New-Yorker-blog-karenrobbins

“The attention of a traveler, should be particularly turned, in the first place, to the various works of Nature, to mark the distinctions of the climates he may explore, and to offer such useful observations on the different productions as may occur.” William Bartram, Travels, 1791

I read. A lot. By the end of this year I will probably have read well over 50 books. My goal is always a book a week. Sometimes I make it. Sometimes I don't. A lot depends upon the length of the books and the amount of travel time I have to fill on planes and in
airports where a lot of my reading gets done. If I were to count the books that I start and don't finish, the list would probably be much longer and I will have met my goal for the year by the end of summer. Why start and not finish? Because there are some books that just set my teeth on edge with their language, violence, graphic descriptions, and sex scenes which often don't have anything to lend to the story but sensationalism.

Movies have helped viewers to choose what they want to see with their ratings of G, PG, PG13, and R. X is not on the table for discussion. Not only do they have the general rating but now they explain briefly why the movie earned the rating so you can choose to put up with bad language or sexual innuendo or references to drugs. It surely helps.

Books are a whole different ballgame though. While the online stores allow you to take a peek inside and the brick and mortar stores allow for browsing, there is not a good way to tell what you might discover midway through or in one case, as I discovered, almost to the end. I was reading what was a good mystery and all of a sudden the author decided that some graphic sex scenes were needed. They had nothing to do with the mystery or even the characters' relationships. I ended up returning the borrowed ebook to the library thankful that I hadn't spent money on it.

What do you think? Should books have a rating system to help us choose what to read? Would it be effective? Or would it be considered censorship?

How do you choose your books for the road?

A few days ago I posted some pictures of a couple of places where I could already see leaves beginning to take on some fall color. While peak season in Ohio won't come until the first week or two of October, other places where autumn reigns supreme will begin to show the glorious golds, reds, and oranges a little sooner.

A few years ago we did a driving tour late September into the first week of October. We began in Massachusetts, flew in and rented a car, then drove up the coast toward Maine. The trees were becoming quite colorful at that point and we enjoyed the seaside and the Maine lobster. But when we turned inward toward Vermont and New Hampshire we were astounded at the magnificent displays of autumn. Each state and area had different types of trees which painted the countryside with a variety of color. The colors were so brilliant when we reached the mountains in New Hampshire that they were still a sight to behold even in the rain.

If you decide to do a drive, be sure to have your reservations made ahead. It's probably the most popular time to visit the area and you may find yourself sleeping in the car if you don't plan ahead. I found a great site that has several driving tours mapped out of the Northeast for fall foliage viewing. It's called Yankee Foliage .com.  There are also maps that show peak times for viewing.

Another way to enjoy the colors of autumn is with a cruise up the coast and into Canada. Many of the mainstream cruise lines offer cruises in late September and into October that will get you into some great colorful areas and you can leave the driving. . .make that the sailing to them.

New Hampshire has some fall foliage train tours that look interesting. I'm not fond of travel by train but for those who enjoy a train ride through scenic areas, this could be for you.

If you've never had the opportunity to see the autumn colors, plan to take some travel time to experience the fall foliage, the smell of autumn leaves, the taste of apple cider, crisp fresh air and the sighting of an occasional moose.

Iguazu Falls, A World Heritage Site

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, had its beginnings in the mid 1940s.  Shortly after the United Nations officially came into existence,a conference was held with 44 participating countries whose delegates decided to create an organization that would promote a culture of peace, establish an "intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind," and prevent another world war. When the conference ended on November 16, 1945, 37 of the participating countries founded UNESCO.

UNESCO operates with several themes one of which involves the World Heritage Center which identifies sites to be protected all over the world in an effort to promote the maintenance of cultural, historic and/or natural heritage in those places for others to see. Examples are the Pyramids of Giza, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Peru's Machu Picchu.

