Romantic Rhine series - Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg is one of the most picturesque regions of France.  Get ready to step back in time while visiting this absolutely quaint part of France.  Just one day wasn't enough, but I will remember that day fondly for years to come.

Let's start our site seeing by visiting Petite France.  The former Tanner's Quarter on the River Ill is a delightful maze of lanes flanked by gorgeous half timbered houses.

Taking a boat cruise for a better view.

Carousel in the middle of the town square.

So much to see in this beautiful city.  You can see all the influences of both French and German cultures.  It's also the home of the European Parliament.

Fun fact to note is the good luck symbol of the Alsace is the stork.


The next stop will be The Black Forest - just a short bus drive to see a magical place and enjoy a yummy dessert.

Happy Traveling!

Romantic Rhine - Let's see it together

Ready to get away?  Why not book a river cruise in Europe? 


We had a fantastic time seeing the romantic Rhine on Avalon's Artistry II.  In the next few blogs, we'll share the stops along the way to Amsterdam.  

Get ready to experience a beautiful part of Germany and another gorgeous river connecting European countries.

Now that we're unpacked, let's get started.

1st stop - Strasbourg, France.  I can almost smell the pastries!!! 

Happy Traveling!

Pinehurst, North Carolina - golf destinations

                                                  Pinehurst, North Carolina

We've mentioned Pinehurst as a buddies golf destination in the past but wanted to give it special attention today. It is a great place to go for a buddies golf trip or just to go visit. There are eight courses at this special place that has been around since the late 1800's.

Pinehurst #2 is the most famous  of the eight and has hosted several US Open's including the 2014 Men's and Women's US Open. It's expensive to play #2 but if you book one of the packages through the resort, the price is less intimidating but still not exactly inexpensive. When playing #2, we recommend getting your own caddie to enhance the experience. #8 is my favorite of the Pinehurst courses and we got a four caddie that was plenty of help for my group.

We strongly suggest picking one of the resorts "Stay and Play" packages and if it fits your budget, stay in the Carolina Hotel. It does feel like a step back in time but with modern conveniences. They have a very friendly and helpful staff and nice restaurants and Bar. If you have a day where you don't play 36 holes, spend some time at the pool and enjoy a good old fashioned afternoon tea. Pinehurst resort also offers a spa and if you play as much golf as we did, mixing in an afternoon massage at the halfway point of the stay is a very good idea.

Rates drop in June and you may want to consider playing #2 early in the trip because if you wait to the end and get rained out, with no days left to reschedule, it would be a shame not to play that classic course. Also, be aware that #1 & #3 are also, very old school and not anywhere near the same or even close to #2. Our group played #1 & #3 as an optional afternoon round. They are fun but #2 & 4 through #8 are better option's in our opinion.

Pinehurst Resort & Spa will not disappoint. It is a fantastic choice for your next buddies golf trip!  

Golf trips - ideas of where the friends might enjoy most!

Buddies Golf Trip-favorite places to go with friends

With so many great places in the country and the world for that matter, how do you choose where to bring your buddies on an annul golf trip? Obviously, price factors in, but also weather and for my friends, diversity of the places to play.

Our buddies group has taken trips to Pinehurst, Pebble Beach, Bandon, Kohler, Jacksonville, Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Scotland and several other places. Pinehurst provides 8 courses on property but also Pine Needles and Tobacco Road are near by and should also be part of the itinerary due to their proximity. In some cases, more options might not be the best thing because you may have a rain out and miss the day you were scheduled to play #2. The other courses at Pinehurst don't have the same history so missing out on #2 could be devastating to an expensive golf trip.  Every golf destination for us involves searching for other places in the area that might be part of a "top 100" list from a certain golf publication. There is something to be said for the feeling of checking off one of the top 100 courses. Hopefully, you get to have that feeling over & over. And, by the way, Pinehurst #8 is one of my favorite courses I've ever played.

