Considering that the wide open countryside of New York's Lower Hudson Valley is just 60 miles north of Manhattan, exploring the back roads here is like stepping back in time, particularly in the vicinity of Caldwell House B&B, a Select Registry and Diamond Collection Inn located in the tiny village of…

“Our Team Travels” (OTT) by Voyages Groupe Ideal

“Ve vere bored in Hamburg,” Eva Kafsack mused to me as I had at a plateful of her divinely creamy chevre. Had I made a wrong turn at the sugarcane factory and ended up in a Monty Python sketch (“blessed are the cheesemakers…”)? Nein, mein Schatz, this very German-looking retired teacher sitting across from me, along with her former software entrepreneur husband Thomas, was the real deal: a goat farmer in the fertile “upcountry” of Maui. Sugar may once have been king hereabouts, but no…

There’s something about islands… If you close your eyes for a moment, you can almost hear the wind softly rustling through the palm trees and the waves lapping against the shore. The idea of being cut off from the world and its hustle and bustle, in the company of a loved one, appeals to something deep within us all. It’s no surprise, then, that the exotic island of Bali always makes – or tops – the…

Have you considered what the old guy or lady down the street may have done in life beyond work at the supermarket? The people largely responsible for our freedoms are passing away. This June is the 70th anniversary of the World War II invasion of occupied France, known as D-Day.…

On the day we left Venice there were seven cruise ships (7!) docked at the Porto di Venezia, a short walk from the apartment Jerry and I were renting.

The ships had names:

The Happy Dolphin,

Europa…