July 2009

A few months ago we asked you to share the following.

by Rosemary McDaniel, Trenton, FL

On a visit to Shanghai a few years ago, one evening I decided to walk back to my hotel, the Bund (which, actually, is a 10-minute walk from the Bund). The weather was unusually warm for December.

I noticed an interesting emblem on a pair of gates located on Julu Lu. Representing a British government activity, the symbols are quite common: two vertical lions wearing kingly crowns and facing each other.

A really good small museum is the Museum of Ancient Shipbuilding (Neutostr. 2b, 55116 Mainz, Germany; phone ++4961 31 28 66 30, www.mainz.de — click on “culture,” then “museum”) in Mainz.

It showcases the Roman ships found in the mud on the shores of the Rhine during construction of a parking structure for a Hilton hotel 10 years ago. Five Roman ships have been preserved, with life-size models built to show what the ships actually would have looked like.

I was delighted to read of Randy Keck’s enjoyment of the Azores (April ’09, pg. 72 & May ’09, pg. 75). My husband, John, and I, traveled there March 31-April 6. Azores Express (800/762-9995, www.sata.pt) was our agency also. We paid $1,209 each for round-trip air from Boston, inter-island flights and six nights’ accommodations.

We took a 2-week trip to Costa Rica in February-March ’09 with Overseas Adventure Travel. The airport security staff in San José were polite, efficient and thorough, in direct contrast to the way we were treated as we left Miami airport.

Does the TSA go out of its way to hire rude individuals? Certainly, they are no advertisement for the USA.

CHRISTOPHER HARTLEY

Ormond Beach, FL

Three friends and I took a thoroughly enjoyable brief trip to Scotland, Jan. 14-19, 2009. Our purpose was twofold: visit St. Andrews University in St. Andrews and spend two days in Edinburgh (where a delightful taxi driver referred to two of us as “Edinburgh virgins”).

On their way to the Peruvian Amazon, most people fly into and out of Iquitos and never see more of the city than the drive from the airport to the boat dock and back. My husband, Jerry, and I decided to spend one day (two nights) in Iquitos, Feb. 18-19, 2009, as part of our Amazon trip with Explorama (Nahant, MA; 800/707-5275, www.explorama.com).

My wife and I spent 3½ weeks in Chile in January ’08. We had been there before and, in addition to wanting to explore new places, we had friends to visit, so we decided to design our own plan, but we needed help with reservations and logistics.

We called upon Scott Jones, longtime resident of Chile and director of Chilean Special Journeys (phone 888/345-6077, www.chileanspecialjourneys.com), which we found via an ad in ITN. Communication was easy because Scott, headquartered in Santiago, has a toll-free number from the US in addition to e-mail access.

I worked for Orient Lines Cruise Tours as a sales rep in the Southeast for two years, 2000-2002. Previously, I was a CLIA MCC (Master Certified Cruise Counselor for Cruise Line International Association). I have been on more than 35 ships, so I know the cruise business very well.