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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.) 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 MARILYNN BROWN of Norman, Oklahoma:
My husband, Ed, and I love learning about the history and culture of a country so tend to gravitate toward natural history and folk or open-air museums. In April 2012 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, we toured the Openluchtmuseum (Sept. ’12, pg. 53) and on another day enjoyed the Zuiderzee Museum (Wierdijk 12-22, 160 1LA Enkhuizen, NL; phone +31 [0] 228 351111, fax 351212).
I was appalled to read in the November ’12 “Boarding Pass” column, “… with the changes that many airlines have just made, bags will be checked through only to the last destination listed on each ticket. So, with itineraries using multiple, separately booked tickets, a passenger might not be able to automatically check his bags through to his final destination…”
A subscriber mentioned the pills No Jet Lag (Oct. ’12, pg. 54). I bought some in New Zealand, but they never worked for me.
When my husband and I headed Down Under a few years ago, we thought that the month we would spend in New Zealand would be an appetizer before the main event, Australia. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on Jan. 23, 2009. We had rented a camper van in advance. The company (which no longer rents vehicles) delivered it to our hotel. A month later, they would pick it up from our hotel and we would fly on to Sydney. We gave ourselves a few days to get over jet lag before starting out, but our entire New Zealand trip would be by RV.
After a morning walking tour of the historical section of São Luís, Brazil, our guide, Juan Pitacco (jmpitacco@hotmail.com), showed us the central market square, or Praça do Mercado Central.
by Larry Kritcher; Coconut Grove, FL
I have never spent as much time preplanning a trip as I did for our February ’12 trip to Southern Africa. To begin with, it’s so difficult to get there.
We asked any of you who attended a concert, a recital or any music or dance performance or stage production outside of the US in the last couple of years to tell us how you learned about it and how you obtained tickets. The responses this month, comprising part nine in this ongoing series, are about events attended in China.
In Portsmouth, England, the Spinnaker Tower (Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3TT, U.K.; phone +44 0 23 9285 7520), a 557-foot-tall observation tower, offers 360-degree views, including Portsmouth Harbor, the coast and the Isle of Wight.
There’s a glass floor on View Deck 1 and a café on View Deck 2, with Deck 3 open to the elements. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission, £8.25 ($13). 15% discount when booked on website. Family tickets (2+2) at www.great2012offers.com.
Sarah Gilson of Hanover, New Hampshire, had an information request for ITN subscribers, so we asked you for the following.