dutch are incredibly forthright?) and subscribed to newsfeeds from Belgium and the Netherlands (which consists a lot of how their soccer team is doing). I pre-bought tickets to the biggest museums which ended up saving us a lot of time at the Anne Frank Huis and money at the Rijksmuseum (1/2 price for ING bank card holders).

By time I got there I was ready with lists of things to do, beers to drink and sites to see. That said, I'm a pretty laid-back traveler, so if we end up having a two hour lunch because we're playing with the cute dog at the bar - totally fine. I did run out of time to see visit some breweries that were on my list and resistance museum, but I didn't have many regrets other than those. Plus, I got a lot of good sister time, which is rare these days when we live nine states away.

Highlights:

-Belgian beer Every beer was an epiphany! We sought out the best beer joints and delighted, drank everything that the bartender recommended it. Ah the trappists! Back home, sadly each bottle goes for $4-8, but at least I can relive a bit of the experience. Our biggest mind-f* was Cantillion, where they ferment the beer spontaneously from yeast in the air!

-Belgian food From the chocolate shops to fancy restaurants with fireplaces, to dog-filled pubs where no one spoke English. I enjoyed every morsel. One of my favorite meals was my last at Le Circus - where I chose beer from a 15 page menu, enjoyed a big chunk of vegetarian lasagna which watching a 1980 David Bowie concert.

-Brussels Christmas Market Brussels' Grand Place was recently voted the most beautiful square in Europe. Fill that with a holiday market and tree. Add in a lightshow on the palace every hour and what you get is really spectacular.

-Bikes in Amsterdam I subscribe to H.G. Wells thought that "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle , I no longer despair for the future of the human race." So I was in absolute heaven in Amsterdam. I could have sat for hours just watching all the Chic Cyclists. Instead Katie and I rented bikes and joined them.

-Boats in Amsterdam Our first night in Amsterdam, we oriented ourselves to the city on a cheap boat tour. At night the canals are lit beautifully. You also get a perfect view into the house boats that line the canals, decorated in perfect ikea style, and filled with families eating perfect dutch dinners. If there's anything I like better than bikes, it's water.

-Dancing I haven't had that great of a dancing high in America in a while. Our night out dancing with a live band in Brussels with Madame Mustache was fabulous.

-Amsterdam Brewery Tours Our first was Da Prael. Located in an old 17th century canal house, Da Prael is part brewery, part non-profit. It employs several dozen people with mental disabilities and teaches them skills. The two of us had our own tour guide, who was incredibly enthusiastic, if not confused as to how to English speaking girls found their brewery. We chatted with the brewers, tasted green beer out of the tanks and got to climb up ladders to look inside the brew kettles. Our second brewery, Brouwerik 'IJ wasn't nearly as tasty, but it was in a windmill and had a fun guide.

-Museums We spent almost no time in churches, but what trip to Europe is complete without some museums? Unfortunately the Rijksmuseum, which houses the Dutch masters, has been under construction, so the selection we saw was limited. Van Gough was excellent. But the best had to be the Musical Instruments Museum. It's housed in a gorgeous art-deco glass department store. When you enter, you're given wireless headphones and as you step in front of each instrument case, you hear the instruments. There's also a cafe on the top floor with reasonably priced gourmet food and gourmet views to match. (Check out the website to see views of the building.)

And of course, the Ann Frank House was an experience. It was moving and well-curated. At the end you could do an interactive video experience which would pose complex societal questions and ask you to vote. (Like is it okay to racial profile if the round-up actually found most of the people were illegal immigrants?)

Free Lonely Planet Book

Lonely Planet has a great deal going on right now. Buy any book and get the California Trips Guide for free through March 19th. Lonely Planet probably makes the most comprehensive traveler-centered guides I've ever used. I haven't checked out the California Trips book yet, but I've been thinking of buying the New England Trips book which features a Fall Foliage Tour, Literary New England and the White Mountains Loop. Now's the time!

Click here for more info on the deal.

Be a Winner!

So your chance of getting in a car accident, plane accident or getting struck by lightening are better than winning the lottery. But your chances of winning travel and local contests? Very good!

