8-day, 7-night culinary tour with three half-day hands-on cooking classes in AUSTRIA, Nov. 5-12, 2017. Highlights: In Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace, apple strudel demo/Augarten porcelain factory/wine tasting at Vintner Wieninger/Johann Strauss concert in Kursalon music hall. Based on group of 10, $2,750 per person, double occupancy (ppdo). Single supp., $350. Herzerl Tours (Tuckahoe, NY; 800/684-8488, www.herzerltours.com).
Exploring Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin
(Second of two parts)
My husband and a friend and I spent a week at a resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, March 2-9, 2017. Although we usually cooked for ourselves in our villa, we sometimes caught ourselves in town at lunchtime.
One day, we decided to eat at a new restaurant we had spotted, Añejo Limon Restaurante (Calle Basilio Badillo 229, Puerto Vallarta; phone +52 322 222 1110, anejolimon@gmail.com). It looked like it was open, so we went in.
Restaurantes y tabernas centenaries de Madrid (100-year-old restaurants and taverns of Madrid) comprise 12 eateries in Spain’s capital that have been operating for at least 100 years.
Listed as the eldest, Casa Pedro (Calle de Nuestra Señora de Valverde 119, Madrid; phone +34 917 341 201, www.casapedro.com) claims to have opened in 1702, while the youngest, La Casa del Abuelo (Calle Victoria 12, Madrid; phone +34 902 027 334, www.lacasadel
abuelo.es), opened only in 1906.
City officials in Bangkok, Thailand, announced in mid-April that street-food vendors would be banned from major city streets by 2018, saying that the city’s more than 20,000 food vendors take up too much sidewalk space, cause vehicle traffic issues and are responsible for large amounts of trash.
I booked “Sunny Portugal” through AAA Vacations (800/922-8228, ww1.aaa.com); the 10-day tour was run by Collette (Pawtucket, RI; 800/340-5158, www.gocollette.com). Its cost, including air, single supplement, insurance and optionals, came to $3,854.
Flying TAP Portugal, I left Miami, Florida, for Lisbon on Nov. 11, 2016. The service on the flight was very good.
The tour provided a kaleidoscope of fond memories.
This past June, my husband, Fred, and I rented a car and drove through Bulgaria and the Transylvania region of Romania. As I planned the trip, I discovered the monastic history of both countries and their numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Beginning in Bulgaria
