Well, my friends at Food & Wine keep me refreshed with so many intoxicating drinks.

This intoxicant came to me from Rich Manning, a writer and spirits and food competition judge based in Los Angeles. He has been writing about spirits, wine, beer, food and travel since 2004. I understand Rich wants to battle; An East Coast vs. West Coast battle, which he is ready to settle.

This is timely news, for I just cancelled my river cruise on the Neva River.

And, BTW, Rich -The Moscow Mule, being a type of buck, is sometimes called vodka buck.

But Who Really Invented the Moscow Mule and Why Is It in a Copper Mug?

Courtesy of Rich Manning

The Moscow Mule’s most famous component isn’t an ingredient, it’s the copper mug that traditionally holds the simple cocktail of vodka, ginger beer, and lime. It’s the mug’s burnished sheen that set the drink apart in the early days of the cocktail revival when vodka-based drinks were considered passé.

The mug is the very reason the Moscow Mule exists in the first place. Where this began is up for debate, however.

While some people trace the post-Prohibition cocktail’s origins to Los Angeles, others insist the drink was created in New York City.

“It kind of comes off as a Biggie vs. Tupac, East Coast vs. West Coast kind of argument,” says Gina Hoover, bartender and consultant for CURE in New Orleans. “But I’m not surprised at all why the argument exists. If you ask an American to name five drinks, 90% will probably name the Moscow Mule as one of the five,” she says. “If you’re a city, and a drink has that kind of power, you’d naturally want to take credit for it.”

There are shared traits to each city’s tale. Both pin the drink’s creation to 1941, a relatively modern date compared to other cocktails with convoluted beginnings. They also stake claim to some of the same players, including a struggling-at-the-time vodka brand that’s now a household name. The theories’ part ways from here.

New York: Three guys walk into a bar…

According to the New York theory, the Moscow Mule stems from Midtown Manhattan’s Chatham Hotel.

A Los Angeles-based beverage executive named John “Jack” Morgan was in town to promote his own Cock ‘n’ Bull ginger beer, a product that shared a name with the Hollywood bar he also operated.

He was hanging out with a couple of industry folks – John Martin, president of the now-defunct G.F. Heublein & Brothers distillery and distributor, and Rudolph Kunett, president of Hublein’s vodka division, Smirnoff. After a couple of drinks, the trio wondered what would happen if they combined vodka, ginger beer, and a squeeze of lime juice. Deliciousness ensued.

They named their creation the Moscow Mule. Shortly thereafter, they purchased 500 copper mugs embossed with the phrase “Little Moscow.”

Los Angeles: Pick one…

There are two Los Angeles origin stories to consider.

Morgan and Martin show up as in the first account. Instead of Kunett, they’re joined by Sophie Berezinski, a Russian woman living in Los Angeles, struggling to find buyers for the 2,000 solid copper mugs she designed.

Though not confirmed: The Moscow Mule method (courtesy of the European Bartending School).

Step 1

Start building your vodka ginger beer cocktail by pouring a scoop of ice cubes in your copper Moscow Mule mug. We’re pretty traditional about our cocktails here at EBS, so we think these cups well worth investing in.

But why do you need one? Well, copper is an excellent conductor of heat, and a copper mug will keep your Moscow Mules perfectly chilled as you sip it. Mystery solved.

Step 2

Next, pour your vodka and lime juice over the ice.

The original Moscow Mule recipe uses Smirnoff vodka, which is one of our favourites. You can go for their classic Smirnoff original, or if you want to push the boat out (which we always encourage), try one of their premium blends, Smirnoff Red or Smirnoff Black.

These two are filtered using the traditional charcoal method, giving them a deep and authentic flavor.

Step 3

Fill up your glass with ginger beer, and garnish with a fresh lime wedge.

As we said earlier, the world won’t end if you use ginger ale instead. But a good cold ginger beer can really be the star of a Moscow Mule recipe.

Which ginger beer brands do we favor? Fever Tree Ginger Beer is decent option. It gives the cocktail a spicy kick that complements the zingy lime and sharp vodka.

If you are a fan of this drink, you’ll be pleased to know there are tons of Moscow Mule variations that use other spirits instead of vodka – like the Kentucky mule (with bourbon) and the Mexican mule (with tequila).

Grab that copper mug and start experimenting!

Moscow Mule ingredients as per the European Bartending School

(Makes 1 cocktail)

• A copper mug
• 1 scoop of cubed ice
• 40ml (1.5oz) vodka
• 20ml (¾ oz) fresh lime juice
• Ginger beer (just fill that glass right up)
• A fresh lime wedge for garnish

For the vodka, we’d recommend the OG, Smirnoff. Also, if you prefer, Absolut works just as well. The ginger beer should be just that – beer. But if you have to switch it up with ginger ale instead, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

And it goes without saying, freshly squeezed lime juice is always better than the bottled stuff.

Or, if you are feeling particularly adventurous, you could even make your own ginger beer.

Well, there you have it. And please have fun creating your own Moscow Mule, regardless of the ingredients. But, most importantly, remember not to Drink & Drive. – Audrey

POST SCRIPT

Peter the Great’s Quest for the Holy Moscow Mule

By Ringo Boitano

Peter I was Tsar of Imperial Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia, known as “Peter the Great,” but to his friends as “Sparky.” Tsar Peter I was disappointed that he was unable to find the Holy Russian Mule in his empires’ capital city of Moscow. He decided to lead his Imperial Army to the Baltic Sea to engage his enemy, the Swedish, in battle. His ultimate plan was to find the source of the elusive Moscow Mule. After defeating the Swedes, their top generals were captured, and he asked them at gunpoint, “What exactly is this thing called the Moscow Mule?” The generals all smiled, and then in unison, said one word: “Nej!”

Peter was fluent in many languages, but was a little weak in Swedish. He was once a master of it, but had forgotten much of it, after having watched his relatives murdered before his eyes when he was a little boy. He was particularly annoyed for he had already made plans to torture and murder them later, which had caused him to cancel his weekly bowling night with his sensitive Cossack bowling team. Even more so, for his cousin Dimitri had planned to join them, and he was the only one who could actually score the bowling card without cheating, despite the fact that Dimitri would often pretend to be asleep whenever Peter the Great threw a gutter ball.

Peter then asked his generals to translate the Swedish word into Russian. The generals, despite a sense of obvious nervousness, finally replied that it meant,”Nyet!” in Russian.

Peter, now “Peter the Great,” was clearly disappointed, and decided to concentrate on building Imperial Russia’s new capital city in a marsh, which he christened, St. Petersburg. Throughout history, many Moscow Mule aficionados have assumed that he had named St. Petersburg after himself. But later, in the last century, despite the confusion if it was the Julian Calendar, the Byzantine Calendar, the Russian Orthodox Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar, the Free Willie Calendar or the Doomsday Calendar of 3000 ACE, where all Dutch waffle irons which were timed to explode in 43 second sequences to the tune of “Froggy Went a Courtin.'” Finally, an elderly Basque shepherd in Bakersfield, CA, who had signed an oath to only eat lamb meatballs prepared in a microwave, confirmed, after a sleepless night in the fields, due children throwing snowballs at him with rocks in the center, that the city was actually named after the Catholic Christian, Saint Peter: the world’s first Pope! Sadly, not recognized in the US Bible Belt by tele-evangelicalists, who preach regularly in a unique form of American-English, often crying, while pleading for donations from innocent viewers.

Epilogue

Peter the Great’s Last Will and Testament was just discovered in a snowbank in Siberia by Terry Cassel. Sources indicate that it was hidden in a Beatles Handpainted Nesting Doll 5 PC Matryoshka Stacking Doll Set. Apparently. Cassel was enjoying his free day on a Volga River cruise. He decided to hire a group of retired Russian Serfs to pull a sled 7,008 miles to Siberia. The Serfs were available after rescheduling their weekly mix-couples’ Parcheesi Board Game (Gold Seal Edition Vintage 664 COMPLETE, Confirmed, Like New!) to a later date. The game had been postponed due to heavy showers of Tartar bombs.

Though strangely reluctant, Cassel was eventually forced to reveal the contents when 16 retired Nazi Storm Troopers, who had been living comfortaby in the Bavarian Aps as cattlewomen, pointed AK-47s Soviet assault rifles, possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent Avtomat Kalashnikova, Russian for “automatic Kalashnikov,” named in the honor of its designer, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947. This confused Cassel, for the day before, he had watched repeated viewings (on his phone) of the January 6th assault on the US Capital Building, and had noticed many of the Trump cultists boasting that they had inherited identical ones in the rural US Territory of Idaho by their grandfathers. This only confused Cassel more, for he remembered old photographs (not on digital) of grandfathers in Idaho who all had similar brown stains on their MAGA T-shirts.

Mr. Cassel understood why there were brown stains, after having acheived a PHD at Trump University in the delicacy of log cabin construction (and with a Swiss Pocket Knife, complete with toe nail tweezers and a gold-plated toothpick!). Cassel was stunned by his repeated viewings of the January 6th assault on the US Capital Building, noticing many of the Maga domestic terrorists were hoarsely screaming, Hang Mike Pence! (something about the US Vice President not having the courage to do the right thing, and there was some kind of noose waiting for him inside). This upset Cassel, realizing their hoareness might have stemmed from drinking a bad batch of Trump Wine, currently on sale at CVS for $1.99! Even more so, assuming the patriotic MAGA domestic terrorists did not have the courtesy to drink Moscow Mules in a proper copper-colored glass, traditionally consumed annually every January 6th.

AFTER MUCH DELAY: The contents of the Beatles Handpainted Nesting Doll 5 PC Matryoshka Stacking Doll Set was revealed:

An Official Imperial Russian Document to NEVER Send Vladimir Putin any Christmas Cards.* ** ***

* Sealed by a Kiss.

** Translated to poor American-English from a unique Cyrillic Script.

*** Sadly, this confused Terry Cassel further; believing it was TOP SECRET documents which belonged to the People of the United States, stored in an emperor’s bedroom at an overpriced building in South Florida, converted into a hotel, in a particularly bad and ostentatious design. Cassel was unable to confirm if there was still a large US Flag outside that blocked neighbor’s views. Or, if there was one at all, and wondering if it was waving upside down.

The post Summer is Here and the Time is Right for Drinking the Moscow Mule appeared first on Traveling Archive.

