Unique places and experiences
07-10-2007, 11:44 PM
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Unique places and experiences
Legal Bill's thread "Wherever you go, there you are" started me thinking about the places I have been and the some of the experiences I have had. I have had the luck/bad luck of traveling for business quite a bit. I've been all over western Europe including Scandinavia, Japan, Korea, Australia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Israel on business. On vacations, we have been to Europe (for 6 weeks), Hawaii, the Caribbean, and south Pacific, as well as over most of the US.
I don't know what I wanted to do with this thread. Maybe just give people a chance to give insider tips on areas where they have travelled.
For example, in Brisbane, Australia dining al fresco by the river running through town is REALLY nice. The Gold Coast is relatively close and there are miles and miles of white sand beaches.
Drinking port in Rutherglen, or groovin on the Southern California ambiance in Perth are both lots of fun. Go see the F1 race in Albert Park in Melbourne, and watch the v8 Supercars before the F1 race.
In Switzerland, we stayed at the San Souci Hotel in Grindelwald. We had our pick of rooms as we were the first guests of the summer season. We picked a room with a balcony. At the end of the day sightseeing, we bought wine and chocolate and sat on the balcony watching the sunset, drinking wine and eating chocolate. You could hear the bells around the necks of the grazing cattle. And across the valley were the Eiger, Monch (sp?) and Jungfrau mountains.
In the south Pacific, we spent 10 days at Club Med Moorea - 10 days, brain dead, enough said. Moorea was one of those places where after a week of being there, it would take 45 minutes to make up your mind whether to take your mask and fins with you to breakfast or come back to the room and get them after breakfast.
In Moorea, I did buy black pearls for my wife's birthday. Later I had them made into custom jewelry - I think both of them became pendants.
I could go on and on - Russian food (including bear meat) in Helsinki, waking up to bright sunshine at 3 am in Finspong, Sweden, but I'll stop and let other people chime in.
I don't know what I wanted to do with this thread. Maybe just give people a chance to give insider tips on areas where they have travelled.
For example, in Brisbane, Australia dining al fresco by the river running through town is REALLY nice. The Gold Coast is relatively close and there are miles and miles of white sand beaches.
Drinking port in Rutherglen, or groovin on the Southern California ambiance in Perth are both lots of fun. Go see the F1 race in Albert Park in Melbourne, and watch the v8 Supercars before the F1 race.
In Switzerland, we stayed at the San Souci Hotel in Grindelwald. We had our pick of rooms as we were the first guests of the summer season. We picked a room with a balcony. At the end of the day sightseeing, we bought wine and chocolate and sat on the balcony watching the sunset, drinking wine and eating chocolate. You could hear the bells around the necks of the grazing cattle. And across the valley were the Eiger, Monch (sp?) and Jungfrau mountains.
In the south Pacific, we spent 10 days at Club Med Moorea - 10 days, brain dead, enough said. Moorea was one of those places where after a week of being there, it would take 45 minutes to make up your mind whether to take your mask and fins with you to breakfast or come back to the room and get them after breakfast.
In Moorea, I did buy black pearls for my wife's birthday. Later I had them made into custom jewelry - I think both of them became pendants.
I could go on and on - Russian food (including bear meat) in Helsinki, waking up to bright sunshine at 3 am in Finspong, Sweden, but I'll stop and let other people chime in.
07-11-2007, 04:40 AM
#2
^
Lots of great experiences!
Our travel has been limited. We don't travel for business, and we've never really been bitten by the travel bug. We have experienced a few of the Caribbean Islands.
Our first trip to Antigua was like being in a decompression chamber for a week. It was exactly what we needed at the time. We went back the next year and it was not the same. (See Legal Bill's thread for "same old, same old" )
St. Lucia was one of the prettiest islands of the Caribbean islands we visited. We saw it by land, sea and air.
One tourist trip took us by bus to an inactive volcano, a short hike through a rain forest, down to the beach were a gentleman in a boat brought us a picnic on the beach, then back to the hotel by boat.
Great way to spend the day.
Aruba was a great place to visit, not pretty but almost guaranteed good weather. Last trip there though, it was a bit of "same old/same old."
The only trip we ever regretted was a trip to Santo Domingo. It was the only vacation where I would have given thought to leaving early if we weren't on a charter trip. We'll just say it wasn't the vacation we had hoped for.
