Make sure that your carry-on bags fit into the metal cages to be certain they are allowed on board.

Watch for your daily worldwide travel tip and travel tidbits that will help you to navigate the obstacles constantly thrown in your way by this creative industry and its ever-evolving maze of challenges! But for every mouse trap we travelers need to evolve into smarter mice! So watch  for a bit of powerful advice here to help you weave your way through the system avoiding the speed bumps!

Today’s tip for  global travelers:

If you have checked your big bag and you have a roll-aboard or other bag that meets carry-on standards, there’s a good chance you can avoid paying the  airline for checking that bag that you’d really like to check but don’t want to pay for!  What you want to do is take the bag with you to the plane and, on a rather full flight, as most are in this era of fewer flights and high demand, ask a flight attendant  if you can “gate-check” the bag since it’s rather crowded in the overhead compartments due to high occupancy. In general, the bag will be taken from you at that point and stored in the cargo hold of the plane at no cost to you for the same bag that would have cost you $20 or more had you checked it at the check-in counter.

When a bag is taken from you at the gate to be checked, it is generally unloaded first from cargo and is waiting for you at the doorway of the plane as you exit.  In some instances, gate-checked items are brought to the baggage claim area but more often than not you get your gate-checked items immediately upon exiting the plane.  This is the same procedure that is used for baby strollers, wheelchairs and other items that are brought to the plane by passengers but are not stored in the passenger compartment during the flight.

This procedure, if you work the program right and you are a frequent flyer, can save you significant amounts of money over the course of a year.  Note that, to make this system work, you need to evaluate how full the plane is since a low-occupancy flight will have plenty of overhead space to store bags. The worst thing that will happen is that you’ll have to deal with hoisting your items into the overhead and reclaiming them at the end of the flight. Either way, you’ll have avoided paying for that bag.

And lastly, some carriers have begun to charge for carry-on bags and have created limits to the number of pounds or kilos a bag may weigh. The moral of the story is: Check with the carrier you are flying each time you fly to learn how many bags you may check per person, what are the size and weight limitations for checked baggage and carry-on bags, and what fees you can expect to pay for the privilege of taking baggage with you.  You may also find that if you check-in online at the carrier’s website, the fee you are charged for your bags   may be a cheaper rate than what you would  be charged if you wait until you get to the airport to begin the check-in process. Some airlines are  waiving baggage fees if you use their branded credit card for your airline ticket purchase.

Remember that the number of bags you are allowed,  as well as the limit on the number of pounds per bag, is often determined by what class of service you fly in. Business class and first class passengers are generally allowed more bags and higher weight limits than those flying in coach.

With so much to know, maybe it’s time you found your own personal travel agent whose job it is to protect you from all the pitfalls and find you the smoothest path to your travel destination!

A Bentley S2 and Louis Vuitton luggage create an elegant road trip where your luggage rarely goes astray!

And you can always travel in luxury in a fine automobile and take your luggage with you so there’s no chance you’ll go one way and your baggage with go another!

I have long been a JetBlue fan. They have delivered good service with comfortable seating, rows with extra legroom and one of the best entertainment systems providing domestic US travel and routes to some Caribbean destinations. I was one of their greatest defenders in trying to explain why their system melted down in the midst of a snowstorm in February, 2007 which was the result of being an independent carrier with no alliance partners to jump in with planes to fill in the void created by snowed-in and snowed-out planes, a situation not due to any negligence on their part but resulting from their independent status.

Overall, JetBlue has become known for its superior service at very affordable rates while providing comfortable passage for travelers.  And, more than that, every JetBlue flight I have ever taken has been populated with happy, smiling, warm, friendly employees which is not something passengers find in abundance among airline employees, in general.

All of the above makes it out of sync for not one, but two, JetBlue in-flight employees to lose their cool onboard the aircraft. The first incident happened, according to Travel Weekly, the national newspaper of the travel industry,  on August 4, 2010, when a JetBlue pilot announced to passengers in his pre-flight announcement  from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas that, “Vegas is funded by losers. Take that any way you want.”