With events on the ground overtaking efforts to make sense of Ukraine, here’s a few sources I reach for to try and make sense of it. — Skip Kaltenheuser

Ukraine is a now a tilt-a-whirl that’s come loose. To understand it, I’m trying for inputs beyond the mainstream that’s had a dubious track record in the past, from WMD’s in Iraq to Russiagate. One shouldn’t ignore the mainstream, but one needs a wider angle lens.

Here are a few suggestions for circumventing journalism’s herd instinct. Start the day with the 7 am EST Links section at Naked Capitalism, which assembles a broad array varying viewpoints, often introducing new sources worth making a note of. Democracy Now! presents interviews worth a look, particularly good ones on Ukraine are in the Feb. 24th show: “Truly Appalling”: Russia Attacks Ukraine as Putin Ignores Diplomatic Pleas and Launches Invasion, 

Panic, Fear, Disbelief: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Could Prompt Humanitarian, Refugee Crisis and Yanis Varoufakis: Europe Must Stand with Ukraine, Condemn Putin & Roll Back NATO to Restore Peace.

We can doff our hats to Bill Clinton for yet another long-term impact he gifted us with, this one by his decision to expand NATO, eventually providing the pretense to Vladimir V. Putin for his attack, as described here. The Clinton-era blunder that set the stage for today’s Ukrainian crisis. Statecraft is a source worth monitoring for its analyses of how we land in such predicaments. Another is Consortium News, which pulls in solid expertise and avoids getting stuck on prior narratives. The Intercept often has interesting insights, such as How Putin’s Designs on Ukraine Reflect the “Dangerous Nostalgia” of a Lost Empire.

Any perspective by Col. Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff for Colin Powell, is worth grabbing, wherever you can find it. Same with Daniel Ellsberg, who probably knows more about government disinformation and near-fatal nuclear brinkmanship than anyone I know. Katrina Vanden Heuvel knows the territory, here’s her latest, Putin’s Invasion. One might also benefit from the offerings and analyses of the Committee of the Republic. Some of that group’s past offerings, zoomed during the pandemic, scrutinize the military/industrial/congressional complex, (Ike’s original draft included “congressional”). They are accessible on YouTube.

Of course every effort to divine what’s happening becomes more difficult given the speed of events. Today’s certainties are apt to collapse tomorrow. Best luck.

Part of the game we all play now is deciphering what goes on in Putin’s head, particularly as pressures build. He’s not a nice man – a poisoner, a killer of journalists, a kleptocrat without peer, a fantasist yearning for Russia’s old empire. I have always assumed our intelligence “services” must be fully aware of how much Putin and his cronies have looted from Russia, and where and how the fortunes are stashed. Finding ways to disseminate this information to the Russian people always seemed to me a proper way to undermine Putin’s leadership, once the need for that became as obvious, as it appears to be now.

It occurs to me that there might be some in the Kremlin who’d like to see Putin go away and would welcome his graft being fully outed. I also wonder if Putin’s hold on power was wobbling a bit behind the scenes. He wouldn’t be the first to try and shore up support at home with a war. Perhaps Putin is now cornered by his runaway train rhetoric. Who knows? I don’t. In any case, his reckless gambit in Ukraine might fizzle as Russia becomes a pariah state. Russian memories of the disasters wrought by Afghanistan may surface.

This item from a favorite site, Wall Street on Parade with Putin Thought of Everything – Except a Crash of 45 Percent on the Moscow Stock Exchange and Big Russian Companies Losing Half their Market Value) shows how fast things are already going south for Russia, A continuing pile-on of sanctions will likely keep Russia’s economy in free-fall. 

Suffering all around, Ukrainians, Russians and all those impacted, including by the looming refugee crisis. To think the world has to cope with this and sideline everything else that ought to be on the front burner, from the pandemic to nuclear disarmament to climate change, is a lousy state of affairs. According to The Daily Poster, the American Petroleum Institute is already offering its solution, drilling everywhere, and not sanctioning Russian oil and gas production. This amid predictions of a severe global fire season. Keep an eye open for all the grifters lining up to capitalize on our latest precarity, especially those who don’t think we squander enough of our treasure on our military. We slipped out of the Forever Wars, but continue to set spending records.

From a slightly simpler time, here’s a reprise of observations done after a couple weeks spent in Kyiv on a writing assignment. I was there back when Viktor Yanukovych, a Putin ally, ran Ukraine. It includes an imbedded slideshow for a sense of Kyiv. I didn’t mind when Ukraine finally gave the wildly corrupt Viktor the bum’s rush in 2014, I just wish there’d been the patience to wait to do it via an election, which would have left no doubt as to the popular will to dump him. And given the corruption that continued after his departure, I wish I’d ended with The Who lyric, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.“

For more on the topic:

Kyiv Kaleidoscope: Viktor Yanukovych, We Hardly Knew Ye! But We Knew Enough, Good Riddance

The post Making Sense of the Ukraine Situation appeared first on Traveling Archive.

This Is the Most Punctual Airline in the U.S. – for the 18th Year Running

Hawaiian Airlines continues to live up to its reputation for timeliness as the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has named it most punctual for the 18th year.
According to data released by the DOT last month, the carrier was on time for 90.14% of its 60,654 flights operated in 2021, making it the number one American airline for punctuality.

This Country Was Just Named Happiest in the World

By Rachel Chang

Every year for the past decade, the World Happiness Report ranks how people in more than 150 countries evaluate the quality of their lives to find the world’s happiest countries. And for the past four years, the top spot has been claimed by Finland.

ROBERT MATZEN

Author of “WARRIOR: AUDREY HEPBURN” on Our City Tonight

The 10 Best Cities in the World for Art Lovers

Courtesy of Jessica Poitevien

For art aficionados looking to plan their next trip, the resident experts at Money.co.uk conducted a study to find the best art and culture-filled cities around the world. The study used a variety of data points to rank 40 global cities already known for their unique arts and culture scenes.

When did women swap skirts for trousers?

When did women start wearing trousers? The short answer is in prehistory, and there have been many civilizations throughout human history that have survived the ‘scandal’ of its women wearing trouser-like garments.

The 5 Most Popular Arts and Crafts Museums in America

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been revealed as the most popular craft museum in the United States,according to a new study by Design Bundles. Often shortened to the MET, comes on top, with a total of 368,000 monthly searches and 406,170 Instagram hashtags. One of the most popular landmarks in New York, primarily famous for events like the MET Gala and its exhibitions, holds numerous craft pieces, with mediums spanning clay, fiber, glass, metal, and wood.

MORE ON Arts and Crafts MuseumsLESS ON Arts and Crafts Museums

STRONG WOMEN IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CINEMA

Sally Field, Norma Rae (1979)

Audrey Hepburn, The Nun’s Story (1959)

The Origins of 12 Caribbean Music Styles

Cha Cha Dance Lesson for Beginners

From reggaetón to the cha-cha-cha to the “singing newspapers” known as plena, Caribbean and Latin American musical genres have interesting origin stories and collaboration, across countries and cultures, is always key to their creation.

Let’s travel around the Caribbean for a tour of the names and origins of some of these musical styles.

Lessons in Survival from 5 Powerful Women of Our Past

It becomes obvious that we can learn a great deal from these powerful women, especially if we apply their advice, their words and the examples they set to our own modern lives.
Dr Estelle Paranque highlights five powerful women from history and the qualities they possessed.

Catherine de’ Medici: The power of resilience

Catherine de Medici was the queen consort to Henry II of France and the mother of three French kings: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. The most valuable quality we can learn from this powerful woman is, without a doubt, patience; and you cannot have patience without resilience. Born into a noble Florentine family, Catherine was never meant to be queen. In 1533, she was married to Prince Henry, the son of French king Francis I, at the age of 14; at the time of their marriage, Henry was not in line for the throne, and only became heir apparent upon the death of his elder brother in 1536. Catherine remained in the shadows of the French royal court, both of her father-in-law and later her husband. Her spouse allowed her little political influence, and even worse, Catherine became the ‘third wheel’ in her own marriage, having to suffer the presence of Henry’s royal favorite at court: Diane de Poitiers. Following the death of her husband in 1559, and after more than 25 years of countless humiliations, Catherine finally had the opportunity to overshadow Diane and cast her rival away from court. She went on to become a powerful influence in 16th-century France during the reigns of her sons, particularly during the French Wars of Religion.

Roxelana (Hurrem): Another example of the power of resilience

Another example of 16th-century resilience is the case of the Ottoman sultana, Roxelana (also known as Hurrem). Born in what is now Ukraine in c1505 and sold into slavery, she became a concubine in the harem of Sultan Suleiman ‘the Magnificent’. During her time at Suleiman’s court, Hurrem changed the course of her fate and, consequently, of Ottoman history. She seduced Suleiman and the couple fell in love, which led to Suleiman breaking with centuries of tradition in order to please her: he gave up on all other concubines, freed her, and married her – making her his queen. By 1534, after the death of the sultan’s mother, the couple became inseparable. Hurrem remained in Suleiman’s palace and became his trustworthy confidante. This turn of events did not happen overnight and, in many ways, Hurrem showed great patience, resilience and incredible intelligence during this time.

Mary I: the power of compassion

Mary I of England all too often only remembered as ‘Bloody Mary’, to the point where most people forget that she also knew how to rule with compassion and care for her people. In 1554, when a group of rebels led by Sir Thomas Wyatt took arms against her to protest her marriage to Philip II of Spain, Mary showed prudence. When the traitors were later apprehended and arrested, she gave a moving speech at London’s Guildhall, during which she professed: “On the word of a prince, I cannot tell you how naturally the mother loveth the child, for I was never the mother of any; but certainly, if a prince and governor may as naturally and earnestly love her subjects as the mother doth love the child, then assure yourself that I, being your lady and mistress, do as earnestly and tenderly love and favor you.”

It was a quality also favored by Mary’s sister, Elizabeth I of England, who would reiterate and used this motherly love to her people during her own reign. She claimed in her 1559 speech: “And reproach me so no more that I have no children: for every one of you, and as many as are English, are my children and kinfolks.” Mary had clearly paved the way for her becoming the mother of England.