When it comes to value for your buck, look into the Robert Trent Jones trail in Alabama. They have several different courses throughout the state that are part of the RTJ and the service they provide at each location is excellent. The RTJ is not as inexpensive as the local Muni but compared to some other destination golf locations, the RTJ is downright cheap. All of the RTJ locations I've been to have multiple courses so you can easily get in 36 holes per day. Play 18, eat lunch and head back out and play a different, excellent golf course. Some of the locations on the trail are somewhat isolated so if the after golf action is a priority for your group, you may want to pick the ones located nearer the bigger cities or near a major college.

My favorite RTJ destination is Capitol Hill in Prattville, AL. It offers three 18 hole championship courses and all three are distinctly different. The Judge is one of the more challenging layouts I've ever played so bring your "A" game and lot's of extra golf balls. The Senator course is links style and a completely different type of challenge. The Senator is the most relaxing of the three but it's huge greens offer up some difficult, lengthy putts so make sure you have your putting touch to avoid numerous three putts.

I go on an annual trip to Opelika/Auburn, Alabama and we play both the 18 hole championship courses at Grand National. The staff there is very friendly and helpful and both courses are so different from each other that it feels like you've traveled to another location when you switch from the Links course to the Lake course.

When pricing out your next buddies golf trip, please keep the RTJ Trail in your thoughts. There is something special about playing a "Famous" golf resort, I agree. Sometimes though, people who would like to go, are priced out of being able to attend. You may find that everyone in your group will be able to afford the RTJ prices and the group could get a little bigger which allows for more "action" on the course and not leaving anyone at home feels good.

RTJ has packages available and will work with you in setting everything up. Give it a try sometime. I know you'll be pleased with the RTJ.

Switzerland - there's more to it than just great chocolate

Zurich, Switzerland

Instead of flying into one of my regular cities in Europe, this time I flew into Zurich.  This was my 1st time to Zurich, not my 1st time to Switzerland.  Last time I was in the lake town of Lucerne, very different experience than Zurich.  Why?  Zurich is a much larger city and easy to get around by using public transportation.

Most tourists will stay in the Old Town, but I stayed near the airport for convenience as I only had 1 afternoon and part of the next morning to see the town.  It was easy to take the shuttle to the airport and then a train into town.  The train station is pretty big, but easy to find your way and there were lots of helpful informational booths.  The price of a one day ticket was less than $10, versus a $60 taxi ride from the airport (1 way).  Here's a picture of the outside of the train station.

Leaving the train station, I walked through the modern side of town.  The river separates the city between the modern and the Old Town.  There was lots of high end shopping stores, nice restaurants to enjoy, or cafe's to sit to have a cup of coffee and people watch.

Next, I made my way across one of the bridges to the Old Town.  The Old Town is everything you would think Switzerland would look like. Cobble stone streets, odd shaped buildings, local merchants selling tourist gifts and pedestrian friendly walking areas.

All the streets lead you back to the train station, so it's difficult to get lost.  That's a good thing when you only landed a few hours ago and you're fighting jet lag.

I stopped at the train station to complete the VAT tax forms and back to the airport for my hotel.

What would I recommend to do if you only have 1 or 2 days in Zurich?  Definitely consider taking the train into town and see the sites before you collapse at your hotel.  A couple of others suggestions would be to:

1.)  Take a bus to see Mt. Piatus for gorgeous alpine panoramic views.
2.)  Make an appointment at a spa.  Switzerland is known world wide for their spas.  One that I recommend is The Dolder Grand Hotel & Spa.  Here's just 2 photos that I took while visiting this spa in October.  So lucky that the weather that day was 68 degrees and look at the views!  The level of customer service in the spa was absolutely 1st class.  They made it difficult for me to leave and head back to my airport hotel (affordable, but simple) unlike the options available at this hotel.  Not only did I enjoy a few hours at the spa, I also had dinner and drinks in their "American Bar".  

Happy Traveling!

How do you improve an old classic?

Disneyland - Space Mountain "Ghost Galaxy"

If you have the time and ability to travel to Anaheim before October 31st, I recommend spending some time at Disneyland.  I've been to Disneyland more times than I can count, but never around Halloween.  