This weekend I did the JP Holiday Stroll and collected 10 different stickers from local businesses to be entered in a raffle. It was either bad advertising or the cold rain, but each of the dozens entrants won. I think I got the best steal with a $50 Ten Tables gift certificate. On Thursday I'm going to a concert courtesy of Berklee School of Music.

So far I've won a 70 lb (and worth 70 British pounds) World Atlas, a book on Australian wine, pocket guides for Beijing and Madrid, and how-to books on surfing, snorkeling and skiing from DK Travel. I've won a USA tour book from Lonely Planet. Rick Steve's Travel as a Political Act, from Rick Steves. . . and more! Most contests require you do a bit of writing, like reviewing your favorite restaurant on DK Travel, or answering a survey for Lonely Planet. But nothing so difficult. Here's a few recommendations of places to try your luck:

• Friends of Harpoon: You get nifty little card that gets you discounts at a few bars and shows, but you can also enter drawings to go to special tastings. I attended the wet hops beer unveiling there this fall with 50 other invited guests.

• Berklee School of Music: Sign up for the newsletter and you get info on all the upcoming shows (sometimes free), but they have contests to win tickets. This Thursday I'll be attending a Mark O'Connor concert for free!

• Hostelworld.com: Another newsletter with good stories, and a contest every month to win a stay at a hostel. (Suppose you still have to get to the hostel, usually located in Europe, somehow.)

• Lonely Planet Newsletter: Again, good stories each month, special deals, and answer one travel trivia question to be entered in a drawing to win a book each month. Right now if you sign up for the newsletter, you are entered in a contest to win $10,000 worth of travel.

• Travel DK: These guys make the inspiring, yet awful in use colorful eyewitness guidebooks. But, they do have fabulous prizes. I've won 3 times already! By sumitting a new highlight for a city, or designing your own city guide with their program you are entered to win prizes every month.

If you do win, let me know!

Well-read Weekend #10

Most travel books adress the big W travel questions like Where? When? What? I doubt that the well-fed tourist cruise ship passenger or the stag-party attendee in Prague stops to ask Why?

It's a question worth asking I think. Why are there folks like Nomadic Matt that travel for years on end or endless websites detailing how to live life on the road? Why do we spend hundreds on luggage and havea whole genre of 'travel lit'?

I feel there's a whole load of tourists who fit into one of two categories: the travel to 'get away from it all' and the travel 'to see it all.' Neither strikes me as particularly good. If I wanted to get away from it all, all I'd need do is yank my internet cord out of the wall, turn off the cell phone and go lay in the park. Same rest, lots less money. Seeing it all means that you pack so much into your days, that yes, you might have seen the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa and a can-can show, but what do you know of Paris?

Rick Steves aims to make folks' travel political. Alain de Botton takes a look at why travel is good for the soul in The Art of Travel.

Mr. de Botton is a philosopher at heart. His other books: Status Anxiety, The Consolations of Philosophy, The Arcitecture of Happiness. The Art of Travel is a delicate weaving of philosophy, yes, but also personal narrative, history and art.

His essays take delve into all the feelings we go through when we travel, from the anticipation of departure to the sublime views of nature's grandeur. He looks at topics through a few lenses--first his own travels, then of great travelers throughout history, through art or poetry and then brings things back to apply to our own lives.

For anyone who is more interested in the experience in traveling and less in the checklist of sights or the amount of sun one can absorb, this book is for you.

Well-read Weekend #9

A thouroughly useless, yet entertaining travel read, How to Make Friends and Oppress People. Has a sensible title, much like the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It sounds logical at first and then -- what technology during the Jurassic period? or wait, one should not oppress people!

It probably goes without saying that How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer by Vic Darkwood was written with a sense of irony.

Some favorite travel advice gems from the author:

On the best mode of travel:

"Women are hormonally prgrammed to be impressed by males who show a certain amount of dash, and in the modern world this commodity is usually made manifest by an impressively bushy moustache, a shiny red sports car or a large private income Right at the top of the dash stakes, however, is being the owner of a hot air balloon."