Marie Antoinette: forgiveness and compassion

Previously, Maria Antonia of Austria, the daughter of Empress Maria Theresia of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

Two centuries later, Marie Antoinette, wife to Louis XVI of France and the last queen of France before the French Revolution, also demonstrated that the right path to happiness and fulfilment was via forgiveness. Before her own execution, in her last letter to her sister-in-law Madame Élisabeth. Marie insisted that her children should “never seek to revenge our death. In her final moments, the queen wanted her legacy to be about forgiveness and compassion instead of hatred and revenge. To be noted, Marie Antoinette was a firm believer in the U.S. Revolution; sending troops, weaponry, fleets of battleships, often funded by the sale of her own jewels. She insisted that her husband, Louis XVI, underwrite colonial America’s war with the British but had to raise taxes on his own citizens in order to do so. As this took place during a flour shortage in France, it was this very revolutionary French populace that abandoned the monarchy, leading to the death of both king and queen at the guillotine.

Nzjinga of Ndongo and Matamba: the power of overcoming misogyny

Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba – in present-day northern Angola – ruled in the 17th century; she assumed power over the kingdom of Ndongo in 1624 after the deaths of her father and brother, later conquering Matamba and joining the two kingdoms in c1630/1. Like Elizabeth, Njinga also had to find ways to legitimize her power and authority because of her gender.

Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba had to find ways to legitimise her power and authority because of her gender, writes Estelle Paranque. This queen, however, went further in her goal to override the misogyny around her. Her biographer, Professor Linda M Heywood, explains that the queen forced her inner circle and followers to refer to her as a man, and no longer as a woman. She even married a man and made him dress as a woman, demanding that everyone address her as king rather than queen. She also took several men as her concubines and acted like any other king of the time. With her new role, she continued to fight the foreign forces that tried to invade her homeland. She was the ultimate warrior queen of the 17th century.
In many ways, one might wonder why we bother learning about the lives and accomplishments of past female leaders? We all do it – women and men – for several reasons. We do it to be inspired, to understand the struggles they faced and how they overcame them, and to continue the fight for women to be respected and valued as true leaders in their own right.

Dr Estelle Paranque is a lecturer in early modern history at New College of the Humanities. Her books include Elizabeth I of England Through Valois Eyes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and a forthcoming joint biography of Elizabeth I.

Staying Adaptable in Perpetuity

By Dr. Kathleen Allen

Russia’s War on Ukraine Has Already Changed the World

By Rick Steves –

Russia’s aggressive action is heartbreaking for the death, suffering, and economic turmoil it has caused in Ukraine and beyond. Here at Rick Steves’ Europe, we hope that a diplomatic solution can be found and peace will return to that fragile and long-suffering part of our world.

Make Your Own Darn Bed: Hotels Ditch Daily Housekeeping Services

Whether out of necessity due to staffing shortages, out of respect for social distancing or perhaps just to save money, one of the primary amenities that sets a hotel apart from your home – daily housekeeping – is disappearing.

The days of returning to a wrinkle-free duvet are likely gone. Forget fresh towels, and accept that your room’s trash might never get taken out during your stay.

The trend of no more daily housekeeping – while largely initiated by COVID-19 – has become the norm at many hotels. During the pandemic’s early days, when transmission was more of a mystery, many hotels cut housekeeping services to reduce contact between strangers. But more than two years later, housekeeping still hasn’t returned.

Marriott’s policies vary by property, but housekeeping is usually offered only upon request, with all rooms cleaned automatically every sixth night. Hilton’s default is no more daily cleanings at most properties unless requested. Walt Disney World reduced service to light housekeeping every other day. That entails towel replacement and trash removal but doesn’t necessarily include services you might expect, like getting your bed made.

Other hotels have schedules, like the Hotel Solares in Santa Cruz, California: Three-night stays or fewer, no service, while six-night stays or fewer are cleaned once. The hotel recommends you leave trash outside your door.

Those service reductions aren’t always welcome.

“Guests don’t want to have to ask every time they need their trash emptied or dirty towels replaced,” said D. Taylor, international president of Unite Here – a U.S. and Canada hospitality workers’ union – in a prepared statement. “Without cleaning, what stops a hotel from being just a more expensive Airbnb?”

Why cut out housekeeping?

In many cases, the cutbacks may be more about money than safety. For some hotels, there’s not enough money to cover the cost. For others, it’s an opportunity to make more of it.
The nationwide labor and materials shortage has hit hotels particularly hard. For instance, the leisure and hospitality industry lost 8.2 million jobs in March and April 2020 which is an employment decline of 49% , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While there has certainly been rehiring hope (travel-related jobs are now among the fastest-growing sectors lately), the industry is still about 1.5 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, supply chain and inflation issues are ongoing. Hotels reported a 79% cost increase of cleaning and housekeeping supplies, according to a November 2021 American Hotel & Lodging Association survey of about 500 hotel operators.

Other hotel operators have explicitly stated it’s about money.
“The work we’re doing right now in every one of our brands … is about making them higher-margin businesses and creating more labor efficiencies,” Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said during a February 2021 investor earnings call. “When we get out of the crisis, those businesses will be higher margin and require less labor than they did pre-COVID.”

How to keep getting housekeeping on your vacation

RESEARCH BEFORE BOOKING: Hotels typically post cleaning procedures online. Look for pages on individual hotel websites labeled something like “amenities,” or “COVID-19 safety.” If the cleaning calendar is not up to par, consider booking elsewhere.

BOOK HIGH-END HOTELS: Most high-end hotels are notably absent from this trend. Some Hilton brands, including Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, LXR Hotels & Resorts and Conrad Hotels & Resorts, still offer daily housekeeping. Most Four Seasons offer twice-daily housekeeping.
But that’s not always true. Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – frequently deemed Walt Disney World’s most opulent resort – offers housekeeping only every other day, like all Disney resorts. Nightly rates range from $757 to $4,428, according to theme park data site TouringPlans.com.

REQUEST SERVICE: Of course, booking high-end hotels might be an unrealistically expensive solution. But here’s another trick that can work at even budget hotels: Ask nicely.

Be polite, and staff might take pity on your mess. After all, they don’t want stinky odors of days-old seafood takeout emitting from your room either. And the beach sand you tracked in could easily spread if not promptly vacuumed anyway.

For hotels where housekeeping is available on request, you can generally ask at check-in. Other hotels require you to request it each day.

The bottom line

Some economists have pegged a new word to this phenomenon where, rather than raise prices, companies cut services previously provided: skimpflation. Skimpflation could mean reduced staff, thus longer lines or phone hold times. It might entail the end of free headphones on airplanes or restaurant bread service.

And for many travelers, skimp flation in the form of no more daily housekeeping has become a particularly unpleasant and – quite literally – messy trend.

The post Caribbean Music, Strong Women on Film, Trousers appeared first on Traveling Archive.

I know what you’re thinking, how does that even happen?  “I ended up playing in Russia.” Sue says.  “Due to my friend, the fabulous guitar player Laura Chavez… Laura was Candye Kane’s last musical partner. Laura and Candye met The Jumping Cats (Russian musicians) in one of the Baltic countries and highly recommended that I get in touch. Through the miracle of Facebook, Vladimir Rusinov and I became friends and I eventually ended up with a gig in Moscow at the Roadhouse Blues Club, and one in St. Petersburg at the Port Arthur Jazz Club.”

And why Russia? “I was planning on just taking a vacation there, not really playing.” She says. “But my tour director Laura Barbanell, who is Russian, managed to connect me with several other groups, including a band called the Hot Engines and a world class vibes player, Alexei Chizhik, both who I sat in with. We also called all the swing dance groups we could think of in Russia and by the end of the trip, we had quite a following. It also helped that I was on the trip with a dozen swing dancers from San Diego.”

Tour dates in Moscow and St. Petersburg? That’s pretty impressive for a blues woman whose musical roots run so deep through the Texas panhandle. “I was a child of the cold war ‘duck and cover’ days, and to be in Red Square was mind boggling.”

Can you talk a little about your family? “My mother’s family was from Texas and they grew up in Chillicothe, Texas.” Sue says. “It was the depression and eventually all but one sister moved out West. The older brother went to New Mexico and all the sisters moved to California. So they entertained themselves by playing music. My grandfather played fiddle, like Turkey in the Straw kind of fiddle and was a square dance caller. And all of his children were in the swing dance era. My grandmother taught them all how to play piano, my mother played drums and my uncle played trumpet, and they all played piano.”

Sounds like you were destined to play music. “Yeah, you were expected to play or expected to participate, anyway. And that’s what the family did.”

It was a ten year old Palmer attending Vacation Bible School with a neighborhood friend when she first heard the boogie played on piano. Sue says that chance revelation rapidly became an obsession, “I played all the time, I did it for hours and hours when I was little, that’s the key. You have to do it so much that the left hand is mindless.”

With so many musical and generational influences Sue ultimately created her own “kind of swingy blues or bluesy swing” that continues to integrate and underscore her undying love of the big band era. “I really didn’t start thinking of it as a profession because my mother said it was a hard life. (laughing) And I think it meant you couldn’t go to the bathroom when you needed too, when you were on the bus, on the road. I mean, they didn’t really know what it was like. My parents didn’t understand self-employment. My mother was like Rosie the riveter. She worked at Solar and my father was in the Navy from ’41 to ’61. He was in Pearl Harbor.”

Who were some of your earliest influences outside the family? “Probably Elvis, I listened to his piano player over and over, like a hundred million times a day…and Ray Charles because he was really big in the early 60’s. When I was in the 8^th grade I started playing by ear. I took piano lessons for about 5 years, like from 7 to 12 or something. But then I started playing by ear and listening to things on the radio. I listened to Duke Ellington, Count Basie and everybody.”

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        “I’m basically a swing musician. I knew I was going to lose a gig once when she said,
‘Can you try not to swing?’ I couldn’t! So, I lost the gig. I couldn’t do it.”  

                                                                                                        – Sue Palmer

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Did you start out in garage bands? “No and that’s one of my regrets. And that I didn’t join the high school band, I could’ve picked up sax or something real easily. But they were too dorky. (laughing) I didn’t like that. I was stupid. You know, I would play at my friend’s houses. But the boys didn’t want to play with me. They may have wanted to play with you if you could sing or were real sexy or something but I wasn’t really like that. (laughing) I just kept playing; I played all the time, when I was supposed to be studying.”