The JetBlue pilot went on to say, according to the Travel Weekly report published in their August 9th edition, “It’s always interesting to see the difference between passengers on their way to Vegas and on their way back.” He went on to give a summary of how he spends his time in Sin City by going to the gym and getting some sleep.  That pilot deserves the Party Pooper Award of the year!  Does he also put coal in Christmas stockings?

While the JetBlue pilot’s remarks shed some rain on the parade of passengers on their way to Vegas, his actions certainly did not endanger anyone and just maybe he planted some seeds of moderation in the minds of some who might have over-indulged in casinos or bars or worse were it not for his well-intentioned but unwelcome moralizing.  All in all, no real harm done here other than bursting a few happy bubbles for the moment!

And then there’s Steven Slater.  He is clearly a special case.

Interestingly, I have actually flown on JetBlue with Steven Slater on board!  I remember him, like most other JetBlue in-flight staff, as being friendly and enthusiastic in his approach to caring for passengers.  His last act as a JetBlue flight attendant appears to be the sequel to the film in which a main character opened a window and yelled, “I’ve had enough and I’m not taking anymore!” Opening an  exit door, deploying a landing slide, grabbing two beers and sliding down the chute in what seems to be  acting out  an instant replay  in real time of a fantasy he appears to have imagined for some time has the flair and panache of a Zorro-like character.  Nonetheless, it’s dangerous to elevate this kind of behavior to heroism or a vote for all people who are having a really bad day especially in an environment where passengers have been denied boarding, removed from planes, even arrested for simply stating their rights as it relates to air travel because an airline employee has decided that they are ‘behaving badly.’  The bigger question relates to  the ‘what-ifs’ of what would have happen if rage and enthusiasm took control of an in-flight employee while high above the clouds. .  .the plane that is!

While you can credit Steven Slater with knowing how to make a grand exit that rivals a scene in an Animal House film, you have to recognize that this kind ’bad boy’ behavior leaves questions as to Slater’s potential to exercise bad judgment at 35,000 feet where opening a door or any other non-scripted inappropriate activity could put all passengers and crew lives in danger.

Radio's premier travel expert, Stephanie Abrams, takes her shows on the road with Amtrak's AutoTrain. It's a great way to combine a road trip with train travel.

I’ve heard rumors that Slater would like his job back.  Personally, I think, more than going back to work, Slater needs a stress-busting vacation.  I’d just as soon see him take a road trip or travel with Amtrak rather than board a flight where he might find that being a passenger can sometimes be as unpleasant as being a flight attendant! With his expert knowledge of how to open doors and deploy chutes, I’d just as soon not have him on board as a passenger either!  But there’s no question in my mind that a pampering resort, sitting under a palm tree with the beer that he clearly enjoys in his hand and the calming effects of a watching the surf splash ashore just might exactly what he needs to get it all together again!  At some point, when Slater is ready to assume full-time employment, if he hasn’t become a media or entertainment industry icon, which is very possible, he probably shouldn’t be responsible for holding the key to any hotlines or red buttons that trigger anything related to public safety or endangerment.   He might, however, make a really great customer service representative since he clearly understands the frustration that results from being treated badly! And now that he’s a celebrity, who wouldn’t want to talk with him about the problems they’re having!

In fact, as Stephanie Abrams Travel Fairy Godmother, I’d like to provide Steven Slater with a breakaway somewhere lovely where he can find himself and get relaxed and centered once again.  So contact me, Steven, and we’ll get you squared away at a lovely place not too far from home but far enough away to feel like you slid down the escape chute into paradise!

All of the above makes it out of sync for not one, but two, JetBlue in-flight employees to lose their cool onboard the aircraft. The first incident happened, according to Travel Weekly, the national newspaper of the travel industry,  on August 4, 2010, when a JetBLue pilot announced to passengers in his pre-flight announcement  from New York’s Kennedy Airport to Las Vegas that, “Vegas is funded by losers. Take that any way you want.”

The JetBlue pilot went on to say, according to the Travel Weekly report published in their August 9th edition, “It’s always interesting to see the difference between passengers on their way to Vegas and on their way back.” He went on to give a summary of how he spends his time in Sin City by going to the gym and getting some sleep.  That pilot deserves the Party Pooper Award of the year!  Does he also put coal in Christmas stockings?