We've stayed in the USA and seen some beautiful things in the last few years. The Grand Canyon, and Sedona, AZ among them. I think we will try to see more of what's in our own backyard over the next several years.
Lots of great experiences!
Our travel has been limited. We don't travel for business, and we've never really been bitten by the travel bug. We have experienced a few of the Caribbean Islands.
Our first trip to Antigua was like being in a decompression chamber for a week. It was exactly what we needed at the time. We went back the next year and it was not the same. (See Legal Bill's thread for "same old, same old" )
St. Lucia was one of the prettiest islands of the Caribbean islands we visited. We saw it by land, sea and air.
One tourist trip took us by bus to an inactive volcano, a short hike through a rain forest, down to the beach were a gentleman in a boat brought us a picnic on the beach, then back to the hotel by boat.
Great way to spend the day. Aruba was a great place to visit, not pretty but almost guaranteed good weather. Last trip there though, it was a bit of "same old/same old."
The only trip we ever regretted was a trip to Santo Domingo. It was the only vacation where I would have given thought to leaving early if we weren't on a charter trip. We'll just say it wasn't the vacation we had hoped for.
We've stayed in the USA and seen some beautiful things in the last few years. The Grand Canyon, and Sedona, AZ among them. I think we will try to see more of what's in our own backyard over the next several years.
07-11-2007, 04:48 AM
#3
Originally Posted by silvershadow,Jul 11 2007, 02:44 AM
For example, in Brisbane, Australia dining al fresco by the river running through town is REALLY nice. .
Los Establos Hotel in Boquette, Panama. The hotel is in the cloud forest, and every afternoon you can sit on the veranda and watch the clouds roll into the valley below you. Very etherial.
07-11-2007, 05:05 AM
#4
Originally Posted by silvershadow,Jul 11 2007, 03:44 AM
Drinking port in Rutherglen.....
If you're into food, Melbourne is the place to be. Such a huge variety of restaurants, of every ethnic group. Set aside cash just for dining out, because you'll want to do it often.
If you're in the Gold Coast area, look up Muz - turns out we were about a mile from his place when we visited Surfer's Paradise and didn't know it.
One tip for Australia - try to plan a minimum of 3 weeks there. With travel time from the US and jet lag, you lose too much of your vacation time just getting there & getting adjusted to the time change. 4 weeks is better.
JonasM
07-11-2007, 05:21 AM
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Originally Posted by Zippy,Jul 11 2007, 08:48 AM
Los Establos Hotel in Boquette, Panama. The hotel is in the cloud forest, and every afternoon you can sit on the veranda and watch the clouds roll into the valley below you. Very etherial.
07-11-2007, 06:20 AM
#7
Originally Posted by dean,Jul 11 2007, 08:21 AM
Quick thread hijack: Are you still planning on moving to Panama/Central America?
And to get back on topic, Eating feijoada in Campinas Brazil. Campinas is a very cool college town with very friendly people.
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07-11-2007, 03:10 PM
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Originally Posted by JonasM,Jul 11 2007, 05:05 AM
.. very possibly my single favorite thing to do in Australia. One of the times we were there, I brought home a 375ml bottle of pre-WWI tokay, that is still in our cellar. Tokay is normally golden in color, this stuff was pitch black and AWESOME!
If you're into food, Melbourne is the place to be. Such a huge variety of restaurants, of every ethnic group. Set aside cash just for dining out, because you'll want to do it often.
If you're in the Gold Coast area, look up Muz - turns out we were about a mile from his place when we visited Surfer's Paradise and didn't know it.
One tip for Australia - try to plan a minimum of 3 weeks there. With travel time from the US and jet lag, you lose too much of your vacation time just getting there & getting adjusted to the time change. 4 weeks is better.
JonasM
If you're into food, Melbourne is the place to be. Such a huge variety of restaurants, of every ethnic group. Set aside cash just for dining out, because you'll want to do it often.
If you're in the Gold Coast area, look up Muz - turns out we were about a mile from his place when we visited Surfer's Paradise and didn't know it.
One tip for Australia - try to plan a minimum of 3 weeks there. With travel time from the US and jet lag, you lose too much of your vacation time just getting there & getting adjusted to the time change. 4 weeks is better.