I just got back and wanted to share how Disneyland changed an old classic which actually improved the experience!  You can imagine that at this time of year, Disneyland is decorated for Halloween with all the typical decorations and that the Haunted Mansion is updated for the Tim Burton movie, but something I didn't expect was the update to Space Mountain.

They added a new and surprising element to Space Mountain.  For a short time through Halloween they renamed it Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy.  What's different?  Typically Space Mountain has a 70's vibe of what we thought space travel would be like.  You can faintly see the tracks and other rockets because they have florescent lighting that illuminates as you race by each other with beeping noises that supports the 70's theme.

Disney found a way to make the ride completely black, no lighting at all.  They changed the music to a creepy and scary soundtrack.  As you climb up the track in pitch black, a devil ghost is projected on the walls of the ride which makes you feel as if this evil ghost is chasing you.  It's intense as you get distracted on what's the next twist and turn of the ride to ask, "when will that evil ghost show up next?"  As you continue to race in the dark, the ghost's claw tries to grab you, then the evil eye is staring at you tying to see if it can get a glimpse of you....it's thrilling.

At the end of the ride you realized that you experienced something different and thrilling, only to hope that you can get 1 more fast pass to ride it again before the end of the day.

Hope you can make it there and experience it yourself before it converts back to the original.

Happy Traveling!

Why wear the pin?

I would be remiss if I didn't take a minute to talk about Disney's customer service.  I mentioned in the Anniversary blog about the Disney employee who gave us the pin when checking into the Grand Floridian Hotel.  I had already been told by the customer service rep when booking the vacation online that I should take one of the pins and wear it, so I happily explained it was our Anniversary.

What I wasn't prepared for was the level of customer service the employees would show us by wearing the pin.  Such a simple thing that made a typical vacation into something really special.

Everyone who greeted us from the hotel staff, to the theme park staff to all the transportation employees in between would congratulate us on our milestone Anniversary and ask us if we were having a good experience.  Wearing the pin also came with perks.....who knew?

During our meals, the waiter would surprise us with a dessert or glass of champagne.  There was one special event that I really wanted to share.

One night, we ate dinner at the California Grill (top floor of the Contemporary Hotel) around 5 PM.  We went back to our hotel to change and hit some of the rides at the Magic Kingdom at night.  We only had a couple of hours before the fireworks show at 10 PM.  The restaurant had invited us back to see the fireworks from the rooftop facing the Magic Kingdom.  This is something special that they do if you eat dinner at their restaurant, and we didn't want to miss it!

Wouldn't you know that we got stuck in the fast pass line for Space Mountain.  It took an incredible 45 minutes to get through the line and then the ride.  When we stepped out of the building and into Tomorrow Land we could see all the guests lining up in front of the castle to see the 10 PM show.  We had 15 minutes to run through the park, get on the monorail to the Contempoary Hotel, make our way to the 2nd floor to access the elevator to the top floor.  They have an elevator that shoots you straight up to the 15th floor where the restaurant is located.

This would be our one and only chance to see the fireworks show and I didn't want to miss it.  Have you ever gone the wrong way when all the other people are trying to get to something?  It takes a lot of bobbing and weaving to avoid the traffic, not to mention the strollers.  As we made our way through the crowds in the dark, I could hear the employees say, "Happy Anniversary".  We started to laugh that even when we were running past the employees, they would still remark on our pins.

When we finally got from the monorail to the hotel, my heart sank because it was 9:59 PM and I knew that there would no way for us to make the final stretch of the run in 1 minute.  As we made our way around the corner from the escalator to the elevator my breath was taken away by what I saw waiting for us.  It was our hostess in the elevator holding the door open as she said, "I knew you would make it back, I've been waiting for you."  She whisked us up to the 15th floor, escorted us outside the restaurant on the rooftop to an unbelievable view of the fireworks show.  It was if Disney was waiting for us to arrive and then queued the music.  The restaurant has speakers located outside so we could hear the narrator and music.  Here's one of the photos we took that night.

Leave it to Disney to continue to raise the bar on what makes excellent customer service really outstanding.  

Happy Travels!