Artwork modeled on the historic Andean khipu (aka quipu), which used knots as a record-keeping system. This was seen in the Sulca Textile House Museum near Cusco.

Further, the Incas imposed a labor-based tax system, meaning residents paid taxes with the labor most valued by their overlords. For some, that meant weaving textiles and producing cloth.
Textile center
Fast forward to the 21st century: On my recent Peru trip, I traveled with journalists as a guest of the Inkaterra hotel group. We visited a textile center that straddles the Cusco-Pisac highway about 30-35 minutes from the heart of Cusco.
The textile complex, which boasts some seriously high-end goods, is home to a handful of textile businesses. We visited two.
• The Manos de la Comunidad is a commune of some 30 to 40 weavers.
The commune keeps animals (all the camelids — alpacas, guanacos, llamas and vicunas) on site for visitor viewing, and even for photos with the animals — well, there were no photos with the wild vicunas. Many of these species provide fleece for weaving.

Guanacos greeting new arrivals at the Manos de la Comunidad, a weavers commune outside of Cusco.

We watched spinners and weavers, men and women, at their work. A host provided a short lecture about making dyes. For a further touristy touch, a few costumed musicians welcomed us. By this point, thoughts of Disneyland were traipsing across my mind.

Above, a weaver at the Manos de la Comunidad commune, showing how it is done, for the benefit of tourists. Below, musicians at the commune.

But, once I was in the showrooms, it became clear this was no chintzy tourist stop. Displays included countless woven items, generally wall hangings, but also rugs, scarves and masks. Many tapestry designs were inspired by or even outright copied from traditional patterns.

Above, on-site host at the Manos de la Comunidad displaying a handmade rug that features a traditional Inca design. Below, a tapestry, a modern take on old themes, hanging inside the commune showrooms.

Then, there were the modern, even rather edgy, designs that nevertheless reflected precolonial influences. Their colors were vivid and the creativity eye popping.
• The Sulca Textile House Museum, created by the Sulca family, is across the highway from the commune.
Our guide said the Sulca business creates its products in Ayacucho while the Cusco site is a place for exhibiting and selling the goods.
The work is meant to preserve an old culture. The Sulca business uses traditional methods of production for its products, our guide said, and weavers often replicate precolonial designs. The museum displays both historical tapestries and some of Sulca’s own finest pieces.

Above and below, weavings that copy precolonial patterns, seen inside the Sulca Textile House Museum. It seems the Inca squares are everywhere.

We watched and photographed three women demonstrating backstrap weaving, but Sulca’s large demo looms were silent when we visited. Corrals accommodate camelids here, as well.

Backstrap weaving on the grounds of the Sulca Textile House Museum.

For me, the textiles made for a great show, but I did not buy. I already have two Peruvian tapestries, and my walls cannot take more. Other shopping options included wool clothing — a fellow traveler bought coats of baby alpaca fleece.

One of my Peruvian tapestries, called “The Banquet.”

Machu Picchu
Other shopping options may be easier to access — depending on one’s itinerary.
During this recent Peru visit, I spent a day in Machu Picchu Pueblo, the small tourist town (population 6,000) that is the starting point for all the up-the-mountainside, down-the-mountainside bus trips to and from the Machu Picchu archaeological site.
I see that, in an earlier diary, I had dismissed the settlement as barely worth noting. But I don’t dismiss it anymore.
Machu Picchu Pueblo’s public spaces — a main square with the de rigueur church and city hall, plus promenades on either side of the Aguas Calientes River that slices through the middle — were a pleasant surprise. And I relished buying small gifts in a large outdoor artisans market created just for out-of-towners like me.

Above, a small section of the sizeable artisans market next to the train station in Machu Picchu Pueblo. This merchant emphasized woven goods and hats. Below, the main square in Machu Picchu Pueblo.

Pisac, Ollantaytambo
In 2011, I had access to colorful rows of stalls in Pisac, still one of Peru’s better-known market towns. It is in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, meaning in the valley of the Urubamba River. It’s billed as a market town where locals come to buy, sell and barter goods, but the tourist element was quite big here.

Above and below, a wide array of woven and other goods on offer to visiting shoppers in Pisac, Peru’s popular market town (2011 photos).

Ditto for the rows of stalls at Ollantaytambo. Just FYI, while the shopping opportunity at Ollantaytambo is substantial, the key touristic reason for a visit is to view the town’s Inca-era Temple of the Sun and Terrace of the Ten Niches, situated on mountainsides and overlooking the market and the rest of the town. Oh, and there are terraces all over the mountains, too.

Ollantaytambo, the town, its market (roofs seen at center foreground) and the valley where it sits, as viewed from mountainside terraces. The Ten Niches are barely visible in the upper lefthand corner (2011 photo).

One final thing to share, mainly because it amused me so much: In 2025, while in Cusco, local merchants were quite eager to do business, sometimes on the street rather than in shops. One woman, with goods draped over her arm, walked behind me, urging me to have a look. She advised that she would accept American Express.
For more information about Peru, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Land of Machu Picchu at https://besttripchoices.com/peru/
This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Peru: Textiles as language appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

The drink itself is nutritious, my group’s guide averred, because of the minerals in the corn and minerals picked up by grinding the grain on volcanic rock. He also said the new brew may have a 3% alcoholic content, but the alcohol level could be a lot higher with more fermentation.

Our guide stoking the fire before adding ground corn and flour to boiling water in the early phase of converting corn into the alcoholic drink, chicha de jora.

I wanted to see this demonstration and participate as well because the story of the beer is fascinating and it is a traditional part of Peru’s culture. Besides, fortunately, the beer we tasted at the conclusion did not have a high alcohol content!!

Peru’s appeal

You like archaeology? The country is rich with Inca and pre-Inca ruins, literally piles of ruins in addition to the best known of the lot, Machu Picchu. Plus there is a lot of nicely preserved colonial architecture.

One of numerous Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. These giant terraces, known collectively as the Fortress or Temple Hill, sit below the Inca Temple of the Sun, in the town of Ollantaytambo. (2011 photo)

You like scenery? Peru geography includes parts of the Amazon River system, Andean mountains galore punctuated with gorgeous deep valleys and the altiplano (basically a very high plateau), plus a capital, Lima,  that sits on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas. The valley floor where I took this photo is 9,776 feet above sea level.

You want an active vacation? Peru offers adventure sports such as trekking, horseback riding, mountain biking and rafting. Or, you can get out and about in search of the wildlife. For the truly Peru-specific thing, walk the Inca Trail (two-day or four-day version) to the Machu Picchu archaeological site. Except for those who walk, the only Machu Picchu access is via train to the village of Machu Picchu Pueblo, which sits below the ruins.

PeruRail cars readied for the journey from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu Pueblo, the village that sits below the famed Machu Picchu site.

You want to shop? Souvenir hunting, involving lots of brightly colored woven goods, is cost effective and rewarding at any popular tourist site and market town. Besides, there are multiple options to buy high-end goods, especially woven tapestries that could easily, and sometimes do, hang in art galleries.

You like food? The country, home to multiple species of several New World foods — Brazil nuts, chocolate, corn, potatoes, quinoa — is a foodie destination, most notably Lima. Specialties also include alpaca, guinea pig (cuy, locally) and the really delectable ceviche. UNESCO in 2023 placed Peruvian ceviche on its list of intangible cultural heritages of humanity.

Alpacas, a source of wool and food.

Inkaterra

So naturally, my trip was too short. In Peru, trips always are. For this outing, I joined a press trip hosted by Peru’s Inkaterra hotels. A pioneer in sustainable tourism, Inkaterra is the winner of several sustainability prizes; it was recognized by the UN in 2021 as the world’s first climate positive hotel brand.

Chicha making is one of several cultural activities that, along with other more active options, is included in room rates at the Inkaterra properties. The Inkaterra properties offer their adventure/nature/eco-focused experiences to customers at any of five (soon to be six) mostly five-star hotels, located in forested and mountainous landscapes and at altitudes ranging from 600 feet above sea level in the Amazon River basin to 11,152 feet in Cusco. Our group stayed at three Inkaterra hotels, and also lunched at the super high-end La Casona, a protected 16th century manor house in Cusco.

