November 2010

We asked you, “Where have you had the best ice cream outside of the United States?” We requested that you name the particular shop (and include its address or approximate location) and include when you were there and the approximate price of a treat.

I am explaining this so you understand why, for the past two decades, at least, I have wanted to visit some of the Christmas markets in Europe, especially those in Germany, which are reputedly among the best. Something always intervened — my job, Paul’s job, family responsibilities — and a visit to the Christmas markets was always postponed. That is, until December 2009, when the opportunity finally arrived and we grabbed it.

From the trip two friends and I took through Central America in January 2010, I particularly recommend the following accommodations.

In Rome, I recommend a stay at Casa di Santa Brigida (Piazza Farnese 96, 00186 Roma, Italy; phone +39 06 6889 2596 or 2497, fax 6889 1573 or e-mail piazzafarnese@brigidine.org). It overlooks the elegant, quiet Piazza Farnese, with the Campo dei Fiori market a block away. Ask for the room that overlooks the piazza.

The nuns who run Casa di Santa Brigida are caring and speak English. I was there May 13-17, 2010, and the nightly cost for one person was €110 (near $142) — more if paid by credit card, but I always pay in cash to get the best rate.

I was in Israel for a conference and had three days afterward (Sept. 11-14, 2009) to revisit Jerusalem. In particular, I wanted to visit the Herodium, a conical hill near Jerusalem where the tomb of King Herod the Great was identified only in 2008, and Hezekiah’s Tunnel, a very interesting relic of Biblical times that wends 500 meters through solid rock, with running water on the floor the entire way. Hezekiah’s Tunnel is near the Area G excavations of the City of David, just outside the Dung Gate.

I toured Mali and Burkina Faso, Feb. 10-27, 2010, with Craig Canadian Group Travel, Ltd. (Toronto, Ont., Canada; 800/387-8890), who also arranged a post-trip, seven-day hotel stay for me for in Paris through March 6.

The tour was named “Into the Heart of West Africa,” and the cost for everything was $8,754. That covered round-trip air from Portland, Oregon, everything in Africa (except water during meals), the hotel room in Paris and an overnight in a Toronto hotel on my way back.

Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the few glaciers in the temperate world that is still advancing. It is 240 feet high, a bit over three miles wide and part of a huge ice field containing the world’s third-largest reserve of fresh water.

“The Legendary Silk Road by Private Train,” offered by Lernidee Erlebnisreisen GmbH (Eisenacher Str. 11, D-10777 Berlin, Germany; phone+49 [30] 786 00 00, www.lernidee.com), was the first group tour my wife and I took that had no other native-born English speakers.

We traveled Oct. 13-26, 2009, and chose that departure because Lernidee promised an English-speaking guide. Only four of us on the 45-person tour spoke no German, but, as advertised, Lernidee flew in a guide, a delightful Russian woman, who spoke excellent English and German and, of course, Russian.

My wife, Rose, and I traveled to France with Cosmos (Littleton, CO; 800/276-1241, www.cosmos.com) in May 2010. The eight-day/seven night “Jewels of France” bus tour cost $1,025 each, excluding airfare.

The tour was more or less what most tours are. You see a lot of things, you interact mostly with other Americans and you don’t have to worry about where to sleep or what to eat. We saw a lot of France. It was a good value.