April 2010

After visiting our new granddaughter in London in October ’09, my wife, Kay, and I traveled through Scotland and England’s Lake District via train. We obtained our Senior Railcards at a local train station for £26 (near $42) each, but it would have cost only £23.40 if purchased online at www.senior-railcard.co.uk. They are also available (at full price) from all London airports except Heathrow.

By using the passes, we saved £166 ($286) on the total rail fares during our 9-day excursion. And the passes are good for one year from the date of purchase.

I’ve led small-group tours to Cinque Terre in Italy five times since 2006, most recently in May ’09. Here are some thoughts.

On a 32-day cruise aboard the “Tahitian Princess” (now called Ocean Princess), Oct. 18-Nov. 19, 2009, my husband, Bob, and I did the following on our shore trips.

European trains generally run on time, but if your train is delayed and you have a tight connection, even the Swiss sometimes will hold the following train a few minutes until the arriving train comes in and passengers can transfer.

This happened to us on Oct. 9, 2009, when our Milan-to-Basel train was delayed 45 minutes by some security issue. The officials held the Luxembourg train we needed to catch, and passengers made the connection.

by Beth Habian, ITN

From BOLÍVAR, Colombia, Feb. 5, 2010

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 410th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

Looking out for you, we’ve run across several warnings that I thought you should know about.

February's Photo