The central square at the heart of historic Cusco, a city rich in colonial heritage.

Our group hiked or floated on oxbow lakes and the Madre de Dios River to see or look for flora (the walking tree was the best) and fauna, such as tiny long-nosed bats, caimans, red howlers and even butterflies camping on turtles’ heads.

Above, tiny long-nosed bats positioned head down on a tree trunk. Below, butterflies drink the tears of turtles, for the sodium. Both were seen on the oxbow lake on the grounds of Hacienda Concepcion, which abuts the Madre de Dios River in the Amazon basin.

Beer, nuts, tea, stargazing, chocolate

However, we didn’t do any serious trekking, mountain biking, or the like, so I am emphasizing the cultural side of things below. Further to the cultural theme, sessions included:

• Making beer, as mentioned, while a guest at Hacienda Urubamba in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. As our guide showed us how to grind the corn, he advised that the entire process takes a couple of weeks. The ingredient list is short: yellow corn, flour, herbs, water — and a bit of chicha to kick-start fermentation. Chicha traditions, which predate European contact, call for saving some of each newly made brew for rituals and sharing the rest with the neighbors the minute it’s ready, usually with salsa on the side.

• Harvesting the arguably misnamed Brazil nuts, at Hacienda Concepcion in the rainforest outside Puerto Maldonado. Most often found in Bolivia and Peru as well as in Brazil, these trees cannot be domesticated so the nuts are harvested in the wild. Peru’s trees, protected on government land, drop shells — about 300 annually from a mature tree — each containing up to 22 seeds that must be hulled. Licensed harvesters use machetes to open the hard shells. Then, it is mostly women (“they’re more patient,” our guide said) who remove the husks from the seeds, using a vise. We tried our hands at removing husks without smashing the nuts. It does take patience.

An opened Brazil nut shell and its 10-plus nuts. In the next step, nuts are shelled in a vise.

• Making tea, at Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. This Inkaterra property sits on 12.3 acres, which accommodate a tiny tea plantation — as well as 372 native orchid species, BTW. As to tea, the plants, originally from Japan, are 75 years old. Hotel staffers harvest and make tea, black and green, year round. For our part, we “harvested” a tiny number of leaves, rolled tea leaves and, skipping steps, made and filled teabags for use later the same evening. Machu Picchu Pueblo, which gives this hotel its name, is a small (6,000 people) village that was founded after discovery of the Machu Picchu archaeological site.

Above, sweeping view of the Machu Picchu archaeological site. Below, llamas hanging out on the terraces at Machu Picchu. (2011 photos)

• Twilight stargazing, at Hacienda Urubamba, to gain insights into how Andean groups have relied on the stars for things like marking the seasons. Our outing involved a short tutorial on constellations seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

• Chocolate making, at Hacienda Concepcion. Although not on our itinerary, we watched a guest grinding cacao nuts as part of a chocolate making endeavor. This is worth mentioning because 60% of the world’s cacao species are indigenous to Peru. In fact, given Peru and its neighbors were key to bringing chocolate to the world, I am wondering why I didn’t eat more of it while so close to the source.

Above and below, more scenery, seen in this case while traveling the high-altitude roads outside of Cusco. The photo above was taken through a van window.

I meant to discuss shopping here, too, but this blog grew too fast. I discuss the shopping separately here: https://besttripchoices.com/peru-textiles-as-language/

For more information about Peru, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Land of Machu Picchu at https://besttripchoices.com/peru/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Peru: Making beer, cracking nuts appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

It’s called La Prison Hotel for good reason, but not just for its history. In cheeky ways, the property, which debuted in 2023, very much holds onto its past with unique design elements.

The hotel shop abuts the reception area; after hours, the shop is locked up with bars that give the appearance of a prison cell. In fact, the shop sells jumpsuits, in black though, not orange.

Reception desk at La Prison Hotel. In the background, the hotel shop, closed up during off hours by bars in keeping with the property’s origin story.

Or, in the case of rooms, those spaces weren’t designed to look like cells — they were cells.

The layout in my prison ward, with walkways overlooking an atrium that would give a warden a view of every door on several floors, is unchanged. My door was a prison door, and the room — er, cell — a narrow space with a vaulted ceiling, a narrow window (bars removed) and hangers, but no closet or minibar.

Atrium in La Prison Hotel, the same atrium that once served a prison cellblock.

The bed wasn’t nails — the mattress was superb — and the adjacent bathroom a gleaming modern affair.

I had a unit in the Standard Cell category, which accommodates two narrow beds. The bathroom was carved from half of the next-door cell. The other half of that cell became the bathroom for the cell two doors down the hall from me.

My room at La Prison Hotel, unabashedly Spartan because this was a cell. (Bathrooms are considerably less Spartan.)

As the property says on its website, La Prison “was never a castle, and therefore, our rooms are former cells. So staying with us will require a little flexibility of mind and body.”

When I chose La Prison last spring (2024), I viewed those features as entertainment. Besides, the location is the best. La Prison is in the forecourt of the 13th century Beziers Cathedral, which puts the hotel a 10-minute walk from the town center.

It also places the hotel right at the tip of a striking promontory that overlooks the Orb River, a 12th century bridge and a swath of town. The result is sweeping views from the hotel’s restaurant and from some cells.

Above, sweeping view of Beziers with its cathedral as the centerpiece at top and the town’s medieval bridge in the foreground. Below, closer in, La Prison Hotel in the foreground, with Beziers Cathedral in the background.

For more information about France, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, S’il vous plait, at https://besttripchoices.com/france/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post France: To sleep, perchance to dream — in a prison cell appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

The Zadar area is known for Bluefin tuna that is bred in very large cages and highly valued around the world, especially in Japan. For our dinner plates, it had been briefly seared and was served with chicory cream, cucumber marinated in lime, parsley oil and fish sauce. So simple, it seems, but there is not a chance on earth that I could make that at home.

Zadar, a city of about 71,000, laid on the dinner spread in partnership with the Croatian National Tourist Board. The sponsors, in workshops as well as social events, were promoting their wares to U.S. travel professionals, including travel journalists. Which is how I came to be on the guest list.

For someone who grew up in landlocked America, the amount of seafood (five of six courses preceding dessert) was very impressive indeed. But then, Zadar faces the Adriatic Sea, a very good place to grow up whether you are human or fish.

Kayaking on the Adriatic Sea, with Zadar in the background.

The city is on the northern Dalmatian Coast but doesn’t get the attention that the better known Dubrovnik and Split receive.

Our feast was accompanied by a short presentation meant to explain why Zadar deserves more attention. In my case, it was a refresher course because I visited the city 10 years ago; I still have my contemporaneous stories, a diary and photos. In 2013, I was traveling on a travel agent familiarization tour (i.e., a learning tour), which meant our group visited as many places as possible in a very short time.

Zadar boasts a long history — some 3,000 years. The Romans were there, of course; they were everywhere. Sadly, Zadar’s Roman remains are minimal.

But, the city’s Old Town, through its churches and UNESCO-protected city walls, provides a glimpse of the medieval city.

Above, remains of a Roman Forum in Zadar’s Old Town.
Below, the ninth century St. Donat Church, built using stones from the ruined Roman Forum. The bell tower associated with the 12th/13th century Zadar Cathedral is at right.

Oddly, the part I remembered best was the newest thing — something called the Sea Organ. The name suggests seafood, but oh no. It’s not that.

The Sea Organ is an underwater musical instrument installed in the Old Town in 2005. Situated under marble steps that descend into the Adriatic Sea, its pipes blow notes in random order, determined by the movement of the sea. If the waters are still, there is no sound; if waters are rough, the music is loud. As I listened, the music didn’t sound all that random, but positively melodic.

The same architect, Nikola Basic, also created Zadar’s Monument to the Sun, a large sidewalk-level circle of solar-powered cells that collect their energy by day and return the energy at night with a multicolored light display.

