By Karen Bradbury
Published: January 21, 2010
Confession time -- I am not a big fan of winter. If there’s anything I can do to break up its relentless monotony, I will. A Sunday afternoon at a spa makes for a good temporary escape, but how I long for the rays of sun on my back and the lightness of walking around outside in just shorts and T-shirt.
Last year over the long Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday weekend, my husband and I booked a three-day, last-minute package deal to the Canary Island of Tenerife. We stayed in a rather dumpy efficiency apartment in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. The trip, booked through Thomas Cook, cost 278 euros per person, no meals included.
By Karen Bradbury
Published: January 14, 2010
A reader recently suggested that with all the traveling I do, I must be living with the constant threat of credit-card debt. I can easily see how a reader -- particularly one living back in the USA -- could get the impression that I lead some kind of a jet-set lifestyle. I suppose I do, but it is of the budget-airline variety.
What’s the secret to being able to afford a holiday nearly every month of the year? I put it down to a fortuitous combination of personal circumstances, modest everyday lifestyle and judicious spending while on holiday. Here are some of my secrets, revealed.
By Karen Bradbury
Published: January 8, 2010
A couple of mornings ago, I tossed out my dog-eared, coffee-stained, 2009 desk calendar and pulled out an unblemished 2010 planner. How I long to fill its pages with notations of flight times and confirmed hotel bookings! Before I do, however, I am going to take stock in what travel dreams I managed to bring to fruition in 2009, and what events I’ve yet to conquer.
This past year saw me happily quaffing beer upon beer at the Oktoberfest. Despite the last-minute nature of our arrangements, my two traveling companions and I found a reasonably priced, cozy triple room in the outskirts of Munich, and managed to wheedle our way into one of the tents. What went right, and what could have been better? First and foremost, my co-revelers and I functioned as a team, sticking close together, and remaining enough in control of our faculties to navigate the grounds and public transportation without incident. Not to knock the hospitality of the Fischer-Vroni tent, but if I were to go again, I would enjoy the security of a reserved table, and knowing I had a confirmed place to park myself for the duration.
Here are my month-by-month picks of events to experience in 2010 — this is a medley of both things I have tried, and others that have attracted my attention year after year but have thus far eluded me.
January: Thorrablot in Iceland — Thorrablot is a culinary feast that takes place in the darkest, leanest days of winter and is based on meat and fish dishes that could be pickled or otherwise preserved and thus used to sustain the population throughout the winter. A friend and I experienced this food odyssey back in 2002, at what I’m fairly sure must have been the Restaurant Reykjavik near the capital city’s harbor. When we requested to partake of the Thorrablot buffet, the server looked at us quizzically and asked if we knew what the menu entailed. We assured her we did, and proceeded to try the jellied sheep’s head, ram’s scrotum and putrified shark. Delicious it wasn’t, but it’s a meal whose taste I can conjure up even after all these years. Try it, you’ll remember it forever. This year’s Thorrablot runs about Jan. 22–Feb. 22.
Tip: When you book Icelandair flights between Europe and the USA, you can oftentimes work in a stopover in Reykjavik into your flight reservations at a reasonable cost. Back in 2002, my two-day stopover added nothing at all to the cost of my flight between Boston and Copenhagen.
February: Carnival in one of the big cities — If you’ve lived in Europe any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard mention of the places to be for carnival- Venice or Viareggio in Italy, and Cologne or Mainz in Germany, are among those cities that do things up to the extreme. As it sometimes happens, in 2010, Rose Monday, the big day for the German festivities, coincides with a U.S. federal holiday — Presidents Day — so enjoy your day off by taking part in the craziness. Although I’ve never experienced carnival in any of these cities, I have enjoyed the parades in Frankfurt, as well as one in Funchal, Madeira.
Tip: Even over the past few days, deals at Cologne hotels seem to have gotten thinner on the ground. For bookings in big cities such as Cologne, you can always check a Web site such as www.priceline.com or www.hotwire.com, which sometimes offer some pretty good deals.
March: St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin — This is the year I’m finally doing it! And by booking early, I’ve locked into some great deals: Round-trip airfare to Dublin on Aerlingus and space in a quad hotel room comes in at less than 100 euros. Can the Irish, among the world’s nicest people on a bad day, be any more convivial on their national holiday? I’ll let you know.
Tip: As of this writing, round-trip tickets Frankfurt to Dublin on Aerlingus March 16-18 were going for about 60 euros, whereas return flights between Munich and Dublin would set you back about 78 euros.
April: Semana Santa — This festival as celebrated in Spain should be a sight to see, although I have no firsthand experience with it. In 2010, the dates for this celebration stretch between March 26 and April 4. Following on the heels of this, April 20-25, La Feria de Abril, held in Seville and featuring horses, bullfighting and flamenco, is reputed to be of the highest caliber. Seville makes for a sight-packed destination any time of the year — it was one of my favorite discoveries in 2008.