JonasM
When I was there a few years ago, we went to All Saints (as well as Bullers. Campbells, and a few others). We walked into the tasting room and the guy behind the counter kind of gave me a nasty look (the ugly American look). We started tasting the ports and I waved him over and said that the tasting ports were pretty pedestrian, and I knew they had better stuff. So he gave us a taste of their reserve port, tokay and muscat. I bought bottles of the port and the tokay (at $95 AUD each).
Apparently it is pretty rare to sell the reserve wines because as I turned to leave, he stopped me and said that they had some other really rare port (which they called museum quality - 75 years old) that he wondered if I wanted to taste. Of course, I said yes. It was the most amazing port I have ever had. It gave the sensation of liquid gold (the metal - not the wood cleaner) Of course I had to buy a bottle (at $400 AUD). He told me that I had only the third bottle of this port in the US.
We still have a few sips of this port saved for special occasions.
On the same trip, we went to Bullers to replace a bottle that I had finished. Unfortunately, they were out, and weren't going to bottle it for another month. They found a partial bottle and gave us a taste. It was just as good as I remembered.
I remarked how disappointed I was to the guy behind the counter. He went into the office and I saw him talking to a middle-aged man in jeans and a flannel shirt. The middle-aged man came out and reiterated that they weren't going to bottling any for another month, but hated to let me go away disappointed.
He asked if we would be interested in touring the winery. Of course we said yes. He took us out into the winery and pulled samples of wine that was aging. He talked about mixing various wines to get the flavor they wanted.
He let us taste pressings of various ages and grapes. All told he spent 3 hours giving us a private tour of the winery. It was like an intensive course in oenology -specifically in fortified wines.
Who was this stranger in the jeans and flannel shirt? Andrew Buller - winemaster and grandson of the founder. When we left there, I don't think our feet were touching the ground.
As far as food, I find the food all over Australia to be great. Maybe it is because I am usually travelling with sales people from our Australian subsidiary. Sales people always seem to know the best restaurants, as long as the expense account is paying.
Unfortunately, when I go to Australia, I usually just stay for a week or two at the most. The last trip, I left on Sunday evening, arrived in Perth on Tuesday afternoon, had a meeting in Kwinana on Wednesday, flew overnight to Melbourne for another meeting, and left Friday morning to come back to the states.
07-11-2007, 03:28 PM
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Originally Posted by JonasM,Jul 11 2007, 05:05 AM
.. very possibly my single favorite thing to do in Australia. One of the times we were there, I brought home a 375ml bottle of pre-WWI tokay, that is still in our cellar. Tokay is normally golden in color, this stuff was pitch black and AWESOME!
If you ever come to Arizona, my door (and wine refrigerator) will be open.
My wife and I have joked about opening a store selling only Australian fortified wines and chocolate. We would call the store 3 G's, because we would only sell three brands of chocolate, all starting with the letter G - Godiva, Ghirardelli, and Gorant.
PS I'll even show you the picture of me with the Ned Kelly statue.
07-11-2007, 07:09 PM
#10
The Tokay is from Chambers Rosewood. The way we found out about it was via our usual method: hang around the tasting room chatting up the server until he/she sees that we're not your ordinary tourists.
Chambers Rosewood has a self-serve tasting room - bottles and glasses lined up on the bar, drink all you want, (hopefully) buy and leave. We went in, stopped in the restroom first (maybe 2 levels above an outhouse), and went over to the tasting bar. As we started, a bus rolled up full of "Vintagers" on holiday. They descended on the tasting room like a swarm of locusts - pushing & shoving their way to the bottles - "Here, Mabel, try this one!" "This one is nice!" "What's that one you're trying?" "Oh, that one is sweet!" ....... etc etc. It was 10 minutes of drink, drink, drink followed by buy, buy, buy, then they were off on their bus to the next winery, and we were left standing there with our jaws open, looking at each other like "what just happened?"
It turned out that one of the owners was manning the tasting room that day, and after about 45 minutes of chatting (we usually tell them about the NY wineries we like to visit in the finger lakes, and other places we've been), he brought out some of the 'reserve' stock from under the bar - a very nice Muskat and Tokay. After further appreciating their product, and no other business in sight, he brought out the Rare Tokay. As he told the story, when he and his family bought the winery some years back, they found at the back of the cellar, a couple of casks of tokay. The markings suggested pre-WWI, though there was no exact date on them (before we left, he took us out to the barn where some of the old casks were to show us). They bottled it as Rare Tokay. We only paid something like $135AUS for the 375ml bottle, though I found it listed on the internet within a year at $250 plus. Today they are mixing the good stuff with more recent vintages and still selling it, but we have the 100% stuff in our cellar. Maybe a trip out west would give us a reason to bring it out...