While the JetBlue pilot’s remarks shed some rain on the parade of passengers on their way to Vegas, his actions certainly did not endanger anyone and just maybe he planted some seeds of moderation in the minds of some who might have over-indulged in casinos or bars or worse were it not for his well-intentioned but unwelcomed moralizing.  All in all, no real harm done here other than bursting a few happy bubbles for the moment!

And then there ’s Steven Slater.  He is clearly a special case.

Interestingly, I have actually flown on JetBlue with Steven Slater on board!  I remember him, like most other JetBlue in-flight staff, as being friendly and enthusiastic in his approach to caring for passengers.  His last act as a JetBlue flight attendant appears to be  the sequel to the film in which a main character opened a window and yelled, “I’ve had enough and I’m not taking anymore!”

While you can credit Steven Slater with knowing  how to make a grand exit that rivals a scene in an Animal House film, you have to recognize that this kind  ‘bad boy’ behavior leaves questions as to Slater’s potential to exercise bad judgment at 35,000 feet where opening a door or any other non-scripted activity could put all passengers and crew lives in danger.

I’ve heard rumors that Slater would like his job back.  Personally, I think, more than going back to work, Slater needs a stress-busting vacation.  I’d just as soon see him take a road trip rather than board a flight where he might find that being a passenger can sometimes be as unpleasant as being a flight attendant! With his expert knowledge of how to open doors and deploy chutes, I’d just as soon not have him on board as a passenger either!  But there’s no question in my mind that a pampering resort, sitting under a palm tree with the beer that he clearly enjoys in his hand and the calming effects of a watching the surf splash ashore just might exactly what he needs to get it all together again!

In fact, as Stephanie Abrams Travel Fairy Godmother, I’d like to provide Steven Slater with a breakaway somewhere lovely where he can find himself and get relaxed and centered once again.  So contact me, Steven, and we’ll get you squared away at a lovely place not too far from home but far enough away to feel like you slid down the escape chute into paradise!

The  news  that a new iceberg has formed in the Arctic as the result of a chunk of ice calving from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland made me think of the phrase, “Iceland is green and Greenland is ice,” as an easy way to remember their difference in topography. I guess with Iceland grabbing so much attention with its volcano which caused so much inconvenience to travelers this spring, Greenland’s natural resources felt the need to debut its new entry into the arctic: an ice island which is reported to be the largest iceberg since 1962 and more than four times the size of Manhattan.

I thought it was a bit creepy that the ship, The Balmoral, is planning to take the same route the Titanic followed, leaving Southampton, England on April 8, 2012, sailing to Cobh, Ireland where it will depart on  April 11, 2012 on the 100^th anniversary of the sailing of the Titanic from that port with an itinerary that schedules the ship to be over the spot where the Titanic sank on April 15, 2012 at 2:20am to memorialize the moment the Titanic sank one hundred years later.  That’s just a bit too much realism for me although I’m sure there are adventuresome travelers whose interest in the Titanic and its history make this a voyage they wouldn’t miss! It’s just not for me!

The calving of the newest iceberg, reported to be 97-square miles in size and 40% larger than Washington, DC, adds to the bad karma in my active imagination’s images of that ship retracing the Titanic’s fateful voyage with the added attraction of this iceberg floating about!  Anyone who has ever listened to my nationally syndicated radio shows talking about traveling knows that I am the biggest coward on the face of the earth and have no wish to put myself in harms way nor do I wish to tempt fate.  Sailing the Titanic’s route on the 100^th anniversary of its sinking and being in the spot where it sank at  exactly2:20am on April 15^th while there’s a huge new iceberg floating about combine to give me Arctic sized chills!  I just don’t have the kind of adventurous spirit that such a journey requires!

Every April 15th at 2:20am in County Mayo, Ireland, the Addergoole Titanic Society assembles to honor the memory of their townspeople who sailed on the Titanic.