During my group’s daytime visit, we walked across the circle, which is the centerpiece of an open plaza near the sea (and near the Sea Organ). But our group left town too soon to see the Monument to the Sun deliver its after-dark payoff.

More about that Old Town

Zadar’s pedestrian-only Old Town is set on a small peninsula that parallels the mainland, and it still uses the street plan laid out by the Romans who arrived there in the second century B.C.

View of walls surrounding Zadar’s Old Town — with a 21st century advertiser’s billboard. The Old Town sits on a peninsula. Water in the foreground is the natural harbor located between that peninsula  and mainland Zadar.

The remains of Roman columns sit at the site of the Forum, as do a few churches. The Forum was active until the third century. In the sixth century, it was destroyed in an earthquake.

The oldest of the churches is the ninth century St. Donat Church, built using some of the Roman stones; it is now a concert hall.

My group walked into the city’s cathedral, which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. The top level of the church was destroyed in World War II and the rebuilt sections were easy to pick out.

Interior of the Zadar Cathedral, where smooth-surfaced walls at the top reveal the portions that were destroyed during World War II and rebuilt after.

Just before entering the cathedral, our local guide advised that we were forbidden to take photos inside, adding she was obliged to tell us that. I understood that latter remark as a cue that I could take sneak shots, so I did.

The city’s medieval walls (also from the 12th and 13th centuries) provided a pretty — and photogenic — backdrop to the natural harbor between the Old Town peninsula and mainland Zadar. Numerous small boats, often pleasure vessels, further enhanced this scene.

Business establishments in the heart of Zadar and near the cathedral.

A side street in Zadar’s Old Town, leading to one of the historic area’s several small churches

Above, modern additions to the Zadar streetscape, found near, but not inside, the Old Town. Below, for something else in the newer category, but with very old antecedents, Zadar boasts a small sphinx, seen in a local park. It dates from the early 20th century.

More about that food

My diary says we had a “very nice” dinner in Zadar, but I don’t remember details. My diary also tells me our group stopped briefly in a little place called Nin, which, it says, “today is the sanctuary of a tiny church, one of the country’s oldest.” That is the Church of St. Nicholas where, tradition says, seven Croatian kings were crowned.

The tiny Church of St. Nicholas in Nin, Croatia, built on an earthen mound atop unexcavated prehistoric graves. Battlements were added to the top because of danger from the Turks.

But the diary doesn’t mention salt! Maybe because salt in and of itself is not a typical tourist attraction.

Anyway, it turns out that Nin is home to salt fields, where locals have harvested natural salts for 1,500 years. Nin Saltworks bills its product as good for nutrition and health — and packages its finishing salt in round boxes, a few of which turned up on the tables at the Zadar dinner in New York City.

Salt and olive oil, products from the Zadar area.

The chefs ensured we sampled pretty much any specialty food or drink that comes from the Zadar region, including Pag cheese, made on the island of Pag near Zadar; several dinner wines, generally whites; olive oil (bottles of Zadar oils sat on each dinner table, too), and cherries — well, not cherries specifically, but a sweet dessert wine made using marasca sour cherries.

These same cherries are the basis for the Maraschino liqueur, created in a 16th century monastery in Zadar and still made locally. Also, the marasca cherries were the original (and authentic) Maraschino cherries. Although most cocktail cherries these days are soaked in syrup, the first Maraschino cherries, in the 19th century, were soaked in the liqueur of the same name. News to me.

For more information about Croatia, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, A young old country, https://besttripchoices.com/croatia/

This blog and its photos (all dated 2013 except the last one) are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Croatia: The lesser-known Dalmatian Coast appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

Parts of Sweden’s capital were built on 14 islands, located on the east coast of Sweden. Most tourist visits center on very few of those islands: The must-visit City Hall is dramatically sited on the pointy end of Kungsholmen; the Old Town actually is an island called Gamla Stan, site of the Royal Palace and Stockholm Cathedral, and Djurgarden is a little hotbed of popular museums.

Viking Museum

My friend and I arrived on the afternoon of a rainy crappy-skies day so it was museum time. We headed to Djurgarden and got a bit lost on the island, but we found the Viking Museum.

The small facility, which debuted in 2017, has lots of interactive elements and signage meant to paint a reasonably realistic picture of the life and times of people known to us as Vikings.

We were greeted at the museum by a costumed ticket seller, who smiled and posed for photos, but didn’t sell me a ticket. I was using an inclusive city pass; Stockholm’s Go City pass, for a single price, admits its holder to a raft of museums and activities (and that’s pretty handy).

My friend and I went straight for the “adventure ride” called “Ragnfrid’s Saga.” This is an audiovisual presentation that involves riding in cars, much as at a carnival, from one point to another, in this case to see dioramas that illustrate each element of the fictional story of a 10th century man called Harald (Ragnfrid is his wife), who has to become a marauding Viking to capture riches and support his family. His travels take him as far as Constantinople (now Istanbul) for a sighting of Hagia Sophia. Each museum visitor chooses the language to be piped into his/her car.

Although this saga is fiction, the tale is based on true stories and experiences of folks in Viking times. The “adventure” also was fun and a good chance to sit for a while before walking around the museum.

On exhibit at the Viking Museum, the recreated version of a Viking dragon ship,  adorned with shields on the side. The name comes from the dragon head represented on the prow

Displays included a sample of what a brightly painted Viking ship would have looked like, games and other artifacts found at archaeological digs, models of meeting rooms and temples plus holograms of men and women in the types of clothing that Vikings would have worn, depending on wealth and position in life.

Reconstruction of a Viking man, who died when he was 45 to 60 in the late 10th or early 11th century. His grave was found in Sigtuna, north of Stockholm, and reconstruction was based on osteological analyses.

Small model of a Viking pagan temple. The original was found in Uppakra in southern Sweden.

Model for a Viking board game called hnefatafl, a game that seems to have enjoyed the same kind of status that chess does today.

The information boards on the walls shared fun facts like these: The average height for a Viking man was 5 feet, 7 inches, for the woman, 5 feet, 3 inches. The diet was mostly vegetarian because meat was expensive. Childhood ended at around age 12. Oh, and, Vikings left graffiti on the walls of Hagia Sophia.

Another fun fact is of special interest to me: The Viking Age is said to have extended from around 800 to 1066, the year the Norwegian king, Harald Hradrada, lost his bid to take the throne from England’s King Harold, the latter sometimes identified as Harold Godwin (my surname) or Godwinson.

Moving on from the Vikings but remaining on Djurgarden island, the Museum of Spirits (meaning the liquid kind) sounded amusing, but it was too late in the day for that. We did have time for the ABBA Museum — or so it seemed until we saw the line that went on forever. We went to dinner.

Vasa Museum

We came back to Djurgarden island on another day for one of Stockholm’s most-visited attractions, the Vasa Museum.

This is essentially a single cavernous hall built to accommodate and preserve a 17th century wooden warship called the Vasa that was large enough to house 450 boys and men (not comfortably, mind you).

Above. The 17th century Vasa seen at ground floor level of the Vasa Museum. Below, Vasa seen at a higher viewing level. The photos give some indication of how large the ship is.

The thing is, the Vasa sank in the Stockholm harbor 20 minutes after its launch in August 1628. It went down in water 100 feet deep, drowning around 30 people including at least one woman. The vessel was rediscovered in the 1950s and brought out of the water, pretty much in one piece, in 1961, 333 years after it sank. It then took 18 years to treat and preserve the ship’s wood.

The Vasa fared incredibly well (it is 98% original) because worms that would destroy the wood cannot live in the salty Baltic.

The ship is remarkable for its size and for, believe it or not, beauty. It is so tall, we looked at it on the ground floor and from viewing floors at five other levels.

And we could see this was a fabulous-looking ship when it launched — it was decorated with more than 700 brightly painted sculptures. The wooden sculptures are in position, but all that color is gone. As compensation, the museum displays some full-sized reproductions of sample sculptures and a small model of the entire ship to indicate how the original colors looked.