But you did stay in school… “I went to college out here at San Diego State. I was a political science major. (laughing) And it wasn’t until I graduated that I started meeting people and continued to go (to school) because the job I got was so… nothing… clerical. I had more status as a student. I started meeting people that were better musicians and because of the time it was, the late ‘60s early ‘70s people needed you for benefits. And the women’s movement started and I was really interested in that and all the talk of being free and the hippies…and I started doing benefits with this friend I met and that’s how I started developing. Then I got a band together called Ms. B. Haven with Sharon (Shufelt) and April (West) and we recorded a 45 in the late ‘70s.

Was that your first band? “Well, we had a little trio called Pearl Tapioca before Ms. B. Haven. That band was very democratic, there wasn’t like one style of music. We were all different; all right it’s your turn, okay your turn. It would be like practically disco and then country, it was funny. And then I had a band called Tobacco Road.”

Tobacco Road made you a household name, followed by critical acclaim and music awards. “It was a good band… April and Sharon were in it. We met in the late ‘70s. There was a band called Stones’ Throw which was a really popular, fun trio and Sharon started playing drums with them for a while and they did a lot of harmonies and vintage jazz. Molly Stone was in it and Phil Shopoff. And I was in Pearl Tapioca with Molly for a little while and my friend Dayna who lives around the corner… then I was in a band with Candye Kane.

You reach the end of Tobacco Road, what happened? “Well it probably would have still been going, but the real star of Tobacco Road was a guy named Preston Coleman, an African-American who was a hipster in the ‘40s and when he got with us it gave us total legitimacy. It went away because I went off with Candye and Preston had a stroke. It was a horn band, sax and clarinet, trombone and trumpet and no guitar, piano, bass and drums. We worked all the time, like three gigs a day on the weekend, one time I did four, I played all the time. I quit my day job and got a keyboard in 1987.”

How did you first meet Candye Kane? “I actually knew Tom Yearsley, Candye was married to him then and we all played at the Belly Up. It was a giant scene in the ‘90s and in the ‘80s too. He was playing in the Paladins and I was in Tobacco Road and we played every Happy Hour Wednesday for about five years or so and we all knew each other. So he had mentioned to Candye that he thought I would be a good person for her to hook up with. Her youngest son, Tommy was a baby so she was interested in getting a record deal and going on the road and doing the whole thing, but he was too little. When he got to be about three, she thought she could do it, so he (Thomas) suggested she check me out for part of the band. She invited me to play at a NOW benefit because she was a big feminist at Palomar Junior College. So I said yes and that was how we met and started becoming friends. She got a band together and we played at the Belly Up. The Sunday Happy Hour or something and it was like ‘boiinng’ as soon as we started… crowded! It was special, yeah.”

Did you and Candye hit it off personally as well as professionally? “We would have the most interesting conversations because she had come from a way different background than me. She had been a sex worker and I was this little middle-class girl from Point Loma. (laughing) The way we came to our beliefs, some we would disagree on, but some things we were like, ‘Oh wow, that’s interesting!’ We would agree on things, but she had come to it from a whole different place. Assumptions that weren’t true… we figured out things, it was really interesting. And we had a good connection on stage. And for almost 10 years, pretty much the whole ‘90s. And she was a fabulous performer and she brought it out in me. Because I wasn’t that much of a performer, I just played, you know?”

But your chemistry on stage literally took you around the world. “Oh God, France loved her, you know? And me too, because of the beehive, they liked all that. They do that; the state subsidizes art, performance art.”

Did you realize how special the shows were at the time? “It was huge. (laughing) My relatives always said if you went to Europe that was the big time. I mean one time we played for 20-thousand people, and there was a hill, and then another hill. Full… packed. Often we played for eight or nine thousand, and little tiny dives and everything, so you can keep making money.”

Those years must be very special to you? “Oh, fantastic, it made me look like I had a career, a defining moment. One of the stories we liked to tell, we used to play in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Zoo Bar.  This country is so huge and that guy gets so many great acts in this tiny little town, because you have to stop somewhere to sleep. It’s a tiny little place and they’re really nice people, they treat you well and it’s intimate. So we’re playing there and we’re on the road and she (Candye) would get jealous because I was getting so much attention for my beehive. So she got this little pastiche, a hairpiece, not as big as a beehive. We’re performing and she was a total nasty girl and we were doing ‘All You Can Eat’ or one of the long songs and I had on a short dress and fishnets and I was going to take a solo on the piano. While I was taking the solo she decided to do this thing where she pretended to put her head down between my legs… she wasn’t really doing anything she just had her head down in that area. And she’s not coming up. (laughing) And I’m going, ‘Uh, I’m just tryin’ to take a solo, Candye!” And she goes, ‘I’m stuck!’ (laughing) The pastiche thing got stuck in the fishnets. (laughing) So finally she got out and it was pretty funny.” (laughing) You never knew what was going to happen with her and we would all just play along.”

Good times. “I had her when she was still in her thirties.” Sue remembers. “I was only in my forties. She was fat and full of it. It was the beginning of her journey ‘on the road.’ We got the Antone’s record deal and slept on floors, it was exciting.”

How did the record deal come about? “She knew how to do this, I didn’t. I knew I could find gigs in San Diego but to get out… that’s why I wanted to hang with it because I could see she was driven. We went to SXSW and played and she had some connections because of the Paladins, so that worked, it worked. People come from all over the world (for SXSW) and that’s how we got to Europe because a guy from Norway saw us so we toured Norway a few times. And then a guy from France saw us. And that lead to an agent/manager that connected us all over.”

You leave Candye and take a break… “Let’s see I quit her band in July of ’99, I had given notice and she was mad at me, so it kind of came suddenly. It was coming and she knew it too. And then we got back together because I got breast cancer. She couldn’t handle that. I knew I had to take care of some personal things and I wanted to make my own album. I wanted to reintroduce myself and get a band together and the album ‘Motel Swing and Boogie Woogie’ came out in January of 2000. April and Sharon, Jonny Viau, Deejha Marie and Earl Thomas and it eventually morphed into a sound that I wanted. Steve Wilcox and I had played in different configurations even before Candye. After playing with him so much in that band, it’s like my left hand we don’t even think about it. We do duos even, little party things and stuff.”

************************

Guitarist Steve Wilcox concurs. “I’ve known Sue probably close to 30yrs.” Steve says. “In the 80’s I was playing with Kats Caravan. We played at Patrick’s a lot back then. Sue’s band Tobacco Road played at Croce’s Top Hat. On breaks we’d step out into the little alley behind Patrick’s to get air and watch Tobacco Road and they’d do the same thing. Sue & I really clicked. I was raised on Boogie Woogie. My Dad loved Boogie Woogie piano and we had lots of recordings around our home. Classics like, ‘Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar,’ other recordings from the great Freddie Slack on 78’s were played a lot! Boogie Woogie piano has always knocked me out, so getting to play with, hang out, and tour the world with the Queen of Boogie Woogie was great!! We had a blast!!! (STILL do for that matter). We also have very similar tastes when it comes to song selection and stylistically we fit very well together.”

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Let’s talk a little more about your style of play; can you describe Sue Palmer’s music? “Well, it’s kind of swingy blues or bluesy swing. I’m basically a swing musician. I knew I was going to lose a gig once when she said, ‘can you try not to swing?’ (laughing) I couldn’t! So I lost the gig. I couldn’t do it. (laughing)

You incorporate so many different styles of play in your performances. You do stride, boogie, barrelhouse… “I do twenties and a lot of thirties stuff and someone told me the Speakeasy thing is back in style, it’ll probably last five seconds but… I spent the whole ‘80s playing ‘20s music. (laughing) Tobacco Road did all that stuff and I love it. It’s very pianistic, and April likes it because the trombone was prominent. And we just did it on one of the Hornblower boats and we have a New Years gig doing it.”

Swing dancing has become very popular in San Diego as well as around the country, especially to your style of blues and swing music. “Yes, thank God for them because they’ve kept me in business for years now. It’s becoming door gigs. It used to be, we’ll pay you this much, now the poor bar owners can’t afford to put themselves out there. Like Croce’s went out of business, because she said people didn’t want to pay for the music.”

You said you took swing dancers to Russia with you but not your regular band. How was it working with musicians from Russia? “The Jumping Cats learned all my songs and arrangements and were fantastic.” (Authors Note: There are several You Tubes videos available online of Sue Palmer and The Jumping Cats) Sue adds. “I am hoping they will come to San Diego: Vladimir on guitar, Nicolai on bass, Ksenia on drums, and Olga on vocals.  This was the first time a band featured me and learned my material, which is somewhat of a turning point for me. I was there for two weeks.”

The current political climate between our countries is not really all rainbows and unicorns, what kind of reception did you get from the Russian audiences? “The audiences were fantastic – I have a picture of everyone in the room taking a picture…at the same time! One fan remembered me from the Candye Kane days and had me signing about 15 posters. I had to take pictures with fans afterward at the St Petersburg gig for an hour and a half!!!”

Sounds like you could become our new Boogie Ambassador to Russia; do you think you’ll go back? “Music is definitely an international, peaceful language of joy…Yes, I would go back. The music was wonderful and reminded me of our common humanity, not our reasons for being enemies.”

The post Sue Palmer – Unleashes Boogie Détente appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s latest poll is dedicated to Sky’s the Limit,  where members select trips and destination/s in which money is of no concern. Like last month’s World’s Friendliest Destinations we’ve decided to continue with another uplifting theme due to the events of today. You’ll find members’ selections to be deeply personal and great fun, where we tap into their minds and go on an emotional journey and see what constitutes their wildest dreams.

Richard Carroll — T-Boy Writer:

Sky’s the Limit; Destinations where money is no object 

If I came upon a satchel of gleaming South Africa diamonds and with deep pockets where the sky’s the limit and money is no object, I would quickly book a private jet and invite family and close friends on a 21-day plus world excursion to Buenos Aires and a night of tango at Bar Sur with dinner at the Four Seasons; a few nights at remote Las Alamandas on the West Coast of Mexico; a visit to the Maya site of Tikal in Guatemala led by Maya guide Jose Antonio Gonzalez; dinner and lunch in Mexico City at Pujol, Mercaderes and Les Moustaches, serenaded by guitar and harp; a private Bordeaux winery tasting tour to Yquem, Margaux, Petrus, Lafitte Latour, and Haut Brion; overnights at Turtle Island, Fiji; dinner with Executive Chef Massino Defrancesca, Kimpton’s Seafire Resort, Cayman Islands; overnights at the historic 18th century Castadiva, Lake Como; three nights at The Ritz London,  and along the travel trail sharing with anyone in need.