On improving your peripherial vision for driving:

"One of the best ways I have found of tgraining the eyes is to site for hours in a cinema with one's head turned sideways to the screen. . . Another good technique is to get a friend to drive a golf ball at you side on and attempt to dodge it."

But some of the fun is taken out when you know this advice is tounge-in-cheek. So perhaps the best advice comes from the many citations of actual travel books from the turn of the century.

"When talking to your Chinese boy you use Pdigin English. Here are a few words and their meanings; chop, chop, quickly; all same this, like this; man man, stop; no can cuttee, cheaper; no b'long plopper, that won't do . . . though round about, this baby mode of talk is tolerably successful."

"Should you be attacked by a mob in the East, hurt one of the crowd and hurt him quickly. The others will gather round the injured man and you will be able to slip away."

--The Happy Traveler, Rev'd Frank Tatchell 1923

"Every lady should, to my mind, know how to use a revolver. She may at any time be in China or some other country where there are savage natives . . . A lady can carry a revolver hidden for self-defence in many more ways than a man, owing to her draperis affording more places for concealment. Inside the muff is about one of the best places."

--Hints on Revolver Shooting, Walter Winans, 1904

Prepare to be amused and perhaps learn a thing or two about how to treat the natives.

Well Read (and Drank) Weekend #8

This week's book has served me well so far: The Good Beer Guide to New England.

How is screwing in a canoe like American beer?  It's fucking close to water. 

But not the craft beer of New England!  These past two weeks I've dove into the New England beer culture head first.  The Good Beer Guide to New England is a great beer-tasting companion.  

First on my beer tour is Brookline--no breweries here, but 2 beer tastings which I happily, and a tad tipsily biked in between.  Last weekend was a perfect day for biking and beer.  My favorie find?  A chipotle beer from Cisco Brewers on Nantucket and a mango-tinted IPA from Mayflower Brewing Company.  The Wine Gallery provided a great location for the local beer and cheese tasting.  The venue has a built in tasting room and a "wine jukebox" where you can spin a crazy looking contraption and make your own tasting any day.

 My own neighborhood of Boston is home to the Sam Adams brewery, but I haven't been there yet, so I'll leave a review of Sam until another day.

My first stop outside of Boston was the Beer Works while I had to kill some time out in Lowell.  I sampled a bit of quite a few brews, but settled on one (I was working, after all)--the Boston Garden Golden.    Lowell was a suprise.  Once the 3rd largest city in New England, Lowell's decaying factories and poverty problems are what it's known for these days.  Certainly, with with different weather, the city would have been more depressing, but as it was the river and falls I found gorgeous.  I spent a nice afternoon at the brewery where there was, thankfully, great internet connection.

Next stop: Cape Cod!

Well-Read Weekend #7

 

I think the sky in Boston knows when it's a weekend.  Every Friday afternoon rolls around and it decides to cut loose in celebration of the work week being over.  All winter this meant horrendously blustery snow storms every weekend.  The sky cloaked in grey, throwing gales of snow down like confetti.  Except for me this was no party.  People say they like the winter because they get to feel all 'cozy' when they go inside.  These people do not pay their own heating bill.  To get cozy I'd pile on two sweatshirts and wear my jacket while I ate dinner at home.

 

But now the sky is letting loose in a different way.  All week we had rainy weather, but on Friday--gorgeous.  It was as if the sky was obliged to do it's April shower thing all week and let loose as soon as the job was done. 

 

In honor of the beautiful sky, yesterday I spent the day exploring Brookline by going beer tasting to beer tasting by bike.  My guide along the way?  Not for Tourists. 

 

I highly recommend these books if they offer them for your city.   You'll know the ins and outs of each neighborhood better than a long-time local, be able to surprise your friends with the hippest bars in their neighborhood they didn't even know about and find where every swimming pool, skating rink and bowling alley is town.

 

This book was my bible in LA.   Well-worn and well-loved.  It lived in my bag or my car, depending on my mode on transportation and guided me straight to the best eats and bars in town (and around the confusing highway system). 

 

In Boston it's indispensible for biking around when streets double back on eachother (did you know Tremont intersects with Tremont?) and knowing the story behind the old amazing church you're staring at. 