Above, a closer look at the numerous sculptures that decorate the Vasa’s prow. Below, a small reproduction of the ship designed to show how the ship must have looked just before it sank in 1628.

My companion and I managed to join a free 25-minute English-language guided tour, then sat in on a short film about the ship (English subtitles). The tour was loaded with juicy tidbits (some included above), and I loved the film’s reimagining of 17th century Stockholm, its people and housing, the finished ship and its collapse.

City Hall

We made two visits to City Hall, the first a viewing of the exterior during a city tour. A century old this year (2023), it is a huge red brick building inspired by Italian palaces and city halls, with one very tall tower. To emphasize the connection to medieval models, every brick in the building was made by hand.

Stockholm City Hall seen from the Stromma boat tour.

Our guide said dozens of weddings occur in City Hall each Saturday. The long ceremony lasts three minutes and the short lasts 45 to 60 seconds depending on how fast everyone talks, she quipped.

We came back early (8:30 a.m.) another day aiming to buy tickets for the 10 a.m. English-language guided tour inside the building. What idiots!

On this peak-season June day, the line for tickets snaked around inside a large open-air courtyard and out onto the sidewalk, and, it turned out, there would be only 35 tickets for each of six English-language tours for the day.

Entry courtyard to the City Hall, where hundreds of visitors waited for a chance at a relatively few tickets for guided tours of the interior.

But we could, and did, opt for free entry to the Blue Hall, site of the Nobel Prize banquet each Dec. 10, and the Golden Hall, a large (6,458 square feet) hall, used for banquets and concerts.

The Blue Hall is really a large covered courtyard, and it gets its name from the architect’s original intent to paint the walls blue. He changed his mind after he saw and liked the look of the handmade red bricks.

City Hall’s Blue Room, the covered courtyard that never got its coat of paint. It is the setting for the annual Nobel Prize gala dinner.

And the Golden Hall is decorated corner to corner with vignettes telling stories from Sweden’s history. The medium is mosaics, including almost 18 million golden tiles. This is a jaw-dropping room to explore — and there was no one hustling us to move along.

Above and below, the City Hall’s Golden Room, covered in golden mosaics and a series of vignettes that tell the story of Stockholm.

Boat tour

When our Stockholm sojourn became sunny and hot, we went to sea. More precisely, we joined a two-hour, 15-minute boat trip among the city’s several islands; the trip, operated by Stromma, was called Under the Bridges of Stockholm. The boat was enclosed (good cover under hot sun) but with open windows (good for photos).

I pretty much took photos of everything that looked reasonably photogenic and had sun on it — for 176 shots, more than one per minute!!

Above, view of Riddarholmen, a tiny island next to Gamla Stan (Old Town), seen from the boat tour. Below, further images caught during the boat tour, colorful houses near the water line, pleasure boats from one end of the horizon to the other and a waterside warehouse, irresistible with its vivid red paint job.

We all had earplugs and could choose our language for listening to a recorded narration. Despite the narrative, it was often hard to visualize where we were, but I did not worry about that too much.

We did, however, hear about some rather blood-curdling episodes in Sweden’s capital city:

A) Stockholm Bloodbath, 1520, when Danish King Christian II (reigned 1513–23) slaughtered some 80 or so Swedish nobles. That brought on the final phase of a Swedish war of secession from a union of three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden), producing the stand-alone Swedish kingdom in 1523. Sweden has been celebrating the 500th anniversary of that independence all this year, 2023.

About those vignettes in City Hall, this one illustrates the so-called Stockholm Bloodbath. A figure at upper right appears to be ready to do in the figure at left, and below are two bodies flowing in water. Grim stuff.

B) The Great Noise, a frenzy of witch trials (1668-1676) that left around 300 people, mostly women, dead and makes the Salem witch trials of 1692, during which 19 people and two dogs were executed, look mild.

C) Black Death. The 1710-1711 outbreak killed one third of the Stockholm population.

It’s amazing how this kind of info sticks in the mind.

Gamla Stan

The island location of Stockholm’s birthplace was on our guided tour.

Our stroll that day took us through a warren of sweet little streets plus squares that weren’t square, and then we landed at Stortorget (Grand Square) in the heart of Old Town. Suddenly, I recognized a line of houses from my only previous visit to Stockholm, in December 1990, when the square was abuzz with a Christmas market.

During this summer’s guided tour, it was a rainy mess so my friend and I returned to the Old Town two days later under sunny skies (after the boat tour). I knew what I wanted — an outdoor lunch in Stortorget with a full view of the remembered charming houses. Which is why we ate at a perfectly situated restaurant called Stortorgkallaren. Furthermore, I did not have to turn my head very much to look at the Nobel Prize Museum, the former Stock Exchange Building. And, oh yes, the food was good.

Stortorget (Grand Square), in the heart of Old Town, site of a Christmas market when I first saw it in 1990. Our lunch site this year was under the red awning at left.

The Nobel Prize Museum, also on Stortorget in Old Town.

After lunch, I had time for the Royal Palace. As a bonus, this year, the palace devoted a piece of its exhibit space to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf, who was crowned in 1973. (You will note, lots of anniversaries for one year.)

The Royal Palace, not far from Stortorget in Stockholm’s Old Town.

However, I’m not very interested in indoor tourism when the weather beyond the doors is perfect. Skipping the palace, I chewed up a couple of hours walking all over Gamla Stan taking pictures and looking down every side street.

Above and below, scenes from a leisurely stroll from one end of Gamla Stan to the other. The sculpture in last photo is “St. George Killing the Dragon,” a copy of a more colorful version found inside Stockholm Cathedral.

What a good deal that all those digital photos are free (after buying the camera)!

For more information about Stockholm, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, ‘Scandinavia’s capital,’ https://besttripchoices.com/stockholm-sweden/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Sweden: A capital location appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

I had arrived on the fifth day of the eight-day Festival of Indra Jatra, the rain god. A central part of the celebration is a procession of three golden “chariots,” one carrying the “living goddess,” who is, in reality, a young and mortal girl.

Locals gather to watch the Festival of Indra Jatra, the rain god, in Kathmandu, 1970.

Above, Temple of the Living Goddess, seen in 1978 when it was easier to get photos. Skies were also bluer on that visit. Below, a Kathmandu city center scene.

But before I saw any of the main procession, I spotted a torchbearer leading a small contingent, which included at its head three masked dancers and a drummer. As the dance group broke up, onlookers reached out to touch the performers.

Walking further, I found a man spraying water at the crowd. Then a papier mache elephant led by a man with torch charged into and out of the crowd. I took a slight hit from that.

I next found the largest of the golden “chariots,” which looked to me more like a floating pagoda than a chariot. A number of men, pulling two ropes, moved the thing onto a sort of temple platform. A man appeared to be handing something down to people in the crowd (maybe coins?), seemingly from the “goddess” seated well above the rest of us. This generated some fun and a great squabble.

The event was exotic, fascinating and, by my standards, also chaotic.

Monkey Temple, Kathmandu, which has no connection to this blog other than I like it.

I had expected none of this activity in Kathmandu. Furthermore, my trip, taken in 1970, coincided with other bigger events that had little effect on my journey. On Sept. 6 and 9 of that year, a number of Palestinians collected hostages by hijacking four airplanes, three meant to go to New York.

Pan Am’s 747 was forcibly landed at Cairo on Sept. 6 and destroyed the same day. The other three were still parked at an obscure landing site in Jordan when I flew through the neighborhood on Sept. 11; they were destroyed on Sept. 12.

The trip home was atypical, too. Egypt’s president Gamal Nasser had died. His funeral, on Oct. 1, drew massive numbers of mourners to Cairo and produced real chaos, with at least 46 killed in the crush. My flight home took me through Cairo on Oct. 2. Passengers were not allowed off our plane during the layover, but some government delegations to the funeral boarded and left Cairo with us. I can only imagine that the airport was chaotic that day, too.

