American Airlines has joined the small group of airlines that are charging for a second piece of checked luggage. Flights booked after September 15, 2009 are subject to the extra fees, so if you plan to fly American, book before then.
Other US airlines such as Delta and Northwest have already instituted additional fees. At this time, only United Airlines is not charging extra fees. We expect that more airlines will join in this money-making scheme, so plan on paying up to $50 extra for a second piece of checked luggage on your international flights.
Each airline determines its own fees, so before booking your flight to Europe, be sure to check with the airline to learn what extra fees may be charged.
Tip: At this time, most European Airlines are not charging these fees, so if you book through Air France, or British Airlines for instance, you may save some money.
Related posts:
- Avoiding Luggage Woes …
- Avoid Hassles: Ship Your Luggage …
- Europe By Air Expands Offerings …
Written by Travel News on August 28th, 2009 with no comments.
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When I first visited Krakow, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that the city is one of the few Polish cities not destroyed during WWII and that the beautiful architecture of its buildings is some of the oldest in Poland. I also knew that Krakow has the largest medieval town square in all of Europe, the Main Market Square. 
Finally, I knew that Polish beer—piwo in Polish, pronounced ‘pee-voh‘—is some of the best in Europe. What I didn’t know, was that Krakow has a vibrancy to it that makes it one of the most romantic cities in all of Europe.
Upon arrival, my traveling partners and I found ourselves in the massive Main Market Square. With a long row of market stands in the center, the towering spiral of Wawel Cathedral in one corner, flowing fountains, and open-air café s on every side, the square provides a pleasant juxtaposition of medieval and modern. Like all squares, it was filled with pigeons. And when the horse and carriage taxis come through, all of the birds arose en mass, making for a dramatic atmosphere.
After dropping off my things, I visited the Wawel Castle, which is located near the center of Krakow beside the Vistula River. The castle was built during the 16th Century and is now a National Museum. The courtyard provides a stunning look at the castle’s ancient architecture and touring the castle’s walls and turrets provides unparalleled views of Krakow.
One of the castle’s passageways takes visitors underground and drops them off along the river. The river winds gently through Krakow with city parks lining most of the river banks, making for a great place to picnic or share a bottle of wine (drinking in public is legal in Poland, as in most European countries).
As the sun set, I returned to the Main Market Square. I grabbed a table at a café and ordered a glass of my favorite Polish beer, Okocim Mocne (mocne means strong, viz. high in alcohol content). The square was still filled with horse-drawn carriages charging through flocks of pigeons. While I observed well-dressed couples walk arm in arm in the evening glow, I heard the distintive sound of a bugle emanate from the Wawel Cathedral.
Every hour, on the hour, a bugle is played from high in the spire of the Wawel Cathedral. The song lasts anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes, and reflects the mood of the bugler. At 6pm, the tune was lively and boastful. Later that night, I walked through the Main Market Square at 1 or 2am. The square was deserted except for two lovers sitting around the fountain. As I was about to make my way back to my hotel, the bugle again sounded. The song was perfect for the occasion—a soft tune full of longing. It seemed to embody the centuries and centuries of feelings of yearning in the ancient city of Krakow.
Related posts:
- Hiking in Zakopane, Poland …
- Zagreb: Exploring the Croatian Capital …
- Literary Café Culture in Europe …
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When traveling around Franconia (Northern Bavaria), be sure to visit the impressive Schloss Seehof, located just five kilometers from Bamberg in Memmelsdorf. The Baroque structure was constructed in the late 17th Century as the summer residence and hunting lodge of the prince-bishop Marquard Sebastian Schenk von Stauffenberg. Four domed corner towers mark the symmetrical building. The extensive gardens, fountains and sculptures were added in later centuries by other prince-bishops who resided in the castle.
After secularization, the castle came under private ownership and fell under neglect during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The original furnishings were sold off and the elaborate gardens decayed. In 1975, the Bavarian government purchased the property and the castle and gardens underwent extensive renovations, reopening to the public in the 1990s. Some of the original furnishings and artwork of the palace were located and placed on exhibit.
