December 2012

by Carol Probst; Bethel Park, PA

My wife, JoAnn, and I made our fifth visit to Beaune, the wine capital of Burgundy, France, March 1-4, 2012. Beaune was a delight.

My husband, Joe, and I were to visit China, Oct. 26-Nov. 4, 2011, as part of our around-the-world tour. I was apprehensive about booking internal tickets, myself, because Chinese airline websites are confusing, and I was concerned about not knowing about flight time changes because of the language barrier.

My husband, Ed, and I chose “Tigers & the Taj” for our fifth trip with International Expeditions (Helena, AL; 800/234-9620). Our trip, March 10-25, 2012, cost $6,680 per person, excluding international air but with a discount for having traveled with the company.

We like International Expeditions because it provides superior guides and excellent accommodations, your only tipping is to your main guide and, on this trip, all meals were provided. On this trip, there was only one other tour member.

I took the “Exotic Lands” cruise of Oceania Cruises (800/386-9283), and what an appropriate title that was!

Oceanwide Expeditions’ m/v Plancius departed Ushuaia, Argentina, with 74 passengers on March 29, 2012, for what was to have been a 38-day, end-of-season Antarctica cruise that would end at Cape Verde in the Central Atlantic, the ship then being repositioned to the Arctic for the summer cruise season.

On board were several of the world’s most-traveled people — numbers 3, 5, 36 and 81 (me); visit www.mosttraveledpeople.com — plus a large group of bird-watchers from the Netherlands.

While traveling in Southern Africa, my wife, Barbara, and I flew to Pretoria, South Africa, for a trip on the Blue Train.

Self-playing pianos, a wind-up banjo, an automatic xylophone and an enormous gramophone are among items on display at Keith Harding’s World of Mechanical Music (The Oak House, High St., Northleach, Glos., GL54 3ET, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 1451 860181).

The shop/restoration workshop/museum displays instruments, music boxes and automata from before the days of broadcasting. Open 10-5 daily except Christmas and Boxing Day. Shop admission is free; museum admission costs £8 (near $13) adult, £7 senior or £3.50 child.

Esther Perica with Joan Cockell; Arlington Heights, IL

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 32 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.