Category Archives: 2) Frequent Destinations

May 20, 2010 · 8:59 pm

London (parks) – takemewithyou

Back to London after a brief detour to Dubuque yesterday. London doesn’t have to be expensive – when it comes to entertainment, I spend very little because like all great cities, all you really need to do is pick a neighborhood and wander. In London’s case, you can also pick a park and walk and sit and walk some more and sit some more. Beautiful gardens, long expansive lawns and people to watch who come from all over the world. (One time, when my kids were in grade school, we spent a few hours people-watching in Regent’s Park and became particularly fascinated by all the different types of veils we saw women wearing – full length, partial length, black, pale blue, yellow…)

So here’s my list of favorite parks on a day when daydreaming is a necessity:

– St. James Park – This is hands down my sentimental favorite. It’s a quick walk from Parliament where I used to work – and it’s right by Buckingham Palace and near Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden (and yes, A&N, Soho.)

– Kew (Royal Botanic) Gardens – This is a bit of an excursion, to southwest London but full of wonderful gardens and right on the Thames. It’s right by my friends F&R who live in Mortlake (near Richmond) – last spring we rode our bikes from Mortlake to Kew along a way-too-crowded footpath (my riding was further complicated by the fact that British people ride their bikes on “the wrong side” of the path, just as they drive on the “wrong side” of the road)

— Richmond Park – also a little out-of-the-way in southwest London. It’s bigger and wilder with more wild life (lots of wild deer) and a really cool almost hidden “ornamental woodland” garden called Isabella Plantation that London friends (who’d just discovered it themselves) were excited to show me  last May. Also cool – Pembroke Lodge and Gardens (for tea) and King Henry’s Mound – a spot where on a clear day you can see St. Paul’s Cathedral – 10 miles away in central London. Check out the excellent website for Richmond Park. There’s also some nice pubs along the river in Richmond and near Richmond Green.

Hyde Park – Bigger, busier than St. James. Diana’s playground is fun place to watch kids.

Hampstead Heath – in North London! and near Louis Patisserie in the village of Hampstead (which does feel like a very posh English village or suburb, not like part of bustling London)

– Regent’s Park – I don’t know this one as well as I should but it also has lovely gardens and a theater.

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May 19, 2010 · 1:45 pm

Dubuque, Iowa with kids: takemewithyou

My friend Jane is looking for some advice on entertaining two young kids during a possible trip to Dubuque so I’ve pulled out some old clips of mine – one from a NYTimes story in 2005 I wrote about Iowa’s undiscovered Mississippi River shore and another I wrote for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2003 about the then-new water park in Dubuque.  The National Mississippi River Museum has just added a new wing, I think, with new exhibits – although might not be the best for really young kids – but there are other things there that they’ll like – especially the aquarium. So I say, GO!

From my NYT story: (http://travel.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/travel/escapes/19road.html?pagewanted=print)

Stop in Dubuque at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, a Smithsonian affiliate that opened in 2003. Huge blue catfish, gar and paddlefish swim in a 30,000-gallon tank, a boardwalk goes through reclaimed wetlands inhabited by herons and bald eagles, and a model of the river at Dubuque shows the havoc caused by a 1965 flood.

Downtown, Dubuque feels like an old factory town, with Victorian mansions (several converted into inns), brick row houses flush to the street and many a corner tap and church. Don’t leave without riding the Fenelon Place Elevator, a funicular that makes a steep climb to a bluff top where Wisconsin and Illinois are visible across the river.

From Dubuque, Iowa: Riverfront water park is a scream

SApril 20, 2003

Even before my family entered the new resort hotel in Dubuque, Iowa, we heard muffled screams coming from a chute snaking out and then back into the building.

We were soon screaming, too.

Screaming — in delight or horror — while sliding through a dark, winding water chute is part of the fun at Iowa’s first themed indoor water park. Opened last December, the Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark is the first tourist attraction resulting from a major redevelopment of Dubuque’s riverfront.

On a March weekend — during spring break for my children, L, 10 and N 11 — the resort was full, its 194 rooms packed with more than 700 guests. Most were like us, parents bunking with kids for a water-filled weekend.

About half the size of a football field, the 25,000-square foot water park has three main water areas — a shallow pool for young children, a deeper pool for older kids and a 4-story-high play structure resembling an old-fashioned steamboat (“The Huck Finn II”).