Chloe Erskine — Educator:

Outer Space

Ed Boitano — T-Boy editor:

Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Railway – Russia

Much of my youth was colored by images of the Trans-Siberian Railway. All I really had was a little note card in a pack of other cards which illustrated the world’s most monumental engineering feats. At the length of 5,772 miles, traversing though eight times zones, my Sky’s the Limit  selection would be to experience Siberia via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Siberia constitutes 77% of Russia’s total land mass with the nation itself blanketing 11 percent of the world’s landscape. Reading about taiga forests; rugged mountains ranges; untamed rivers; ancient log infested  lakes; and little villages, first settled by Old Believers, preservationists of “pre-Nikonian” practices of the Russian Church, would no doubt be a stunning foray into a new world of images and history. After careful research, I discovered Golden Eagle, a luxury private train, considered the top of the line in deluxe first-class railway travel. My journey would commence in Moscow (or St. Petersburg) to the Pacific in Vladivostok. Perhaps  I’d bring half a-dozen friends who have a keen appreciation of caviar and vodka.  After all, isn’t this the Sky’s the Limit: Where Money Is No Object? Golden Eagle’s luxury service is provided by a provodnitsa, a female attendant in a military-style uniform, who keeps things running smoothly in a unique Russian way. Za Zdarovje!

Deb Roskamp — T-Boy photographer & writer:

Cruising.  Seeing the world. Two pleasures that bring me some of my greatest delights

Combine. Include a generous helping of the some of the most remote locales that I have fantasized visiting, but because of their location, make it highly improbable that I will. Sprinkle into the itinerary a few places that I’ve already been to, loved, but most likely will not return to.  Subtract COVID-19 and any pandemic to follow.  Find a pot of gold (4 kg worth).

My “Sky’s the Limit:” around the World in 167 days aboard Silversea’s Silver Cloud, departing January 25th, 2022 from Ushuaia, Argentina.  Includes Antarctica, Shetland Islands, multiple stops along Chile, Robinson Crusoe Island, Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, multiple stops in the Marquesas, Tahiti, Cook, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon, and Papua New Guinea islands.  On to Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Egypt, Greece, Albania, Tunisia, Sicily, Algeria, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, ending in Norway.  Aaah… bliss!

Fyllis Hockman — T-Boy writer:

Lodge at Tikana — Southland, New Zealand

So there I was lying in this massive tub overflowing with all kinds of goodies ‘cause I couldn’t decide between the rosewater bubble bath, the ginseng and orange blossom aromatic bath soak, the green tea and lime leaf water infusion disc or the green tomato and seaweed body scrub. I was so stressed out by the decision, it was a good thing there was the lemon-scented calming oil to finish off with. Not your usual hotel amenities! Which is an apt introduction to the Lodge at Tikana in Southland, New Zealand. Tikana, by the way, means style in the Maori language.

Did I mention that while I was soaking, I was also making eye contact with a family of deer peering in the wide bath-tub-level window next to me? This luxurious two-story retreat, the only guest accommodations on the property, is part of a working farm which breeds the afore-mentioned deer as well as thoroughbred horses. But let’s get back to the important things. How many lodgings have YOU stayed in that came with its own wine cellar???

Okay, you had a wine cellar, you say. Well, what about your own latte-making machine in the kitchen? Imagine curling up on the couch in your living room with freshly made cappuccino? We’re not talking International Coffees here. Of course, you probably wouldn’t also have a little fawn outside your window.

The décor is combination art house and rustic elegance — steel and stone flow together between raw timber-framed floor-to-ceiling windows to create an environment that entices the eye and embraces the soul. A heady escape from civilization but with surround-sound entertainment and internet hook-up.

Picture this. While sipping cappuccino mid-day, I nibbled on cheese and crackers from the fridge; with the Chardonnay, I opted for olives and deli. Keep in mind, this is no hotel mini-bar where you’re charged extra for every indulgence. And indulgences abound.

Owners Dave and Donna — he, a vet; she, a horse trainer — who also know a thing or two about treating humans, take pampering to a whole new level. Their gourmet meals are 4-star Michelin for both food and presentation.

I was so relaxed after my bath I dined in the fluffy, multi-colored robe they provided — though my evening wear didn’t do justice to the beautifully attired table. A candelabra of multi-layered candles oozed ambience, and the silver meal-covers warmed our hearts as well as our food.

Chef Donna discussed our preferences for every course ahead of time — did we want the lamb or the venison tonight? Basted in garlic or encrusted in dukah? I have no clue what that is but it tasted yummy. And would you believe sticky date pudding with toffee sauce?

I inadvertently picked an award-winning wine from the extensive collection to accompany the meal. It was beginner’s luck but I didn’t feel the need to disavow the hosts of my sophisticated taste.

Such all-inclusive sumptuousness comes at a price, of course — a hefty one — but this is Sky’s the Limit: were money is of no concern— and I’ll be ready for my return to Southland, New Zealand.

Tom Weber — T-Boy writer:

Ashford Castle: Elegantly Wrapped in Irish Charm

Of the 522 medieval castles that dot the Republic of Ireland’s landscape, one stands “keep and ramparts” above all others: Ashford Castle, the oldest fortress in the country, a true treasure of the Emerald Isle and a real “sky’s the limit” destination.

Several years ago, I arrived at this iconic landmark under a fine mist and was led across a stone bridge straddling the River Cong in Co. Mayo by a piper in full regalia. “Céad míle fáilte! (One-hundred-thousand welcomes),” announced the general manager as I walked up the entry stairs, flanked by a pair of Irish Wolfhound statues — four-legged guests are always welcome — and stepped onto the bespoke carpeting and entered into a world of regal elegance.

Winner of the 2020 World SPA Award as Ireland’s best hotel spa, Ashford Castle, a five-star country estate, is set amid 350 acres of well-manicured greenery, gardens and rustic paths and trails that overlook the Lough Corrib, the country’s second largest lake. With a heritage dating all the way back to 1228, the castle turned the page on its history in 2013 when it was purchased by Red Carnation Hotels and immediately underwent a top-to-bottom, multi-million dollar renovation and refurbishment that was unveiled to much fanfare in 2015.

I’m handed a green leather key card to a lovely, renovated deluxe view room on the top floor of the castle. As I swiped the card over the security pad and pushed back the door, my jaw dropped in OMG fashion. My suite, like the other 82 guest rooms, is richly appointed as the meticulous attention to detail is found in the unique works of art, carefully sourced antique furniture with sumptuous fabrics and custom-designed carpet, king-sized bed, feature lighting, exquisite toweling and VOYA seaweed-based organic bath and beauty products.

Cullen’s at the Cottage, a summer-only bistro restaurant occupying a traditional thatched-roof cottage, serves up international and local dishes inspired by Beatrice Tollman, owner of Ashford Castle, in a casual atmosphere accented by friendly Irish hospitality. Greeted warmly by the manager, she and her young and eager wait staff went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure my dining experience at the Cottage was memorable. And, it was.

A nightcap was in order, so I retired to The Prince of Wales Cocktail Bar where the on-duty mixologist prepped a Jameson, neat. Seated at a glass-covered table showcasing a few antique flintlock pistols, I sipped slowly wondering all the while if these weapons were ever used in a duel at 15 paces.

Sleep arrives quickly as I tuck myself into the inviting bed — turned down by evening maid service — with luxurious 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton monogrammed bed linen, and highlighted by a complimentary box of Lily O’Brien’s chocolates resting atop one of the pillows. Night night!

When it’s not raining on your parade, and that’s a real possibility when visiting the Emerald Isle, there are plenty of outdoor activities to keep you busy around the castle in between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tee it up at the parkland golf course; play singles or doubles on two all-weather tennis courts; go fishing; grab a kayak and paddle around the lake; mount a horse and hit the woodland trails, or take a carriage ride with the entire family; hire a bike and cycle the castle’s vast estate; take aim at clay pigeons and bullseyes with skeet and archery; play billiards; screen The Quiet Man and other box-office hits in the velvet-seated cinema; relax in the spa; or, do what I did: experience the ancient sport of falconry.

Ireland’s School of Falconry is the oldest established falconry school in the country. Here, castle guests can book a once-in-a-lifetime “hawk walk” and fly their very own Harris’s hawk in the nearby woodlands. Following its “handler” from tree to tree, your hawk periodically swoops down into your gloved fist, grabs a “snack,” then flies off again. You know it’s somewhere nearby from the sound of the tiny bells attached to its talons.

I was told that a “history” cruise around Lough Corrib, sailing daily, weather permitting, from Ashford Castle’s private pier, is a terrific way to explore the camera-ready surroundings of some of the lake’s 365 isles, one for each day of the year, and take in the panoramic views of the Connemara Mountains in the distance. I board the M.V. Isle of Innisfree, an original tender (lifeboat) from the Cunard Line, and we shove off. The knowledgeable captain/historian steers the boat and narrates the scene at the same time as we cruise across the lake. Meanwhile, an 80-year-old musician entertains guests topside on the “squeezebox” with a selection of Irish tunes, like Danny Boy and Rakes of Mallow. In between the history lesson and the ditties, a member of the crew ensures that glasses are kept full with wine or Jameson, or both, to ward off the cold wind hitting us straight on. Brrrr.

In 1906, the Prince of Wales was a guest of the Guinness family, owners of Ashford Castle at the time. The prince went on to become England’s King George V. In honor of his visit, the Guinness family built a special dining room which still bears his name. Dressed in coat and tie, I’m ushered into the graceful setting that is the George V Dining Room and prepare to dine like royalty. From acclaimed Chef Philippe Farineau’s kitchen, a bounty of food magazine-worthy dishes are plated before me from Ireland’s lands, seas and farms, all paired with stellar wines from Bouchard Finlayson Winery of South Africa.

With my 48-hour, fairy tale-like stay coming to an end, I add my name to the guest book to ensure that I’m part of the Ashford lore. I thoroughly enjoyed the elegance of Ashford Castle, but found its Irish charm simply irresistible.