 

Each guide really does a great job at being for the local.  All the guides show you where banks, book stores, bars, etc. are.  The LA guide also has a detailed one-pager on each mall and beach.  Boston has dots on each map to show you where donut shops and community gardens are.  (Interesting commentary on what's important for Angelenos v. Bostonians, no?)   LA's guide is large with a pull-out highway map.  That would never work in Boston, where you usually get around by foot or T, so it's guide is condensed and fits in a pocket.  

Right now you can great deal on the notfortourists website: buy a customized wall map of your neighborhood and get a free book!

Well-read Weekend #6

So far I've managed to keep myself apart from the Italy craze.  On my last Europe trip we skipped over the country entirely since it's in such an inconvenient place--jutting out into the water protected on to by the Alps.  (slight sarcasm there) I haven't read Under the Tuscan Sun or felt any deisre beyond 'graci' to learn the language.  Folks oooh and aaah over Italy and I'll counter with my love for the Eastern European capitals or Spain.  

But when a friend whose opinion you trust hands you a book and says you must read it, you read it.  This is what happened with Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr.

At the face of it, Four Season looks incredibly cliche--new parents with twins from Iowa move to Rome.  They live out the stresses of being parents in a foreign city.  What struck me at first from Anthony's stories is that I do not want to be a parent.  It seems like hell.  Wailing constantly, the toothing children sweating from the summer heat don't sleep through one night.  If and when I go to Rome I am definitely going childless.

But then as Anthony and his wife slowly get over what seems like the horror of child-rearing and get into the groove (and a babysitter), Anthony's recondite perceptions are fascinating.  He gleans the deepest truths from his everyday experiences with the city, his children and his stuggles writing.  He connects his life with those of thousands of years of Romans before him.   He draws strange parallels of his observations with those of Pliny the Elder's as he reads Natural History.

The city ceases to be a cliche of Romans and cathedrals and more of a year long meditation on the generations before and to come and what we think of the world.

Since reading this book I've rented A Roman Holiday and made pasta primavera, so I'm afraid I've fallen from my pedastool above fads.  Perhaps Rome is more than a fad, no?

Well-read Weekend #3

Another Saturday, another trip to the library. This week, my stack of checked out books has gotten quite large. It's the trap of the 'hold this item for me' button. You see, the Jamaica Plain library branch is quite small. It's a place that exudes literary magic--old, old fiction paperbacks and dated non-fiction. A sizable travel book collection and a curious shelf on JP history. It's all housed in a building that I'm sure was once some one's home with dark wooden paneling and high ceilings. It invites you to pull up a chair.

But then there's the other several dozen branches out there. All connected online, you can surf them all at once, create a saved wish-list and with one click the book you desire is whisked right to your branch. You get a call when it arrives. I recommend seeing if your library does this.

It's dangerous to have so many books at one's fingertips. I get greedy, and then stressed as the due-date approaches and they are yet to be read.

Here's one such stress-inducer that isn't quite done yet:

Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs Van Hensbergen

What is Barcelona without Gaudi? Just another Valencia with second-rate paella. Gaudi not only puts the facade on Barcelona, but infuses it with soul too. His ideas of Catalan nationalism and his helping birth the modernista movement is what creates the Barcelona of today.

To think that his architecture was laughed at back in his day: "I don't know whether we are graduating a genius or a fool," declared his patron upon graduating him from architecture school. Famous Barcelonian resident, George Orwell despised his buildings. Today he is revered. There's even an effort to have him sainted.

Though little records remain of his life, author Hensbergen does an amazing job at piecing together the information we have left, weaving it in with the politics and cultural revitalization of turn of the century Catalunya. The result is a deep delving into the brain of one of the greatest architects of all time and a picture of the shaping of the pride of a nationless state. There's a lot of guessing of the part of the author as to what made Gaudi such a devout Christian, vegetarian and celibate, but he walks us through all his reasoning and evidence of his answers.

If going to Barcelona, it is best to know a bit about the man at the forefront of the Catalan spirit and so many spots on your tourist map. I highly recommend as a read for those on their way to this modernista beacon.