N, L and my husband, D went right to the big kids’ pool — and the water chute. Again and again, they whizzed down that dark chute on an inner tube, landing in a pool with a big splash. (Once was enough for me.) While N and D played water basketball, L climbed on giant plastic lily pads, and I happily drifted in an inner tube along a small “lazy river.”

We also enjoyed the Huck Finn II, which felt like a cross between a giant McDonald’s playland and the Titanic, posticeberg. A multilevel structure in ankle-deep water, the Huck leaked everywhere, with water spraying every which way.

Kids (and grownups) scurried up nets, climbed steps and slid down two curving open-air water slides. They turned valves, pulled pulleys and shot water cannons to release even more water (often onto unsuspecting people below.) Every 15 minutes, a steamboat bell clanged and an 800-gallon bucket atop the Huck tipped over, spilling water on people below.

The shallow pool was full of young children frolicking in vertical water sprays and sliding down a short, wide slide. Parents lounged in two warm whirlpools, watched kids from plastic tables and visited the snack bar.

The water park absorbed — and entertained — us all. We had plenty of elbow room. Lines for the water slide were short and moved swiftly. The place was clean and well-run, with lots of eagle-eyed lifeguards, water depth signs, inner tubes, balls and towels. The air wasn’t humid or reeking of chlorine. It wasn’t even noisy (despite the occasional scream).

Betsy Rubiner is the author of “Fun with the Family in Iowa,” to be published by Globe-Pequot Press in June.

If you want to venture beyond the water park, there are several other attractions in and around Dubuque:

• National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium: Scheduled to open in June, this museum will feature river wildlife from catfish and snapping turtles to alligators, otters and water moccasins, plus a working boat yard and replicas of barges, keelboats and steamboats. More information: 1-800-226-3369 or http://www.rivermuseum.com

• Spirit of Dubuque Sightseeing Cruises: This authentic paddle-wheel riverboat operates May through October from the port of Dubuque, offering one-hour narrated sightseeing cruises, plus dinner cruises. Reservations are a good idea. More information: 1-800-747-8093 or http://www.spiritofdubuque.com.

• Fenelon Place/Fourth Street Elevator: This one-of-a-kind outdoor elevator is billed as the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway. A Dubuque banker built it in 1882 so he could quickly get from his house up on a bluff to his office downtown. It’s a quick, 263-foot ride with terrific river views from the top. More information: 1-563-582-9496.

Crystal Lake Cave: More than 40 feet underground, this is marketed as Iowa’s largest cave open to visitors (May through October.) During the 45-minute guided tour along well-lit passageways, you’ll see an underground lake and intricate formations (some resembling hollow soda straws or well-done bacon.) You may also spot rare cave crystals known as anthodites. For more information: 1-563-556-6451, http://www.crystallakecave.com.

What to know

• It’s a fact: Iowa’s oldest city, Dubuque, population 62,000, is midway through a major riverfront redevelopment to include a river walk (due to open mid-May) and conference/education center (due to open in November.)

• Getting there: Dubuque is about 280 miles from Minneapolis. The scenic route is to follow the Great River Road south, following the Mississippi all the way. Faster: Take Interstate Hwy. 35 south to Hwy. 20 east through Waterloo to Dubuque. To get to the resort, turn left on Locust St. (just before the Julian Dubuque Bridge) and right on 3rd St.

More information: Grand Harbor Resort and Waterpark, 1-866-690-4006 or http://www.grandharborresort.com.

Where to stay

The Grand Harbor Resort has 194 guest rooms including 31 suites. (Ask for one overlooking the Mississippi.) There is a restaurant, game arcade, “WaterSquirts” children’s activity club and, of course, the water park. Room rates include water-park admission (and sometimes breakfast.) Doubles range from $99 to $219; for a suite, from $139 to $329.

Where to eat

• For only $10 extra, our room came with breakfast at the resort’s restaurant, the River Walk, which was a great deal. We could have ordered off the menu but chose the buffet, which included a good omelet bar. The restaurant, also serving lunch and dinner, is open daily 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

• We had a good dinner at the Blackwater Grill at the Bricktown Brewery, a lively family restaurant in a restored red brick building in Main Street’s Historic District. The long menu includes huge burgers, salads, steaks and fish. Open daily for lunch and dinner, it’s at 299 Main St.

• For terrific artisan breads and pastries, visit Cafe Manna Java, a coffee bar and bakery at 269 Main St.

• If you can’t bear to leave the water park, order a pizza delivery from the Shot Tower Inn, a popular place downtown at 390 Locust St. Telephone: 1-563-556-1061.