Visitors to the palace first come across the Orangery building, an extension of the original Memmelsdorf gate. The central gate was constructed in the early 18th Century in the Rococo style; white stucco with orange accents. Greenhouses were later added to flank the gate to shelter the exotic plants owned by the prince-bishop during the winter months. Part of the Orangery now serves as a museum for the artist Ferdinand Tietz, who worked on several commissions for the palace and gardens.
One of the most unique qualities of the Schloss is the massive fountain or cascade located behind the main building. The piece was sculpted by Ferdinand Tietz and depicts Hercules and some of his twelve labors. Construction began in the 1760s and in addition to the large fountain, an underground tunnel was required to supply a constant source of water to the sculpture.
There are currently nine rooms of the palace accessible to visitors. Many contain the original wooden mosaic floors, arranged in interesting geometric patterns. The ballroom or White Hall contains a well-preserved ceiling fresco painted by Guiseppe Appiani, depicting Cupid and other angels. All of the rooms have been restored to resemble life in the 17th and 18th Centuries, with furniture, artwork, light fixtures and other details from the respective periods.
Tours of the interior are given in English and German. Visitors can view the period-decorated rooms and inner courtyard. The castle is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from April to October and closed during the winter. Guided tours are offered daily from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The castle gardens are open the same months as the main building, but can be toured at no cost. The cascade’s water display is shown every hour from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from May through October. It is worth watching the water dance among the sculptures while visiting the palace.
In the summer, the castle hosts classical music concerts. In early June a chamber music festival, known as Spring in the Schloss Seehof, is held. A second music festival, Sommerserenaden Schloss Seehof, takes place in August.
The Schloss Seehof can be accessed by car or by bus from Bamberg. There is a small café at the palace located in the Orangery. This romantic building with its idyllic surrounding gardens is well worth a visit. Bring a picnic and make a day of it, touring the house museum, watching the waterworks display at the cascade and strolling amidst the perfectly manicured lawn.
Related posts:
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- Visit Vienna, Austria’s Treasure …
- Erlangen, Germany: A Food and Beer Crazy City …
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- Plans to build the world’s tallest wooden building have begun in Norway, where the Norwegian Barents Secretariat wants to construct a 16-17 story building that will be entirely carbon neutral. [BarentsObserver]
- This week marks the 100th anniversary of the world’s first youth hostel, which opened in the Altena Castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on August 26, 1909. [Spiegel Online]
- What will one euro get you? A ride in the French Riviera! EuroCheapo’s Annie Shapero checks out the sweet deal that can get you anywhere from Cannes to Montecarlo. [EuroCheapo]
Photo: Reilulf Ramstad Architects
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Last week I took our two kids, Chase and Mackenzie, for an inexpensive and easy escape to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Unlike Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons, it’s short on celebrities and long on cornfields and regular folks–a bucolic place to play out the last days of summer. Here are some scenes from my Chesapeake Bay diary.
Day 1: There’s a secret stretch of sand that few but the locals know. Beside the boat launch and ferry dock for the Oxford Bellevue Ferry is a sandy quarter-mile strip that’s usually all yours (with a jungle gym and swings 50 yards away). We swim cautiously with an eye out for jellyfish, but mostly we play in the sand. The kids bury me up to my chin. We hunt shells, build sandcastles, and look for crabs. We take the nation’s oldest privately operated ferry to Oxford, a quaint little town with a park near the Tred Avon River where the kids feed most of their lunch to the birds.
Day 2: Chase is fixated on crabs and each morning, first thing, he goes to the end of the nearby dock and helps me haul up crab pots. He pokes the crabs with a finger, squealing with excitement when they give him a nip, and makes me promise to take him for a crab dinner. Later in the day we head to the Crab Claw, a rustic restaurant on the St. Michaels’ wharf that’s been around since the mid-’60s. They tape sheets of paper on picnic tables and serve heaps of crabs, clams, oysters — a very messy affair and the kids love it. As I suspected, they want nothing to do with actually eating a crab. Instead, they gorge on chicken nuggets and fries–and feed oyster crackers to the ducks that jockey in the water near our feet. The day ends
with cotton candy ice cream at the St. Michaels Candy Company.