Richard Frisbie — T-Boy writer:

A cruise around the globe

I don’t have that lifestyle, or even that imagination. My last vacation was in the 1980s — a week in southern California followed by a weekend at Amelia Island resort. Since then it’s just been an overnight to Maine to visit family once or twice a year, or my press trips which are certainly no vacation. “Sky’s the limit” travel is beyond my ken, not to mention my wallet.

That being said, after years of writing hundreds of cruise port excursions annually for the largest reseller of same, I would love to do a world cruise in the best stateroom/suite/penthouse on board, with a butler and an unlimited budget. That way I could socially distance, (which is more my nature than it is pandemic-related) and see the best of the best everywhere in the world using top guides in all ports, with enough time to eat local specialties, drink local wines, while touring museums, historic city centers, and beautiful countrysides.

Ringo Boitano — T-Boy writer:

Tuscany Calling – Italy

A private villa with a swimming pool, surrounded by vineyards in Tuscany. Included in the package would be a SUV rental car and a chef, who specializes in Cucina Toscana as well as Italy’s other 19 regions. Cooking lessons by request. The theme would be to relax, take day trips or longer, and host friends from around the globe.

Phil Marley — Poet:

Summer: Norway’s Fjords

To spend six summer months in a large remote, vacation cabin, with electricity or not. Hiking, fishing, boating, touring nearby waterside villages. Evenings spent around a grand table with family and friends, dining on mammoth communal meals. And the laughing and joking in eternal peace.

Winter: Québec City

Yes, it’s cold, but with a warm jacket, gloves and a pair of solid boots, you don’t even notice. The season is filled with the spirit of hygge, the Danish expression of coziness, evoking  a warm feeling inside. Reflections of lights and historic buildings bounce off the snow. Restaurants welcome you with blazing fires. And, if the chance you become bored, there is Québec winter festival,  Carnaval de Québec.

Skip Kaltenheuser — T-Boy writer:

Kashmir – Pakistan & India

Some places I’d like to go to are off-limits, at least to my sensibility, because of internal political strife or potential international conflict. And in this case, the tensions are between nuclear powers, Pakistan, India and China. I hope they find a way to work it out and the whole region becomes travel friendly, I’ve heard its beauty is awesome. When it opens, no doubt someone will put together some over-the-top digs and pleasures, in the style to which I’d like to become accustomed but probably won’t. But if it does open, I hope it’s also backpacker/hiker friendly, sans landmine anxieties.

Brent Campbell — Musician and composer:

• Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia — Moscow to Vladivostok.
• Former Soviet Republics — A driving trip through Eastern Europe, maybe start by taking overseas delivery of a new Audi in Germany.
• Remote South Pacific Islands — Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands.

Raoul Pascual — T-Boy webmaster:

With Sky’s the Limit, I wouldn’t necessarily go where it is expensive, but to where I probably could not ever imagine I could go.

• Go underwater in a yellow submarine tour.
• Go to the moon and see the earth.
• Go to the Brazilian rain forest and swing on ropes like Tarzan.
• Go to the most expensive cruise just to see what makes it so expensive.
• Go to Japan and soak up the culture of the big city and the tiny villages.
• Go to Singapore and Dubai to see how the filthy rich waste their money.
• Go to the Great Wall of China and enjoy the 360 degree view. I don’t think pictures can really capture this.
• Same goes with the Pyramids.
• Go to Alaska and marvel at the expanse of the icebergs. Eat fresh fish and crab.
• Go to Iceland and have a sauna massage.
• But in all this, I would want my wife and my kids to be with me because I’ve traveled alone before and it wasn’t fun without anyone beside me. I want to be in wonder with them.

The post Sky’s the Limit: Where Money Is No Object appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The Covid19 virus was a game-changer that undermined Bernie’s campaign strengths and his chances of overcoming the battery of establishment cannons arrayed against him, the pressure of which would buckle most people half his age. And unlike Perez and Biden, whatever the latest tune they whistle, Bernie wouldn’t have people risking lives in primaries in a game of Covid19 Russian roulette.  Biden has a minefield of banana peels before him, but waiting for him to slip from the grasp of his army of handlers and do a face-plant is not a political strategy that inspires. It’s understandable that someone with Bernie’s integrity would focus instead on his ideals and proposals, which to anyone not in a coma or a special interest pocket make more sense with each passing day.

As Naomi Klein has observed, “…during times of crisis, people also are risk-averse. I think the timing of this was such, with the inability to continue campaigning in person, with people just reaching for something that looked and felt safe, I don’t think it was possible to translate that shift in openness to these kinds of policies with a huge electoral swing from Biden towards Bernie, although I was certainly hoping for it up until Bernie’s announcement last night. But while hoping for it, I was keenly aware that the polls were not reflecting it, that it wasn’t happening and that people are not up for that kind of political seesaw in this moment of tumult.”

There’ve been logical, solid analyses, as by the anchors of the online political show Rising, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, that the Democratic establishment will eventually blow off anyone not brandishing a ball bat with nails in it, that whatever promises Bernie might elicit from making nice, they’ll be written in sand washed away by the high tide of big donors. And no matter what Bernie says or does, he will be blamed again if Trump wins, as CNN is already about the business of. As in 2016, how dare Bernie practice democracy and provide the country with a choice and an awareness of issues best left concealed from view.

Some might despair that with Bernie stepping back, the progressive movement has lost its lynchpin. Bernie countered that nicely with accomplishments noted in his statement that he was suspending his campaign, (not cremating it, as many in the media have implied), while staying on the ballot to hold and earn delegates to influence the party. Progressive candidates inspired by Bernie certainly aren’t fading away. Charles Booker, running against Mitch McConnell, stated “…make no mistake: our fight for Medicare for All, racial justice, a Green New Deal, and an economy that works for all of us is nowhere close to over.” Mark Gamba, the mayor Milwaukee, Oregon, running against incumbent Blue Dog, Kuirt Schrader, reaffirmed his goals of changing the healthcare system, boldly addressing climate change and holding corporate interests accountable for damage they cause. The grassroots movements supporting such candidates aren’t fading away either.

Here’s Biden’s statement on Bernie stepping out of the race. Pre-canned by strategists for sure, but I’d have to say it’s not a bad statement from the point of view of conning people to fill in the blanks with whatever they hope Joe is saying about health care, etc…. Trump was masterful at letting people hear what they wanted. If he’s not too addled, he may be again. But maybe Joe can limp along for awhile on a lack of specificity and a media tossing him softballs, until Biden figures out the peril of not making solid, substantive commitments and standing by them.

Maybe Biden can ride to victory atop a platform of low expectations other than not being Trump. But if Biden wins with wishy-washy, he’ll have nothing resembling a mandate, only a load of disappointed people when he turns out to be Mr. Cellophane, moved about with puppet strings by big donors to whom Bernie, with his small donor cornucopia, must have looked like one of Eliot Ness’s Untouchables. Spurning the money of big donors and owing them nothing made Bernie a dangerous man.

Howie of Down with Tyranny has repeatedly contrasted Biden’s weaknesses and Bernie’s strengths, so I’ll just offer a couple glimpses that glare out.

Recently the Biden camp conferred with Eric Holder about Biden’s campaign and his vice-presidential pick. Holder who ushered, covertly from colleagues who’d have been aghast, the pardon of finance criminal fugitive Marc Rich for Bill Clinton’s signature on Clinton’s last day in office, after which Rich’s ex-wife donated huge sums to the Clinton library. Does anyone doubt that had that happened a year earlier Clinton would have been impeached, and properly so? Holder, who prosecuted whistleblowers like John Kiriakou, a top counterintelligence agent who exposed CIA torture, just to ruin him and to send a message to others, putting this hero in prison, initially with an effort to throw away the key. Holder, who let bankers off the legal hook laying the groundwork for his law firm, and therefore Holder, to reap fortunes servicing those banks. Read what Holder did to bank whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld on behalf of foreign banks hiding Americans’ money. That’s the short list.

Holder was Wall Street’s early Manchurian candidate for President. He fizzled like a wet fuse, but he’s been waiting in the wings if opportunity knocks, raising his profile with an anti-gerrymandering organization that’s run like a campaign. If Biden hadn’t already committed to a female vice-president, I’d bet Holder would pull a Cheney and recommend himself. He’ll certainly be influential in a Biden administration, again looking out for protecting his client bankers from facing serious consequences for misdeeds and greedy maneuvers that are again setting Americans — and the world — up for another fall.

My point is that no one had to worry about Bernie consulting with Eric Holder. Instead Bernie would be throwing a wrench in the revolving door to keep Holder’s ilk out of his administration. Bernie would never have floated the idea of Jamie Dimon as a swell potential member of an administration, perhaps Secretary of the Treasury, as Biden’s camp did. Want some intriguing reading? Read a bit on Dimon here, and on JPMorganChase, courtesy of Wall Street on Parade. I’m confident that after the election, when the revolving door starts spinning, Bernie will be shouting the dangers loud and clear, channeling public anger that Biden would be a fool not to pay attention to.

By the way, Wall Street called the shots on many of President Obama’s picks, including Holder for Attorney General and Hillary for Secretary of State. That insight came courtesy of WikiLeaks, so one can sense the establishment fervor to destroy Julian Assange. And Wall Street on Parade reports that in the 2020 presidential primaries one Wall Street firm was an instrumental supporter of five different Democratic candidates. Should that leave us wondering at the impressive orchestration of the Super Tuesday endorsements, that maybe some candidates, beyond shooting for Veep or major posts, were being jockeyed to derail progressives and elevate Biden?

Both of Bernie’s presidential campaigns laid bare the hapless state of much of mainstream, corporate media. Take the Washington Post. Does anyone think Jeff Bezos bought that paper because, like Citizen Kane, he thought it might be fun to run a newspaper. The man has a Washington agenda. The Bezos Brigaiders on the editorial pages and covering the campaign are well aware of how many newspapers have hit the skids, with major staff layoffs that leave many journalists scrambling to find public relations work. They don’t have to be geniuses to figure out what the world’s richest man doesn’t like. Bezos doesn’t like antitrust enforcement and close scrutiny and regulation of monopolies. He doesn’t care much for paying taxes. He doesn’t like to be embarrassed and pushed by potential legislation that would penalize him if he doesn’t raise wages and improve working conditions for expendable workers toiling in warehouses and grocery stores and delivering his goods. He doesn’t like unions. So none of the Bezos Brigaiders needs to be told he doesn’t like Bernie Sanders, whose major supporters include Amazon workers and who throws a spotlight on that company’s excesses. And so these members of the press decided squashing Bernie is worth shredding their journalistic credibility, continuing a pattern Thomas Frank wonderfully described in 2016 in a Harper’s magazine article, Swat Team.