Over the years since, my itineraries have dropped me into other unexpected situations. Diaries and photos helped with recollections of Nepal’s festival, above, and of other surprises, as follows.

1972: Independence Day, Indonesia. I flew into Medan on the island of Sumatra on Aug. 17 having no idea this was Indonesia’s Independence Day. That meant there were virtually no services at the airport, but I somehow managed to arrange to be picked up and driven to the office of Seiba Tours, which fortuitously was open.

My diary says I was “brought to the city in a mess of people and vehicles.” In another stroke of good luck, the tour company’s office was right on the route for the day’s celebratory parade.

So, I spent an hour or two literally leaning on the doorjamb as I watched and photographed the passing marchers. This show included lots of military and school groups, but of most interest to me, there were numerous groups in traditional costumes from various regions or Indonesian islands.

Marchers in Indonesia’s Independence Day parade wearing traditional garb of the Karo people, who hail from the province of North Sumatra in Indonesia.

Men of Nias Island at Indonesia’s Independence Day parade, in Medan, capital of the North Sumatra province on Sumatra. Some carry spears; Nias men are known for their war dances.

1983: Coptic Orthodox Easter. I had already been booked to Egypt and North Yemen when I learned I would arrive in Cairo on the Saturday of Orthodox Easter weekend.

With that bit of warning, I arranged to be picked up on arrival day, almost immediately after hotel check-in, and transported to the city’s humongous St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral.

Coptic Easter ceremonies were to begin two or three hours before midnight on the Saturday night, with the mass itself lasting another two and a half hours or more, beginning at midnight. I attended the part that occurred before 12.

Men sat on one side and women on the other. A woman behind me periodically gave instructions, very cordially, advising when to stand and also advising me not to cross my legs during a church service because that was considered improper.

Chanting priests walked the length of the church and circled the altar a number of times, with at least one swinging a censer and leaving a trail of incense. The chants were not music as Westerners describe it, but the Copts characterize the chanted liturgy as a symphony.

The pageantry also included a procession down the center aisle led by a bishop and priests in gold and white vestments, followed by a score of young white-robed seminarians and other worshippers, some bearing tall staffs topped with heavy Coptic crosses.

Bishop and priests who led services that preceded Easter mass in Cairo’s St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral.

The bishop’s distinctive golden vestments are seen most vividly here.

Procession participants assembled near the altar in Cairo’s St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral toward the end of services that preceded Easter mass.

As I left around midnight, it was a madhouse outside the church door with children and adults in Easter finery running around and making lots of noise.

The drive out of the cathedral compound was equally mad, with way too little room for the traffic. I was certain my driver would hit someone. But he didn’t. Then, I spent the ride to my hotel hoping my tailgating driver would not have an accident! He didn’t.

2000: War in Ethiopia. I attended a travel industry conference in Addis Abba, Ethiopia’s capital, and had plans for additional touring. Over four days, I was to have flown to historical sites to the north, then return to Addis for my flight home.

However, a simmering war between the central government and then-secessionist Eritrea heated up; the government canceled all flights to the north and, thus, drastically changed the nature of my travels.

The place I most wanted to see was Lalibela, a former capital at about 8,630 feet above sea level and site of fabled medieval Ethiopian Orthodox churches, 13 of them, carved from rock and situated below ground.

Above, view of the cross-shaped top of the rock-hewn St. Giorgis (St. George) Church in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Below, a fuller view of St. Giorgis, which is nearly 40 feet tall.

Getting there by car would require 16 hours each way including meals and photo stops, leaving me a total of five hours for Lalibela sightseeing. I paid my tour provider a surcharge for this truncated version of my itinerary, but with a car and driver. Accommodations found to and from Lalibela were rock-bottom spartan.

Priest at the small Beta Meskal (House of the Cross) rock-hewn church in Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Traditional two-story round house in Lalibela, Ethiopia

At the time, I wrote a newspaper column reporting the following:

* We were stopped at a police security point at Kombolcha and asked to show my permit to travel north of Addis. I had none. Nearly two hours later, when the police chief gave permission to proceed, I was standing in a tiny room at a tiny police station, jammed full of people. I counted 14 men besides my driver, at least 12 of them onlookers. One rested on a cot, his head on his monster gun. It turned out only journalists needed the travel permit, but no one asked my profession.

* We stopped for many photos, especially of women because they wore traditional dress and often elaborately braided hairdos. Once, 10 young Oromo women posed in a line until the clicking stopped. All sported the intricate cornrows.

Above and below, young women who agreed to be photographed at one of several impromptu roadside stops during a drive across Ethiopia. As I took photos, the group got larger.

* On the last day, we stopped at a market. I photographed women, some with tattoos on their faces, and my driver bought a lamb for $5, $2 off Addis prices. The lamb rode the last five hours to the Addis airport inside our Land Cruiser — because I refused to let the driver tie him to the roof.

Two young women seen in the market town visited en route back to Addis Ababa.

Others: This is getting too long. A separate posting will deal with surprise events in Europe.

See more about Egypt and Indonesia at BestTripChoices.com:

https://besttripchoices.com/egypt/

https://besttripchoices.com/indonesia/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Anywhere: Of festivals and war zones appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

That’s a precise but inadequate collection of words when measured against the real thing on the west coast of Norway. The numerous fjords that turn Norway’s coast into a jagged line are routinely, and rightly, called beautiful, awesome and more.

Rather than conjuring more adjectives, I will interrupt this narrative with a small gallery of my photos collected in those fjords this summer (2023).

Except for the last one, photos above and below were taken over a period of three days while sailing amid the fjords of Norway. The last photo is a scene on the Sognefjord visible from quayside in the small town of Balestrand.

With Jim, my travel companion, I joined a three-day cruise tour into Norway’s fjords, departing from Bergen early on a June morning.

This initial four-hour foray into those narrow inlets took us into the country’s longest (100 miles) and deepest, the Sognefjord, and to a tiny dot on the map, the town of Balestrand (population, 1,300 or so).

We sailed out of Bergen Harbor and through the waters near it, waters that together constitute the Byfjord, a name that simply means Cityfjord.

We traveled aboard a ferry, operated by Norled, which offered plenty of indoor seating, as well as good space to sit or stand on front and back decks to gawk at the scenery, literally for hours. I gawked at the scenery, literally for hours.

I wore a jacket for this, which was good. Although the morning became quite sunny, the wind produced by our relatively quick pace on the water was at times bracing.

Balestrand

We arrived at Balestrand around noon, walked the short and steep route to our hotel where we could quickly drop baggage and shed coats. It was a lot warmer on land under the sun with no wind.

Coming into the quay, which is to the left, on arrival at Balestrand.

We were staying at the 190-room Kviknes Hotel, a charming wooden resort built, in 1913, in what is called the Swiss style (and without elevators). There is a newer addition (with elevators), but I don’t know when that was built. The hotel business itself has been operated by the same family since 1877.

The 1913 wing of the Kviknes Hotel.

Jim and I couldn’t check in until 3 p.m. so we dropped by a tiny grocery to buy anything picnic-y, then munched those snacks while sitting in one of the prettiest places ever. Although the bulk of Balestrand faces the Sognefjord, we stumbled onto the part that does not: We found benches facing a tiny arm of the Sognefjord, the Esefjord, with snowcapped mountains for a backdrop.

On the Esefjord, site of our lunch.

During lunch, a small bird dive-bombed Jim’s sandwich and may have gotten a piece of it, then a seabird appeared ready to do the same. I got a few really nice photos at the lunch site but sadly nothing of this excitement.

We still had time to kill so we set out along Balestrand’s main street seeing, most impressively, the 19th century St. Olaf’s stave church. Because it is still an active church and not so old, its exterior is painted with a yellowish trim. Any other stave churches I have seen were older (a LOT older), darker and unpainted.

The 19th century St. Olaf’s stave church in Balestrand.

We stopped at two Viking burial mounds, the taller one said to hide the grave of a legendary King Bele, a figure from the saga of Fritjof the warrior. The cone-shaped mounds are definitely unnatural and intriguing — and easy to climb.

