Museum

Well, we finally did it, and I must say that there is not much of Egypt that we did not see! My husband and I, our son and daughter-in-law and our daughter and grandson started a 14-day independent tour of Egypt on June 24, ’04.

Our flights on Iberia Airlines were long, with very long airport layovers. In Madrid we had 10 hours, so we took the metro to the city and visited the Prado Museum. This was very easy to do, as our luggage had been forwarded to Cairo out of New York’s JFK and we stored our carry-ons in lockers provided outside the Madrid airport.

by Beth Habian, Features Editor

The single most important, not-to-miss place in Cairo is the Egyptian Museum. We wish we’d had more than one day there on our visit in March ’97, but the one we had was wonderful.

My husband, Norman, and I were lured into visiting Hungary by the idea that it was one of the bargains left in European travel. As we found on our trip in September ’04, this proved to be correct. It has joined the E.U. but, for now, is still using the old currency (forint). Nearby Austrian visitors flock there for dental and optical bargains as well as plastic surgery, we were told.

As we usually do, we planned our own itinerary and rented a car, wandering around with lots of guidebooks and local advice when possible.

By Julie Skurdenis, second of two parts (jump to part 1)

—Kathryn Whitmer, Bellingham, WA

Friendly faces, lively music, colorful art and beautiful churches are what my husband and I found on our 12-day “Danube and Black Sea Sampler,” a river cruise from which we returned on Oct. 17, ’04. The cruise was offered by Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114-2031; phone 800/322-6677).

We attended “Austrian Woodcarving Weeks” in Elbigen-alp, Austria, Oct. 10-24, ’04. This was at the Geisler-Moroder Austrian Woodcarving School (A-6652 Elbigenalp 63, Austria; phone 43-5634-6215, e-mail geisler-moroder@aon.at or visit www.geisler-moroder.com. Geisler-Moroder’s U.S. representative is Carl G. Wiggins; phone 205/979-1111 or e-mail wiggs7@ aol.com).

The woodcarvers’ program cost $1,602 double and the noncarvers’ program, $1,102, including daily breakfast and dinner, with a 5-lunch ticket available for approximately $22.50. Airfare was not included.

We traveled to Germany, May 7-June 2, ’04. We had seen much of the country’s natural beauty, the Romantic Road and other attractions on a previous trip. This one was planned with art as the main objective.

My wife and I were very interested to read Dennis Cavagnaro’s article on the River Kwai (Nov. ’04, pg. 24), as we had made a similar trip in September-October ’03.