The water park

Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and until 9 p.m. Sunday.

You can stay in the water park longer than in your hotel room. Hotel check-in is 4 p.m., but you can get into the water park at 2 p.m. (Our room was ready early.) Hotel checkout is 11 a.m., but you can stay at the water park until 1 p.m. There are bathrooms with lockers and showers next to the water park.

For kids: The WaterSquirts Kids Club, for children 12 and under, is a small room by the main entrance offering crafts, board games, movies, free arcade tokens and free T-shirts

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May 18, 2010 · 3:20 pm

London (Florentines) – takemewithyou

FLORENTINES!

Yes, I have other work to do but instead I’ve been trying, for almost a day now, to remember the name of a pastry that I first had at Louis Patisserie in Hampstead in, um, 1980.  Finally, after too much thinking and googling, it just came to me:  Florentine –  a round, thin chewy chocolate-coated biscuit covered on one side with nuts and dried fruit.  Yum.  So if you’re at Louis, the famous old Hungarian tea house, try one.  Other London pastry shops will no doubt have them. Or you can  settle, happily I hope,  for a Cadbury chocolate bar with fruit and nuts (one of my favorites.)

If you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to eat “bad” food in London – something my kids immediately picked up on during our first trip there together when they were in grade school. (Is this heaven? No it’s London.) They couldn’t believe I was letting them drink orange soda and eat chips (i.e. fries), crisps (i.e. potato chips, preferably salt and vinegar) and chocolate (Cadbury bars and Maltsers, far better than our malted milk balls, although I prefer U.S M&Ms to the British Smarties) – rather than their usual forced diet of fruit and vegetables.  As I pointed out to them, it all had to do with the price of the food. And, of course, we were “on vacation.”

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May 17, 2010 · 11:11 pm

London eats – takemewithyou

First, a caveat – I don’t eat out all that much when I’m in London because 1) I stay with friends 2) eating out is one of the more expensive things to do in London. (When I lived in London in 1981, I lived primarily on scones that were kindly supplied, free of charge, at the office where I worked.) That said, here are a few haunts – almost all are relatively inexpensive, casual spots:

– Gordon’s Wine bar – This is a sentimental favorite, a short walk from the House of Commons – where I worked when I used to first visited Gordon’s. I returned last year and it was much the same. It’s a short walk north of the Embankment tube station – and you go down into a dark dank cellar (a la Edgar Allen Poe_ for a Ploughman’s (cheese – Stilton or Cotswold; chutney pickle and a big slab of bread) and a kir or kir royale. (There’s other pub grub and drinks but these are my tried and true picks.) A&N – this isn’t too far from your Soho hotel. Just south of Charing Cross tube. 47 Villiers St.

– Neal’s Yard Dairy– The restaurant I loved in Neals Yard, a hidden little courtyard in Covent Garden, is long gone but this  famous cheeseshop just outside the yard – at 17 Shorts Garden – is  where you can pick up Stilton and Cotswold (for less than Gordon’s) and try to find a picnic spot in central london (maybe Trafalgar square?)  I see it’s also at Borough Market now. Near the Covent Garden location is Food 4 Thought, a vegetarian restaurant popular with students because it is relatively cheap and big portions – or used to be.  (A&N – you might tell Mike about it.)

– The Standard – This is a longtime Indian restaurant just north of Hyde Park frequented by Londoners and tourists alike. I’ve been going there for 30 years. Nearby is Khan’s (if it’s still there) which is fancier atmosphere but I always preferred the Standard. 21-22 Westbourne Grove (Bayswater Tube, near Hyde Park – which is well worth a wander. See (Princess) Diana’s garden.)

– Rock and Sole Plaice – London is the only place where I eat fish n’ chips – and this Covent Garden-area chip shop is cute. I usually eat the fish called plaice (hence the name) and I put vinegar on my chips. 47 Endell Street (near Drury Lane.)

– Fortnum and Maison or Harrod’s – if you want an over-the-top and expensive afternoon tea. Either way, these are fun shops to wander in – very British. Harrod’s is very very touristy but the Food Halls are quite a sight.

– Covent Garden also has a good outdoor farmer’s market – and fun scene. On the web it doesn’t seem to be open in the evening but I remember going early evening.

– There’s also a fun old pub just south of Covent Garden – I’ll try to remember the name.

– And Louis Patisserie, 32 Heath Street,  is my sentimental favorite tea parlor in Hampstead, should you be in that area. (It’s in North London, as is Islington.)

p.s. I seem to have spent most of my time in London eating pastry, fish and chips, ploughman’s and indian food – there may be a reason for that. Was least expensive.