Along the way, we found a few of the town’s villas erected by local artists between 1890 and 1900, and notable for several reasons. They are tall, rather intricate affairs painted red and featuring lots of balconies, tiered roof levels and rooftop elements using a dragon motif. (The dragonheads are a symbol taken from Nordic sagas.) Most interesting to me: Many were prefabricated buildings shipped to Balestrand in pieces.

One of several villas erected in Balestrand in the late 19th century and notable for their red color and the dragon motifs in roof trimmings.

The town, under glorious sun, was pretty and photogenic, which I acted on often.

Above, houses on the main drag in Balestrand. Below, the town of Balestrand, stretched out along the Sognefjord shoreline.

Back at the Kviknes Hotel, I looked for the Hoyvik Room in the property’s 1913 building. The hotel has a collection of artwork and antiques, but the Hoyvik Room stands out because it is filled with some very unusual examples of hand-carved wooden furnishings, made by local craftsman Ivar Hoyvik.

It turns out that the last German Kaiser (Wilhelm II) stayed at Kviknes Hotel frequently and was on site in 1914 when he learned that Austria had declared war on Serbia; that event would drag Germany into the brawl that became World War I. The specific hand-carved chair where he sat is still in this room.

The Hoyvik Room with examples of furnishings carved by local craftsman Ivar Hoyvik, in the Kviknes Hotel.

Our cruise tour included buffet dinners (lots of food) in a large dining hall, also in the older of Kviknes’ two buildings. Out of curiosity, I asked front desk personnel about restaurants in town, and they mentioned only two. I had seen them; they looked to be in private residences or former residences.

The Jostedalsbreen glacier

The Norwegian Glacier Museum and the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Continental Europe, formed the centerpiece of our second day in the fjords.

This involved a sailing (about 75 minutes) from Balestrand into the Fjaerlandsfjord to the town of Fjaerland.

The steep and sometimes snowcapped mountains, tiny farms, small towns and striking red houses along the shoreline combined with clear blue water and skies made for gorgeous scenery (all this was true the day before and the day after, too).

Of necessity, farm fields sit very close to fjord waters.

Arrival site in Fjaerland. The figure seen “working” at the side of the closest building is a dummy. A joke perhaps?

We went first to the museum, which is a small interactive facility built in 1991 and meant to resemble a boulder. It does, to a degree.

The Norwegian Glacier Museum, designed to look like a boulder.

Here, we first watched a dramatic 15-minute film (made using drones) meant to convey what this huge glacier looks like from all angles and how it can be and is used, by a few, for climbing and cross-country skiing plus kayaking in the associated waters. The film was presented entirely without narration (good for all international visitors) and on a 3-year-old panoramic screen, which is the largest in Europe.

Exhibits included some interactive elements (in one instance, graphically demonstrating how hard the glacier’s ice really is) and other sections on the creation of a glacier, the extinction of mammoths and what is known of the “Iceman” who was found in Switzerland some years ago.

Signage provided these stats about the Jostedalsbreen. The glacier covers 183 square miles, is 37 miles long, is 6,420 feet high at its highest elevation and is 1,873 feet deep at its thickest point. Its volume is 17.5 cubic miles, equal to 300 billion bathtubs full of water or the total water consumption in Norway for 100 years. It causes the erosion of 400,000 tons of rock material per year.

That is one big ice cube.

Traveling by motorcoach, we went to a vantage point for the Boyabreen wing of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, in the Jostedalsbreen National Park. We were below the ice, standing near a lake produced by the glacier’s runoff. It was impressive to note how much cooler it felt to stand near the runoff, as compared with our estimated 80-degree weather that day.

A tiny part of the Boyabreen section of the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Continental Europe.

Not to cast aspersions on the glacier’s outsized characteristics, but this way of seeing a glacier seemed anti-climatic compared with Alaska glaciers and the Moreno in Argentina. I realize it is easier to get good vantage points for viewing the other glaciers and even to watch them calving.

The next day, we were on the ferry again, for a continuation of the trip we took from Bergen to Balestrand. We were heading farther east on the broad Sognefjord and then a bit south to Flam.

Above and below, the Kviknes Hotel recedes as we sail away, revealing just how dramatic the setting is for the property and for the town of Balestrand.

This ride, under perfect skies, lasted one and a half hours and was, for me, more enjoyable than the ferry ride two days previously, partly because I was warmer and maybe because the sky was perfect the whole time. Oh, and I was less jetlagged.

Flam Railway

We left the Sognefjord to enter Aurlandsfjord. Flam, our destination, was at the end of that fjord, but the Flam we saw is a tourist hub, nothing more. The real living town is about 20 minutes away on foot.

The tourist site receives ferries like ours and huge cruise ships. A big ship, accommodating 6,300, was at the dock when we arrived. So, there were scads of people wandering around, getting food and shopping in numerous outlet stores!

The tourist hub at Flam, with shops to the left and a cruise ship that can accommodate 6,300.

With 90 minutes on the ground, we decided to check our bags. What a bad deal that was — $12 per bag.

The reason for this tourist hub is the Flam Railway, which takes riders up or down a steep mountainside offering dramatic overviews of houses and farms in the valley below, a view of an amazing switchback road and even a stop to see a waterfall, where vast amounts of water gushed noisily down the mountain.

On the railway, we traveled up, moving from sea level to 2,841 feet above that, all in a 12.4-mile trip.

In the midst of this ride, the train — which accommodates about 500 — stopped and passengers were invited to disembark and view the Kjosfossen waterfall from a platform, at which point the music started. First we heard the pleasantly eerie music, then we spotted a performer, in a red dress, moving to the music high up in the rocks to the right side of the falls.

The Kjosfossen waterfall, seen and heard at close range. The rushing waters made a lot of noise, competing with manmade music.

After we reboarded, the train traveled through a horseshoe tunnel that turns 180 degrees inside the mountain. We could still see views down into the Flam Valley through openings on one side of the tunnel.

At the top of this climb (about 45 to 50 minutes after leaving Flam), we came to the Myrdal station. Here, there is a small “station village,” no real town.

But there was a bit of entertainment though: There was a construction site high up on the adjacent mountainside, and we watched as project components were delivered by helicopter.

The Myrdal railroad platform at 2,841 feet above sea level. Don’t be fooled by the snow on the mountains in the background. In mid-June, it was warm on that platform.

We were meant to wait an hour, then board a high-speed train to Oslo. And with that, this blog should end, but there was this:

While Canadian forest fires were affecting states across the U.S., there were Norwegian forest fires — fires that damaged the signal system for some rail services. Signals had to be repaired so we were delayed four and a half hours.

At the same time, we learned later, service between Myrdal and Bergen was also interrupted, but that was due to buckled tracks, buckled because of heat. Norway was having a very hot day.

For more information about Norway, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Nobel country, https://besttripchoices.com/norway/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Norway: Following the fjords appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

Our tour guide said that Bergen, a port city on the west coast of Norway, has attracted outsiders for centuries, both as traders and settlers.

Then she made the point with her own story: Although our guide was born and raised in Bergen of Norwegian forebears, she said DNA tests showed that, genetically, she has no Norwegian background at all.

The outsiders, she said, came from England and Germany or from just about anywhere in Europe to trade for stockfish, meaning wind-dried fish, generally cod.

Lots of people come to Bergen these days, too — such as tourists like me.

Bergen is a gateway to the country’s famously beautiful fjords, including the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest and deepest. Besides, Bergen’s setting on the mountainous coast is charming in its own right.

Hanseatic League

A total of 17 reconstructed Hanseatic League houses facing Bergen Harbor. The six at left were rebuilt after a 1955 fire. The 11 at right were reconstructed after a 1702 fire at a time when a few Hanseatic League personnel were still around. The 11 houses are part of the Bryggen UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The other thing is history: Beginning in the mid-14th century, Bergen was a prominent outpost of the medieval Hanseatic League, an organization of German towns that joined together to enhance and protect their trading interests. The league established overseas posts in places like Bruges, London and Novgorod, as well as Bergen.

