In 2025, I was in Berlin and stumbled upon the Markthalle Nuen (markthalleneun.de/en), a fully enclosed marketplace for delicious street food that’s also a hub for crafts. In a historic building in the Kreuzberg district, it offers a large variety of cuisines as well as wine and beer bars.
Who in their right mind would leave for London in the middle of February with six days of rain forecasted? I did! I departed on February 11, 2026, from Logan International Airport via JetBlue (jetblue.com) using frequent flyer miles.
A week in Morocco combines Marrakech with excursions to the Atlas Mountains and Agafay Desert. Private guides and unexpected experiences—including access to a remarkable private antiquities collection—make the trip both comfortable and culturally rich for Carol Probst.
"My husband and I like going places we’ve never been before, seeing things we’ve never seen before and eating and drinking things we’ve never tried before.
"Aboard the Saga Sapphire on a cruise with Saga Cruises in 2013, we tried Eton mess. This British dessert is traditionally served at Eton College’s annual July 4 prize-giving celebration. It consists of strawberries, sugar, heavy cream and baked meringue. It is delicious!"
(letter sent by Marcia Ritter)
Living in southwestern Pennsylvania, my husband and I go to ramp feeds and festivals, mostly in West Virginia and usually in April.
Ramps are wild leeks. They are one of the first edible plants to ripen in the Appalachian forests in the spring. Beginning in April and continuing through May, scores of community ramp dinners and festivals are held. Many are small affairs, but others feed more than 1,000 people a day. Traditionally, the dinners are fund raisers for churches, libraries and fire departments. Often, there are also flea markets.
A suicide bomber attacked a packed restaurant in the city of Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Dec. 25, killing five people and injuring 13. People in the restaurant, who included children and local government officials, were celebrating Christmas at the time. Security did not allow the bomber into the restaurant, causing him to detonate his bomb at the entrance.
Investigators blamed the bombing on the Allied Democratic Forces, a militant group with ties to the Islamist group Daesh (ISIL).