Tip: Hotels are bound to be expensive during this period. If you can make do in a more modest establishment, this might be a time for it. As of this writing, you could still book Ryanair flights out of Frankfurt-Hahn to Seville for less than 150 euros within the time frame of Semana Santa. If flights fill up before you get around to booking, you might consider flying to Jerez or Málaga as destinations and take a bus.
May: L’Infiorata — We spent Memorial Day weekend 2007 hiking the coastline of Cinque Terre, basing ourselves in the nearby village of Levanto. On that Sunday, I was mesmerized by the artwork that appeared on the streets: carpets of flowers depicting beautiful designs and religious symbols. As I later learned, L’Infiorata takes place on Corpus Domini in towns scattered throughout Italy. Now that I’ve seen it once, I long to experience it on a grander scale. One of the most ornate manifestations appears to be that of Genzano di Roma, about 20 miles southeast of Rome in the Alban Hills, which takes place June 6-7 in 2010. Check that date before traveling — the source might be a little sketchy. Noto, Sicily is another destination renowned for its flower carpets.
Tip: Rather than basing yourself in Genzano, you could make it a day trip from Rome. The most straightforward route seems to be taking Metro line A to the bus station at Anagnina and hopping a COTRAL bus in the direction of Genzano, Velletri or Latina. The nearest train station appears to be the one in Cecchina, about 40 minutes from Rome’s Termini station.
June: As far north as I can get — I’ve had pretty good luck in my quest to get as much daylight as possible into my midsummer. I’ve found St. Petersburg’s White Nights, the time around the summer solstice when it never grows dark completely, to be an otherworldly, sepia-toned, and frankly almost creepy experience. One of my weirdest experiences around this time of year, back in 1996, was watching a Hari Krishna parade in Murmansk, Russia, above the Arctic Circle.
Tip: If a trip to Russia is on your radar, you really can’t choose a better time of year than June for it. See one of the two metropolises of Moscow or St. Petersburg, and then get out into the provinces, beyond the glitter, to see how the majority of people really live.
July: Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany — This play will be performed throughout the warmer months — May 15 to Oct. 3 to be precise — but July would be a grand month in that you could work in some Alpine hiking as well. The Passion Play is staged only once every 10 years, so don’t let it slip by if you’re at all interested.
Tip: According to the Web site, “at the moment tickets only are sold out.” Could this mean that there will be tickets available at a later date? If you don’t want to risk that, you can book one- or two-night packages that include a ticket to see the play, accommodation and meals. The Web site recommends against planning to buy your tickets on the same day of the performance, as they are available only in the event of a cancellation.
August: Edinburgh’s festivals — I’ve never been to Edinburgh strictly for the sake of attending the festivals, although I have caught some events in passing, including an outdoor rock concert and the closing-ceremony fireworks. Some day I’ll plan a journey around acts that appeal, and if I get to tour some of Scotland’s breathtaking countryside as well, that’s an added bonus. The 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe takes place Aug. 6 to 30; the Edinburgh International Festival runs Aug. 13 to Sept. 5.
September: Medoc Marathon, France — The organizers of this annual event are of the philosophy that health, fun and conviviality are synonymous with sport, and who can argue with that? A marathon in which most of the runners wear costumes, pause for wine breaks en route and eat a dab of pâté? Sign me up! On second thought, I think I might just prefer to watch, or just revel in the some 50 other events taking place simultaneously, on Sept. 11, 2010, in Pauillac.
Tip: Registration for the marathon opens in March, and there are typically way more applicants than slots, so plan accordingly. The Web site is www.marathondumedoc.com.
October: Oktoberfest — Like many of you (over 6 million annually over the past few years, to be more precise) at last I can say, been there, done that. You can’t really beat it, or even imagine it, until you’ve been there. The 2010 edition of Oktoberfest is Sept. 18 through Oct. 3.
Hint: Make reservations in good time and directly with one of the fest tents. Here are links to a few of them, along with the date from which they accept reservations: Armbrustschützenzelt (from April 12); Augustiner-Festhalle (no date given); Bräurosl (from January); Käfer's Wies’n-Schänke (from Feb. 1); Hacker-Festzelt (from February-March); Schottenhamel (from November); Hippodrom (from March); Winzerer Fähndl (from Jan.); and Ochsenbraterei (no date given).
November: Bonfire Night, throughout England — It would surely be tons of fun to watch the fireworks on Guy Falkes Day. The beauty of this occasion is it doesn’t just take place in one particular venue. Throughout the land, you will find fireworks displays and perhaps even a bonfire to huddle around. In 2010, Guy Falkes day falls on Nov. 5.
December: Christmas market in Dresden — I have been trying to get to Dresden for years now, but it just doesn’t seem to work out. Perhaps its Striezelmarkt, or Christmas market, billed by the German National Tourist Office as Germany’s oldest and most loved, will add that needed impetus to get me there?
Tip: If not in the winter, another time to go to this part of Germany would be when the paddle-wheel steamer along the Elbe is in service. The New York Times article Meandering along the Elbe by riverboat paints an alluring picture of the area along the former East German-Czech border.
Where will you be going this year? May every month in 2010 see you discovering a new and wonderful destination.
