The model for many open-air museums across Europe, the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum (Schelmsweg 89, Postbus 649, NL-6800 AP Arnhem, Netherlands; phone +31 [0]26-3576111) is the original folk museum in the Netherlands and the biggest. (In 2012, open March 30-Oct. 28. €14.95 [$18] adult, 10.50 child. Parking, €4.50.)
You’ll need a minimum of four hours to enjoy and completely immerse yourself in over 200 years of Dutch culture.
On a visit to Paris in April ’12, my wife, Anne, and I took the Métro to Bercy station and spent a number of hours in Parc de Bercy, comprised of three connected gardens.
We asked you to write about a restaurant, shop or other business housed in a historic, unique, spectacular or interesting building (outside of the US) that can be entered without paying an admission fee. We weren’t looking for a place like the Hard Rock Café that just has pictures and antiques everywhere; if it is a café, however, the architecture should be as much the experience as the meal. Or it can be a working library in a castle. Or a butcher shop in a cathedral.
In booking the arrangements for a wonderful trip to Tuscany for three women and myself, Gina at Villa Vita International (Phoenix, AZ; 866/590-8181) was most helpful.
We stayed for a week, Oct. 12-19, 2011, at Il Borgo di Vila Bossi-Pucci (Via Romita 2/a, Loc. Montagnana, Monstespertoli, 50025, Firenze, Italy; UK phone +44 [0] 203 006 4980), about 24 kilometers southwest of Florence. The villa grounds overlook a valley and have walking paths, a swimming pool and a library.
Bulgaria is a country that I highly recommend everyone visit.
My wife, Carolyn, and I took a 7-night, customized tour through Romania, May 25-31, 2012. We normally don’t splurge like that, but the prices in Romania are very favorable.
Having enjoyed a cruise in Europe in 2006 and another in China in 2007, both with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/706-1483), my husband, Tom, and I were puzzled by a subscriber’s critique of his “Romantic Rhine” cruise with Viking (“Found Anchorages Inconvenient,” May ’10, pg. 24).
by Charlie Ogg, Houston, TX. Photos by Jack Ogg
An optional extension to Madeira proved to be the highlight of a trip my husband, Al, and I took this spring. It followed our eighth trip with Grand Circle Travel (Boston, MA; 800/321-2835), the 15-day “Spain and Portugal in Depth” tour, March 18-April 6, 2012, which cost $2,395 per person plus $910 each for air from St. Louis.
In Ireland in June ’12, my wife and I ran into a new phenomenon regarding credit cards — new for us, at least.