A publication that covers truly offbeat railways, focusing on historic places and equipment, is the British bimonthly magazine Locomotives International (Wiltshire, England; phone +44 1275 845 012, www.mainline andmaritime.co.uk/pages/welcome-to-locomotives-international).
I cannot agree more with Rick Steves’ advice (Nov. ’16, pg. 53) regarding how to avoid waiting in line at various attractions throughout the world.
In advance of a tour in Italy more than two years ago, I purchased my ticket for the Uffizi Gallery (Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6, Firenze; www.uffizi.org) in Florence, Italy, through the Internet.
Now that most US airlines’ point programs have switched to the amount paid for tickets instead of miles flown, I wondered how someone could verify that the points are accurate when earning miles through partner airlines.
One of the world’s oldest libraries can be visited at the Abbey of St. Gall (Klosterhof 6D, Postfach, 9001 St. Gallen, Switzerland). With origins in the 7th century AD, the abbey library houses thousands of unique manuscripts, many regularly on display in the Baroque Hall, an intricately decorated gallery with painted ceilings and winding bookcases.
At the hall until Nov. 12, 2017, the exhibit “Sanitarium for the Soul” follows the history of the library and its collections.
Zelda and Fritz Oelrich’s tale of their travels through Peru continues…
Traveling by rail on narrow-gauge tracks or offbeat routes can provide fascinating insights into rural communities, not to mention incredible vistas. Some tourist spots can only be reached in this way. Whether it’s a route used primarily by locals for daily transportation or something that all visitors do, we would like to hear about any offbeat train trip that offers a special experience of some type.”
Nancy Tan of Fresno, California, wrote, “I would be very interested in reading comparisons of airlines’ frequent-flyer-mileage programs from travelers who are members of more than one airline’s loyalty program.”
In the small towns near Amsterdam, Netherlands, collectively known as Old Holland, visitors are being given pamphlets detailing expectations of their conduct.
The towns, which include picturesque wooden buildings and windmills, are designed to accurately reproduce living conditions in 19th-century Holland. However, they are also actual living towns with permanent residents.
The handouts suggest etiquette such as asking permission before taking pictures of locals, not leaving trash behind and not walking through private gardens.
When planning a trip to Paris, you can book a guided tour to the top of the Eiffel Tower that allows you to skip the line at the elevators. On the tour, the English-speaking guide describes the tower’s history and construction and talks about other sites visible from the tower, like Notre Dame and the Louvre.
The tour (subject to availability) costs €49 (near $53) per person and includes entry to all three tower levels. Visit booking.parisinfo.com, click on “Guided Tours” and then on “Eiffel Tower Skip-the-line Tour and Summit Access.”
