June 2009 Archives

Jane is making the Grand Tour of Wyndham's luxe-iest (to coin a word) properties. As loyal readers will recall, last year she whetted her appetite for the good life at the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal in Budapest, Hungary. This year, Jane stopped by the Wyndham Chelsea Harbour, a newly-acquired all-suite property in a peaceful, yet convenient part of London. The property is currently undergoing a minor face lift (more like a nip/tuck, Jane supposes), but by mid-summer, the hotel should be wrinkle-free (with the exception of a health club renovation). 
 

Jane had been worrying her pretty head over a lack of column material. So when she experienced, for the first time in her prodigious traveling career, a five-hour tarmac delay, Jane decided to squeeze some lemonade out of lemons.

Aside from taking a positive attitude, Jane weathered said delay (to be explained momentarily) by deep breathing and heavy reading. Actually, the reading was not so heavy, but it was delightful. The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs is the perfect travel book. In it, A.J. gives us an A to Z summary of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It's educational, it's erudite, and it's laugh-out-loud funny. And it's the kind of book you can pick up and put down without losing track of the plot.

Jane has spent the last few weeks doing a tour of the country's television stations. She wasn't actually touring the stations, dear reader. Rather, she was appearing on them, talking up summer travel.

Now, Jane's preamble is not meant to impress you nor to have you start waxing envious about Jane's dual talents as a pithy person of letters and a telegenic spokesmodel. Rather, it is to introduce the premise for this column. You see, as Jane traveled to eight cities in 12 days, she discovered a number of things that piqued her interest. Please note, however, that as she was in each location less than 24 hours, Jane didn't have time to develop a cinematic study of place. She merely was able to acquire a few snapshots.