Europe

From the summer Olympics to the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, several major events will make the British Isles a popular destination in 2012.

My 93-year-old mother, who loves to cook, often says, “Nothing I make tastes like what my mother used to make.” She complains, “Today tomatoes are unblemished and red, but they have no flavor. Nothing tastes like it used to when it was home grown the old-fashioned way without fancy fertilizers and chemicals.”

Five days/four nights in FRANCE, Nov. 14-18, 2012. Highlights: Three lunches with growers, featuring champagne/Montagne de Reims, home to Tattinger, Veuve-Clicquot, Krug, Mumm/learn about vinification, production and blending of champage/Epernay, home to Moët & Chandon/tour underground wine cellars storing millions of bottles/visit three producers in Côte des Blancs. Land, €1,560 ($2,056). Single supp., €120 ($158). BKWine Tours (Issy les Moulineaux, France; phone +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70).

Eight days/seven nights. Highlights: Edinburgh/Inverness/Dunrobin Castle/Caithness/Orkney/Neolithic Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness/Tomb of Maeshowe/Skara Brae/Kirkwall/Scapa Flow. Land, from $2,886. Single supp., $1,295. Kensington Tours (Wilmington, DE; 888/903-2001, www.kensingtontours.com).

by Deanna Palić; Contributing Editor

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the United States.) There are no restrictions on length. The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is PAULA FUCHSBERG of Philadelphia, PA:

No matter when I take a trip, I always seem to travel one week too late. Upon arriving at a B&B or hotel, the host asks, “And how are you enjoying your visit to (wherever)?” When I answer, “Fine, but I wish it weren’t raining so hard,” the response is, “You should have been here last week. It was beautiful.”

I am sure it was, but even though I consider myself a professional tourist, I still haven’t figured out how to travel last week.

Once a year, I travel to my favorite country: Italy. During my 2011 trip, I visited Bolzano, May 15-18.

Our day started at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. In the early darkness, with the starry skies above, my second godson, Vasilli (almost 80 years old), and I joined pilgrims from Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Poland to sit, stand, make the sign of the cross and kiss icons while monks chanted age-old Byzantine hymns and prayers that have remained unchanged since the birth of Christianity.

Six miles from Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, I spent a night in Hotel Zwanenburg (Olmenlaan 52, 1161 JX Zwanenburg, The Netherlands; phone 31 20 497 80 20) on Sept. 28, 2011.

The hotel is convenient to the center of Zwanenburg, for restaurants and a supermarket. It is also close to bus service to Amsterdam (20 minutes away), and it runs a free airport shuttle from 5:30 a.m. to midnight. On arrival, I contacted the hotel and was picked up at bus stop B14.