On the other hand, I’m thinking about taking a special Titanic Memorial Journey of my own in April 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

By some strange karma in the cosmos, my path seems to interweave with Ireland and Berkshire County in western Massachusetts at almost every turn. And so it is with a gentleman I met at the 2010 NYTimes Travel Show at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC.  His name is Pavlos Yeroulanos and he is the Minister of Culture and Tourism for Greece. And what is the Berkshire connection? He is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, MA, which is a short and exquisite drive from my studio in the shopping arcade of the Berkshire Crowne Plaza Hotel in Pittsfield, MA and even closer to my home.  Having the opportunity to meet and interview Pavlos Yeroulanos at the NYTimes Travel Show this year was an added benefit related to my participation.

Loula Loi Alafoyiannis and members of the EAWC Board of Directors Visit Travel Expert Broadcaster Stephanie Abrams

And to make that February day at the NYTimes Travel Show even more incredible, the Greek theme was carried forth as the Founder, Global President and CEO of the Euro American Women’s Council (EAWC), Loula Loi Alafoyiannis, stopped by to visit me along with members of this prestigious organization’s board of directors. The purpose of this special visit was to tell me that I had been selected to be recognized and honored with the Goddess Artemis Award for my support over the years for Greece and for my significant contribution to the development of Greek tourism.  This award would be presented in Athens followed by a trip to Mykonos and the island of Delos, birthplace of the Greek mythological god, Apollo, and the goddess Artemis and the place where I would be inducted into the EAWC Hall of Fame.

Take a seaside table in Mykonos and order a real Greek salad!

Ancient Greek ruins on Island of Delos, birthplace of mythological god Apollo and Goddess Artemis

And that’s why I am in Athens now! The award ceremony will take place on July 7^th at an elegant black-tie affair and international guests are pouring into the Intercontinental Athens Hotel from all over the US, Mexico, European cities, China and so many other places where the EAWC has members and has made significant impact on the networking of successful and achieving women and creates bridges to unique opportunities for the creation of meaningful relationships through business and friendship.

It may look like a cruise ship on board but it's a ferry to the Greek islands!

Travel Expert Radio Broadcaster Stephanie Abrams getting ready to board ferry to Mykonos, Greece.

The driving force that spearheads the organization with all of her heart, soul, intelligence, wisdom, passion and every fiber of her dynamic personality is Loula. She, with the assistance of her incredibly hardworking and committed staff here in Athens, is the reason that so many key leaders from every imaginable field all over the globe have dropped what they are doing to come to Greece to assemble here for this incredible event.  In essence, Loula is the Pied Piper that every tourism board and convention and visitors bureau prays for: that person who tells people to go to a place and they go!  How lucky for Greece that Loula is a champion for her country which she loves so much! How lucky for participants at the 2010 EAWC Global Women’s Forum to be in a country that is so rich in history, culture and a diversity of incredible beauty filled with magnificent landscapes and seascapes! And how lucky for me to have been selected to be honored as a recipient of the Goddess Artemis Award at this year’s event!

Loula Loi Alafoyiannis tells travel expert host Stephanie Abrams about EAWC

And now that I’m thinking about it, I think I should recommend that official forms that ask for your title as Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Miss should have another line added so I can check off Goddess next to my name!  In the morning, I’m going to go to the front desk here at the Athenaeum Intercontinental Athens Hotel and correct our hotel registration form to read: Mr. & Goddess Abrams.  That has a nice ring to it!

British Airways plane at the airline's passenger-friendly Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport.

Hello from Athens where I arrived on July 4th via London flying all the way on British Airways in their super comfortable Club World service!  You have to love the opportunity to sleep completely reclined as if you are in your own cocoon in your own twin bed!  Aside from your airline tickets, the other important thing you’ll need as a US citizen is your passport! And the rumor was that the US National Passport Office was going to announce new passport fees at the ends of June just 6 days ago.   When I checked with a very reliable source two weeks ago, I was told that the increase wasn’t expected until sometime  in October at the earliest and that it was probably not a good idea for me to share that on the air as it might start a panic-driven crowd of  travelers overloading the capacity to serve the public efficiently at the passport office now when the summer is already a peak-season crunch-time for the US Passport Offices.