The league took over Bryggen, the historic wharf area located on the east side of Bergen Harbor. Bryggen was where all the league’s representatives (up to 3,000 men and boys at one point) lived, worked and stashed their wares.

Today, the oldest surviving section of Bryggen is an exceedingly photogenic UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The most recognizable part of the site is a set of 11 side-by-side gabled wooden houses that front the harbor. The houses are painted in reds, browns, golds and white.

A closer look at three houses among the 11 included in the Bryggen UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The much-photographed view from the harbor is deceiving, however. Alleyways between the houses extend away from the harbor past still more wooden warehouses and residences, and lead to courtyards and a number of other small structures, including some built of stone.

The (very) long side of one Bryggen house. Such an extended length accommodated housing for Hanseatic League personnel and storage for traded goods.

One of the stone buildings behind the more visible Bryggen houses. The league maintained a few such structures to protect records and the most valuable goods in case of fire.

Above and below, examples of others of the less-visible Bryggen buildings that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Four of the 11 protected buildings are undergoing major restoration to replace foundations and stem subsidence, which has threatened their viability. Shops, restaurants and other small businesses occupy spaces in the remaining houses.

Wooden cities burn down a lot. About 90% of Bergen was destroyed in the city’s worst fire, in 1702, so the Bryggen houses on UNESCO’s list are early 18th century reconstructions of the medieval originals. UNESCO says that, after Bergen’s fires, rebuilding typically followed old patterns and methods. This included rebuilding these houses atop deep wooden foundations fashioned from tree trunks and humongous interlocking slabs of wood. A sample of the standard wooden underpinnings is on display in the Bryggen courtyards.

Display showing how wooden foundations were historically and continue to be built under the Bryggen houses.

Another six gabled houses, next to the UNESCO Eleven, burned in a 1955 fire. They were faithfully rebuilt to match the Hanseatic style. They, too, are filled with commercial enterprises.

The six Bryggen houses that were faithfully reconstructed after a 1955 fire

I love looking at stuff like this, and I like it still more under sunny skies. Bergen is Europe’s rainiest city. My two previous visits were pretty good anecdotal evidence for that.

But this year (2023), my travel companion and I arrived in a Bergen under full sun; better yet, this was in June, one of the Northern Hemisphere’s longest days of the year.

So, after hotel check-in, we shot out of our room and headed to the heart of town only a few blocks away. Bergen is a city of 272,000, but a tourist’s visit is largely focused on the small and historic harbor area, the site of, besides Bryggen, a well-known fish market, a medieval fortress and a funicular that lets visitors get a sweeping view of Bergen, its harbor, mountains and more.

My friend and I walked through as much of this area as we could while jetlagged, then found outdoor seating at a pretty harbor restaurant called Olivia for a relaxing and tasty dinner, of Italian food, of all things.

Restaurants and other businesses on the innermost part of Bergen Harbor. The Italian restaurant Olivia is in the white building in the foreground.

The Mathallen

We got to the local fish the next day.

When I first visited Bergen, the city’s 700-year-old fish market operated outdoors at the innermost part of Bergen Harbor. This year, on that site, there were still a few purveyors of raw seafood, but mostly it hosted lots of seafood restaurants. Vendors also included a woman selling sausages of whale, moose and reindeer meat.

Most of the real throw-raw-fish-around fish market became a year-round operation by moving, in 2012, into a new harborside building called Mathallen (meaning Food Hall). It sits diagonally across Bergen Harbor from the UNESCO houses. The food hall has a restaurant as well, so my pal and I had a fish sandwich lunch there, likely the freshest fish I’ve ever had.

The Mathallen interior is sleek, bright, functional — but I did not like the modern exterior, which seemed out of place in this historic area. At first glance, I thought I was seeing a temporary structure. Anyway, I was so uninterested in it that my hundreds of Bergen photos include zero of Mathallen. I seldom come home with zero photos of anything.

Bergenhus Fortress

I was eager to revisit Bergenhus Fortress, which includes two very attractive lures, Haakon’s Hall and Rosenkrantz Tower, which date from the 13th century. At that time, they were part of the country’s then-largest royal residence.

As with everything we visited, the fortress was in walking distance of our centrally located hotel.

Haakon’s Hall, the highlight for me, was accidentally blown up by the Germans when they occupied Norway during WWII. So, another reconstruction project.

Despite having been rebuilt in the 20th century, it is quite evocative of its medieval past, what with its large sparsely furnished and minimally decorated space, and its very high arched wood ceiling. The hall is now used for royal dinners, concerts and other events.

Above, the dais at one end of the expansive Haakon’s Hall, a space first built in the 13th century as part of a royal residence. The hall’s steep wooden ceiling.

We also climbed Rosenkrantz Tower (named for a 16th century governor of the fortress). More accurately, my companion climbed to the top, meaning to the roof and its views. I preferred skipping some of the work and spending more time viewing period displays in the rooms that one can access from the tower’s dark narrow stairwells.

Above, RosenkrantzTower, dating from the 13th century and now part of the Bergenhus Fortress. Below, one of several rooms accessible from the stairwell that takes visitors to the top of Rosenkrantz Tower. This one is called Erik’s Chamber, named for Erik Rosenkrantz, governor of Bergenhus Fortress in the 16th century. The table and chairs have nothing to do with Erik, but the bas-relief at the right is a copy of Erik and his wife’s tombstone.

Seven mountains + a funicular

Bergen is called the city of seven mountains (forget seven hills), mountains that crowd against shorelines and dictate where it is possible to lay out streets and build homes.

We climbed for a short while into neighborhoods behind the Hanseatic League buildings to see samples of the city’s traditional small wooden houses and get an up-close look at their positioning on the steep hillsides.

For sweeping views, we rode the Floibanen Funicular to the top of Mount Floyen, 1.050 feet above sea level.

Above, entry for the Floibanen Funicular, which takes passengers to the top of Mount Floyen. Below, signpost at the top of Mount Floyen, highlighting Kyiv by using the colors of Ukraine’s flag.

The funicular takes passengers to a viewing site with lots of options for taking a gander at the city, fjords and mountains — and a chance to watch tame goats tidy up the greenery around the lookout point. There also are a café and souvenir shop, plus the Floien Folkerestaurant. The latter was closed for renovations, but has a projected reopening date in April 2024.

The ambitious can hike to and from Floyen’s top.

Left unseen

We came to Bergen in part to position ourselves for a fjord cruise, departing on our second morning in town.

A short sojourn meant we left some things unseen, but I would never have left the Hanseatic Museum unvisited if it had been open. It is part of the UNESCO-protected site although down the street a couple of blocks. The museum’s annex, site of Hanseatic meeting rooms, is open, but the main attraction, a former Hanseatic house, is closed for major restoration work and projected to reopen in 2027. I visited the museum the first time I saw Bergen in 1991 and remember one thing: small sleeping spaces inside cupboards.

Above, in a 1991 photo, the centerpiece of the Hanseatic Museum, closed now for extensive renovations. Below, also from my 1991 visit, a Hanseatic Museum exhibit illustrating typical Bryggen sleeping arrangements, effectively inside wall cupboards.

For those who may have more time in town, other attractions include the home of composer Edvard Grieg; the Old Bergen Museum, an open-air museum with some 55 wooden houses from the 18th to 20th centuries, and the wooden Fantoft Stave Church, first built in 1170.

About fires again: The stave church burned down in 1992, but this was no accident of fate. It was arson. Can you imagine? The reconstructed church, built with lumber from 350-to-400-year-old pines, was consecrated in 1997.

The Fantoft Stave Church, photographed under crappy skies in 1991, before an arson burned it the next year. It was carefully reconstructed in the same decade.

Above and below, more photos of Bergen Harbor, taken during my 1991 visit and posted just because I like them! The Rosenkrantz Tower is visible in the background of the top photo.