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May 16, 2010 · 4:16 pm

London guidebook: takemewithyou

A good friend in London weighed in on London guidebooks and she recommends one written by a friend:  The London Mapguide by Michael Middleditch – which she reports is “slim but full of facts and beautifully illustrated.” I found it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/London-Mapguide-5th-Michael-Middleditch/dp/0140279482

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May 15, 2010 · 1:32 pm

London (in and around soho for pastry!): takemewithyou

Inspired by my friends A and N, who are staying at a hotel in Soho in June,  I have spent many hours wracking my brain, trying  to remember the places I’ve discovered during my wanders around there, some dating back 30 years.  Trying to transform a very fuzzy memory into concrete details has been an interesting process, kind of like watching a Polaroid photo develop from abstract blurs and blobs into a defined image.  But the Internet (and Google) make it so much easier to do now.

So, for example, I’ve been trying to remember the name of a french pastry shop I  look for – and usually find –  in Soho. At first “Patisserie Valerie” popped into my head – but when I looked at photos of it online (and it’s now a chain) I thought “it’s either changed completely”  or “it’s completely the wrong place.”

Turns out it was the latter.   Because when I googled these words “french pastry” “London” “Soho” “July 14” I found exactly what I was looking for – and “July 14” was the key phrase!  What I remembered most about the shop is once stumbling upon it when – oddly – a play was being staged all around it.  Turned out I was there  on – or near – July 14 (i.e. Bastille Day)  and the pastry shop was staging its annual reenactment of the French Revolution. No joke. It was quite a show.  Turns out the pastry shop is called  Masion Bertaux and it’s  run by an  actress who puts on a show every Quatorze Juillet.  Bottom line: go there for a pastry and coffee. It’s one of those one-of-a-kind places. And A and N – it’s a two minute walk from your hotel!

Two more tips. During this little mental adventure, I stumbled upon what looks like my kind of guidebook – City Secrets London. There were only a few excerpts of the guidebook offered on this web page (http://www.littlebookroom.com/citysecretslondon.htm) but they include several of my London haunts  (including Gordon’s Wine Bar. more about that in a later blog.)

Here’s the blurb from City Secrets London about Maison Berteaux (I shouted “YES!” when I read it – so relieved that my fuzzy remembrance was confirmed as fact.): “…the oldest French patisserie in London, Maison Berteaux (founded by communards in 1871), for a coffee and the best chocolate religeuse you will taste outside Paris. Maison Berteaux is run by the eccentric Michele Wade, an actress, who every 14 July performs a tableau vivante of the French Revolution in the street outside, complete with a guillotine, tricolores and a glimpse of carefully arranged nipple.—Fidelis Morgan, writer ” (Don’t know what chocolate religeuse  is- a religious experience with chocolate? Sounds do-able…)

Another good resource, judging from its description of Maison Berteaux (below) is londontown.com (alas Alexander McQueen is no longer w/us.)

“A Soho landmark since 1871 – when Soho really was the only place in Britain where you could eat decent continental food – Maison Bertraux is a charming little French deli and patisserie, with half-a-dozen mismatched tables and an eccentric accordion-playing owner. Delicious cakes, croissants, croques and pastries are part of the appeal, but it’s the atmosphere that makes all the difference. Not surprising, then, that every Central Saint Martin’s art student sips their tea here including fashion designer Alexander McQueen – he’s been coming here since his impoverished days as a tailor on Savile Row. Recently, the upstairs space has become an art gallery run by Tania Wade, typically showing the work of the arty types who populate the cafe downstairs. They, at least, won’t have far to go to see their fellow students’ work. For the rest of us it’s a perfect slice of Soho life.” http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Shops/Maison_Bertaux/5a62/

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May 14, 2010 · 3:52 pm

London: takemewithyou

For the first-time visitor to London (soon to be my friends A and N), what would I recommend doing and seeing?  Here’s idea #1:

– South London walk along Thames through South Bank and Bankside areas, between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge – about four miles: For MAP see: http://www.southbanklondon.com/page/map/  and http://www.visitlondon.com/areas/search?category=attractions&scale=0.237&px=532869&py=179965

There’s a wonderful pedestrian path that hugs the Thames that you can walk for miles, passing some of the city’s most famous and interesting attractions. On a sunny Saturday, this area is absolutely packed but you’ll see a broad cross-section of Londoners at play – not to mention people from all over the world.  Here’s what you’ll see along the way:

1) Start on the north side of the Thames at   Westminster – by the Houses of Parliament obviously an interesting place these day with the first coalition government in 70 years. Cross over the Westminster Bridge to the south bank and head east.