We also have a Stanton & Killeen White Port, another Bailey's Vintage, and a Wyndham Estates Tawny from the Hunter Valley, not to mention the more pedestrian Muskat & Tokay from Chambers Rosewood that we bought here locally.
Speaking of Ned Kelley - been to Bailey's of Glenrowan? Last summer, we opened a 1986 Vintage Port that we bought there. The cork completely fell apart while opening it - I had to filter it through some paper towels. I've never seen a cork so deteriorated, but the port was simply sublime. 4 of us drank the whole bottle and tasted a bit of heaven that day.
If you haven't been there yet, make sure you stop by Chateau Tahbilk in central Victoria (Nagambie region). Though some dispute it, their claim to fame is that they have possibly the oldest Shiraz vines in the world. Apparently, about 1960 or so, phylloxera wiped out all Shiraz vines in the world, only Chateau Tahbilk's vines were somehow protected. There, we had the opportunity to sample 2 wines: identical vintages, identical process, the only difference being the age of the vine (the younger vines were grown from cuttings of the old vine) - something like 50 years vs 150 year old vines. Let me tell you, there is no comparison - the old vines give such a rich flavor that the newer stuff was thin by comparison.
If Patricia gets that west coast meet going, I may end up on your doorstep, port glass in hand..... hic.....
JonasM
Chambers Rosewood has a self-serve tasting room - bottles and glasses lined up on the bar, drink all you want, (hopefully) buy and leave. We went in, stopped in the restroom first (maybe 2 levels above an outhouse), and went over to the tasting bar. As we started, a bus rolled up full of "Vintagers" on holiday. They descended on the tasting room like a swarm of locusts - pushing & shoving their way to the bottles - "Here, Mabel, try this one!" "This one is nice!" "What's that one you're trying?" "Oh, that one is sweet!" ....... etc etc. It was 10 minutes of drink, drink, drink followed by buy, buy, buy, then they were off on their bus to the next winery, and we were left standing there with our jaws open, looking at each other like "what just happened?"
It turned out that one of the owners was manning the tasting room that day, and after about 45 minutes of chatting (we usually tell them about the NY wineries we like to visit in the finger lakes, and other places we've been), he brought out some of the 'reserve' stock from under the bar - a very nice Muskat and Tokay. After further appreciating their product, and no other business in sight, he brought out the Rare Tokay. As he told the story, when he and his family bought the winery some years back, they found at the back of the cellar, a couple of casks of tokay. The markings suggested pre-WWI, though there was no exact date on them (before we left, he took us out to the barn where some of the old casks were to show us). They bottled it as Rare Tokay. We only paid something like $135AUS for the 375ml bottle, though I found it listed on the internet within a year at $250 plus. Today they are mixing the good stuff with more recent vintages and still selling it, but we have the 100% stuff in our cellar. Maybe a trip out west would give us a reason to bring it out...
We also have a Stanton & Killeen White Port, another Bailey's Vintage, and a Wyndham Estates Tawny from the Hunter Valley, not to mention the more pedestrian Muskat & Tokay from Chambers Rosewood that we bought here locally.
Speaking of Ned Kelley - been to Bailey's of Glenrowan? Last summer, we opened a 1986 Vintage Port that we bought there. The cork completely fell apart while opening it - I had to filter it through some paper towels. I've never seen a cork so deteriorated, but the port was simply sublime. 4 of us drank the whole bottle and tasted a bit of heaven that day.
If you haven't been there yet, make sure you stop by Chateau Tahbilk in central Victoria (Nagambie region). Though some dispute it, their claim to fame is that they have possibly the oldest Shiraz vines in the world. Apparently, about 1960 or so, phylloxera wiped out all Shiraz vines in the world, only Chateau Tahbilk's vines were somehow protected. There, we had the opportunity to sample 2 wines: identical vintages, identical process, the only difference being the age of the vine (the younger vines were grown from cuttings of the old vine) - something like 50 years vs 150 year old vines. Let me tell you, there is no comparison - the old vines give such a rich flavor that the newer stuff was thin by comparison.
If Patricia gets that west coast meet going, I may end up on your doorstep, port glass in hand..... hic.....
JonasM