The New York Times opinion page and campaign coverage has been as relentless whacking Bernie. One can only marvel at how the Gray Lady has become so in the tank for the Wall Street establishment it still won’t acknowledge the folly of Bill Clinton and Robert Rubin eliminating the Glass-Steagall Act, that had separated commercial and investment banking since FDR, becoming a major cause of the 2008 economic debacle. Both Clinton and Rubin were richly rewarded for that, from speaking fees and foundation contributions for Clinton to a job for Rubin with stunning compensation. In Washington, quid pro quo often takes its time, but it gets there.

Did it ever look to you like a contest between those two papers to find the most deranged and angry looking images they could of Bernie? Propaganda 101.

We’ve been treated to the comic spectacle of Comcast media players like Chuck Todd, putting their Orwellian knives into Bernie and his health care proposals between commercials for health care insurance and pharmaceutical companies. And a number of NPR reporters and analysts behaved as if they’re auditioning for Comcast, putting words in interviewee’s mouths and cutting them short if what they said wasn’t supporting the narrative. They all ought get plaques engraved with “But How Will You Pay For It?” Particularly if the big banks start tumbling economic dominoes that most media has routinely ignored.

So we can thank Bernie for making the media fix so apparent that many of us now seek out alternative media voices, voices that often represent a much better use of one’s time.

Consider corporate media’s willingness to avert its gaze from a foreign power meddling in American elections. I’m not speaking of Russia, the influence of which on the 2016 election I think greatly over-played, to the detriment of focus on critical issues and on what the Trump grifter class is up to. Whatever Russia did I doubt it had much impact next to the tabloids in the grocery store checkout line, let alone our home-grown dark money networks of the Kochs, Mercers and others from the oligarch rogues gallery. More attention should have been paid to the influence of foreign companies’ American subsidiaries, including banks.

No, I’m speaking of Israel, whose confederates and advocates in the US spent fortunes running ads attacking Bernie in the primaries, supporting the narrative of Bernie being unelectable. Just imagine if it had been Russia, how quickly those covertly undermining our democracy on a behalf of a foreign power would earn the accusation of betraying our country. Just because Bernie called for decency and morality in the treatment of Palestinians systematically oppressed in every way imaginable. That oppression was often done with American indifference or complicity, which Bernie was perceived as a threat to.

Predictably, media was then complicit with ludicrous and flimsy intelligence claims — intelligence loosely defined — that Bernie topped Russia’s wish list.

Ironically, Bernie went along a bit with the Russia narrative, something for which he’s been criticized. I’ve no idea how much he really bought into that party orthodoxy. Some purists won’t like what I’m about to say. Things are relative, and running a presidential campaign isn’t the same as seeking sainthood. Look how fast media stood Bernie before a firing squad for giving a harmless nod to educational and medical accomplishments in Cuba, painting him as a fellow traveler to discredit him, particularly in Florida.

On balance, Bernie has given it to us straight more than any other candidate. Pardon what’s almost become a cliché, but his consistent drumbeat really has changed the conversation. On healthcare, 55% of voters now support single payer health care, only 35% oppose it. Major programs to counter climate change and develop related jobs are now a top priority of many, particularly younger voters. Bernie provided an articulation of the growing wealth gap that helped people better understand what they already sensed going on around them, and the campaign finance fix behind much of it. He provided hope that there was a way to do something about it. Where would the conversation be were it not for Bernie?

While I like and respect some of those who’ve been critical of Bernie over dis and dat, no offense to them but I think Noam Chomsky is better than most in assessing the immediacy of the big picture. (Here’s some of his comments on Bernie ending his presidential run.)

Chomsky on Democracy Now:

If Trump is reelected, it’s a indescribable disaster. It means that the policies of the past four years, which have been extremely destructive to the American population, to the world, will be continued and probably accelerated. What this is going to mean for health is bad enough… It will get worse. What this means for the environment or the threat of nuclear war, which no one is talking about but is extremely serious, is indescribable.

Suppose Biden is elected. I would anticipate it would be essentially a continuation of Obama — nothing very great, but at least not totally destructive, and opportunities for an organized public to change what is being done, to impose pressures.

It’s common to say now that the Sanders campaign failed. I think that’s a mistake. I think it was an extraordinary success, completely shifted the arena of debate and discussion. Issues that were unthinkable a couple years ago are now right in the middle of attention.

The worst crime he committed, in the eyes of the establishment, is not the policy he’s proposing; it’s the fact that he was able to inspire popular movements, which had already been developing — Occupy, Black Lives Matter, many others — and turn them into an activist movement, which doesn’t just show up every couple years to push a leader and then go home, but applies constant pressure, constant activism and so on. That could affect a Biden administration.

In the end, we should appreciate Bernie for the enemies he’s chosen, domestic and foreign. And we should appreciate him for the voice he’ll provide as interesting times compound.

The post Appreciating Bernie in Our Era of Hobson’s Choices appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Through a combination of modern-day technology and a painter’s artistic touch, this photojournalist, invited by Insight Vacations to document its Easy Pace Russia journey, is transported back in time to September 7, 1812 as French and Russian forces collide on a massive amphiteatre-like clearing near tiny Borodino.

I’m standing on a circular platform at the top of the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum in Moscow looking down and panning right and left, taking in every detail of a gigantic 360-degree oil painting created by Franz Roubaud, a panoramic master, in 1911.

This tableau of bloodshed, standing 15m tall and stretching 115m around, is impressive. Along with Roubaud’s brush strokes, the added dimension and depth of dramatic set recreations in the foreground, special lighting and realistic sound effects make me feel as if I’m actually there, standing alongside Pierre, Leo Tolstoy’s naive, unworldly hero from War and Peace, witnessing the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars.

Nearly 250,000 French and Russian forces answered the call that sunny, September day, but when the last cannon sounded and the final saber rattled, nearly 75,000 brave souls had perished on the battlefield.

Napoleon himself summed up the battle best: “The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible”.

What was left of the Imperial Army of Russia retreated, burning every hamlet, village and town in its wake, while Napolean’s equally depleted, but tactically victorious, Grande Armée continued its march to Moscow, some 115 km (70 mi) away, only to find it, too, deserted and ablaze.

Holed up inside the Kremlin for five long weeks, Napoleon waited impatiently for an official surrender from Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, but it would never come. Totally frustrated and weary, Napoleon limped back to Paris, in the middle of a harsh Russian winter, leaving behind nearly three-quarters of his original 600,000-manned invasion force dead, strewn about the countryside.

Celebrated historian Oleg Sokolov observed that the significance of the battle came much, much later. “The importance of Borodino,” he noted, “is by literature, by history, by poetry. It’s not so important strategically.”

Mikhail Lermontov wrote a poem, Borodino, that’s read and recited by every Russian schoolchild. Tolstoy made the battle the focal point in his aforementioned epic novel. And, 19th century symphonist Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the world-renowned and easily-recognizable 1812 Overture, complete with cannon fire, that today accompanies elaborate, choreographed pyrotechnics that light up the sky above the annual Fourth of July concert on the Mall in Washington, DC.

The Battle of Borodino, the event that signaled the beginning of the end for Napoleon and, to a lesser degree, the conclusion of my visit to the Panorama Museum, the very last stop on this week-long, Easy Pace Russia journey. I just wish it were the overture and not the finale.

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted routes around Europe, or call toll-free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

Do svidaniya!

The post Easy Pace Russia: The Battle that Inspired an Overture (Dispatch #17) appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Hey, wait a minute. Wasn’t that cancelled so we could leave a little bit earlier than usual this morning? OMG, I’m late!

A photojournalist invited along to document the Easy Pace Russia experience, I scramble for my camera kit, dash out of my hotel room at the Radisson Royal, grab an elevator to the ground floor, race through the lobby like Usain Bolt (well, almost) and leap aboard the waiting motor coach curbside, with its engine running, completely out of breath.

“MEA CULPA,” I embarrassingly cry out, as Gennady, our tour director, Vera, our local expert guide, and the 22 bona fide travelers already buckled into their seats, strum their fingers on the armrest or point at their watches. Slinking all the way to the back of the coach, like a political prisoner exiled to Sibera, I can feel the chill coming off everyone’s shoulders as I pass by.

Barely seated, “Alexander the Great,” our expert pilot, puts the sleek, state-of-the-art Mercedes carriage, with business class legroom seating, in gear and we’re into the flow of morning traffic in no time, heading towards the M8 motorway.

Where to? The Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius, the most important monastery in the country and the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Named after one of the Church’s most venerated saints, it’s located about 70km (42 mi) northeast of Moscow in Sergeyev Posad, one of a group of ancient “open-air museum” towns that form the Golden Ring.

Along the way, we steal a glance at the Monument of the Conquerors of Space, a 107m tall, titanium depiction of a rocket rising on its exhaust plume that stands right above the Memorial Museum of Cosmonauts.

“In case you forgot,” announces Vera via the onboard sound system, “the very first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, made his historic single orbit around the earth aboard Vostock 1 on April 12, 1961.” She adds, “Ten months later, on February 20, 1962, American astronaut John Glenn countered as he orbited the earth three times aboard Friendship 7, and the manned spaceflight race between the USSR and the USA was seriously underway.”

Speaking of the heavens, we’ve just arrived at the Trinity Lavra. Founded in 1337 with the building of a simple wooden church atop Makovets Hill to honor the Holy Trinity, one of the cornerstones in the religious teachings of Russian Orthodoxy, this monastic community is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of 26 areas so recognized in Russia.

“In awarding World Heritage Site status,” comments Vera in our earbuds as we enter through the Holy Gate, “UNESCO cited the Trinity Lavra as an outstanding and remarkably complete example of an active Orthodox monastery that was characteristic of the period of its growth and expansion between the 15th and the 18th centuries.”

This sacred destination, both spiritually and architecturally, is a unique ensemble of more than 50 buildings and constructions. An angelic park-like setting — absolutely spotless despite the foot traffic — Trinity Lavra is simply stunning with life-sized murals adorning many of the facades and a skyline filled with gilded onion-shaped domes and glistening bell towers.