2)  You’ll walk past the London Eye (giant Ferris wheel/tourist attraction)

3) and the  Southbank  arts complex (Royal Festival hall and National Theatre et. al)

4) cool art deco Oxo building (good cafe/restaurant inside with great views)

5)  Tate Modern, which you should stop and visit. An art historian friend of mine in DM who visited the Tate Modern (not to be confused with the original Tate in another neighborhood) dubbed it her all-time favorite museum after her first visit there in April. There’s always something going on there – inside and out. Arty crowd, interesting exhibitions and great views of the riverfront and people-watching from the museum’s cafe.

6) In front of the Tate is what may always be known as “the wobbly bridge” – aka the Millennium Bridge, a suspension pedestrian bridge that had some early structural issues (wobbliness.) Now fixed.

7) Walking further beyond it you’ll come to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (a replica but looks like the real McCoy),

8) to you’ll come to the Borough Market – tucked under a railroad viaduct. It’s not right on the water so follow signs (I’d guess there are some) or ask around.  Foodie paradise. Open thursday, friday and sat. (Saturday is zoo-iest.) Southwark Cathedral is nearby and worth a visit.

9) next up: super strange glass pickle-shaped building that houses new City hall, best known as “the Gherkin”

10) Last stop is Tower Bridge which leads to the Tower of London – packed with tourists but well worth a visit, especially if you’re a history buff.

At this point you may want to rest your legs and take a boat on the Thames back to Westminster or beyond or the other direction to Greenwich. Or take the Tube back to wherever.

Must stop for now – getting seriously homesick for London.

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May 12, 2010 · 9:38 pm

oh to be a tourist in London as the election shakes out…

The drama, bordering on chaos, of the past five days in post-election Britain reminds me a bit of the fraught days after the Gore-Bush race in 2000. As a British politics junkie (I interned for a Labour MP in 1981 who was in the Cabinet until, um, five days ago. And I  have a dear friend who worked for another Cabinet member until, um, five days ago) I’ve been tuning into the BBC a lot online. One of the more amusing recent reports includes interviews with tourists hanging around Westminster – and documents the surrounding “media scrum” see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8678258.stm?ls

While there, you might check out the even more amusing video where Cameron admits referring to Clegg – in days past – as “a joke.” This is going to be interesting…

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May 11, 2010 · 10:46 pm

FLWright in Mason City again

The FLWright house that  reopened recently in Mason City is not to be confused with the FLWright hotel – the last of the six hotels he designed that remains – that I gather is opening in about a year.  The restoration of the hotel – to be called the Historic Park Inn Hotel – has been in the works for 13 years, with three different owners, the most recent being a citizens group that bought the poor old place on ebay for $1. The hotel first opened in 1910. Wright reportedly visited the hotel construction site (and next to it a bank he designed) until a notorious escapade ended his visits – Wright took off for Europe with the wife of one of his clients. (See the novel “Loving Frank” for more details on that.)

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May 9, 2010 · 5:29 pm

Pyrenees-Orientales: Dreaming of

I’m reading a novel set in the Pyrenees-Orientals  in  the southwest corner of France just above Spain – and had trouble placing this spot on my mental map until a story in today’s NYTimes Travel section of the area just north of it around Carcassonne, the remarkable walled city I visited in 1978 with my sister (who had been living during her junior year of high school in Villeneuve Sur Lot)   Turns out I probably went through the Pyrenees-Orientals  – during a train trip from Italy to Spain in 1989.   The NYTimes mentions some pricey hotels in Carcassonne – I remember in 1978 staying at a nicer-than-usual youth hostel there and spending a late night at a bar/club listening to live music for hours. I’m pleased to report the hostel appears to still be there.

(Just fyi to my brother: Villeneuve sur lot is 2.5 hours northwest of Carcassonne and Sarlat is 1. 5 hours northeast of Villeneuve. Confused? Best to look at a map)

The novel, by the by, is “Rat” by Fernanda Eberstadt, about a teen-ager growing up on the  wild and windy Mediterranean Coast, a landscape  so vividly portrayed that it seems like a major character.  Reminds me a bit of the atmospherics of  another novel about a teen-ager growing up on the southern French coast – “The Last Life” by Claire Messud.

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