I gave that advice some serious thought and decided it was in the best interest of my fans on air and online to let everyone know that increased passport fees were on the horizon and it might be a really good idea to evaluate your passport needs and move on protecting your ability to travel about the world freely by not waiting for an announcement to be made about the impending increase.  As a matter of fact, I suggested that my listeners to my nationally syndicated radio shows that they get what they need from the National Passport Office sooner rather than later. You can actually hear me talking about it on the June 20th Travel WITH Stephanie Abrams show in Hour 2 by listening to the archived show.

The Department of State has now officially issued the new US Passport fees which go into effect on July 13, 2010. Gee the fall has come quickly . . . and there doesn’t seem to be any concern about creating a crunch during peak travel season at passport offices.

You can go to a passport office or any one of thousands of other locations at post offices or use a passport service to get your passport processed but you’ll need to add their fee on top of the new passport fees. You’ll notice that one of the new fees is for adding pages to an existing passport that is running out of space due to the frequent international travels of the passport holder.  I recently had pages added to my passport that doesn’t expire for 4 years but had no space left for immigrations officials to stamp. Until now, adding pages was a free service but a $60 ‘rush fee’ was imposed if you needed your passport back quickly. Now there is an $80 fee for extra pages and the rush fee remains at $60.  If you need more pages for your existing passport, you’ll save $80 by going to get it done NOW! And you’ll save a bundle on the cost of getting passports for you family if you get your application in progress before July 13th.

Below, you’ll find a list of the new fees effective July 13th:

Flying in style and comfort on British Airways in their Club World Service.

The new passport fees are:

· $135 for a first-time U.S. passport book for adults (age 16 and older)

· $110 for U.S. passport book renewal (age 16 and older)

· $105 for a U.S. passport book for minors (under age 16)

· $55 for a first-time U.S. passport card for adults (age 16 and older)

· $30 for a U.S. passport card for adults (age 16 and older) who currently have a fully valid U.S. passport issued within the last 15 years

· $40 for a U.S. passport card for minors (under age 16)

· $82 for additional visa pages

· $150 for file search and verification of U.S. citizenship

· The fee for expedited passport services will remain $60

Americans in need of a passport can apply at a growing network of U.S. Passport Agencies located in cities across the country or at one of the 9,400 acceptance facilities that include United States Post Offices, clerks of court, and other government offices.

Complete  information on the new passport fees visit and the complete schedule on new consular fees can be reached from these links.

Don’t sit around thinking about it!  Your travel horizons are severely limited if you don’t have a valid passport!

Weekly listeners to Travel WITH Stephanie Abrams know that we’re going to be in Florida this week and will meeting with the Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami along with our good friends from InsureMyTrip.com who suggested that we make this visit.  I decided to turn that visit to Miami in to a road trip so that we could stop along the way at a number of places that we’ve talked about on the air that I’ve never visited.

Since we’re driving and want to travel at a pace that allows for visits along the way, we needed to start traveling today, Sunday, May 23, 2010. So, yesterday, we recorded the show that is airing tonight in the 6-9pmET time slot

At about 6:45pm I realized that Travel WITH Stephanie Abrams is on the air and decided to spin through the AM radio dial to see if I could find an affiliate station in the Business TalkRadio network that is broadcasting the show. We were about 25 miles north of Harrisburg, PA when I started playing ‘radio roulette’ and went through the dial until I happily landed on WPTX AM1690, the newstalk radio station of Southern Maryland whose base of operation is in Lexington Park.

I don’t often get to hear David Isby, my on-air Traveling Companion, and myself on the radio because we’re in the studio producing the shows live in general! So this was a rare and greatly amusing experience for me!  Bless those folks over at WPTX and a big thank you for being one of our valued affilates!

I got to hear Paul Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of The Morgan and The Beacon Hotels, two chic hotels in Dublin, airing in the show we recorded yesterday in which we placed the interview we recorded with him at breakfast at the family’s luxury historic property, Fitzpatrick Castle in Killiney, County Dublin. And I relived the experience of learning about the Angels- Beacons of Hope outdoor art exhibition that is  destined to tour the world.

My good idea grew quickly into a reality with an itinerary that includes a visit on May 24^th to the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier in, Orange, Virginia and a tour of the Inns at Montpelier, some stops along the way to Orlando where we’ll meet with the wonderful people, including Jon Wubbena, the General Manager of  the Celebration Hotel, and we’ll bring you some great interviews with inside-track information for your next Orlando visit.