Haven't been to Barcelona and want to know what all the fuss is about for Gaudi's architecture? A simple google image search of 'Gaudi' will give you the answer.

Well-read Weekends

Weekends are not typically the day you start resolutions. Mondays are more apt for those kind of things, but who's got time to blog on Mondays, but professionals. As we know, I'm not quite there yet (or rather a continent or two away), so I'll start on Sunday. Introducing . . .

I've been through many literature phases from historical to sci-fi, to even dabbling in a bit of biography. My recent love are travel books. Let's hope this one isn't just a phase. Every weekend I'll review a recent book I've read; it could be travel literature, a guide book, or even a book that's so much about a place that the setting is almost it's own character. I've amassed a decent collection of books of this type so far, but the Boston library is my new literary playground, so I'll be sure to include some new gems from there too.

This week's pick:

My French Whore by Gene Wilder

I picked this up in a small book store in Aspen. Reading a book by Gene Wilder was intriguing and the small size was perfect for packing in my already over-stuffed suitcase.

The story goes like this: Paul Peachy's work and one-sided marriage in Minnesota leave him empty, so when the chance to enlist in World War I comes, he does. He's shipped off to France and ends up impersonating a famous German spy. He eventually fulfills the exciting life and love he's always wanted--something he never would have found if he had stayed at home in Minnesota.

The hilarity and heart-felt feelings that come from Paul Peachy's tale, you would recognize from Wilder's acting. You can imagine a young Gene Wilder playing the character of Paul Peachy the whole story, which makes reading The French Whore almost like watching a film.

But I digress, this is a travel book review. The book does a fantastic jobs of caricaturing the characters of different countries--Germany, France, US--in a way that doesn't make them just stereotypes. And who can't relate the confusion of a traveler getting way in over his head on his first trip to Europe--and falling in love with a foreigner.

A short read, but a sweet one that I whole-heartedly recommend you pick up to carry around in your over-stuffed bag on your next trip. It'll be worth the space.

Travel Experiment

After a day in the house huddled over my computer with spreadsheets and numbers I got myself dolled up and headed for an evening out on the town.  What does a poor organizer with no car and little money do on a Sunday?  

Head to Barnes and Nobles!  I live near the faux-downtown of Virginia Beach.  It's a town center akin to The Grove in LA or Sunset Place in Miami, though a quite a bit more tacky.  I navigate the 8 lanes of traffic to get there.  

I decide to do an experiement.  I've been a bit devoid of boys lately.  

#1 I'm in Southern Virginia, which isn't exactly known for the smart, interesting, political, passionate type men I'm into.  Not to stereotype, but well, yeah, I guess I will, because I haven't met anyone to prove me wrong.  Come on, confederate flags are not okay to fly on your pickup trucks anymore.  How I miss the self-deprecating sarcasm, over-the-top artsiness and heavy fashion of LA men.  Or even the over-the-top-sensuality of Miami guys.  Give me a Boston preppy anyday over a Norfolk man yelling "Hey baby!" out of his car at me or even the boring looking strip-malled-out guys at Gordon Biersch.

#2 I work all the time and rarely hang with anyone besides my staff.

So, I will plunk myself down in the travel section and see if there's anyone remotely cute that comes by to get a travel book.  If he's in the travel section, he's obviously got bigger horizons than most people here.  I'll figure out some way to talk him.*

I made my way over to the travel section where I settled down with a few good books--Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? , Cheap Bastard's Guide to Boston, and The Europe Book.  I read for about an hour hanging out along the travel wall.  

Zero.  Zero people looked in the travel section.  Doesn't anyone in Tidewater travel?  With disgust (but a few good ideas on becoming a travel writer and obtaining cheap drinks in Boston) I reshelve my books and prepare to leave.  

But what's this, mmmm, pretty cute.  I pretend to scan the racks some more and glance over.

:::sigh::: He is at the next shelf over--self-improvement books.  

Staying away from that one.  I pick up a moleskin notebook, a must-have for any respectable travel writer, and head off home.  

*Sidenote:  I just did a search on "Picking up Guys in Bookstores" and came up with a whole bunch of this.  Seems like it's much more of a man's sport.