In all there are 981 sites that the World Heritage Committee has deemed to have outstanding universal value. Among other criteria, World Heritage Sites must exhibit significant historical value, or represent a masterpiece of creative human genius, or be an outstanding representation of a natural phenomenon. Countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention, pledging to protect and preserve their sites may nominate sites for consideration by the committee. Once a year, the members meet and go over the nominations and either approve or defer selection for further study.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

When an area is threatened due to nature or progress or whatever else man may instill, the Heritage Site is put on a danger list and monies are given to help promote restoration and preservation. Venice seems to be an ongoing project since the site is so prone to flooding. One of the places we have visited that has been a success story is the Old City of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The ‘pearl of the Adriatic’, dotted with beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings had withstood the passage of centuries and survived several earthquakes. It was put on the List of World Heritage in Danger when heavy artillery fire seriously damaged it in late 1991. With UNESCO providing technical advice and financial assistance, the Croatian Government restored the facades of the Franciscan and Dominican cloisters, repaired roofs and rebuilt palaces. By December 1998, it became possible to remove the city from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Nothing is more disturbing than to visit places with a history where evidence of historical significance has been wiped out because of uprisings, natural disasters, war, etc. We can only hope that this effort to preserve our history will continue to provide generations to come with our story.

In addition to the number of bags you carry on your trip you also need to be conscious of how heavy those bags are. Generally travel within the U.S. limits the weight of each piece of luggage to 50 pounds or less. Anything more and you could be charged $200 for the overage. Overseas travel is a little more lenient but check with your airline to be sure.

Aside from the overweight charges you don't really want to be lugging around a heavy suitcase especially if you are traveling on your own. Trust me. Moving from one place to another on Europe's trains or subways is more of a challenge than you might want to take on if you are dragging a heavy suitcase. Many stations have long sets of steps up and down and very few elevators or even escalators.

So, lighten up! Here are a few ideas:

• Wear your heavy shoes. Those are usually your walking shoes anyway. 
• While those toiletry organizers are lovely, they also can add a lot of extra weight. Ziploc bags work well and are a lot lighter.
• Buy sample sized toiletries or plan to use what the hotels/ B&Bs offer you instead of packing shampoo and conditioner and lotion. 
• A reading device such as Kindle, Nook, iPad or Surface will be a better choice than carrying three or four books for your reading along the way. 
• Plan to pack less clothes and do laundry or hand washing along the way.
• If you think you will need some warmer outerwear, either plan on wearing layers or find some lightweight outerwear that will serve you well and not weigh you down.
• If you are a souvenir shopper see if you can't keep from accumulating too many to carry by using FedEx, UPS, or a postal service to ship those souvenirs home. Often the places you purchase from will offer to ship for you.

And the handiest gadget we have found for our travels is a luggage scale. Online or at a AAA travel store, you will find handheld luggage scales that clip onto the handle of your suitcase and when you lift, it will give you the weight of your packed suitcase. The gadget weighs very little and packs away into the corner of your suitcase. I've seen them cost anywhere from $15 to $45.
It has saved us more times than not from having to redistribute weight from one suitcase to another at the check in counter in the airport.

Several years ago Bob and I were standing in line behind another couple about our age who were obviously about to go on a cruise. Their luggage had cruise tags on them for the cruise line that would take them from baggage claim to the ship. Each had a suitcase that was medium sized, probably 25 inchers. Bob and I looked at each other and the three suitcases we were toting. We were proud that we'd gotten our cruise stuff into three suitcases instead of four.

Finally Bob could stand it no longer and he asked, "How did you manage to get all your stuff for a cruise into two suitcases?"

"It took a while," the gentleman answered. "We've done quite a few cruises and finally took to putting a safety pin on each item that we packed. Each time we wore something we took the pin off. Anything we took home with a safety pin still on it we knew to leave at home the next time."

It made sense! While we never tried the safety pin method, we have learned that we can survive with a lot less--even on an extended travel itinerary. Believe it or not there are plenty of places to do laundry and/or get it done. Considering the cost of extra bags charged by the airlines, it works out to be a lot cheaper to take less and spend a little time doing laundry. Check out my post from when we were planning our Australia trip.

To stream line our packing which usually gets done a day before we leave, I have several different lists for the different types of trips we take. One list is for cruising. Another for warm weather travel and another for colder climates. Cruising calls for some nicer outfits for dinner but for other trips, we can get by with one smart casual outfit for those occasions where we may find ourselves wanting to catch dinner at a nicer restaurant.

If you'd like your own list, Independent Traveler has a great place to start with an interactive packing list you can customize it to your own needs. There is a lot more on their list than you may need but as you consider your preferences, you can pare it down to something a bit more workable. Remember that many of the places you stay will provide toiletries and some of those gadgets that you just think you absolutely can't get along without will
be extra baggage. After all, this is time to enjoy the destination the video games can wait until you get home.