From there, we’re off to the National Hurricane Center in Miami and we’ll be staying at the conveniently located Sofitel Blue Lagoon where I look forward to sitting in their gorgeous cathedral ceiling art-deco lobby overlooking the Blue Lagoon.  I fell in love with their great public space and wrote a story about the hotel that was featured in ‘travelgirl’ magazine. We’ve go some great plans for the return trip northward and we’ll keep you up to date on our travels.  It’s a nice break from airports and I’m enjoying the journey even though we’ve only been gone about 6 hours!

More to follow!

Your personal travel expert,

Stephanie Abrams

A week after I met David Butler, whose family owns Carigeen Castle in County Cork, at Sammy Leslie’s 40th birthday party at Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, I entered the dining room at Cahernane House, a truly wonderful place to stay when you are in Killarney.  It’s on Muckross Road and just down the road from Muckross House.  What struck me was how much the painting you see above that hangs on the wall  in the dining room at Cahernane Housel looked like David Butler who teaches at the University of Cork. which is not very far from there.  You take a look and tell me what you think!  The picture below shows David Butler next to the painting in a composite of two photos (and that’s me on the left):

David is  looking very dashing in his white tie and tails at Sammy’s white tie birthday event. I can’t be the only one who see the strong resemblance!

Sammy, by the way, is the effervescent Samantha Leslie. You can see photos of the 4 day/3 night never-ending party in my Ireland Photo Gallery 002. But here’s a photo of her in her tiara in front of the fireplace in the foyer as you enter Castle Leslie. The tiara is a family heirloom from Lady Leslie, an ancestor who was the “lady-in-waiting” to Mrs. Fitzherbert, the love of King George IV’s life, whom he couldn’t make queen as, for one thing, she was Catholic and that would not have been acceptable. So King George took very good care of Mrs. Fitzherbert in his lifetime and gave her the tiara you see on Sammy’s head. It’s a lovely piece that, upon Mrs. Fitzherbert’s death, was given to her ‘lady-in-waiting,’ a member of the  Leslie family, who took the piece home to the family castle in Monaghan.  White ties, tails and tiaras were the order of the day at the gala party on the last night of partying only I didn’t know that until I arrived.  So the tiara you see me wearing was a lucky break for me because I had bought a Barbie tiara in Target in the Berkshire Mall in Western Massachusetts to take with me to Ireland where I created and assembled a gift ‘princess horse’ for Sammy’s birthday present which I hoped would become the mascot of the Castle Leslie Equestrian Centre. Well, what do you give to a woman for her birthday  who just invested $20,000,000 restoring her castle? So,  I wound up wearing the Barbie tiara (cost: $9.00 including a pair of matching earrings which I sewed onto the horse!) and got so many compliments on how beautiful it was.  Go Barbie!

Read the rest of this entry »

I thought you might like to skip through the itinerary we followed on my March 2010 trip to Ireland so you’ll find below a photo-journey across Northern Ireland and a variety of counties in the Republic of Ireland.  You can listen to the shows we broadcast from Ireland on this trip if you go to the archived audio of the broadcasts as you breeze through! So here we go:

We flew with Continental Airlines to Belfast, Northern Ireland and picked up our car from Dooley Car Rental, the only independent car rental company in Ireland.  I love them because their rates include everything except Collision Damage Waiver and gasoline! No surprises, like some car rental companies, when you land and they tack on taxes and fees and surcharges you never expected. You should note that there is NO BORDER to cross from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland so companies that charge you a ‘border crossing fee’ are truly getting away with “daylight robbery.”  Interestingly, daylight robbery is an expression which comes from when the English imposed a tax on Irish houses based on how many windows they had in the house creating the concept of ‘daylight robbery.’

Below is the pictorial review of the visits with lots of great photos that speak a million words:

Always start your trip at an airport airline lounge. It’s a haven for travelers who know how to travel well!

We landed and rented our Dooley Car Rental choosing a diesel model which is more economical to run. For such great service, I figured I could pitch in a little as well!