For more information about Norway, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Nobel country, https://besttripchoices.com/norway/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

Bergen is a gateway to Norway’s famously beautiful fjords, including the longest and deepest, the Sognefjord, and it is home to the Bryggen UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The post Norway: Bergen and Bryggen appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

The hotel section now referred to as the parkside wing was built in 1877, but the property sealed its claim to a “grand” name with construction of the larger riverside wing in 1894.

The older parkside wing of the Grandhotel Pupp.

One side of the Grandhotel’s riverside wing.

In 1988, during my first visit to the then Czechoslovakia, I traveled by car with a colleague to Karlovy Vary. As soon as we saw the Grandhotel, then the Grandhotel Moskva, we knew we had to stay there. It was no problem getting a couple of rooms (it was a dreary November day, after all). My room cost $23 but at this late date I don’t know if breakfast was included. Probably.

In my diary, I called it “a well-named old thing.” In addition, I said: “Featuring high ceilings, large eating rooms, good-sized bedrooms (esp. for singles), wide long halls, etc., it also offered, for me, a great view of the winding river stream and twin rows of rundown houses, shops and small hotels lining the waterway.”

In May this year (2022), I returned as a journalist guest of CzechTourism, in order to attend that organization’s Travel Trade Day for travel agents and tour operators from around the world. This time, the hotel shone in the light of a sunny spring day. And those spacious interior public spaces looked bright and airy, with their Belle Epoque décor intact and maintained.

Reception area in the Grandhotel’s riverside wing.

The Grandhotel’s Grandrestaurant.

I was checked into a room in the older, parkside wing, where again I was struck by how wide the halls were and, I might add, how tall the room doors were, now accessed with key cards not keys.

However, my room did not rise to the promise of the public spaces.

Of course, it had Wi-Fi and a sizeable flat-screen TV. Also, the bed and seating were comfortable, but furniture choices seemed outdated, and in my very large room, the space looked oddly under furnished.

Mine was a Comfort Room, meaning the most basic.

I later saw one Superior Room, the most basic in the riverside wing; it wasn’t significantly different, but there were pictures on the walls and the bathroom looked snazzier.

OK, now that I have said the cranky stuff, I hasten to say that I was thrilled to be back in the 228-room Grandhotel and back in Karlovy Vary (where, BTW, all those buildings lining the Tepla River look a lot spiffier than when I first saw them).

The heart of Karlovy Vary is distinguished by the rows of elegant houses lining the Tepla River.

Houses reflected in the Tepla River, in a photo taken while standing in front of the Grandhotel.

Also, the Comfort Room, at about $158 (150 euros) for two including breakfast, is a good deal. That puts guests in a five-star hotel with things like 24-hour room service, plus access to the spa (a pampering spa, not medical spa) and casino.

The included breakfast is no small matter. The buffet was abundant — and those breakfast eateries are really atriums with ceilings worth a second look.

A very nice dining space, and atrium, in the Grandhotel’s riverside wing.

I meant to make this a single posting about three hotels, but it was getting too long. Discussion of a couple of new properties in Prague is found here: https://besttripchoices.com/prague-hotels-quirky-fun-and-practical/

For more information about the Czech Republic, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, Spa towns, UNESCO sites, at https://besttripchoices.com/czech-republic/

This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary’s grande dame appeared first on Best Trip Choices.

The Powder Gate Tower, the entrance to Prague’s Old Town, located two or three blocks from the Andaz Prague and the Julius. The Municipal Hall is to the right.

First up was the 176-room Andaz Prague, the Czech Republic’s first Hyatt hotel, fashioned within and preserving a historic building with an oddly shaped footprint planted on an oddly shaped patch of land.

Second came the Julius, a rather spare creation inside a mostly new build, with two themes: high tech and sustainability. High tech, BTW, means no phones in the rooms. Just thought I would mention that right off the bat.

Andaz Prague: Constructed in 1916 as headquarters for the Sugar Industry Insurance Association and popularly known as the Sugar Palace, this building in its current iteration nicely repurposes original structural features.

Exterior of the Andaz Prague, located in a former office building known as the Sugar Palace.

For example, two original outdoor courtyards are now indoor spaces topped with glass. One is the hotel bar, the Mez, inviting and a great place for a party! The other formerly open courtyard is part of the larger reception area and convertible for events.

Mez Bar in the Andaz Prague

Casual comfort found in a series of lounges near reception in the Andaz Prague.

And another thing: Because of the rooflines, rooms on the top floor have the appearance of an attic and feel like cozy apartments.

The hotel is full of design touches that may cause guests to ask, what is going on here?

The designers sought to tell stories that are unique to Prague or the Czech Republic. Two of those themes appeared in my room (as well here and there in the halls and public spaces).

Most prominently, there were the lion heads, recalling the medieval knight Bruncvik, who, legend says, saved a lion from a dragon after which the lion was a constant companion. A lion watched over my bed and decorated a table, while his paws supported bed stands.

And there were the golems, a nod to the city’s Jewish Quarter and the tradition of the helpful or protective golem. In my room, one seemed to support a mirror and another supported a lamp.

A third theme centers on Libuse, a legendary ruler said to have predicted the founding of Prague, a city “whose fame will touch the stars.” Thus, in some rooms and hallways, visitors find sculptures of a hand reaching for the stars and large eyes of the visionary Libuse.

A top-floor room in the Andaz Prague, where ceiling lines imitate an attic and the bas-relief sculpture at far left, showing a hand reaching for the stars, illustrates the Libuse myth. Photo courtesy of the Andaz Prague.

I liked this hotel more the longer I stayed, as I understood more of its stories — and got better acquainted with its idiosyncratic floor plan.

For the next few months, at least, room rates start at about $410 (390 euros), single occupancy, and $452 (430 euros), double occupancy, breakfasts included. All rates include free minibars, stocked with all Czech products but no alcohol. Guests in suites also can choose one free sightseeing option.

Some other interesting factoids: Andaz guests can heat their bathroom floors; this is a no-smoking property; guests can select preferred rooms via the World of Hyatt app, Mobile Key feature — and the hotel offers private entrances for guests who need the extra privacy.

The Julius: The first of a new Austria-based brand, the Julius in Prague is notable for simple clean lines, a high-tech vibe and a high proportion of suites.

The Julius exterior in Prague.

I stayed there in May during the so-called soft opening period; the formal debut was set for late June. Most services seemed on track — though designers don’t always get it all right on the first try. We did not have wastebaskets. That is being fixed.

As to technology, the presumption is that guests will load the property’s service app on their cellphones upon arrival. That tool is designed to let guests check in, make service requests, order food from inside or outside the property, interact with an on-site self-service laundry and chat with staff at reception. The front desk is manned 24/7, and guests have the option of checking in there or at an adjacent kiosk, as well.

The lobby bar, adjacent to the front desk at the Julius.

With no in-room phones, old-fashioned stuff like room-to-room calls or wake-up calls are gone — as if they weren’t already.

In the push to be green certified, the Julius, a no-smoking property, promises sustainable amenities and organic cotton goods. It has electric-vehicle charging stations in the parking garage in anticipation of coming demand.

The Julius, which owners call a residence not a hotel, is designed for long-stay guests; most rooms are big enough to qualify as a New York City apartment, or even a big NYC apartment!

Among the 168 rooms, 124 have kitchens, some quite large, and dining spaces. Plus 93 have pullout sofa beds that accommodate two additional people.

What does all of this cost? The minimum room rate is about $182 (175 euros) for the smallest room accommodating two, without kitchen.

One more thing: The property is part of Julius Meinl Living, a family business that originated in 1862 when Julius Meinl opened a grocery store in Vienna. That background dovetails well with a property with lots of kitchens. The Julius in Prague will have its own grocery store by September.

I meant to make this a single posting about three hotels, but it was getting too long. Discussion of a historic property in Karlovy Vary is found here: https://besttripchoices.com/czech-republic-karlovy-varys-grande-dame/

For more information about Prague, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, From palaces to puppets, at https://besttripchoices.com/prague-czech-republic/

This blog and its photos, except where indicated, are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”

The post Prague: Hotels quirky, fun — and practical appeared first on Best Trip Choices.