Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and end to Germany's Iron Curtain, David Molyneaux returns for the celebrations. This is his third blog. For today's young travelers who zip around Europe, where borders of countries sometimes seem irrelevant, Germany in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s may be difficult to comprehend. Germany was two countries. Down…
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and end to Germany's Iron Curtain, David Molyneaux returns for the celebrations. This is his second blog. With its museums, theaters, outdoor cafes, fine restaurants, youthful atmosphere and thriving cultural life, Berlin has reclaimed its position as one of the great cosmopolitan cities of the world. But for 44…
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Iron Curtain, Germans celebrate. Travelers may explore old lives, chills, and fears Berlin, Germany Nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was back in the city again, timed to see what had changed since I watched a defining…
After 30 years of mandatory lifeboat drills on dozens of cruise ships, I have just finished a cruise on which — for the first time — I didn't have to wear one of those bulky orange life jackets. No, I didn't break the rules. Royal Caribbean has a new plan for the mandatory mustering of…
From the Rocky Mountaineer in Canada and the Glacier Express in Switzerland to Norway's Flam Railway (pictured above), travel journalists select the World's 10 Best Rides. Read about the Top 10 Train Rides at TheTravelMavens.com “Train travel is romantic, scenic, a wonderful way to meet and mix with locals and equally important today, a very green way to…
With some three feet of snow piling up outside my front door in Ohio, an email from Cruise Lines International caught my eye: Cruises are on sale, with discounts deeper than my swirling snow. The reason: The U.S. economy is awful, but the world's cruise ships are still sailing. Every cruise line wants to leave the…
My new favorite Starbucks is in Berlin, Germany. Twice in a week of January I sipped morning coffee and picked at a chocolate chip muffin in front of a big picture window facing the Brandenburg Gate. In the mornings, before 9, the Gate was mine. The morning sun lighted the Quadriga atop the city’s famed…
Stockholm, one of my favorite cities of Europe, is in the world spotlight this week, as Nobel Laureates arrive in Sweden to present their lectures and to await the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony on Wednesday, December 10. Wish I could be there, at Stockholm Concert Hall, for the prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and…
With more than a dozen cruise ships carrying 3,000 passengers or more — and giants of 5,500 passengers on order — what used to be called a big ship now is considered small. Mid-size? Well, that's somewhere between what once was big and what today is too big to fit through the Panama Canal. Holland…