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I’m one of those lucky people who, at the gentle purr of a car engine or the hum of an airplane’s jets, can fall asleep almost instantaneously. But most are not so fortunate, especially in the air, where there’s no room to spread out, no padding on which to rest your head, no way to lean back more than 5 degrees, it’s cold, stuffy… need I continue?
The folks at the Washington Post feel your pain, and spoke with an array of experts who offered tips on getting a little shut-eye in the sky. Here are some highlights:
Spread out: When checking in at the kiosk, click on the plane’s seat diagram and see if there are any empty rows. Change your seat assignment, or, when you’re on the plane, scope out the rows for any no-shows.
Find your center: Often, the seats in the center of the plane–away from the bathrooms, cockpit, etc.–are less noisy.
Let the flight attendant know: Leave your tray table up and locked. Not only does this give you more room, but it signals to the flight attendant that, if your eyes are closed, too, you don’t need to be disturbed for your beverage. If you’ve got a blanket, fasten your seatbelt on the outside, so that they can see it without having to wake you up.
Drink up: Before your flight, drink some milk (known to have sleep-inducing enzyme tryptophan) or bring along some chamomile tea and ask for hot water. While booze makes you snooze, avoid it. Alcohol is very dehydrating.
Stay healthy: Do mini-exercises before you doze, like turning your head from side to side, squeeze your neck muscles, or stretch your toes. Muscles swell when they don’t move, which can cause discomfort when trying to sleep.
And, some tried and true rules: Noise-canceling headsets, eye masks, and neck pillows always help aid the sandman.
My own advice? Chose a window seat. Sure, you have to climb over a couple people to use the loo, but at least you can rest your head against something, and not fear drooling on the person next to you.
Check out the Washington Post article for more expert tips on how to sleep on a plane.
What are your tips for sleeping on a plane?
Photo: Floralbrigades via Flickr
Written by Travel News on August 28th, 2009 with no comments.
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For many tourists, especially first-timers, it’s the theaters, boutiques, restaurants, and museums of New York that are the city’s main draw. But if you also want to cover a bit more ground outdoors, John Rambow offers a few unusual, nature-oriented tours that will do the trick. Best of all, they’re all free.
For the Birds: Consider taking in some bird life — and I’m not talking pigeons and starlings, I’m talking something a lot more exotic. There are colonies of Quaker parrots here and there in the metro area, and they seem to be especially numerous in the greener portions of central Brooklyn. Just how they got here isn’t certain–one much-repeated story involves a shipment of Argentine parrots escaping from the crates at JFK airport at some point in the late ’60s. Whatever their
origins, it seems the parrots are here to stay: their shrieking, leaf-green bodies are easy to spot as they fly from tree to tree, building large, rather untidy nests. Brooklyn Parrots runs regular “safaris” to various parrot hot spots. The next one, held on Saturday, September 12, includes a visit to Brooklyn College and Green-wood Cemetery. The tours are usually held the first Saturday of each month, but check the Brooklyn Parrots blog for exact dates, and if you have a chance, bring along a little millet or finch food for the birds–all that flying around and looking cute consumes many calories.
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- Tourists to Austria have a good reason to visit Raschala. The town–located near Hollabrunn–is home to Mozart’s “whiz stone,” and locals have decided to celebrate their landmark with a festival. The town’s claim to fame was acknowledged by a local professor in the 1970s. He says, “Mozart drove through our town on his way to Prague in 1787 and asked the horse-carriage driver to stop to take a leak.” We just wonder if Mozart hummed “The Magic Flute” while he was stopped. [Austrian Times]
- No plans for Labor Day? Check out the New York Times’ guide to last-minute Labor Day deals, which include cheap flights to beaches in Florida and Mexico, hotel deals in Seattle, Vancouver, and San Francisco, and even international trips to Dublin and Barcelona. [New York Times]
- Cheese makes the world go ’round: The New York State Fair’s dairy building is turning 100 this year, and Wisconsin-based cheese sculptor (who knew?) Sarah Kauffman has been summoned to create a horse-drawn milk wagon, a dairy cow, and birthday cake, all made out of cheesy goodness. Her sculptures will be on display beginning this Saturday, August 29. [Jaunted]
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Songs listened to and loved on The Hype Machine
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