Inside the nine churches and cathedrals of the monastery are scores of religious artifacts, paintings, ceilings filled with heavenly frescos and walls draped in iconostases.

The holiest spot of Trinity Lavra is inside Trinity Cathedral where the relics of St. Sergius, the monk from Radonezh who founded the monastery, may be seen, but not photographed. Also noteworthy, the tomb of Boris Godunov, the tsar who ruled briefly between the Rurik and Romanov Dynasties, sits in the family mausoleum near the entrance to the monastery’s main church, the Cathedral of the Assumption.

The Grim Reaper seems to be stalking us as our Insight motor coach returns to Moscow and drops us off in front of the entry gate to the most famous of the city’s cemeteries: Novodevichy Cemetery, where Russian history sleeps. Established just outside the south wall of the Novodevichy Convent, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, interment during Soviet rule was considered second in prestige only to burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Today, the Novodevichy Cemetery, a veritable who’s who of Russian politics and culture, is the final resting place for only those symbolically significant burials, like more-recent arrivals Boris Yeltsin, the Russian Federation’s first president, and Mstislav Rostropovich, the world-renowned cellist.

Just about every field of endeavor is represented, but only luminaries reside six feet under. From architects, athletes and artists, to composers, cosmonauts and chemists. Why, there are even a few spies buried here, along with a World War II female sniper — I swear I couldn’t find her grave marker — and a circus clown! Yuri Nikulin, the Buster Keaton-like, “brainy clown” of the big top, is interred in the most entertaining and most moving of the more than 27,000 plots contained within these hallowed brick walls.

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted routes around Europe, or call toll-free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

You’ve heard the expression, “Napoleon slept here,” right? Well, we’re soon to find out why his stay in Moscow didn’t last very long when we pay a visit to the Borodino Battle Panorama Museum to relive the Grande Armée of France’s bloody skirmish against the Russian Army on September 7, 1812.

The post Easy Pace Russia: Cosmonauts, Churches and a VIP Cemetery (Dispatch #16) appeared first on Traveling Archive.

From St. Petersburg in the west to Vladivostok in the east, the Russian Federation is one very, very large country. Stretching 20,000+km (12,000+ mi), it shares its borders with no less than 16 other sovereign states, and has a maritime boundary with the United States. Remember Sarah Palin? She boasted she could see Mother Russia clear across the Bering Strait from her front porch in Alaska.

With more than one-eighth of the earth’s inhabitable land area, there’s plenty of room to accommodate a population of 144m from 160 different ethnic groups. Diverse and multi-cultural, you’d think this variety would translate well in the kitchen, right? Well, it certainly does.

Enjoying a break in the official itinerary after today’s walk around Red Square and a glimpse inside the Kremlin, I — a guest photojournalist invited by Insight Vacations to experience its Easy Pace Russia journey — am looking for a restaurant recommendation, on my own ruble, and I don’t have to look very far. Gennady, our GQ-worthy tour director-concierge-storyteller, tells me straight away, “Go to Odessa-Mama, it’s one of my favorite Ukrainian kitchens here in Moscow and it’s where Muscovites dine. You’ll love it.” Well, I’m out the door quicker than you can say, “Doctor Zhivago.”

Just a ten-minute stroll through a park from my hotel — the Radisson Royal, one of Stalin’s “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers that’s been converted into a five-star luxury hotel overlooking the Moscow River — I arrive at no. 7 Ukrainskiy Blvd., home to the 37th ranked out of 11,000+ Moscow restaurants by Trip Advisor.

“Forget about diets, calories and revolutionary gastronomical breakthroughs,” comments Egor Osipov, the founder of the restaurant. “Just sit down and relax as if you were back at your family home and indulge in the tasty, elegant and hospitable food straight from the heart of Odessa.”

It’s pretty lively tonight as the restaurant is packed, but the hostess says she can clear a table in about ten minutes. So I stay out of the way of the busy wait staff, enjoy a glass of the house white — a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc — and listen to a young musician playing traditional tunes on his squeeze box over in the bar.

Like Mother Russia, Odessa-Mama is as diverse as it is tempting, with ethnic dishes reflective of the multi-cultural city overlooking the Black Sea for which it is named: Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Armenian, Greek and Romanian. I scan the special menu selected from recipes created by celebrated Chef Oksana Perkina, a true Odessian who really knows her way around the kitchen, and decide on a starter and a main.

The Jewish salad leads off. It’s a healthy (read, large) portion of fresh baby spinach, roasted eggplant and slices of crunchy cucumber drizzled with a tahini sauce and topped with crushed hazelnuts. Delightful.

And, I savor one of Chef Perkina’s favorites, an oven-roasted poussin chicken. This young farmyard bird, stuffed with dried apricots in a honey-cream-rosemary-melted butter sauce and surrounded by cubed red beets and a knot of fresh scallions, is, to say the very least, TO DIE FOR.

If it weren’t for the fact that I only have one more day in Moscow, I’d be back in a heartbeat to savor more Odessian ethnic fare at Odessa-Mama. You were right, Gennady. I absolutely loved it!

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted itineraries around Europe, or call toll free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

There’s no sleeping in tomorrow as the normal “relaxed start” is thrown out the window so we can board the motor coach early to cruise about 70km (42 mi) outside Moscow to OD. Say what? OverDOME, not overdose, at Saint Sergius Lavra, the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Spokoynoy nochi!

The post Easy Pace Russia: Dinner Filed Under Odessa (Dispatch #15) appeared first on Traveling Archive.

“Welcome to the Kremlin,” Vera, our expert Moscow guide, announces in our earbuds as I, a photojournalist invited by Insight Vacations to experience its Easy Pace Russia journey, along with 22 bona fide travelers are fast-tracked through the turnstiles and security scanners inside the visitor’s center.

Following the “umbrella” along a carriageway above well-manicured Alexander Park, we pass through the arch of Trinity Tower, one of five towers topped with a one-ton, ruby-glass star, and enter into the 68 acre-fortress, the largest of its kind in Europe, brimming with history and architectural marvels.

The jaw dropping begins immediately as we spy the colorful, 17th century Glorification of the Virgin Church with its four gilded domes, the first of many decorative cupolas we’ll spot today on this 90-minute stroll around ground-zero of Russian life and culture.

“Sitting atop Borovitsky Hill in full view of the Moscow River to the south and Red Square to the east,” explains Vera, “the Kremlin means ‘fortress inside a city’ and it gave rise to a small settlement in the 12th century that has grown into the most populated metro area in Europe.”

Just a few paces inside the Kremlin grounds we’re faced with an eyesore, a piece of architecture that is completely out of place in this UNESCO World Heritage Site: the State Kremlin Palace. Originally named the Palace of Congresses when it was completed in 1961, the modern, 6,000-seat, concrete-and-glass hall was where the Communist Party of the old Soviet Union held its, well, congresses. Despite calls to send in the wrecking ball, Nikita Khrushchev’s “gift” to the Kremlin now serves as a venue for ballet and classical and pop music concerts. Covering my eyes, I walk away as quickly as I can.

The geographic and historic hub of Moscow, the Kremlin greets its visitors with a group of cannons lined up outside the Arsenal that were left behind by a beleaguered French army when Napoleon limped unceremoniously back to Paris following a bloody attempt to defeat Russia during the Napoleonic Wars of 1812. The Arsenal, a building commissioned by Tsar Peter the Great, houses the Kremlin Regiment, President Putin’s main security service.

While President Donald Trump of the United States officially resides and works at the White House in Washington, D.C., and unofficially at a few of his golf resorts, the Russian Federation’s President Putin resides and works out in the ‘burbs, but occasionally conducts business inside the triangular-shaped Kremlin Senate building. “Because his motorcades caused major traffic congestion around Moscow,” notes Vera, “a helipad was built in the Tainitsky Garden several years ago and President Putin now flies into an out of the Kremlin as he pleases aboard his twin-turbo Mi-8 helicopter.”

Most, if not all, tourists come to the Kremlin to marvel at the collection of onion-shaped domes that top three Orthodox cathedrals and a bell tower positioned around, you guessed it, Cathedral Square (Sobornaya Ploschad): the Dormition, the Archangel Michael, the Annunciation and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. This square is the absolute star of our walking tour with its postcard-perfect scenes.

Built several times over, the Dormition, with its six pillar-five dome design, is the oldest of this trio of cathedrals. Desecrated by French troops during the aforementioned invasion of Russia, it was the place for the coronation of the tsars. We take our sweet time to admire and take in the details of the frescoes and iconostases.

Annunciation Cathedral, the middle born of our trio standing in Sobornaya Ploschad, is the most ornate in design with its nine, count ’em, nine gilded domes. Filled with restored 15th century frescoes, the cathedral hosts the “Treasures and Antiquities of the Moscow Kremlin” exhibition. Our group stays outside and just admires.

The youngest of the Kremlin’s treasured cathedrals, at only 509 years old, is Archangel Michael. Like the Dormition, it, too, is a six pillar-five dome design filled with beautiful frescoes and iconostases. Once built, Archangel Michael immediately became a royal necropolis and is the final resting place of almost all of the tsars prior to Peter the Great, including Ivan the Great.

Speaking of Ivan, the Great Bell Tower, adjacent to the Dormition belfry, was erected in his honor. Standing 81m tall with 24 bells, it was the tallest bell tower in the country. As time passed other bell towers were erected with greater height. Today, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower is listed as the 16th tallest in the country, but it still looks like it could touch the heavens.

As we depart the “fortress within a city,” I leave you with two interesting facts gleaned during this stroll around the Kremlin. First, the largest caliber cannon, the Tsar Cannon — 6m long, 40 tons of weight and an 890mm barrel — has NEVER, EVER been fired because it was just too heavy to roll into battle. And, secondly, the Tsar Bell, the largest bell ever made, at more than 200 tons, has NEVER, EVER been rung. A large piece of the bell cracked off during a fire shortly after it was cast, couldn’t be repaired and was, therefore, deemed useless. I guess size really does matter.

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted itineraries around Europe, or call toll free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

See you in a few hours when we put our knives and forks to the test and savor some Ukrainian dishes at a popular Muscovite restaurant that we’ll file under Odessa.

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