It’s a 10 minute drive from Belfast Airport to the little town of Dunadry where you’ll find the Dunadry Hotel & Country Club. In its grounds you’ll find two trees that have grown twisted together to make one tree which was named the Unity Tree.  Meetings to create peace in Ireland took place at this historic spot.

After lunch with John Mooney and Tim Campbell, we took a photo to memorialize the occasion. We’re stacked up on a ladder next to the front entrance to Dunadry Hotel with John on top and Tim in the middle and me, as usual, with my feet on the ground!

But here’s a more traditional shot so you can see who I’m with! (John Mooney (L), Stephanie Abrams, Tim Campbell (R).

Then we took off for my first pilgrimage of 2010 to Giant’s Causeway. It is the most remarkable place in the world and a MUST VISIT place. I try to go there at least twice each year and spend hours walking and sitting on the rocks by the side of the sea.

Giant’s Causeway:

You can feel the salty mist created by the sea crashing against the rocks as you walk about. This is a Must Visit experience!  And I do on almost every trip to Ireland. The place is nothing short of magical!

Even the sea foam that you see at the top of this blog entry is fascinating as it bubbles up to the rocky shore like a natural bubble bath!

Read the rest of this entry »

After a busy month of traveling throughout Ireland’s west it is nice to be back home in the Berkshires of Massachusetts!  Visit the sabrams.com photogallery for the latest Ireland photo galleries and be sure to listen to the audio archives and broadcast shownotes for all of the broadcasts we did from Ireland!

Everyone who logs onto Google today will be charmed by a sweet illustration by the master illustrator himself, Norman Rockwell. A quick sweep of the cursor across the illustration reveals that today is Norman Rockwell’s birthday. For most people, I guess that would give pause to think about the wonderful moments of Americana frozen in time by Rockwell’s incredible illustrations which memorialized vignettes of history, personal stories that were filled with emotion, lifestyle moments, and captured an entire story within the bounds of a picture frame. For many, Rockwell’s name brings back to mind magazine covers from Boy’s Life, published by Boy Scouts of America, which featured Rockwell’s works as well as the covers of the monthly editions of Saturday Evening Post.
Like the scene illustrated at Google.com today, most pieces reflect moments of fun, tranquility, interpersonal relationships, and scenes from life’s experiences, during good times and challenging times, of ordinary people.

But for me, today’s Google homepage offering is just more proof that all roads lead to two places in the world: either Ireland or Berkshire County in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts, just 2 hours west of Boston and 2 ½ hours north of New York City. The connection here is to Berkshire County to the town of Stockbridge which has been immortalized by so many, not the least of which is Norman Rockwell.

If you are charmed by the Rockwell piece shown in part at Google’s site today, you’ll want to make the journey to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. There you will find the original paintings done by Rockwell which were then photographed to become magazine covers as well as magazine ads. You’ll also find framed covers of the Saturday Evening Post spanning Rockwell’s tenure there and a gift shop that is unique in the world in that lithographs, prints, and other memorabilia of Rockwell’s works are available there. And when you walk on the beautiful grounds around the museum, in addition to the sculptures of Norman Rockwell’s son, Peter Rockwell, you’ll find, surrounded by the mountain in a gorgeous landscape, Norman Rockwell’s studio. There you’ll see Rockwell’s workshop studio complete with the fireman’s helmet atop his easel and his paint bucket beside his chair which is illustrated in Rockwell’s triple-self-portrait in which he is looking in the mirror at a much older man’s reflection and painting a canvas of himself at least half his current age.

Now that you’ve had the hors d’oeuvre nibble at Google, let this be your personal invitation from a world jetsetter and travel expert who has chosen Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts as my home with good reason, to come and explore what this spectacular region has to offer the traveler and direct you to the Norman Rockwell Museum as your first step in visiting the wonderful museum homes and the charming historic towns of Berkshire County. Get yourself a piece of chocolate cake and a candle to celebrate Norman Rockwell’s birthday today. And when you blow out the candle, make a wish to come and visit his museum and studio in Stockbridge, MA. Then make the wish come true! And if you visit in July or August, follow your museum visit with a classical concert or a romp with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. No wonder I live in Berkshire County! The place is a happening!